Tiki and World War II

I wanted to start a new thread for people to share images and thoughts about how restaurants (particularly Vic's) adapted to WWII. I've got a couple of pix to post here, but I encorage everyone to contribute. TikiHula, if you could post some shots of that Bomber/Gremlin drink menu and if anyone has a picture of that great Vic's placemat with the "Dirty stinkers" on it, please post! (And I'll buy that placemat off anyone who has an extra...it's a holy grail item for me)

Here's a couple of pix from the September 4, 1944 issue of Life.

Note the PB2Y Gremlin....

Here's a shot of some service men and wahines enjoying a scorpion...

The caption on this one is "A B-17 Gremlin comes in a bowl adorned with gremlins chasing nudes around a tropic isle. Gremlin drinks vary in size: P-40 (for one), PB2Y (for two), B-17 (for four)."

And look! Vic smiling! This caption says, "During the Aleutian campaign he sent makings of hot buttered rum to US fliers."

[ Edited by: martiki6 on 2003-11-17 19:15 ]

That's dynamite. Vic was a swell cat. Still is...except now he's in all his bars at once.

Here's a bit more. This is a guide for servicemen on a liberty pass or shore leave in Honolulu published January of 1944. It's a little pamphlet that lists activities on the island, incuding where to find the women's volleyball games (hubba hubba!) There's also a great paragraph reccomending a visit to the Honolulu public library...because "the library chairs are mighty comfy, and you can get your forty winks". Classic!

Plus it has this ad in it...I know where I'd be!

Martin... here's a scan from the BOT...

Great thread by the way... I'm going to do some digging...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2003-11-17 23:16 ]

My Grandfather was a pilot of a B-17 in WWII, a picture of him and his crew are going into my "Ocean Room". After the end of WWII, he re-enlisted and ended up spending some years in Guam. This where He bought the killer Rattan furniture that I now have. Too bad I did keep the Japanese floats or the Monkey Pod Table, or the Frank Oda painting..... Oh well, who knew that I'ld end up trying to build on, what he and my Grandmother started.

Cheers,

KT

Oh man there must be too much naval officer in the Pacific stuff around here if I looked. My Mother's mother also brought back some rattan furniture from the P.I. after my Grandfather was 2nd in command of Subic just after WWII. I think there are a few pieces still around. I should dig some of this stuff up! My Dad's father was the Chief Engineer of the USS Battleship Mississippi (The Missy he called it) during WWII as well, but I don't know of anything he left behind other than his sword....and 2 bottles of scotch on the coast of Greenland that he hid for safe keeping until he returned for them at Xmas (or so he thought) on Dec, 6 1941 before returning to the ship! :lol:

Anyway since I don't have anything at hand, but will look, this is something cool from that era, or just after it.

http://home.earthlink.net/~eeats1/Rosemary%20Clooney%20&%20Perez%20Prado%20-%20Bali%20Hai.mp3

My grandfather was on a LAV that went from Pacific Island to Pacific Island. Family lore tells of a carved item (cane? or something) listing all the islands visited, along with a jar full of Japanese airplane shrapnel. These items are no longer extant...

Johnny Dollar

This is a souvenir photo-folder from one of the more obscure Trader Vic's imitators out there - "Trader Joe's TRADE WINDS" in Inglewood, California. Four servicemen are having some drinks, with the trunks of fake palm trees visible behind them, (these show up better when you actually have this 8x10 photo in front of you. I suspect this is vintage WWII era, because it's pre-tiki, yet contemporary with Trader Vics.

Sabu.

Ah, WWII. What a beautiful, romantic and wonderful period (that is, except for the 50 millions deaths, genocide and torture bit).

Bong - What happened to the shiney, happy, glass-half-full, silver lining Bong we were all just getting to know and love? Did you miss a dose of medication? Just kidding...welcome back to the real world of ranters, ravers and hellraisers!

Mr. ShipFIXjoey, Mr. Bong actually summed up the statements of several of my relatives who fought in WWII. They thought it was a wonderful time to be young, except for seeing their best friend's entrails laying in the snow... Obviously they didn't talk about it much, but I had 1 Great Uncle who was an Army Air Corps radio operator on Oahu during the attack on Pearl Harbor, & his older brother fought under Patton during the Battle of the Bulge. The only people they ever talked about their experiences with were each other, & 1/2 of the time it was in Italian.

hey, while looking for odd hula characters for the hula smurf thread, i came across this website - http://www.web-birds.com/13th/42/42nd.htm - i loved this improvised bar in the phillipines.

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2004-08-26 07:16 ]

Here's an original photo I own that was given to me showing a group of service men with some
South Seas residents. I particularly like the man blowing smoke on the right.

After one of my Grampy's stints with the RAF/USAF in tropical Scotland, he got promoted into the USSR thru Vladavlostock to Stolingrad. He never spoke of it, I heard of it via other people.

The other Grampy was a Dignitary in Central America and Haiti. He on the other hand spoke fondly of those times. (Except when his house employees would eat his pets)

I need to root up some photos of the crazy pomp and silly wool uniforms they were forced to wear in Haiti. I can't even imagine times like those.

I have always loved the Aloha shirts with either ships or aircraft mingled with the flowers. While not commonplace, I have found some nice ones at an aircraft museum gift shop south of San Francisco.

Sam's in HB. has some WWII art. I have been told that it's authentic stuff.

[ Edited by: Gigantalope on 2004-08-31 00:22 ]

Hey JD,
GREAT site you linked! There are some amazing photos to be seen. I love the other pics from the bar as the party goes on...
That was a truly unique time in history.
Aloha,
:tiki:

[ Edited by: tiki royale on 2004-08-31 09:43 ]

My grandfather was a colonel in WWII with the Pauley mission.I have an incredible scrapbook with all these really cool autographed pictures of McCarthur,Eisenhower,and others.It also has some Nazi stuff (reason I don't display it)with a dinner invitation that Hitler used.He was also at the Nurnberg trials.But the just about the best thing about the book is that he,a VERY vain man,had lots of photos of himself drinking in bars all over the world.Pretty cool stuff.

In honor of Don the Beachcomber, Lieutenant Ed Holliday and his crew painted this B-26 Marauder with Don the Beachcomber watching the setting pacific sun, his drifwood sign logo is also on the plane's nose. Too bad we don't have a color photo of this one. On one mission the plane took 146 bullet holes but the crew always made it home safely.

Don the Beachcomber (the man) also served in WWII and earned a bronze star and the rank of Lieutenent Colonel before his discharge in 1946.

I also remember reading somewhere he managed to get Winston Churchill drunk on smuggled whiskey but I have forgotten the details from that story.

[ Edited by: captnkirk on 2004-08-31 19:56 ]

aloha

On 2004-08-31 19:51, captnkirk wrote:
In honor of Don the Beachcomber, Lieutenant Ed Holliday and his crew painted this B-26 Marauder with Don the Beachcomber watching the setting pacific sun, his drifwood sign logo is also on the plane's nose.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2010-07-23 23:55 ]

On 2004-08-30 22:18, Tiki Royale wrote:
Hey JD,
GREAT site you linked!

Definately, and thanks for revising this thread.
Great picture of a war time tiki bar.
If I was to die at war, I would hope my last drink would surely be at a Tiki Bar!
(Hope this ain't too "politic" Hanford :) )

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2010-07-23 23:56 ]

Here you go...

First time for this...Dated January 1942, Trader Vic's Oakland Axis placemat!

PTD

The Tiki Times was a newspaper created secretly by New Zealand POW's in World War II.

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/the-tiki-times-vol-1

http://www.armymuseum.co.nz/kiwis-at-war/did-you-know/the-tiki-times/

On 2011-06-12 13:14, Psycho Tiki D wrote:

As I had published this placemat in the Book of Tiki many moons ago, I had to have this little ceramic marvel when I came upon it on e-bay :)

This portrait alone is precious…

…but the kicker is the back…

…giving the other enemy its due! :D

Best eBay buy of the year! I love it.

That is great, Sven. Were you actively searching for that or did you stumble upon it searching something else?

From the National Library of New Zealand photo archives.

A New Zealand military truck after crossing the Sangro River, Italy. C H Lawrence (Auckland) and F Ross (Auckland) are on the front of the truck, with another man behind the wheel. A large stylised tiki, carved out of wood, is tied to the radiator grill. Photograph taken circa 29 nov 1943, by G Kaye.

Two New Zealand soldiers on the Tiki Bridge, one of the Bailey bridges built by NZ Engineers across the Sangro River in Italy, during World War II. Photograph taken circa 3 December 1943 by George Frederick Kaye.

Four World War I New Zealand soldiers in a front line trench pose beneath the sign 'The Cannibals Paradise Supply Den Beware' painted on corrugated iron in response to German propaganda that New Zealanders ate their captured prisoners. (Soldier 2nd from left may be Ted Brosnahan) Also on the trench wall is an official wooden sign 'Keep to the Trench'. Beneath this has been added another wooden sign with the message painted in capital letters 'And youl [sic] get to NZ'. Photograph taken Gommecourt Wood 10 August 1918 by Henry Armytage Sanders.

Those are wonderful photos TikiLongBeach.

Tikis in the New Zealand military go back a long way. Here is another one I have been meaning to post, since we are now commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign in NZ and Australia:

Maori Pah was a position occupied by Maori troops at ANZAC Cove in Turkey in 1915.

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2015-06-14 10:47 ]

On 2015-06-14 10:45, Club Nouméa wrote:
Those are wonderful photos TikiLongBeach.

Tikis in the New Zealand military go back a long way. Here is another one I have been meaning to post, since we are now commemorating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign in NZ and Australia:

Maori Pah was a position occupied by Maori troops at ANZAC Cove in Turkey in 1915.

---

I just saw that the Museum of New Zealand has an exhibit on Gallipoli running until 2018. They even had Maori recreate the trench tiki. Have you been to the exhibit?

^ Yes, I did go and it was an overwhelming experience. I should go back and photograph the tiki.

Club Nouméa, I read in another article that Peter Jackson wants to make a film about Gallipoli.
Archaeologists have been searching for the Maori tikis, but haven't had any luck so far.