Trader Vic's SCARVES ?!

Hey all --

At an estate sale today I found a Trader Vic's scarf, probably from the late '60s or early '70s, judging by the label. It's white silk/rayon blend with a mandala of pink tikis in a sort of M. C. Escher pattern, an angry, Africanized mask in the center and another smaller one in one corner. To make things more curious, there's a number "5" in the corner and the initials of the artist--"H de W".

Has anyone else seen scarves from TV's? And who, pray tell, was "H de W"? (Hugo de Winter? Harry de Wildt? OK, I'm joking about those two.)

Cheers in advance --

Robert

Not the ones you've found, but Vic's definitely produced scarves at some point in their history. Ride 'em Tiki cowboy!!

Trader Woody

Hey Woody -- that's some scarf!
Madam decided the scarf was not for her, so we've posted it on eBay; we'll see what happens. If anyone is curious, they can go to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=983271628
I apologize for the huge file, but here's a picture of this one.
Cheers --
Robert

[ Edited by: rch427 on 2002-11-18 02:28 ]

Holy MACKEREL...

Talk about "when worlds collide". I can't get OVER the cowboy scarf from Trader Vic's. This is just the kind of artifact I'm always seeking out to prove that Tiki made it to Texas. I have no doubt that scarf must have been sold here in our Dallas location at some point. If it wasn't, well... that'd be a shame.

GREAT find, on both counts ya'll!

Glad to be of assistance!

I totally understand your quest for Texan Tiki, as I'm constantly searching out any clues to the presence of Tiki here in the UK.
I guess Trader Vics is the common Tiki factor in both Texas and the UK!

Good luck with your hunt,

Trader Woody

Although Vic's artisans may have been masters of decor, they were certainly not masters of the scarf.

Those have gotta be the ugliest ones I have ever seen!

Still I would have bought them too. Sad!

I don't know if I love or am scared by the tiki cowboy! Or is it the lost Moari cowboy tribe? Freaky!

There is a scarf here in town that is not TV, but is a map of the big island with TV on it. It's $30 and not worth $5.

On 2002-11-20 05:46, tikifish wrote:
Although Vic's artisans may have been masters of decor, they were certainly not masters of the scarf.

Those have gotta be the ugliest ones I have ever seen!

Oh, come now Fish! I would think you, of all people, would appreciate the sheer magic and tacky goodness of a cowboy Tiki.

Of course I love cowboy tiki. Lik I said, I would have bought it in a flash. But that don't make it any prettier.

It's the hot pink and white one that's more giving me eye twitches and slight vertigo.

Ahhh... but don't you see? That's the mana casting it's spell on you, mortal. The sick feeling will go away sooner or later...

...sooner if you share the moment with a Suffering Bastard.

I finally came across my Trader Vic's scarf. I'd lost track of it for a while. No cowboys, but...

And, yes, it needs to be ironed.

Did you count the Tikis? Judging by the colors and the rendering style, this scarf is from the 70s. There just was a cool T.V.'s scarf with the classic Kay art from the menu on e-bay.

For anybody who knows how much I love A-frames, it will be obvious that for my money, THIS is the most amazing scarf Trader Vic's ever made:

These different Trader Vic locations, with San Francisco and Oakland in the center, are sketched mostly from postcards that I have or have seen, but there are a couple of entrances that I have never seen before in any other form!:

Never mind the scragly, non-color style of the renderings, this scarf, like an ancient parchment, might contain the only visual proof of places like the DENVER Trader Vic's...and who ever knew that the Portland and the Chicago one (pictured below) used to have A-frame entrances!

I was very tempted to use this finery in TIKI MODERN, in the A-frame chapter, but I had so much other good material, and the fact that it is FABRIC made me save it for the LOOK OF TIKI book. :)

I love the one with the TVs entrances, bigbro!

A few years back, I decided to get one of them framed, as I hated to just have them all stowed away in a drawer. I debated between the one that Tiki-Kate posted & the one bigbro posted, but, alas, PINK won out :)

Here's that one framed in a black bamboo frame:

& here are a few others I have - don't mind the creases from being folded-up in a drawer all the time....

& this one is another favorite of mine:

Wow. I would love to use that last one for my "Look of Tiki" book, never seen it before. I think if one would steam it, the creases would even out nicely, without damaging the fabric.

Coming in late to this thread, but I have that bottom Trader Vic's scarf (brown with tikis) and will have it for sale at the 2010 Forbidden Island Parking Lot Sale on September 26.

I found it years ago and think it would look great framed. It's a very high quality scarf.

Rusty.

This closed several days .The same as for mentioned with multiple locations.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300465285952&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Saw this rather cool but odd Trader Vic's cowboy scarf on ebay a while back.

Need a hula bosa nova version of Rawhide to go with this one.

DC

What a trip that is!

Hey Dusty, good find.
That is a strange scarf but still pretty cool! I think it's neat that it looks like the designer/s had fun with the images. Cowboy hats on Tikis!!?? That crazy Victor!!

TabooDan

On 2011-03-04 20:08, TabooDan wrote:
....Cowboy hats on Tikis!!?? That crazy Victor!!

Crazy indeed, but not untested as a concept! :)

Maybe the scarf was designed for this occasion? It somehow looks of a later date, though.
Oh the strange ways of Tiki! He's always good for a surprise.

yeah - I snagged a Trader Vic's Tiki Cowboy scarf a while back.
I know I took pictures of it after I got it back from the dry cleaners, but I apparently never got around to posting them, so thanks for posting those close-ups of the tiki cowboys - they are pretty cool!

That scarf is indeed the second weirdest combination of Tiki with another completely unrelated theme.

For me, the numero uno of "What the heck!?" Tiki combos is this:

And no, I am am not related to any of the stern looking gentlemen in the above photos, and my work is not the inheritance of some dark master plan to take over the world with Tiki. :)

I do have the feeling though that above pics might be used against me in the future... :wink:

I do believe this one of those occasions where the acronym "W.T.F." can be used.

As I scanned past the picture and thought immediately it was the work of a troll chucking a flamebomb into the thread and then I saw who had posted it, so obviously its from a reliable source. I can only think Tiki meant something else to the people who painted it.

"Tiki" was a slang name used by German tank crews to refer to the Tiger 1 tank. Similarly, in English, the Tiger Moth training aircraft used to be called a "Tiggy" by British aircrew.

The tank in the photo looks like it was in an SS unit, judging from the lapels of the crew and officers.

So these are the depths I have plummeted to as the result of having a misspent un-PC childhood fixated with military hardware.... :)

CN

Or perhaps a Girlfriend's name...

"TIKI" - A very famous Tiger of sSSPzAbt.102, 2.SS Panzergrenadier Division "Das Reich".
"TIKI" is an acronym for a girlfriend's name that stands for Theresa-Katrin or Theresa-Kristine.

The Armour Site

...there seems to some debate over it.

The tank in question is available as a model kit, I wonder how many tiger tank enthusiasts end up on TC while researching this other tiki?

Fascinating... The following thread for German-speaking armour enthusiasts goes into the matter in more detail:

http://forum.panzer-archiv.de/viewtopic.php?p=28411&sid=ca9dfa814ca9e7172c49a9db4c28408a

For those who don't speak German, Armin the Administrator offers the traditional theory about the name (a pet name for "Tiger", which I remember reading in some English-language book on tanks years ago):

"Der Name "Tiki" war eine verniedlichung (Kosename??) für "Tiger"."

ChristophA who has chatted to the uncle of the unit commander says it was actually an acronym (Ti(ger) + Ki(d)), because the tankers viewed their tanks as children:

"Ich hatte einmal Kontakt mit dem Enkel des Kommandanten dieses Tigers.
Laut ihm entstand der Kosename aus der Situation daß die Besatzung den neuen Tiger betrachtete und sagte: "So dieser Tiger ist also nun unser neues Kind".. TI - Tiger..... KI - Kind. So wurde der Name TIKI "geboren"."

And then we have Oliver offering the name acronym explanation:

"Auch zur Namensgebung hab ich eine andere Variante gefunden. Demnach soll der Schriftzug TiKi für einen Mädchenname Theresa-Katrin oder Theresa-Kristine stehen."

The things we learn via Tiki Central!

CN

Thanks guys for the thorough research. I am kinda glad that the name of our god of creation was not used on such a tool of destruction.

After this little detour into darker times, now back to the silky, whimsical scarves of Trader Vic's. :)

Well that was certainly interesting.

Here is a photo of the Chuck Wagon Tiki from the scarf.

DC

:lol: Hahaaaaa....that is just soooo wrong! Authentic, yes, but still wrong. I would peg this scarf to be from the Tiki devolution period, time-wise:

I remember Danny Balsz telling me that when he sorta realized that the time had passed in the late 70s/ early 80s for Tiki to be popular, he planned to utilize a "Hawaiian Cowboy" theme for his second "Tikis" amusement park, to jump on the country music band wagon and play country music and have square dancing there. Kinda glad THAT never materialized, either.

Perhaps not so strange as there are Hawaiian Cowboys in Jack London's "The Bones of Kahekili" and from Wikipedia a piece on the "Hawaiian Paniolo"

Hawaiian Paniolo
The Hawaiian cowboy, the paniolo, is also a direct descendant of the vaquero of California and Mexico. Experts in Hawaiian etymology believe "Paniolo" is a Hawaiianized pronunciation of español. (The Hawaiian language has no /s/ sound, and all syllables and words must end in a vowel.) Paniolo, like cowboys on the mainland of North America, learned their skills from Mexican vaqueros[citation needed].
By the early 19th century, Capt. George Vancouver's gift of cattle to Paiea Kamehameha, monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, had multiplied astonishingly, and were wreaking havoc throughout the countryside. About 1812, John Parker, a sailor who had jumped ship and settled in the islands, received permission from Kamehameha to capture the wild cattle and develop a beef industry. The Hawaiian style of ranching originally included capturing wild cattle by driving them into pits dug in the forest floor. Once tamed somewhat by hunger and thirst, they were hauled out up a steep ramp, and tied by their horns to the horns of a tame, older steer (or ox) that knew where the paddock with food and water was located. The industry grew slowly under the reign of Kamehameha's son Liholiho (Kamehameha II). Later, Liholiho's brother, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), visited California, then still a part of Mexico. He was impressed with the skill of the Mexican vaqueros, and invited several to Hawaii in 1832 to teach the Hawaiian people how to work cattle.
Even today, traditional paniolo dress, as well as certain styles of Hawaiian formal attire, reflect the Spanish heritage of the vaquero.[75] The traditional Hawaiian saddle, the noho lio,[76] and many other tools of the cowboy's trade have a distinctly Mexican/Spanish look and many Hawaiian ranching families still carry the names of the vaqueros who married Hawaiian women and made Hawai`i their home.

On 2011-03-08 01:35, atomictonytiki wrote:
Perhaps not so strange as there are Hawaiian Cowboys in Jack London's "The Bones of Kahekili" and from Wikipedia a piece on the "Hawaiian Paniolo"

I would think a lot of folks here who know Hawaiian culture and music are aware of the history of the Hawaiian cowboy. But just because something is a part of actual Hawaiian culture doesn't mean it goes well with Tiki style. :)

On 2011-03-08 01:35, atomictonytiki wrote:
Perhaps not so strange as there are Hawaiian Cowboys in Jack London's "The Bones of Kahekili" and from Wikipedia a piece on the "Hawaiian Paniolo"

Hawaiian Paniolo
The Hawaiian cowboy, the paniolo, is also a direct descendant of the vaquero of California and Mexico. Experts in Hawaiian etymology believe "Paniolo" is a Hawaiianized pronunciation of español. (The Hawaiian language has no /s/ sound, and all syllables and words must end in a vowel.) Paniolo, like cowboys on the mainland of North America, learned their skills from Mexican vaqueros[citation needed].
By the early 19th century, Capt. George Vancouver's gift of cattle to Paiea Kamehameha, monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, had multiplied astonishingly, and were wreaking havoc throughout the countryside. About 1812, John Parker, a sailor who had jumped ship and settled in the islands, received permission from Kamehameha to capture the wild cattle and develop a beef industry. The Hawaiian style of ranching originally included capturing wild cattle by driving them into pits dug in the forest floor. Once tamed somewhat by hunger and thirst, they were hauled out up a steep ramp, and tied by their horns to the horns of a tame, older steer (or ox) that knew where the paddock with food and water was located. The industry grew slowly under the reign of Kamehameha's son Liholiho (Kamehameha II). Later, Liholiho's brother, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), visited California, then still a part of Mexico. He was impressed with the skill of the Mexican vaqueros, and invited several to Hawaii in 1832 to teach the Hawaiian people how to work cattle.
Even today, traditional paniolo dress, as well as certain styles of Hawaiian formal attire, reflect the Spanish heritage of the vaquero.[75] The traditional Hawaiian saddle, the noho lio,[76] and many other tools of the cowboy's trade have a distinctly Mexican/Spanish look and many Hawaiian ranching families still carry the names of the vaqueros who married Hawaiian women and made Hawai`i their home.

They also introduced alot of musical instruments to the Hawaiians. Before they came along most of the Hawaiians were just beating on drums. If you listen to alot of old spanish songs and switch the Spanish for Hawaiian language the background music works for either or. Willie K did a whole bit on this in the last concert i saw him in.

Yes yes, all true...but that still doesn't make me wanna see square dancing at "The Tikis" park, or wear a Tiki-at-a-chuck-wagon scarf. :)

Bigbro, you may want to close your eyes.:)
Matching hawaiian shirts, skirts and high waters at a demo square dance in 1949 at Top of the Ocean, Tacoma Wa.

OK you can open your eyes now. Instead of being from the 70's-80's devolution of tiki couldn't the scarf have come from the zenith of western entertainment in the mid 50's to mid 60's? or have been from the Denver or Arizona Vic's? Just speculating but I can't see why you would bring in elements from another popular culture (western) that was rapidly fading in the 70's?

aloha, tikicoma

The artist who created the illustrations for the scarves was Helen Ann de Wert, step daughter of Trader Vic.

Vic had four kids with his first wife (Ester Lynn). After they divorced, he married Helen Harwood, of Palm Springs (who had her daughter Helen from a previous marriage).

Helen de Wert was an artist and interior designer in Palm Springs, who later moved to New Mexico.

In 1974, Trader Vic revised his book 'Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide' (originally published in 1947) and his stepdaughter provided the illustrations. She also designed all of the artwork for the scarves sold in the lobby gift shops at Trader Vic's.

Helen (on the left) in 1965

Menu artwork she produced for United Airlines in 1980.

Interior of the menu with her graphics

Wildlife painting she produced in 1984

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo 2018-12-03 10:43 ]

Another Trader Vic's scarf that has not been posted on this thread.

DC