New Don the Beachcomber book

After a few searches, I was surprised that I couldn't find a reference to this anywhere on TC!

Apparently, Arnold Bitner, co-conspirator of Hawaii Tropical Rum Drinks & Cuisine by Don the Beachcomber has a new (as of Nov. 2007) title out that is a biography of Don the Beachcomber, Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Don the Beachcomber: Host to Diplomat, Beachcomber, Prince and Pirate

No reviews of it yet on Amazon, and about ten tons of diddly anywhere else on the internet. I've ordered my copy, and I'll toss a review up once I receive and devour it.

Oh, and they (Arnold and Phoebe) have a website with a preview available.

Wow! Nice find.

Are they going to tell us once again to put everything in a blender and shake? :)

good one, Rob.

Great find - thanks for posting. I just bought a copy too. I'm a bit wary though, because the Synopsis says the following:

"Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Don the Beachcomber is the life story of the man who created the Mai Tai and more than ninety other original tropical rum drinks."

Uh oh, gonna stir up the pot with that mai tai claim....

Thanks for the link...I love Amazon...they suggested Falernum too, which I haven't seen there before. :)

On 2008-01-30 05:32, leisure master wrote:
Great find - thanks for posting. I just bought a copy too. I'm a bit wary though, because the Synopsis says the following:

"Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Don the Beachcomber is the life story of the man who created the Mai Tai and more than ninety other original tropical rum drinks."

Uh oh, gonna stir up the pot with that mai tai claim....

Please let us know if this is worth buying. If it claims he created the mai tai it makes me wonder what other inaccuracies are in it.

The table of contents, and first 4 chapters of the book can be found starting here, on the iuniverse website.
http://www.iuniverse.com/lookinside/LookInside.jsp?isbn=0595478840

I wasn't greatly impressed with the writing, but the book appears to be a self-published labor of love, so some credit is due there. There were some some good anecdotes, and some great pictures in the above pages (like this one of Don and Duke Kahanamohu) http://www.iuniverse.com/lookinside/LookInside.jsp?isbn=0595478840&page=19

Here are the chapter titles ... each chapter averages perhaps 3-4 pages of content.

• Grandpappy and Anna Moray
• Hot Tail Feathers
• Okolehau and a Wahine
• Hollywood
• The Zombie
• Marlene Dietrich
• Gone to the Islands
• Don's Polynesian Island Plantation
• A Giant Sawfish
• Havanas
• Fresh Mint
• A New Career
• Invasion Italy
• Isle of Capri
• Winston Churchill
• Lt. C. Moonlight
• 2,000 Diamonds
• Bouillabaisse
• Hawai'i
• The Original Mai Tai
• A Waikiki Convention Center
• Bush Beer
• The International Market Place
• Henry Kaiser
• Pearls and Pinesapples
• The Sate of Hawai'i
• Aku Aku
• Devil at Four o'clock
• The Hong Kong Lady
• The Singapore Lady
• A Zillion Dollar Idea
• The Pacific Rim
• The Marama
• Singapore
• Don the Beachcomber's Fertile Mind
• Only One Don the beachcomber
• From the files of Donn beach - author unknown

Vern

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2008-01-30 09:04 ]

Thanks for posting that ikitnrev!

I'm not looking for a drink book in this, I've just got a lot of curiosity about the man, and it looks like there's some true-blue material in there too.

My order's been shipped and is on its way.

Received the book, haven't read it through, but did take a glance at the Mai Tai article.

It's just the same old Honolulu Advertiser column, WITHOUT Vic's rebuttal article, and even has some misinformation (that Vic had served the first Mai Tai in Tahiti... nope, he served his first known Mai Tai, in Oakland, at the Old San Pablo location, to friends who had lived in Tahiti). The recipe is the same as in the Hawaii Tropical Rum Drinks and Cuisine book.

A lot of the pictures have already been in the Don the Beachcomber Hawaii book, but a lot of the stories of Don's life appear to be newly surfaced, some from Don's own writing.

Phobe Beach, the widow of Don and her husband Arnold wrote both books. This new book contains some great new material and I love both the new one and the other one. Dons houseboat. what a cool design. The Mai Tai issue shouldn't sway anyone away from this because if it wasn't for Don, there would probably have never have been a Trader Vic's.
Thanks Phobe and Arnold for the great books.

Just finished the new Don the Beachcomber book. Figured his birthday weekend was a good time to read it.

The book is a pretty easy read (147 pages), comprised of many chapters that are all about 5 pages or less. Most of these short stories are fun to read, but the book is pretty one-sided in painting the man as a "lovable scoundrel" who was adored by all and incapable of hate or anger.

It was entertaining to read about Donn's experience with a topless Marlene Dietrich, and how later in life he thought he found a magic "viagra" fruit in Indonesia. However, some of the WWII stories smacked of a bit of exaggeration, including Donn's time with Churchill and his command over a fleet of C-47's in WWII Italy that were authorized to fly anywhere in the world except the US to procure fine booze and fine food for the troops.

Other tales seemed a bit of stretch too, including how Donn was the first person to have mint plants in Hawaii (by smuggling seeds) and how Donn's ideas and directions changed the distilling process of several rhum producers in Jamaica and Cuba.

It was interesting to learn that Donn was opposed to statehood for Hawaii, as he feared it would become another Miami. And you really can't have a book about Donn without mentioning the mai tai. I enjoyed this short chapter, as well as the recipe provided (Meyer's Plantation and Cuban rhums, lime and grapefruit juice, falernum, cointreau, pernod and angostura bitters over cracked ice) but I agree that no new arguments are presented.

The book is not a complete biography, as Donn's childhood is glossed over in 8 pages and there is no discussion at all of Donn's first wife Sunny (other than one mention that she was not happy to see him return from WWII), or his second wife and widow. Also referenced but not explored is what happened with respect to the US rights to the Don the Beachcomber name and why Donn only controlled the name in Hawaii, Asia and the South Pacific.

I was a bit put off by the stories of animals made to suffer, particularly because of the "boys will be boys" tone of the writing. Capturing a buzzard, tying its feet with a kerosene rag and setting it ablaze with his cousin was described as an example of behavior that was "mischievous and full of skulduggery". Also distasteful to me were the stories of Donn keeping minah birds in his restaurants and feeding them alcohol-soaked apples for the amusement of his customers until the birds fell over and passed out. Again presented as "all in good fun".

The positive tone and selective content of the book becomes understandable once you know the relationship of the author to his subject. It is not stated plainly anywhere, but the author is the current husband of Donn's widow and second wife. The back cover mentions that this story was first written by the author for his wife Phoebe Beach, and the last page of the book mentions that Donn was survived only by his wife Phoebe, but it is up to the reader to make the connection, since Phoebe is not mentioned anywhere else in the book or specifically acknowledged as formerly being Donn's wife in the Acknowledgments.

Although it was generally an entertaining read, I was a disappointed by the book, as by all accounts Donn led an extraordinary life that I think would lend itself to a fascinating story if it were subject to a more thorough and balanced treatment.

I'm not an alcoholic, I'm an enthusiast.

[ Edited by: leisure master 2008-02-23 14:35 ]

Yeah. It read like an undergrad paper. Too bad.

Great review Leisure Master,

I was afraid it would be as you described.

The story of Marlene having the drink spilled on her and being helped by Don is one of many gems in this book. As a reference source for the father of polynesian pop, I am grateful.

All of the previous reviews are spot on for this book. A very lightweight read and written like somebody's term paper.

Considering Donn's persona, I wasn't taken too far back with some apparent embellishment of his life. In fact, I completely expected him to be a spinner of tall-tales, who would describe larger-than-life experiences. But since the author wrote the book from an unobjective point of view, the veracity of the facts are of course questionable.

One thing of interest was Donn's comment that his beachcombing days started during his WW2 service in Casablanca. If the photos in the book are roughly chronological, it seems you can see a change in Don's appearance before and after the war. Many of the photos in the first half of the book depicts Donn in a pith helmet and safari clothes (such as on pg. 30). Many of the post-WW2 photos show Don wearing aloha shirts, pandanus hat, and more island-oriented clothes (e.g. page 138). Perhaps this evolution reflected the pre-tiki and tiki golden age that he was so much a part of.

Overall, however, the $14.95 price for the book is pretty steep, considering the quality of writing.

I am bumping this up as I am reading the book now.

What everyone has not point out so far here is that much of the book is just Don's own writing. The book left me wanting more and thinking, "he may be the basis for the Most Interesting Man in the World." Great stories and insight into Don. Simply knowing that by 20 years old he had sailed around the world, in the 1920s, to visit much of Polynesia and China, etc. is enough to tell you he led a life like few others. And talking to those who knew him personally, it really makes me wish someone would flesh this book out while these people are still around.

He was a great story teller, but he was also quite a lucky and charming bastard!

The book is like the abridged version. Maybe Jeff Berry is working on the screenplay?

Talked to the man who arranged Don's funeral and he mentioned having to contact Doolittle to get the missing man flyover approved. Flag draped casket, and 21 gun salute, sure. The flyover, no. They don't do that for just anyone. They did it for Don.

A must read.

Aloha,

On 2008-03-08 13:40, tikipedia wrote:

Many of the post-WW2 photos show Don wearing aloha shirts, pandanus hat, and more island-oriented clothes (e.g. page 138).

Quite easy to explain really. Donn, encouraged by Matson Navigation, moved to Hawaii after the War in 1946 to set up shop and adopted the island style. His second (Carla) and third partners (Phoebe) lived here. Phoebe and her current husband, Arnold still do.

Don essentially wore the same clothes every day after a certain point. It was his "uniform." And he had everything made to his liking and many outfits made up. He was always dressed as "the beachcomber".