60s Chicago-area garage band The Dimensions - tiki album cover

Does anyone know where the photos on their rare album were taken? It could be the Kona Kai but I don't recall such a high rock waterfall from my visit during Exotica 2003.

Images from:
http://psychedelic-rocknroll.blogspot.com/2010/01/dimensions-from-all-dimensions-1966.html

Hey jab,
Here's a pic I took of a rockwall fountain thing at the Kona Kai, from the Exotica event, but I don't see any features in common.

Can't tell whether that could be the same or not.

BTW, I have that album from a Collectables cd reissue a few years ago. Too bad the reish didn't have any photos like that - my eyeballs would've popped out if so!

-Randy

Randy - Thanks for checking. I can't believe they didn't use those photos on the reissue!

Looks like the Mai Kai to me. Backstage area?

Definitely not the Mai-Kai. The ceiling is all wrong. And I've never seen a Marquesan tiki like that in any Mai-Kai photos. The Dimensions were a garage band. Garage band = broke, right? :) So I doubt they did much touring in Florida, but I don't know their history. That style tiki leads me to think the Chicago Trader Vic's maybe? No photos I've seen of the original Chicago Vic's have a rock wall like that though. Everyone loves a mystery, so good luck!

You're right Rob, those Marquesan Tikis were mostly used by Trader Vic's, many came from Tahiti:

Here are some at the Munich Trader Vic's - still fully endowed!:

They often stood at the entrances to the restaurants that were in hotel basements, here is a good one (with a Barney West Moai) at the short lived Berlin location.

So my guess is this: This waterfall might have been installed as a sign/attention getter at the entrance of Vic's INSIDE the Chicago Palmer House Hotel - in the lobby...or at the side of the Hotel? That ceiling could be a porte cochere...

Problem is the Palmer House was really old style, it would have stood out from the rest of the place...maybe that's why it disappeared?

Oops, I spoke too soon about the cd. Turns out they not only have some of the pics inside with the liner notes, but also an explanation of the location:

"The album's cover photos were snapped at (lead singer) Jim Sebastian's uncle's mansion in Johnsburg, Illinois. This amazing house, which includes an indoors 18-foot waterfall with an enclosed bar underneath (the guys are surrounding the falls on the front cover pic) was featured in a Playboy magazine spread in 1967."

That same uncle is the one who financed the record, fronting $400 for the band to record it in Christmas 65 when they were home from college.

I don't have the 1967 Playboy (jab, maybe that's your department), but here are scans of the tiny pics from inside the cd liner.

-Randy

Aloha,

[Dimesions]Heard worse.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5W14ZjBjdo)

Randy,

Thanks for solving the mystery. That must have been some mansion!

Now we are going to have to find out more about this rich uncle.

DC

Ha, we could have racked our sweet little brains out on that one! Private home of rich uncle, no fair! :)

So now on whom will fall the arduous task of looking thru all 1967 Playboy issues? Brother A-frame? Please post it here when found.

It's not the playboy spread, but it's got a few pictures of what looks like might be the outside of the house where the band pictures were taken:

http://donericksonarchitect.blogspot.com/2010/04/playboys-house.html

From the article:

I remember the hanging walkway in the home which overlooked the pool room, replete with a lava rock bar (foreshadowing the "Cave Bar" at the Hilton Hotel in Indian Lakes), and waterfalls.

That place sounds REALLY cool!!!!

The playboy article is called "exotica in exubria"

The site is a blog site from the son of the architect don erickson who built the house. There are a few pictures in google images that may be the "house of many waterfalls", but the webhosting for the site keeps popping up before the images do when you click on them. maybe someone forgot to pay their bill?

Great thread!

PS - the address is on the website...it's been redone on the inside, but who's going to go a 'knocking and take new pics!?!?!

PPS...nevermind just read that it may have burned down in 2000. BUMMER! BUT one of the members of the band commented on the blog post and said he had pictures of the interior...I wonder if he'll post them???

Polynesiac - putting the "F" back in "ART"

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2012-04-27 15:11 ]

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2012-04-27 15:21 ]

Lono and behold! I had the Playboy issue in my collection. :wink:

ExoticaInExurbia002.jpg by thejab, on Flickr

ExoticaInExurbia001.jpg by thejab, on Flickr

ExoticaInExurbia003.jpg by thejab, on Flickr

ExoticaInExurbia004.jpg by thejab, on Flickr

ExoticaInExurbia005.jpg by thejab, on Flickr

ExoticaInExurbia006.jpg by thejab, on Flickr

[ Edited by: thejab 2012-05-15 17:18 ]

Blowup of pool photo:

pool by thejab, on Flickr

Thanks Jab! I hope it didn't burn down, looks like a great pad.

More about Don Erickson, architect, the Playboy pad's owner, and Jamaica:

John Behmiller, owner of the Playboy Pad (see entry, April 13, 2010), had a penchant for peculiar things. Behmiller owned a collection of shrunken heads from Africa. He also owned a phython which, when it died, he had stuffed; the stuffed remains hid among the tropical forest inside his home, to his visitor's surprise.

Despite his peculiarties, Behmiller expanded Don's world beyond the U.S. and introduced Don to Jamaica. Behmiller sold "The Rock House," a few thatched cottages to Don and four other investors, a private and primative retreat on the West End Road of Negril. Don designed and built more cottages with one of his apprentices, Charles, residing in Jamaicia and supervising the construction of the huts. Today, The Rock House features a spa among other amenities, and while less primative, it remains a favorite of visitors to Negril.

http://www.rockhousehotel.com/escape.php

Sadly, Erickson's award-winning Coconut Cove Hotel in Negril, Jamaica, is now a luxury resort:
http://www.sandals.com/main/negril/ne-home.cfm

Reading that Playboy article, my feeling is that Don Devine should be elected to the Bachelor Hall of Fame or something. What a pad!

WOW!! :o:

Thanks for posting Jab. Man, if that building could talk!!!