Jack Thornton RIP - Co-Founder of Mai-Kai

2 years ago I began a new job managing a Salon/Day Spa here in Fort Lauderdale, a couple of days on the job I noticed a name on the computer on one of my providers schedule that stopped me dead in my tracks. Jack Thornton. Could it be? Nah - of course not. 2 days later, I see a gentleman struggling with a walker entering the building, it was Jack Thornton, I was in the presence of someone so important I found it difficult to speak. I welcomed him, I smiled at him and I noted how incredibly fragile he was. I am so honored to have met him.

Jack,

May you rest in peace. I would have loved to have spoken to you about the Mai-Kai, what stories you could have told us all. There are not words to express my gratitude for creating one of the most amazing Tiki palaces in the world, it is my home away from home. I will toast you and Bob this week at the Mai-Kai, may your legacy live on...........

Obit: http://www.legacy.com/SunSentinel/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=104294254

Aloha Nui!
:tiki:

February 22nd, Don the Beachcomber's birthday. A sad day this year.

Please sign the guest book - let the family know how much we love the Mai-Kai and appreicate Jack's vision and legacy!!

http://www.legacy.com/SunSentinel/GB/GuestbookMail.aspx?PersonID=104294254

Sad news. Thanks for sharing this TK. Since he still lived in Ft Lauderdale, I wonder if Jack and his family frequented the Mai-Kai much after 1969. It is a shame that we didn't get his story from him before he passed away. Before you saw him two years ago, did nobody know he was living in Ft Lauderdale? Was he listed in the phone book?

RIP Jack.

Thanks for giving us the Mai Kai. You will always be ohana to us!!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff and Deb

In case anyone wonders, it was agreed between Bob and Jack Thornton that Bob buy Jack out after his illness.

Gator Rob,

It was known that Jack lived locally.

I plan to send flowers on behalf of the entire Hukilau Ohana.

TK, that's a great story about meeting Jack! Indeed, his legacy lives on there. Wish I could be joining you for the toast. Thanks for posting this!

Legend has it that Jack was the brilliance on the aesthetic end of the Mai Kai, while Bob was the genius behind the business end. Jack, you created an amazing work of art. Mahalo Nui, finally you can see the whole thing with a bird's eye view!

I called Bob and Leroy at Oceanic Arts this morning to let them know their old friend past away. They told me of stories of Jack coming out to California all the time to check out their new finds in order to keep the Mai-Kai filled with ever changing and additional artifacts.

Sad news indeed. Tonight I will raise a glass to Mr. Thornton and to the wonderful slice of paradise he has created. He will continue to live on so long as we all remember.

How blessed you were, TK, to have serendipitously met him in person.
I'm told that's a "soul-encounter"; cosmic energies consciously or unconsciously coming together in "coincidental" circumstances. It seems the banner, figuratively speaking, was formally passed.

Cheers to the Mai Kai, long may she enchant.

Here is another nice obituary from the Sun-Sentinel....click on the below link to see the full on-line article and many pictures of Jack Thornton and the Mai Kai

http://tinyurl.com/2bxvj8

The tiki torches at the Mai-Kai restaurant still burn bright, but the co-founder of the South Florida landmark will be laid to rest today, more than 50 years after he and his brother started a sensation by opening what became a Polynesian-style monument to exotic food, fruity rum drinks and all things island chic.

Jack R. Thornton, considered by friends and family to be the creative force between the Oakland Park restaurant's over-the-top South Pacific theme, was 78. Family members said he died Feb. 22 of a stroke.

Mr. Thornton managed to outlive many of his contemporaries despite a life devoted to the pleasures of food and wine and a brain aneurysm at 40 that doctors said would kill him. Instead, he underwent surgery, slowly re-learned basic daily functions, and spent some of his remaining decades traveling the world.

Daughter Tammy Arena, 46, of Fort Lauderdale, recalled the first months her father fought to regain his life and memory. She was 8 years old, sitting at a table doing schoolwork as he sat next to her with a yellow legal pad, reteaching himself arithmetic.

"He said, 'Oh, we're kind of in the same class. You're doing your math and I'm doing mine,'" she remembered. "His strength of character, his determination, his ability to continue when things were difficult was just amazing."

Most people, however, will remember Mr. Thornton for his success with the Mai-Kai.
Mr. Thornton and his brother, Bob, were in their 20s when they opened the restaurant at 3599 N. Federal Highway in December 1956.

The location now sits along a noisy, traffic-clogged artery, just north and across the street from a Target-anchored shopping center. But at the time it was on a two-lane road with no other development or street lights.

Ex-wife Diane Thornton described the novelty of driving up to the restaurant upon her first visit. It looked like a torch-lit island in the dark. "If there was no moon, you felt like you were in black hole. Then you saw a light ahead," she said. "It got brighter and brighter and — remember in those days there was no Disney World, no theme parks — you were suddenly in these lush exotic gardens and there were rushing waterfalls and sumptuous dishes that only world travelers had ever tasted."

The inspiration for the Mai-Kai came from the brothers' favorite restaurant, Don the Beachcomber, an island-style eatery they visited with their father during their childhood in Chicago. Their mother put up everything she owned to secure the loans to help her sons open the restaurant. It became a runaway hit.

Brother Bob Thornton was the business-minded partner who ran daily operations, said former Mai-Kai marketing director Leonce Picot, while Jack Thornton obsessed over the conceptual details.

According to Picot, it was Jack who placed nearly every plant in the restaurant's tropical gardens. He built the signature waterfall, tore it down because it wasn't perfect and had it rebuilt. He insisted on a drink menu with more than 50 fruit-and-alcohol-laced concoctions, each with its own distinct glass.

He traveled through Europe, searching for the best wines and chefs. He commissioned a bar made of surfboards, and when it got too small, directed the construction of a larger one, doing it all from images in his head. Through it all, Jack Thornton earned the nickname "Mr. Intense," which was occasionally shortened to "Mr. Tense," for his passion for the smallest details.

Today, the Mai-Kai may appear the height of kitsch, even a shadow of its former self. But in its heyday, Picot said, it was the most swinging joint in town, one of the top-grossing restaurants in the United States and the largest consumer of rum in Florida. "The reason why it's lasted 50 years is because the original concept and design was done so well and so right," said Picot, who went on to run three of his own successful restaurants in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.

Diane Thornton said her ex-husband's intensity, constant travel and restless spirit ended their marriage, but not their friendship. The couple had two children — daughter Tammy and son Ty, who is 45 and lives in Fort Lauderdale.

Soon after the couple divorced, Mr. Thornton suffered his aneurysm, keeping him in South Florida for longer stretches of time and bringing the former couple closer. "The way I was raised, you're family, and that's it," Diane Thornton said. "It wasn't even a thought that you'd abandon somebody."

After his aneurysm in 1969, doctors said Mr. Thornton shouldn't work, so he sold his stake in the restaurant, which is now run by his brother's wife and children, Diane Thornton said. He lived with his brother, concentrated on getting well, and once he did, resumed enjoying the "finer things in life" and traveling, often with Diane and the kids.

In the end, he outlived his brother and never lost his appetite for food and life.
"Jack was a natural explorer and adventurer. He was a bon vivant," she said.

Memorial services will be at 10:30 a.m. today at Unity Church of Fort Lauderdale, 1800 NE Sixth Court. A private family interment service will be at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale. In addition to his ex-wife and his two children, Mr. Thornton is survived by a son-in-law, John Arena.

*"...while Jack Thornton obsessed over the conceptual details."

"He insisted on a drink menu with more than 50 fruit-and-alcohol-laced concoctions, each with its own distinct glass."*

Definitely my kind of guy. Cheers, Jack.

I agree, Rob, that it is a bummer that the fact that Jack was the creative, collector's side of the Mai Kai was not so clear to me as these articles make it, and it might have been worth to talk to him. But then, we don't know how much his brain would have been able to recall of the glory days.

When I talked to Mr. Nakashima, he said he began the design of the Mai Kai remodel when both Jack and Bob were running the place. Jack had in mind this very over the top design of a two story something or other and Bob's was more mundane. Once Jack left, Bob's design went through. We can only guess at what the Mai Kai would look like had Jack's design won out.

On 2008-02-28 10:10, Swanky wrote:
We can only guess at what the Mai Kai would look like had Jack's design won out.

Possibly like that black velvet painting hanging on Kern's wall (and on the postcard). Kern referred to it to me as "the Mai-Kai that never was". It's hard to imagine the Mai-Kai being even larger and more elaborate than it ended up being. It does make me wonder that if they HAD built Jack's version, would the place be too big and too expensive to maintain today? Could it have sunk the Mai-Kai like the Detroit Mauna Loa?

Gee, doesn't the story of Bob and Jack's working relationship sound eerily similar to a couple of famous Disney brothers? Roy was always the astute businessman while Walt was the dreamer who obsessed over the creative details.

I need a Roy in my life. With a BIG budget!

On 2008-02-28 10:29, GatorRob wrote:
It does make me wonder that if they HAD built Jack's version, would the place be too big and too expensive to maintain today? Could it have sunk the Mai-Kai like the Detroit Mauna Loa?

You mean like it almost is today? :D I believe the Mauna Loa was a unique case, a victim of its late build date, its skyrocketing cost, and the Detroit riots causing downtown white flight.

For those who don't know, I was referring to this drawing (sorry for the poor quality eBay snag, don't have my postcards with me):

I don't know if anyone knows exactly what was the inspiration for this fanciful drawing, but just maybe it was taken from Jack's vision?

That could be it. I vaguely recall George Nakashima saying somethign about a two-story building with some mention of glass... It's all foggy now. But you can imagine that glass second story opening on that one building in that image as what he was talking about.

I'm planning to show more archival information at the Mai-Kai finale on Sunday night - none of you want to miss that, trust me, it's gonna be stellar! There are the Happy Talks with photos and articles on the expansions, etc. and also photos of the small models.

Bob and Leroy have said that Jack flew out to California regularly to look at what was available at Oceanic Arts, and from the staff members that were there while Jack was in place, they have confirmed what a perfectionist he was - and what a great friend he was to them. They never had the pleasure to meet Bob.

Also, flowers were sent to the family of Jack Thornton today on behalf of the entire Hukilau ohana.

Rest in Peace, Jack.

and say Hi to Eli for me!

You rocked this earth!!

Another obit, this one from the Miami-Herald:

Brothers Bob and Jack Thornton dreamed of bringing the South Pacific to South Florida.

In many ways they did in 1956 when they opened the Mai-Kai, an oversized tiki bar and restaurant in Oakland Park where sarong-clad maidens serve fruity drinks to the backdrop of an entertaining Polynesian show.

Jack Thornton, the cofounder of the restaurant, suffered a stroke and died Feb. 22. He was 78.

Drawn to Fort Lauderdale beach for spring break in the 1950s, the Thorntons created the Polynesian-style restaurant nearby, at 3599 N. Federal Hwy. in December 1956.

''My dad's life revolved around his passion,'' said Tammy Thornton Arena, of Fort Lauderdale. ``He loved everything in tune with the senses. The restaurant wasn't only supposed to be about the food, it was about the experience, the lighting, the trickling of the waterfall and the scent of fresh flowers when you first walk in.''

When they were kids growing up in Chicago, the brothers vowed to open a restaurant like an island-type restaurant they ate at with their parents.

The brothers, who attended Stanford University, traveled to Hawaii and fell in love with Polynesian culture and food.

Thornton spent two years, from 1953 to 1955, in Germany with the U.S. Army, where he taught English.

''On leave he would get a car, travel and explore the countryside,'' Thornton Arena said. ``The Europeans really had an appreciation for their refinement and detail. He identified with that.''

After leaving the service, he arrived in Fort Lauderdale, where his family had relocated.

BACKED BY MOM

With a lot of enthusiasm, but little cash, Jack and Bob Thornton begged their mother for money to open the Mai-Kai.

The 150-seat restaurant was an instant hit.

Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon and Joe Namath were regular patrons, rubbing shoulders with tourists and locals who poured in to see the dances and sip rum punch.

The verdant Mai-Kai once anchored the two-lane street. Today the bar-restaurant, which now seats 716, is surrounded by stores and other restaurants.

It's no coincidence the restaurant was named the Mai-Kai, which means ''the best'' in Hawaiian.

''Mr. Thornton was so selective. He wanted everything in the restaurant to be perfect,'' said Angel Vega, the maitre d' who has worked at the restaurant for 43 years. ``I could always count on him . . . If there was something going on in the kitchen or the floor or at the entrance he was there fixing the problem.''

''He was strict but fair,'' he added.

While Bob Thornton ran the daily operation, Jack Thornton was the creative genius behind the restaurant, family and friends said.

He was responsible for the menu, drinks, architecture and landscaping.

''He made sure each person who filled each department was just as passionate,'' Thornton Arena said. ``At one point they made 50 different drinks and each drink had a different glass. That attention to detail has allowed it to survive so long.''

In 1969, Jack Thornton suffered a brain aneurysm. After brain surgery, he slowly learned to read and write again, but was unable to deal with the pressures of the business.

Thornton left his brother in charge of the Mai-Kai.

EXTRAVAGANT SHOW

The Polynesian-themed establishment is still as extravagant as Thornton envisioned.

During the foot-stomping, drum-beating show dancers swing their hips to the Songs of the South Seas while men toss burning sticks through the air. Flaming tiki torches lead the way under the thatched roof and into the garden.

Although Thornton had to leave the restaurant business behind, he took the time to travel to Europe with his family and indulge his passion for food and drink in Michelin-starred restaurants as well as neighborhood pizza joints.

''Although our parents were divorced, as a family we spent summers together,'' Thornton Arena said. ``I saw him come alive in Europe and instantly had a new appreciation for my dad.''

Thornton also made time for his family.

''He was the kind of man who -- on my birthdays -- he would send my flowers and send my mom a huge bouquet of roses with a note thanking her for their wonderful kids,'' Thornton Arena said.

Bob Thornton ran the Mai-Kai until his death in 1989. His widow, Tahitian-born Mireille Thornton, and their children own and operate the restaurant.

In addition to his daughter, Thornton is survived by a son, Ty, and his ex-wife Diane Thornton.