Heads up on some Tiki history - Zombie Cologne from 'Club Zombie' at Hawley House Hotel Cleveland

Hi guys!

Although this may be known about - i just discovered this on ebay -and no searches of Tiki Central turned up anything so i thought i'd post about it. I Just discovered this vintage Tiki cologne bottle for sale which i thought people might be interested in seeing. Definitely quite fascinating.

The seller describes it as: 'A rare perfume bottle for a fragrance entitled Zombie. It has a wooden cap that depicts a golliwog type character. Patent number on the bottom is 104835. There is a label on the front from the Hawley House Club Zombie, "Cleveland's most intimate nightclub," "definitely torrid," according to the label. This was one of the first tiki themed nightclubs in the region.'

Heres the ebay item: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-CLUB-ZOMBIE-COLOGNE-BOTTLE-HAWLEY-HOUSE-HOTEL-CLEVELAND?item=120837270595&cmd=ViewItem#ht_4092wt_1396

A quick search of Hawley House Club zombie turned up this photo (dated somewhere between 1930 -1959) at: http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/postcards&CISOPTR=1812&CISOBOX=1&REC=12

Would love to hear any other info anyone has on this place and when it actually was. Also wondering what on earth zombie cologne would have smelt like...

Thank You, I bought it! Expensive, but I had some money laying around on Paypal and wanted it for my Pre-Tiki cocktail display.

Good discovery, indeed! This place and the perfume must be from AFTER Donn Beach invented the Zombie, in 1934 or later.
Never had heard about it before. I love that such things still surface.

Fantastic - really glad to know its going to a good home -I'm even more pleased with my find now!

Good point about the date -which tragically hadn't even occurred to me. Which now has me wondering how closely the scent was supposed to mimic the drink..

The title font is absolutely beautiful and looks quite familiar although i cant place it. Going to have to try and have a look for that now..

I can barely believe such things still surface! But am very pleased that they do. :D

1. The Book of Tiki
2. The Sound of Tiki
3. The Look of Tiki
4. The Smell of Tiki :)

The SMELL of Tiki...hmmm....is it this?:

...or, simply and more accurately, this:

Nice find, I remember seeing that little guy before.

Here is a little better pic of that postcard.

Not to be confused with the Zombie Club in Havana.

DC

Ta Dustycajun! Great stuff. I do find the pre-Tiki beachcomber stuff especially fascinating. I think because its partially shrouded in mystery..
Unfortunately i had no luck finding the zombie font - thought it might be something based on the Paris 'metropolitan' signs, or perhaps a Toulouse-Lautrec poster. It wasnt!
Bigbrotiki -that Mai Tai cologne packaging is luridly, hallucinogenically awesome. I bet it did smell intoxicating! And come to think of it, dabbing a spot of demerara rum on the pulse points might work a hell of a lot better than some of the dodgy perfumes ive bought over the years..

Just watch out that you don't get into a traffic check! :D

I recently acquired this nice drink menu from Zombie Club at the Hawley House.

Cool pre-tiki graphics on the menu cover.

The drink descriptions are quite entertaining.

The same line for the Zombie as Sven's perfume bottle: "Definitely Torrid"

I like the Virgin Island line.

There was also a little bar food menu that came with the drink menu.

DC

...and I caught the reference to Ferdinand... the Bull!

while looking up the zombie club, i came across this image from the same website:

on the verso of the card:

"The Bamboo Room, Cleveland's newest cocktail lounge, Hotel Olmsted 300 rooms with baths, showers and radio."

thanks for posting up the drink menu, great stuff!

Great stuff!!!

Wish I would have known about this place before I did my Ohio Polynesia seminar!

I love how this stuff turns up!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

figured this would be as good a thread as any to share these. while debatable as authentic tiki, it's part of cleveland's "polynesian past". just some stuff i came across online that i hadn't seen before. enjoy.

"Bali Ha'I Chinese Restaurant 25649 Euclid Ave. Euclid, Ohio. Greater Cleveland's newest Chinese-American Restaurant featuring the most exotic Cantonese and Polynesian foods. Give your family a treat in our Air-Conditioned, modernly equipped restaurant. We also feature TAKE-OUT orders, so as to enjoy our delectable dishes at home. Phone 731-4800 and pick up your order in 15 MINUTES"

A South Sea Island Paradise* transplanted to Herman Pirchner's Eldorado Club Alpine village building Cleveland
This card also states if you want to know intimate Cleveland visit Herman Pirchner's Beautiful Eldorado Club, The Alpine Village was the premiere Downtown Restaurant for Theatregoers from 1934-1961.

South Sea Island Chinese-American Restaurant
Polynesian Cocktail

some more cleveland history....

cross referencing a post on here: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=8519&forum=5

that came up with this mug:

the only other info i could find was a current ebay auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970s-Diecut-Matchbook-Chungs-Chinese-Restaurant-Cleveland-OH-Ohio-/200663537721?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb87a9839

that had these matches:

cool die-cut. f.y.i. fairview park is an inner ring suburb of cleveland.

Wow. This is great. Never knew there were so many places like that in Cleveland. I'd imagine it was an incredibly interesting city in the nineteen teens.

On 2012-01-30 15:00, bigbrotiki wrote:
This place and the perfume must be from AFTER Donn Beach invented the Zombie, in 1934 or later.
Never had heard about it before. I love that such things still surface.

club zombie opened on december 17th, 1940, the bamboo room opened in 1945, both in cleveland.

[ Edited by: porco 2013-03-14 15:27 ]

here is a newspaper ad from november 17th, 1946. i've recently come across a way to search our local paper archives, and have come up with some great stuff. i've got about a dozen plus clips so far, and haven't even gotten to the kon tiki. problem is they're pdf's of the whole page, and i need to snapshot the clips, convert to jpg, then upload. i plan on doing a separate post on the details, but this could be a great way to look up some history in your local area if there is a similar, searchable archive in your town.