The Castaways, Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL (restaurant)

Name:The Castaways, Miami Beach
Type:restaurant
Street:16375 Collins Ave.
City:Miami Beach
State:FL
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
I picked this card up a while back. This is the earliest Castaways image I have seen. Dated 1956. This maybe the original incarnation before it became a major resort complex. Question is did the Castaways ever have any Tiki decor at all during it's run or was it the typical tropical style resort. The card image obviously predates classic poly-pop but is a great image. Thanks

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-10 05:07 ]

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-10 05:08 ]

I believe castaways was always asian in theme..... i was actually there once with my family. The designers borrowed from poly pop which was bigat the time but i think they wanted to go in a new direction while still catering to the popular trend of the time.....those roof lines are very reminisent of tiki but asian was the theme throughout....

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2009-04-10 05:10 ]

Thanks for the info Tipsy. The Castaways is listed in both Critiki and TRT but not much out there about the place other than a mention on a couple of websites. One has some history and a few pictures from late in it's run. Thanks again.

The Castaways predominantly Japanese/Asian in theme (The Shinto Room was the main restaurant), but there was also a Tahitian Cocktail Lounge (sometimes called the Tahitian Bar) at The Castaways. Here's an old newspaper article that gives a pretty good description:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Feb 8, 1961 in Google

Here is a postcard of the famous Stanley the Entertainer from the Tahitian Bar at the Castaways.

DC

Great info about him in the article! Where is Stanley Klim now? And where can I get some of those Mai Tai tumblers with his portrait on them? And all the names of those other Motels!: Thunderbird, Aztec, Surfside Six, Carib, Driftwood and The Dunes...where is my time machine!?

Besides the great night exterior on page 258 of Tiki Modern, this shot from "MiMo-Miami Modern" gives a great sense of the whole complex:

Trav, your postcard must show the original part of the place, across the street from this island part.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-04-10 10:25 ]

Thanks for all of the input. I used to live down in Southern Florida. I wish I could have done some more digging around back then.

I love the high dive diving board, you don't see those anymore in our lawsuit crazy world.

Nice.
What is in that location now?

Massive condominium towers.

On 2009-04-11 15:53, Humuhumu wrote:
Massive condominium towers.

it´s unbelievable how many beautiful old hotels/motels were destroyed
in the miamibeach-area to make way for that condo-crap -
due to creditcrunch a lot of this stuff unsold/empty now ...

picture:
our last years rental car at the beautiful (former) sahara-hotel
(now apartments) -
background: fucking boring ugly condominium-crap creeping closer and eating everything :(

... but there are still some amazing old places with beautiful neons around !
thank god that due to the recession nobody touches them at the moment ...

[ Edited by: icebaer69 2009-04-12 00:00 ]

A couple of new cards.

Trav,

I have about 20 cards from Castaways and have never seen one that shows a yellow roof on the Shinto Room. That is awesome.

DC

I agree. That is the best shot of that building I have seen so far. I want to use that for one of my future books, please! :)

I picked this up recently. Nice dusky view of the place.

On 2009-05-31 16:39, Tiki-Kate wrote:
I picked this up recently. Nice dusky view of the place.

AND, something I had noticed when perusing Dusty's postcards a week or two ago, this shot shows the sail of the Chinese junk that is rendered on the menu, moored in almost the same position! (Tiki Modern page 256)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-05-31 17:07 ]

Here is another cool shot of the Castaways at dusk:

I would say it is about the same time as the photo posted above.
It gives another look at the place.

I was reminded of this place last weekend at a flea market here as a seller was selling some old photo albums. They came from an estate recently. As I walked by the seller had it opened to the middle of the album. As I looked, these large red A-frame structures caught my eye. I stopped and looked closer and recognized it as this Castaways place with all it's very distinctive features. At the top of the page the previous owner had written Miami 1971 I think. I then saw the large Castaways sign and knew it was the place.

Funny thing though was that on the other page, which I honestly did not see (Well at first anyway until it was pointed out to me :wink:) were photos of a bachelor party where it had quite a well endowed naked lady in a large martini glass!!
So of course, that is what I was looking at and that's what everyone thought I was interested in!!
No, no...honestly...I love that A-frame roof and all the character in that building!!

Anyways....I did not buy it as the two shots of the Castaways were good but really the only thing in the book I wanted and for $30 it was too much. I told him I only wanted these two but he wouldn't sell them to me. If I see them again I will try to take a photo of them.

TabooDan

my sister recently had all our family vacation slides converted to prints.....i have not seen those slides in many years.....in fact, last time i saw them i wasn't even into tiki so i certainly wasn't looking for tiki details at that time......next weekend i'm gonna take a look and hopefully find some great pics to post here from the time we stayed at the castaways back in the day.......

till then, enjoy this postcard i picked up at the flea market.....

Here's a souvenir maraca/can from the Wreck Bar:

Decided to dig into my archives for this place.

Here is the postcard of the Wreck Bar with the Go Go logo.
5 AM closing - that is amazing!

Here is a postcard from the bar itself. Looks like an underwater pool view behind the bar.

Onto the Shinto Room

Here is another exterior view of the great exterior at night

Some interior images showing the dining room, stage and dance area. Look like this place rocked back in the day.

Next up, the Pool Bar.

Old School Pool Bar

60's Pool Bar - Groovy Man!

The ultra mod lobby

And finally an aerial shot showing the breadth of the complex. This is the one card I have that shows the entire facility on both sides of the road in relation to the water.

DC

cool-

i was in fact able to go through some of our old slides and photos of when we visited there....i have some cool shots of me as a kid in front of the wreck bar and around the pool.....i'll add those to the archive here soon.....

this ones for dusty...an actual coat hanger from the castaways......

the writing is faint in the photo but is says " private beach and air conditioning - the castaways- miami beach, florida "

Tipsy,

First time I have seen a collectible coat hanger!

Here is something a little more predictable, an ashtray.

Look forward to seeing the pics of a young Tipsy frolicking around at the Castaways.

DC

Noticed something cool as I was posting that last batch of postcards.

Here is the couple from the Wreck Bar enjoying an afternoon libation.

Here they are again dressed up for the evening's dinner show at the Shinto Room. Love this scene with the Dean Martin singer.

DC

I love those Wreck Bar shots... and that pool bar postcard is the best !

On 2009-07-11 18:43, Tipsy McStagger wrote:

this ones for dusty...an actual coat hanger from the castaways......

the writing is faint in the photo but is says " private beach and air conditioning - the castaways- miami beach, florida "

The hanger is so you have a place to hang your swim trunks when going to the private beach. I have an old Florida AAA tourbook that has an ad for the Castawys in it. The ad says "Solarium, Steam Baths, Swedish Message, Nude Sun-Bathing". No wonder they called it "America's Most FUNderful Resort-Motel".

This is my favorite Miami Castaways postcard. If I could have any fantasy from the 70s, this would be it - To rent a metal-flake Fun Buggy from Leisure Time Rentals, load it up with my buddies and some buxom girls in bikinis, and cruise down to the pool party at the Castaways.

Whenever I bring my postcard binders out to show people, this jumbo postcard inevitably gets the most attention.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2009-07-23 22:11 ]

The postcard isn't the only thng that is jumbo.
Peace indeed. Great card!

Here are a few more images of the Castaways.

Where do you get those Hawaiian thing-a-ma-jigs? You know, those hula do-dads.

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff 2009-07-24 18:11 ]

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff 2009-07-24 18:12 ]

Sabu,

Great card, I have seen that one a few times on ebay and but was never able to win it. A crowd pleaser for sure.

Kailuageoff,

That is a very cool table card there "A Dry Martini for a Wet Bikini".
Classic stuff!

I just won these sweet little swizzles on ebay from the Tahitian Bar - nice to see the two different styles.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-08-05 01:57 ]

here is an add

Here is the Stanley the Great glass from the Tahitian Bar at the Castaways.

DC

Here are a couple of brochures I just picked up from the Castaways.

This one is a mailer with a postcard image on one side

And a rendering on the other.

This one is really cool, a brochure map listing everything on the grounds. This was really quite a place back in the day.

The first two images are from the Inter-coastal waterway side.

The second two are from the beach/ocean side

NUDE SUNBATHING and SWEDISH MASSAGES, HOW PROGRESSIVE!

DC

Nice picture of and old Castaways billboard. This is an early one with only 172 room and two pools.

DC

picked this up at a garage sale....says on the back, that 22 carat gold was used for the lettering.

On 2009-07-17 16:48, Dustycajun wrote:
Noticed something cool as I was posting that last batch of postcards.

Here is the couple from the Wreck Bar enjoying an afternoon libation.

Here they are again dressed up for the evening's dinner show at the Shinto Room. Love this scene with the Dean Martin singer.

DC

Ah well, now... as the evening progressed, I wonder which of the two planted that not-so-subtle hint on the table...

here's a rare find indeed......picked this up at a sale this weekend.....catsaways new years noise maker tamborine....

Funny and cool: Spanish dancers representing Tahitian, Japanese and nautical environments.

Here is a detail of a shoe polishing cloth given to people staying in the resort:

Here is a souvenir photo folder I picked up from the Castaways.

A great shot of a happy family enjoying a meal Castaway-style!

DC

Found this small glass awhile back. Most likely a water glass from one of the motel rooms.

and then there is this one.....

Trav,

Nice glass.

Tipsy,

Here are a few more shots of that randy glass. This one was probably not the water glass in the motel room!

I also found this classic old photo of the Castaways entrance and the Shinto Room. Check out the cars and the dame.

DC

Stunning photo - it looks like it was shot today!

I only knew of the cocktail napkin, the glass is even better! Why, I wonder, is the go go girl on the left dressed here? Oh the mysteries of Polynesian pop....

Thanks for the pics again DC, these are great.

On 2011-07-02 22:30, Dustycajun wrote:
Here are a few more shots of that randy glass. This one was probably not the water glass in the motel room!

"Randy glass"? Hey, I had nothing to do with it! But I'm not sure what exactly it means when I get more excited about the following picture...

On 2011-07-02 22:30, Dustycajun wrote:

What a great shot! And that 4-pointed A-frame is almost like the Waikikian, my all-time favorite tiki modern architectural creation. I'm going to add the Castaways to my itinerary next time I use the time machine.

-Randy

I was rummaging through my swizzles and decided to take a few photos of the various ones I have from the Castaways.

The Wreck Bar colors.

A few from the Tahitian Bar and one that says Castaways.

DC

WOW! This place something!
I found a maraca/can/shaker over the weekend that's mentioned in a previous post (the link to the pic no longer works), and a couple of drumsticks. Combine that with the tambourine, Stan the Great, naked go-go, nude beach, dune buggies, that's one swinging place!

The drumsticks are marked:
Castaways
America's Most Fun-derful Resort-Motel
Ocean at 163rd St., Miami Beach, Florida

On 2009-04-10 10:22, bigbrotiki wrote:
Great info about him in the article! Where is Stanley Klim now? And where can I get some of those Mai Tai tumblers with his portrait on them? And all the names of those other Motels!: Thunderbird, Aztec, Surfside Six, Carib, Driftwood and The Dunes...where is my time machine!?

Follow up on Stanley Klim (sadly,from his obit):

"Deid sah Milk Yelnats" March 10, 2005

Deid sah Milk Yelnats. The longtime Castaways bartender was 77. The cause was lung cancer, said his wife, Wanda, who had no good explanation for how the backward name gag started. “He was a funny guy. He liked to make people laugh. Yelnats – it doesn’t take much when they’re half-loaded. But he was funny.”

Stanley Klim worked behind the bar of the Tahitian Lounge at the Castaways Motel and Night Club from 1947 through the early 1980s, when the building – on Collins and 163 Street – was razed to make way for luxury condominiums.He set the atmosphere by crowding the place with stuffed parrots and wearing leis and Hawaiian print shirts – by the time of his death, he had more than 50 – to work every night of the week.

Over the years he added hula hoops and hand buzzers, which drove away fewer customers than you might think.
He founded the Roving International Association of Turtles, which had no dues, nothing to do with turtles and no real purpose for existing. Nevertheless, it assumed brief world-historical significance in 1968 when Apollo VII astronaut Walter Cunningham, a loyal customer of Klim’s, held up an are you a turtle? sign in a high elliptical Earth orbit on live international television.

Klim had a prodigious memory, matching thousands of faces to first names and bar tabs. Many of his customers were tourists who wrote postcards from back North. Klim stapled the cards to the Tahitian’s ceiling and bet those who returned months, sometimes years later, that he could point out the postcard they’d sent. He won enough bets one year, Wanda said, to pay for a considerable portion of a European vacation.

But Klim’s finest hour came with perfection of the drink-balancing act. The act involved cowbells, trays of drinks and a very steady head. It commenced whenever the jukebox in the Tahitian started to play “The Battle of New Orleans.” When this happened, Klim balanced a tray of drinks on his head and made a slow pass down the length of the bar. At the end of each pass he added another tray, all the while ringing his cowbells in time with Johnny Horton’s voice. It is believed he worked his way up to three trays before certain laws of physics interceded. In interviews he claimed there were nights when his bar “looked like a bombed-out window factory. …. I broke thousands and thousands to get to where I am today.”
His wife said he never dropped one, and had superior balance, though she never found the trick awe-inspiring. “Ah, nothing impressed me, ” Wanda said.

After the Castaways closed, Klim did part-time work at the Sonesta Resort on Key Biscayne but in recent years limited himself to a few private parties. He did his last in December. “He knew they were going to ask him to do the balancing trick, ” said Wanda. “He was out in the garage practicing with those glasses. All night, back and forth, back and forth. I was listening – he didn’t drop any.”

A memorial Mass will be held 7 p.m. Friday at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, 415 NE 105th St. in Miami Shores. Friends and Turtles are encouraged to attend.