Tiki Archeology - The Hawaii Pavillion - '64/'65 New York World's Fair

Sabu's listing of the '62 Seattle World's Fair Hawaii Pavillion brought this to mind for me. Since I can't find my old copy of the Official Guide to the World's Fair, or any of the tchotchkes my parents & grandparents bought, I'm building this from Internet resources.

From the 1965 Official Guide to the New York World's Fair:

The island state comes to life in song and dance, movies, outrigger canoe rides, bright flowers and exotic foods.

Costumed Hawaiian girls greet Fairgoers with leis and introduce them to displays of the history and culture of this melting pot of the Pacific. Hawaiian artisans work on handicrafts in a reproduction of an old-fashioned island village. The state's tourist attractions and industries are on exhibit, and its products are sold in shops.

• ALOHA THEATER. Color movies of the islands are shown daily between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and a 20-minute state show of Hawaiian songs and dances is presented twice an hour between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m.

• CANOE RIDES. Beach boys take fairgoers for trips on Meadow Lake in replicas of ancient outrigger canoes.
• RESTAURANTS. The Five Volcanoes Restaurant has buffet luncheons; at night, a three-hour, 12-course luau is held outdoors, complete with traditional dishes, rituals and dances. The Lava Pit Bar serves exotic island drinks.

A description from Jeffrey Stanton:

Hawaii Pavilion
The pavilion's 80 foot high Aumakua Tower with a ring of flaming torches at the 55 foot level, formed a gateway to a complex of structures; the Aloha Theme Pavilion, a Tourism and Industrial Exhibits building, the Five Volcanoes Restaurant, an arcade of shops, an ancient village and the enclosed Aloha Theater. The area was landscaped with coconut and hala trees, orchids and other tropical plants.

The exhibition hall in the hexagonal Aloha Theme Pavilion had numerous displays of the islands' history and culture, including carved reproductions of the old Polynesian gods, thrones of the monarchy and views of the state today (1964). One exhibit depicted the influx over the centuries of peoples from many Pacific lands.

In the Tourism and Industrial Exhibits, motion pictures focused on Hawaii's wonders. Wall maps depicted travel routes to the islands.

In the Ancient Hawaiian Village, craftsmen demonstrated native skills; how to construct a grass hut, shape stones into tools, and weave blossoms, seeds and strands into leis without thread or needles. Beach boys offered rides in outrigger canoes.

A one hour show "Hawaiian Extravaganza" featuring island entertainers, was presented six times daily in the Aloha Theater. It was built on a man-made peninsula that jutted into Meadow Lake.

The Five Volcanoes Restaurant had an indoor dining room, a Lava Pit Bar and an outdoor area seating 500. At night, a three-hour, 12 course luau was held outdoors, complete with traditional dishes, rituals and dances.

Here's an image of the backside of the pavillion from Bill Cotter I found at PeaceThroughUnderstanding.org:

And images of the covers from the recipe booklet and cook book from Five Volcanos, the Hawaii Pavillion's restaurant (also from PeaceThroughUnderstanding.org):

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-16 14:04 ]

Cool that you posted Jeffrey Stanton. What an amazing author. I have three of his books, and there is absolutely nothing like 1974's "Summer Is Forever."

I adore the lettering in that 5 Volcanos logo... thanks so much for sharing!

Coo-elle! That somewhat failed but valiant attempt to make the Ku Tiki's head/brow line conform with the A-frame is really somethin'!

The Rainmaker, like the Tahaara Hotel, was also outfitted by Oceanic Arts.

AND, big urban archeology challenge, WHY is the mask that graces the matchbook and menu of "Moultray's Polynesian" IDENTICAL with a giant Witco mask that hung outside "The Polynesia" in Seattle? I wanted to know that for years (didn't you?)

This is a terrific thread everyone! Really enjoying it.

Isn't it odd that these words in the cocktail menu are either misspelled or have some funny alternate spelling: Zombi (zombie), liquer (liqueur), and lethel (lethal)?

BC-Da-Da: Jeff be a close friend of mine. He has a new version of the Venice history book, revision 3. About 150 more pages of text and photos, much more detailed. $50 and worth every penny. He is still working on the Coney Island history book.

On 2006-04-28 13:04, puamana wrote:
Great stuff, freddiefreelance & Sabu ! I've have a little more on the NY Worlds Fair than for Seattle. Here's a brochure promoting Polynesia at the Fair, with "Authentic Native Dancers and Pearl Divers direct from Pago Pago to you" :

There was also a Papua Pavillion at the Fair.

You might want to put the Polynesia Pavillion in it's own thread?

[edit]Oops, it's not Papua/New Guinea but Equitorial Guinea, my bad. But starting a separate thread for the Polynesia Pavillion is still a good idea.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance 2006-05-01 11:55 ]

If anyone wants a scale model of the Hawaii Pavillion, or any of the other Pavillions, Robert Bianco is making 1:600 scale models, and will make models to other scales if requested:

http://www.nywf64.com/bianco01.html

I recently picked up some nice paper items from the New York World's Fair. The first is a photo holder from the Restaurant of the 5 Vocanos.

The outside has the standard restaurant logo with the Mod font.

The picture shows the inside of the restaurant with a couple of bee-hive gals posing with the friendly staff and enjoying their 5 Volcano Rum Punch served in traditional Pineapples.

The second set of items are two brochures from the restaurant.
The brochures both have a nice wahini on the cover.

The larger brochure gives an explanation of the Luau with an "action" photo. You can even see a tiki hiding out in the back.

And then a Luau menu.

The brochure also contains a photo of a model of the Hawaiian Pavilion and a description of the facilities. Interesting to note that their was a Lava Pit Bar and a Sandwich Isle Bar. First time I had heard about those venues. There were also outrigger canoe rides!

The second brochure contains and updated menu with higher prices so I am assuming it came out later.

I really enjoy the old World's Fair Hawaiian/Polynesian themed items.

DC

After posting the brochure from the Restaurant of the 5 Volcanos I kept thinking that I had seen that picture of the luau scene and tiki before. Then it dawned on me, it is the same photo set that was used on the album cover for the Danny Kaleikini recording at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Luau!

Here is the Brochure

Here is the album cover.

It's amazing that so many images were cross referenced and copied on brochures, postcards, albums, menus, matchbooks, etc. during the heyday of the Polynesian craze. We have seem some recent examples from Bosko and BigBro. Someone should start a copycat post.

DC

Ha! Cool. Polynesia Americana! Same photo session, probably shot in LA, the ocean is most likely a photo backdrop.

Would love to see photos that might show the gift shop area of the Hawaiian Exhibit where Honolulu art dealer brought the work of eighteen (!) black velvet painters where this one was originally purchased...

Here's a double nodder from the Hawaii Pavilion.

I found this photo of the gift shop exterior

Bongofury,

Where did you get those cool pictures of the couple with the velvet painting?

Here is a shot of the groundbreaking for the Hawaiian Pavilion. Check out Laki and Olina wielding those shovels.

This is more Hawaiiana than Tiki and I, for one, think that that is just damn fine for Tiki Central.

DC

On 2006-04-28 13:04, puamana wrote:
Great stuff, freddiefreelance & Sabu ! I've have a little more on the NY Worlds Fair than for Seattle. Here's a brochure promoting Polynesia at the Fair, with "Authentic Native Dancers and Pearl Divers direct from Pago Pago to you" :

Found some photos of the Polynesian area at the New York World's Fair. Here is the booth that sold the pearls.

Here are some of the native dancers.

DC

Cool pics DC. I got the photos with the velvet from the family of the people that bought it at the Fair. They had changed the original wood frame and mat with a newer metal gold color frame. i swapped that one for a thrift store frame

They also sent along a letter from the artist about the painting and the model

I like his logo

You are kidding me, Ron! I was just gonna ask you about the artist, because I thought I recognized that style! That was the guy whose son was selling off all his paintings here a while ago!
I got that great "Polynesian Princess Sacrifice" one....I will search and post more on this...
I was always asking his son to supply me with stories and photos of his dad, and he never followed up.

Here is the thread, page 3 has the most images:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=20418&forum=1&start=30

...and the website is still up!:

http://www.davegrave.com/art.htm

Here is Louis Behan, the painter:

Here are some of the portraits he was selling:

...and here is the only non-black velvet canvas painting he had. I ended up getting it, payed a pretty penny for it, but man, what a classic Polynesian pop piece. Clearly an early, more vintage work:

Here it is hanging at my house, in its original frame, in a proper environment. It's actually called "Virgin Sacrifice":

Bigbro/Bongo,

The ever so small world of Tiki Central! Sweet that you both got one of this guys paintings.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-01-27 19:49 ]

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-01-27 19:51 ]

I picked up a souvenir program from the Hawaiian Pavilion at the 1964-1965 World's Fair in New York. This ad for the Hawaiian Pavilion Luau and Coke caught my eye.

The photo in the ad started out life as a standard United Airlines Luau postcard. The ad company did some pre-PhotoShop editing and superimposed the coke bottles in the gentleman's hand and on the table.

Look at the size of those coke bottles will you! That is hilarious. Talk about saving money on advertising costs.

Here is the original postcard.

This postcard shot also made it onto an album cover for the Luau at Waikiki recorded at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Hawaii.

DC

A few more items from the 1964 New York Worlds Fair.

A matchbook from the 5 Volcanos Restaurant

An ashtray from the Hawaiian Pavilion.

DC

I recently obtained the same souvenir program as Dustycajun.

It's got a nice rendering of the Hawaii Pavilion area:

My favorite structure has to be that 5 Volcanos restaurant to the upper right:

:up: Talk about Poly-Pop Modern architecture! Love that roofline.

I also got a hold of a stack of pre-Fair progress report booklets which were apparently sent to investors to show the progress of construction and expenditures from 1962 all the way up to the post-fair proposals of what to do with the structures afterwards. They're lushly illustrated with wonderful artist's renderings and concept art of all the buildings, as well as photos of the buildings being constructed. The Hawaiian area was fairly minor in the larger scheme of things, so the photos are pretty sparse. However, I found a few.

This map shows where the Hawaii Pavilion was going to be built - just to the East of the existing Marine Theater at Jones Beach:

This early cartoon shows a rudimentary Hawaii Pavilion. The actual build-out was much more extensive, thankfully.

In 1962, 2 years before the Fair, the Marine Theater hosted a lavish production of Guy Lombardo's Hawaiian musical, "Paradise Island". I wonder if that had any influence on putting the Hawaii Pavilion in that area:

Later came the architectural models and artist renderings of the final Pavilion:

:down: Here's another building I would have visited for sure.

Here are some performers outside the completed Pavilion:

They were probably performers in Sterling Mossman's show "Barefoot In Paradise" - A sweeping spectacle of Pacific Island peoples in a great new musical extravaganza featuring a company of 46 exotic south seas entertainers.

Here's a coaster from the 5 Volcanos:

And an image from inside the souvenir recipe book:

Also an artist's rendering of the Papua New Guinea area of the Fair. Images of this structure seem to be less common:

Naaaaice work, Sabu, thank you!

I found this snapshot on the web:

You can see the sign for the 5 Volcanoes in the back

For a Poly Pop tie in, there was a Mai Kai contengent sent to this World's Fair I do believe. If someone can find those publicity shots of the Mai Kai girls, maybe serving Mystery Drinks....

Ha, found it!: Here's an image I was looking for in response for Sabu's great recent post:

Behold this giant, highly stylized Ku gate sculpture by Ed Brownlee!

Why have we not seen this in any of the other images you ask? Cause when looking at the palm trees, we realize that this is just an architectural model, and this (probably too scary) behemoth was never built. Too bad...

So what is there today? Is it all gone?

On 2009-11-30 22:29, whorton wrote:
So what is there today? Is it all gone?

Evidently the tikis and some of the other parts of the Polynesian Pavilion as well as the Guinea Pavilion were bought by the Storytown USA park in Lake George, NY to be integrated into the Jungle Land area. This park has now become the Great Escape park. According to one of the World's Fair discussion boards, one of the World's Fair tikis can still be found there.

Sabu,

Some great historical stuff. An early version of sustainable development with the 1964 Worlds Fair recycled into Jungleland at Storytown.

Here is a little menu page from the Restaurant of the 5 Volcanos and a sugar pack from Moultray's.

DC

Here is the menu I have from Moultray's Polynesian restaurant at the Worlds Fair with a classic Tiki rendering.

And a matchbook from ebay.

I also grabbed this image from one of those souvenir picture holders from the Five Volcanoes restaurant that included the barefoot dance troop and Sterling Mossman.

Sabu had posted this ad from the Worlds Fair brochure for Sterling Mossman.

DC

They sold Coco Joe's Moais at the New York Worlds Fair Hawaiian Pavillion.

DC

This is a good thread. I was doing a little research and stumbled on a hidden Tiki treasure from the New York Worlds Fair. The exhibit area was called Julimar Farms. Here is the description from the guide book:

The smallest pavilion at the Fair displays the products of Julimar Farms where the exhibit is a lovely garden setting designed by famed architect Edward Durel Stone. Among the different types of custom-designed gardens displayed about the building are Polynesian, Renaissance and English, plus a special herb garden for the blind. The open pavilion, surrounded by a veranda, was designed by the architect Edward Durell Stone. The gardens are by his son, Edward J.

Polynesian gardens you say, hmmm.

The gardens were located between the two large exhibit structures as seen in this aerial.

Here is the entrance.

Some photos of the gardens

Wait for it, wait for it.... BAM, THERE IT IS!

Looks like a big ol' Barney West Tiki next to a lava rock waterfall!

It's amazing what's still out there to be discovered.

DC

Aloha,

On 2011-07-02 10:12, Dustycajun wrote:
It's amazing what's still out there to be discovered.

Yes, there's plenty.

I got the New York Public Library app on the World's Fair and there was nothing Hawaii. Don't get me wrong, I like "it." It's a really good collection of photos and other neat stuff like robot dogs, sexy supermodels, and food.

Waikiki Tiki; Art, History, and Photographs.
Available now from Bess Press Hawaii.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2011-07-02 23:20 ]

Phillip,

Here are a few more photos of the Hawaiian Pavilion area.

DC

On 2009-11-25 00:35, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:

Also an artist's rendering of the Papua New Guinea area of the Fair. Images of this structure seem to be less common:

Sabu,

I found this photo on line showing the Papua New Guinea buildings.

Pretty darn close to hte artist rendering.

DC

Aaaaah, mid-century artist's renderings! :)
Not sure that Ku is a Barney West, the blonde wood parts make it look like it's an island-made Tiki.

Nice find, DC. I agree though, it doesn't quite look like a Barney West to me either, but very nice nonetheless.

Thanks guys, your right, probably not a Barney West. Who else was carving those in 1964?

Here are some more photos I dug up from the Polynesia exhibit.

Fire dancing at the lagoon stage.

Close up of a nice tortoise shell and spears.

Dancers at the main stage.

Found this photo that shows Tikis, a war club and a tortoise shell decorating the the main stage.

A postcard I have from the Polynesian restaurant.

A few more photos of the restaurant.

And finally, the giant Tiki sculpture at the entrance to the Polynesia exhibit.

That thing is huge! Also another Tiki on the right.

DC

OK, last post on this one for today. Found another great photo of the Tiki sculpture at the Polynesian exhibit entrance with Tiki torches and lots o people milling around

That this was cool. Wonder where it went??

DC

Aloha,

On 2011-07-04 10:17, Dustycajun wrote:
That this was cool. Wonder where it went??
DC

Away... :( Way neat stuff. Thanks for posting these.

I found a few aerial photos that show the layout of the Polynesian Pavilion area with the Polynesian restaurant, water stage and main stage.

Another pic of the New Guinea building from the sky tram.

And a cool looking souvenir stand with palm trees growing through a thatched roof.

DC

A new member Wideimaging posted a thread for this on Locating Tiki with a link to some amazing slides that he purchased. I thought I would add his great photos over here just in case the link goes away some day.

An aerial shot of the Polynesian Pavilion and the 5-sided pool. You can also see the sales stand with the palm trees through the roof on the bottom right of the photo.

The huge Tiki at the entrance, this one has some new flanking Tikis and a new entrance sign.

You can see some of the huts in this one.

And the New Guinea area.

Thanks to Wideimaging for posting these photos.

DC

Indonesian pavilion over looked the Polynesian pavilion pool and stage show area; May 1965 (The Indonesian Pavilion was closed for the 1965 season).

Here is a matchbook from my collection from the Guinea Pavilion.

It advertises authentic Guinean dishes at the restaurant. I wonder what those consisted of?

DC

Aloha,

On 2012-05-01 16:02, Dustycajun wrote:

It advertises authentic Guinean dishes at the restaurant. I wonder what those consisted of?

Madam, would you like the Deep Fried Cassowary in a savory sago sauce or spit roasted boar stuffed with Yams? Some muli warra to wash it down? Some banana pancakes for desert?

:)

Some images from Lincoln-Mercury Treasury of World's Fair brochure.

Polynesian dining room.

Hawaii Pavillion

And several other Fair's exotic locations

Mr. Naufrago,

Great images from the Lincoln-Mercury guide. I will have to look for that one, being fond of the Tiki renderings issued by Ford in their restaurant guides (See Here)

I found some more photos of the NY Worlds Fair that are for sale on-line from Bill Cotter.

The Polynesian Restaurant and the outdoor tables.

Now to the Hawaiian Pavilion.

The view coming in.

I don't remember seeing this giant Tiki before!

Another shot of the area from the lagoon.

The Five Volcanoes restaurant.

The Hula Show

And remember, DON'T eat the pineapples!

DC