Tropics slideshow (warning - many images!)

Hi all -

back when Virani came stateside for a visit earlier this year, we all met up at Sven's. And for a while now I've been slowly collecting 'Tropics' Hotel images - so I thought I'd do a slide show (on our laptop, that is) for everyone that night...

Here are some of the images for you all - some of you die hards may have seen most of these, but since we have a lot of new members these days, I thought they'd like to see what the various Tropics locations used to (and where extant still) look like.... Here's part one, Blythe...

One of my favorite postcards ever, generously given to me by Sabu - the perfect storm of postcards - Tiki & Sambo's!

They just don't make signage like this anymore....

Interior of the Sambo's next door...

Are those Witco's on the wall...?

The Hotel coffee shop...shit-kickers in a "loungy" bar... awesome! (Laney - stop drooling over the lamps....)

Don't know why the PS location entrance is on this card from Blythe!

One of the nicest tikis I've ever seen! And right next door to Sambo's - what more could you want?

I'll continue the slideshow tomorrow....

Wow, what a treat! It warms my heart sitting here in rainy Berlin seeing all those images of midcentury modern Tiki and Googie! A-frames! Resin lamps! Neon signs! Aaaah!

Those wall hangings in the rec room are both shields from the O.A. catalog. They did all the 5 Tropics that were done in Tiki style (text BOT p.206)

Thanks Sven! (And that reminds me - sorry about your chair - we never really apologised for that very well!)

Maybe when you get back we can "twist your arm" to share some of the unpublished Tropics photos you have... or maybe you are saving them for an upcoming book?

OK - here's the next - very brief part, Modesto. I have very little on the Modesto location, maybe some others want to share?

Once again - tiki & Sambo's! I wish I had a photo of this one....

OK - sorry, that's it on Modesto! Check in tomorrow for my Indio photos from March of this year & my hair-raising tale about taking them!

OK - here's the next - very brief part, Modesto. I have very little on the Modesto location, maybe some others want to share?

Once again - tiki & Sambo's! I wish I had a photo of this one....

That Sambo's is now a car stereo place! :(

Wow! This is fantastic stuff, Tangaroa, thanks for posting it!

Tangaroa's Indio story is a doozy -- stay tuned, folks.

Tangaroa, are you going to make it to the Hooptylau Crawl including the Tiki bar at the Modesto Tropics? It is only about a 5-6 hour drive up Hwy 99!! Do it !!

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=14998&forum=4&16

On 2005-07-21 11:51, mrsmiley wrote:

That Sambo's is now a car stereo place! :(

Oh man.... that sucks.
Do you have any photos? I love seeing the old architecture, regardless....

Humu told me a little about Modesto - anyone else there have any experiences they want to share?

Hey, at least the building's still standing! Though you'd never notice that it used to be anything special.

At the Modesto location, where you see the pool in the illustration, that's now the driveway to enter into the motel. The freestanding structure between the motel and the Sambo's is the bar, it's now operated separately and simply called "Tiki Lounge". There are still some Ed Crissman tikis in the parking lot at the Modesto Tropics, and the inside of the Tiki Lounge is still pretty easy to fall in love with, despite it's having many of the tikis removed and replaced with Bud signs. :( It really does have great bones, though.

Hopefully one of these days I'll get through my picture backlog for Modesto, I've got a LOT of pics to get up on Critiki!

p.s. -- that illustration is most definitely not to scale. It makes the Modesto Tropics look much grander than it ever actually could have!

Critiki - Hundreds of tiki bars, Polynesian restaurants, and other sites of interest to the tiki traveller, collector or urban archaeologist

[ Edited by: Humuhumu 2005-07-21 13:29 ]

I love it. Great pics. Thank you very much.

Laney can have the lamps...I want these purple counter seats! WOW!

Alnshely had posted a bunch of pictures of the art from inside The Tiki Bar and Minnies--I can't seem to find it.
Here is some stuff from a past Birthday thread of mine;
INSIDE the Tiki Bar.

misc photos from Minnies and maybe the Tiki Bar;
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeBMXDFk2bt30w

Have a nice Tiki Day!
If you like it,it is ZAZZ! If you don't, give it a RAZZ.

[ Edited by: Humuhumu - Fixed image link - 2005-07-21 15:35 ]

Lots of pictures of the Tiki Lounge and the Modesto Tropics in this gallery starting around page 3:

http://photo.humuhumu.com/v/hwy99/

Pictures of the the Tiki Lounge and Modesto Tropics at night in this gallery, including interior shots, starting around page 5:

http://photo.humuhumu.com/v/mrsmiley/

And more pictures of the Tiki Lounge in this gallery, starting at page 3:

http://photo.humuhumu.com/v/hooptylau2004/

Critiki - Ooga-Mooga - Humu Kon Tiki

[ Edited by: Humuhumu 2005-09-23 14:48 ]

Thanks Humu!

I love matching up 'Before & After' shots.

Like this one:

and again today:

Great post, thanks everyone for posting the pics!
Now, is it story time yet?
Mahalo,
Ran

I found this with a search on Yahoo "images" for Tropics Motel:

[ Edited by: ookoo lady 2005-07-21 16:56 ]

On 2005-07-21 16:16, ookoo lady wrote:

I found this with a search on Yahoo "images" for Tropics Motel:

I stayed in that motel about 13 years ago--but it wasn't called "Tropics" then. Across the street was my favorite Space needle area motel up there-the Civic Center Motel(or something like that). It had a great TALL Space Needle neon sign for the motels sign. I last stayed there about 6 years ago WHILE they were tearing down the motel! Yes, the main building was vacant with doors missing from the trashed rooms -although the office was still intact. One of the two back buildings was habitable , but the other was also door-less and trashed. We saw a bent plywood chair in the parking lot, went in the rooms and found three more and asked the manager if they were throwing them out. He said we could have them! Good thing, because at 8am the next morning we awake to hear a giant claw tearing down the other back build(one were three of the chairs we in!). So they literally were tearing down the motel as we were there!!! I always go to the BEST places!! :)

OK - slide show part three.....

Here are some photos I took of the Tropics in Indio in March of this year. I wasn't sure about it being worth the stop (we were driving to Arizona) - so I asked Humuhumu if it was worth it - she wasn't sure....

On the Friday before we left, I called them & an Indian (India - not Native American) sounding chap said (after I asked if any tikis remain) "No - we dunt have those anymore."
But it was close to the freeway, so I figured what the hell & we stopped
there on the way back.

It is located by the train tracks, along a strip of slightly seedy looking (and partially deserted) restaurants & motels...
But that awesome sign is still there & we pulled in...

well - it has most of it's "50's" look preserved - but still feels shabby at
the same time...

One tiki remains - but it's a really nice one....It may be one of the old Ed Crissman tikis.

so we pull in - and I ask an older lady, "Are you the manager & may I take
some pictures...?" She says "Ohhhhh - I better ask the owner" and goes into the (locked up tight by the way) lobby.... The whole thing is starting to have a weird vibe to it - and my wife & kid are waiting in the car....

So, I start to hear shouting back & forth & an Indian man (probably the same from the phone) comes out - "Why do you want to take picture????"

"Ummmm - well. See I like tikis & uhhh tiki central & uhhhhh some people
might stay here if I do and uhh......"

"OK - but dunt take too many!!!!"

"No problem - thanks!"

The (who I suppose to be the manager) disappears.

So then I ask the lady for any brochures - she has none, but she gets me a business card -

but won't open the lobby - so I shoot through the window. There seems to be a wall mask.. but the window is pretty greasy - so the pictures aren't too great.

At this point I proceed to photo document the whole place... as I feel the creepy vibe coming back...

Here's the pool - a sadder specimen I've not seen...

There was a man there languidly pushing some sort of net through it - he seemed comatose....

then I'm taking pictures at the top of the 2nd floor...

and the manager starts screaming at me from within the office...
"YOU GO NOW!!! I TOLD YOU!!!!!! TOO MANY PICTURE!!!! YOU GO NOW!!!!!"

I yell "Honey! Start the car!" & we got outta there quick.....

The end.

Some good pix though.

Part 4 on Monday....

[ Edited by: Tangaroa 2005-07-22 10:35 ]

Part 4 - Vintage Palm Springs (now Caliente Tropics)....

Very Nice!
Thanks for posting, especialy the Indio story.
Ran

On 2005-07-21 13:27, Humuhumu wrote:
Hey, at least the building's still standing! Though you'd never notice that it used to be anything special.

At the Modesto location, where you see the pool in the illustration, that's now the driveway to enter into the motel.

actually the thing that is throwing you off is the A-frame cover between the pool area and the lobby. it is on the left of this pc and has since been removed.

you can also see the driveway in front of the cover in this drawing:

the other interesting thing is how the lounge looks without the fence out front. it really looks way better without it. the fence takes soooo much away. i think it was built to give it a smoking area.

Oh yeah! Thanks for pointing that out, drunken hat. You're right, I've always thought that fenced patio area at the Tiki Lounge was kinda weird. It's such a nice little building, it's a shame it's so obscured now.

On 2005-07-25 10:55, Tangaroa wrote:
Part 4 - Vintage Palm Springs (now Caliente Tropics)....

WOW!!!!

On 2005-07-22 10:33, Tangaroa wrote:
OK - slide show part three.....

Here are some photos I took of the Tropics in Indio in March of this year. I wasn't sure about it being worth the stop (we were driving to Arizona) - so I asked Humuhumu if it was worth it - she wasn't sure....
but won't open the lobby - so I shoot through the window. There seems to be a wall mask.. but the window is pretty greasy - so the pictures aren't too great.

yay!!!! you got Oliver Hardy in your shot!!!! I rememember him from when I checked the place out about 3 years ago! :)

Great! Finally a photo of the mysterious "The Cellar" lounge, which was underneath the Congo Room/Reef bar and got filled in after a fire/flood wrecked it. And to see that the Congo Room (why in the world was a bar with that name decorated in this strange "I dream of Jeannie" purple vinyl style ?) had yet another Witco painting, the sun, in it. I have the two "Victorian lamp post" Witcos from it.
I forgot when O.A. turned the Congo Room into the Tiki style Reef Bar, I wish there would be photos of that stage, I mainly remember the cool saloon style swing doors carved with Tiki masks.

This is a great thread...So many super images. I, too, would love to see the Reef as it first appeared as a tiki bar, on the 60's heyday big-big budget. I have the matchbooks but no postcard from the place..

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna 2005-11-20 10:50 ]

Great research and photos. This is "best of" Tiki Central quality. Mahalo for sharing.
KG

True true...and now, how about some "Tiki Babylon"-style info on Sante Kimes, wife of Tropics owner Ken Kimes, who used their son to murder a couple of her best friends? I always wondered how Ken Kimes coped with such a schizoid woman for a wife.

BigBro,
Are you suggesting something else may lie buried in the Cellar Lounge..? "A fire or a flood" sounds kind of suspicious. Which one was it, or did they just seal up the evidence? Excavating a site like that would be urban archeology worth the name.
KG

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-17 17:39 ]

Thanks for dredging it up out of the murky depths...!

Great info, thanks everyone.