A-Frames, Tailfins, and the Jet Age

Had the ol' Chrysler out at Lake George last week, off season. Made me think of the above chapter title from Tiki Modern.

TT

Love it Love it Love it...great pictures!!!

Love those photos! A beautiful car! Love the structure!

Yes, great pics- awesome car!!! Goes perfectly with the location.

Nice ride. Here's mine.

Great cars, Tonga Trader and Kahuna. I've got those same 'Lancer' hubcaps for my car too. Just waiting for paint before I put them on.

I've got some fins for ya too. Albeit not the glory of the late '50s fins though...
...My '62 TBird in front of Don the Beachcomber.

Hey, what's up with all the WHITE street jets here? :D :

My 60 LeSabre, also known as "Das Boot" - I miss it. And here's a lil' collage my friend Moritz did for it:

That's Mr Tiki, I need to track him down and see what he's up to.

Sweet rides all :o

Yeah, what IS up with all of the white cars? The color of space exploration maybe?
Amazing LeSabre, Sven. I've always loved those and the Invictas...

Amazing cars all round!

http://www.kustomkultureaustralia.com

[ Edited by: hewey 2011-10-28 18:35 ]

Luckydesigns, the Supremes and Bellflowers are a great combination on your car!

Love that 'bird, man. Always been one of my favorite cars.

On 2011-10-21 09:55, Luckydesigns wrote:

...My '62 TBird in front of Don the Beachcomber.

Great photo, looks just as if it was taken in 1962! Did you do any post work to the pic to make it look so authentic? Oh, and boss looking car!

Thanks, guys!
Yeah, on the photo, I went in and colorized the sky and adjusted the hue/ saturation levels.

Thanks for the contributions everyone. Nice to see some cool car people (and appreciators) in the tiki world.

So, I'm going to break out of the White trend here. This is our '61 New Yorker in "Sahara Sand" (with a "Tuscan Bronze" roof.) The A-Frame is cut off, but I'll trust you know it was there.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Kahiki. Two weeks before closing:

We'd been in Detroit the night before, for the Woodward Dream Cruise. Drove down to the Kahiki for dinner.

Then we made it to Hala Kahiki for last call!

TT

Great memories, TT. Nice ride, too.

Saw this ad online for a 1961 Olds and thought that it belonged on this thread.

Great photos, ladies and gentlemen.

DC

Great image! That reminded me of this '63 T-Bird ad, Luckydesigns will like it:

Though by that year, tailfins were pretty much phased out.

Wow, that's great, Sven! I've never seen that ad before!!

That '63 T-Bird is the same basic body style as my '62. There ARE tail fins (albeit smallish). You can see them in the picture that I posted...

'63 is the last year of tailfins of just about any size, on any car. Unless someone can prove me wrong... I'd be interested to see anything 1964 and newer with fins.

We dont have many A-frames of any sort here in Australia, much less tiki bars - so here's a pic of my '61 Holden wagon at the beach :D If you've had a few drinks the plate almost reads Hawaii :lol: :lol:

So I'm definitely bending the requirements on this one and even though I'm really loving the current pictures of Tiki Central members and their Fin-mobiles, I thought this should go here - it's the long gone Millionaires Club in Beverly Hills on La Cienega's Restaurant Row in 1963, next door to the Captain's Table. It's not an A-Frame but I'm gonna call it an Octopus entrance, which reminds me of the Sahara's Don the Beachcomber Huts.

Octopus entrances ?? I call them Octo-frames. :)

Here's another famous mid-century Octo-frame icon, the entrance to Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica.

Also some vintage cars at POP. (albiet not in the same photos as the Octo-frame :()

And there were A-frames at POP.

Sorry for the de-rail (Boris started it !!) but try to imagine all this stuff in one image. :D

On 2011-10-28 16:55, Luckydesigns wrote:
I'd be interested to see anything 1964 and newer with fins.

I guess it would depend on your definition of tailfins. The Cadillac Eldorado had rear fenders that stuck up above the trunk lid up until 1970. The 1971 model still had seperate "fins" but they were lower than the trunk. There were some assorted foreign cars (Russian, etc) that had fins up into the 70s because they didn't redesign their old 1960 tooling but they don't count :)

Not beng a car guy at all and also being too lazy to look it up what year did Fins officially begin and when did they stop?

Another car ad that might fit the bill. This one's the Pontiac '66

On 2011-10-30 10:55, Bora Boris wrote:

Great contrast between those two cars in the lot. The roadster looks like it could fit in the trunk of the other one. I'd expect to see either a shriner, a clown, or a gorilla driving that little car, or maybe all 3.

Sounds like a joke - a shriner, a clown and a gorilla walk into a bar in Beverly Hills. Shriner says, "Is this your gorilla?" Clown says, "Gorilla? They told me it was a Doberman!"

-Randy

On 2011-10-30 15:53, Bora Boris wrote:
Not beng a car guy at all and also being too lazy to look it up what year did Fins officially begin and when did they stop?

Well, this is certainly a matter of opinion. Are you going to call any protuberance on the back of a car a "tailfin?" If so, Cadillac had some bumps on the back in the late 40's, but if you want to know who exemplifies the true Jet Age styling, I say it was Virgil Exner (cue photo of Exner with tailfin and jets):

He created the "Forward Look," a corporate-wide design theme for Chrysler (including Dodge, DeSoto, Plymouth, and Imperial) from 1956-1961. He's also credited with causing the radical redesign of 1959 General Motors cars when GM designers got a sneak peak of the 1957 Chrysler products and trashed everything on the drawing board.

TT

That works for me.

Thank you TT! :)

I second the start theory TT, Thanks! As far as the end I guess I think in Cadillac terms....IMHO the 1964 was THE END....compare to the 1965 which has more of a sail panel effect.. OGR

Well, we had a great unexpected run of Tiki owner/operated WHITE mid-century mod cars here, guys, that was neat...and then the ads!

And I love all the other related images, too, so in the spirit of general context, I have this to ad:

On 2011-10-31 01:04, aquarj wrote:
Great contrast between those two cars in the lot. The roadster looks like it could fit in the trunk of the other one. I'd expect to see either a shriner, a clown, or a gorilla driving that little car, or maybe all 3.

Actually, the kind of guy who would drive these Austin-Healey/MG sports cars at the time would have looked something like this:

That kinda car and pipe smoking went hand in hand. The look denoted an individualist, a suave and distinguished but modern man, such as this...

...often an advertising exec or creative, almost bohemian but not Beatnik, not necessarily a ladies' man, also someone who could have a family:

On 2011-10-31 12:59, bigbrotiki wrote:

Actually, the kind of guy who would drive these Austin-Healey/MG sports cars at the time would have looked something like this:

Now they look like this (well, when he's sixteen :))

On 2011-10-31 12:59, bigbrotiki wrote:

The look denoted an individualist, a suave and distinguished but modern man, such as this...

Nice photos!

Cadillac's fins first appeared in 1949 & kept growing through the 50's, peaking in '59.

Here is a postcard from the Mai Tai with some tail fins under the glow of the Tiki torches and the Mai Tai sign.

And another shot of A-Frames and tail fins from the Tiki Resort at Lake George.

DC

OK, here is another one. Looks to be a 57 Chevy with full fins parked under the spectacular A-Frame entrance to the Half Moon Inn.

Close up

DC

I found this cool image on the Laguna Beach Historical Society's website. Something "Imports" with a tusk in the window.

What was this place?

I remember a "Pier One" type store on PCH in Laguna in the 60s & 70s

"Here is a vintage color postcard from the late 1950's featuring a classic view of the Far East Treasures Building of Warren Imports in the city of Laguna Beach, California, located in Orange County. 1958 Edsel and 1958 Chevrolet can be seen at left."

Looks like it closed in 2008

On 2011-11-18 22:18, MadDogMike wrote:
Looks like it closed in 2008

Ahhhhhh! :o

That's it! just could not remember the name & all those damn Bead shops.

The Bel Congo - Costa Mesa, CA

From the post card that was at the top of my wish list. :)

Hey, that's my Buick! -Actually, it isn't, it looks like the 2 door convertible, the INVICTA:

The Bel-Congo was just two lots down from the Kona Lanes on Harbor Blvd. You can see the A-frame (from the side) under the sign in my photo on page 197 of the BOT:

You would drive the car in under the A-frame on the right, the registration office was on the left. I remember there was some kind of mask in there, but not much else. I think it was opened by a couple that had settled in the Belgian Congo for a while. I did not document or investigate further at the time because it wasn't POLYNESIAN pop. :(

Boris, glad you got the Bel Congo card. Sounds like it was one of those that eluded Bigbro's radar.

How about a few more entries from the Kahiki.

The jumbo illustrated postcard.

And an interpretation from our very own Doug Horne.

DC

On 2011-11-16 17:39, Dustycajun wrote:

Close up

DC

Thank god this one is still with us.

A fem more old ads featuring the Pontiac Bonneville.

DC

Did we have this "Hut" one yet?:

The Bonneville under the glow of Tiki torches.

DC