Gene's Hawaiian Village , Los Angeles, CA (restaurant)

Name:Gene's Hawaiian Village
Type:restaurant
Street:10637 So. Vermont Ave.
City:Los Angeles
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:TH-2587
Status:defunct

Description:
Unavailable. Need your input folks. Thanks

Found this matchbook recently and it sounds like it was quite a place. Pretty old if the 6 digit phone # is any indication. Does anyone have any knowledge of this place? Photos or postcards etc. Do any of you Angelinos know what is at this address now or is the building still there? Please add what you know.

Okay 8FT Tiki, according to Wikipedia Sol Hoopii died in 1953, which makes that matchbook over 55 years old. So I can’t be too surprised that the place is long gone. Here it is now, I’m not sure if it’s currently businesses or apartments but I am sure that it’s ugly.

The cars belong to the present day Villagers.

On 2008-05-18 12:03, Bora Boris wrote:
Okay 8FT Tiki, according to Wikipedia Sol Hoopii died in 1953, which makes that matchbook over 55 years old. So I can’t be too surprised that the place is long gone. Here it is now, I’m not sure if it’s currently businesses or apartments but I am sure that it’s ugly.

I stumbled across this postcard from Gene's Hawaiian Village that was recently added to Mimi Payne's website. The building was a lot nicer looking back in the 1940's! Check out the cool Tikis by the front door.

:music: Close up, close up! :music:

Bigbro,

As i indicated in the post I got this image from Mimi's website so there is not a lot I can do with the picture without loosing clarity. Maybe Puamana can help?

L.A. Unified budget cuts...got laid off from summer school yesterday...had some free time.

Thanks, but Scott was right, the clarity that the original photo would probably still retain is not there in the electronic blow up, so I can't tell if I was right, they reminded me somehow of the Montreal Kon Tiki entrance Tikis.

On 2008-07-09 14:08, bigbrotiki wrote:
they reminded me somehow of the Montreal Kon Tiki entrance Tikis.

Bigbro,

Here is a blowup of the Tikis in front of the Kon Tiki entrance in Montreal. They look a little bit like the ones at Gene's but too hard to tell from the B & W postcard.

Thank you, it was that blockiness that seemed similar...but then again, maybe not. I figured since the Montreal one was built relatively early in the Tiki period, and outfitted by Gabe and George Nakashima thru Armet & Davis, maybe the same carver did both.

OK, now I'd like get a crystal clear close up of those artifacts in that showcase....and then look around the right into the entrance hut....you know, like in Blade runner! :D

I'd seen this menu a few months ago, but I didn't have enough money on me that day. Luckily, I found the seller again this weekend.

"Door way to the South Seas", that's very cool. This place must be one of the first examples of using Tikis as door way guardians.

Another old matchbook from Gene's Hawaiian Village

And the reproduction postcard based on the other matchbook.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2012-07-28 11:44 ]

just saw this post, here's a closer view of those tikis in front of Gene's:

I have a few other things from here, will post more later today...

Hey Puamana, That's a great close up of the entrance way!! Quite the unusual
style of carving. You know, it almost looks, especially the one on the left, that they are possibly made of concrete.

If you look at the base of the one on the left, you see marks and lines that are seen in concrete pieces. The lines are kind of rough, uneven and look like at different levels.

It also looks like those boxes above the Tikis has wire running to them so maybe these had lights right above that shone down on the poles.
Might had been quite the sight with those SAVAGE faces at night time!

TabooDan

Here is another version of the matchbook with a nice rendering of the building from ebay.

DC

Clipped some better images of the matchbook with the rendering of the building.

The listing also had the inside with the feature matchsticks.

DC

Here is an old menu from Gene's Hawaiian Village from my collection.

There were some nice old photos from this place that sold on ebay a while back, anybody on TC get them?

DC