the lost chapter: Hop Louie and the Stockton Islander (image heavy)

posted in today's stockton record by mike fitzgerald:

Restaurant relic is big kahuna for tiki heads

David Jon Foster poses with the tiki statue that stood outside The Islander.

Courtesy Alice van Ommeren The Islander, Stockton's tiki restaurant and lounge, was open from 1963 to 1983. Tiki buffs have long sought the giant moai head visible to the right of the building's entrance.

Fans of Stockton's tiki history are celebrating the discovery of a long-lost and venerated artifact: the 6-foot tiki head that stood outside The Islander.

The moai head, as it is properly called, proves the gods work in mysterious ways. The vanished monolith has been in Stockton all its 26 missing years.

"I found it!" David Jon Foster, a tiki buff and researcher, cheered on the Tiki Central website. "I have been hunting this sacred tiki for a long time. ... The gods are with me."

Stockton has a surprisingly rich history of tiki, the post World War II craze of kitschy Polynesian-style restaurants and clubs. The Islander was the King Kamehameha of these establishments.

Designed by Stockton architect Warren Wong, the exotic building hosted a running luau in Lincoln Center South from 1963 to 1983. The vacant building was moved in 1986.

In an architecturally blasphemous act that probably angered the gods, it was demolished in 2010.

Tiki heads love The Islander. They post articles about it, argue over facts and scour California for such artifacts as Islander postcards, menus, float lamps and cocktail mugs.

The moai head is the big kahuna of these coveted items. An imposing hardwood monolith, it was carved by Richard M. Ellis, an artisan who worked for Oceanic Arts, a renowned tiki supply house in Whittier.

Ellis gave the head the dignified but inscrutable visage of authentic Polynesian moai. But he added a touch of fun by endowing it with a 5-foot schnozz.

The head's whereabouts has long been the subject of speculation. Foster stumbled onto it.

"Oh, man, it was just awesome," Foster said. "I could just hardly believe my luck."

An artist, Foster was talking tiki at a recent art reception in Lockeford. "This old man approached me and said, 'Hey, I got one of those Islander tikis in my yard.' "

Eureka. "What luck," Foster bubbled. "Is that crazy?"

The tiki's owner is Verdell "Sam" Austin.

A Stockton contractor, Austin, 78, is a lifelong friend of Neal Pollard, the entrepreneur and founder of Pollardville, who bought the Islander building in 1986.

Pollard moved it to Pollardville, his roadside attraction on Hwy. 99 outside Stockton. But he gave away some Islander accessories.

The moai he gave to Austin.

"It was just different," Austin said. "Not that I'm a tiki head. I didn't know there was anything significant about it."

Austin remembered that lifting the head, 6 feet of hardwood log, took four men. The indignity possibly displeased the god. "It bent the tailgate of my pickup," Austin ruefully recalled.

Austin planted the head in the backyard of his north Stockton home. The backyard has a sweeping vista of rolling golf links.

So there you go: For the past 26 years, the missing moai has been gazing majestically over the back nine of Elkhorn Golf Club.

It has probably had to endure some knocks from the flying golf balls, too, said Susan Austin, Sam's wife.

"They hit the roof," she said. "They hit the side of the house. They hit the patio. They hit out front. They hit the skylight. I'm sure the tiki has been hit, but he hasn't said anything."

Aside from golf balls, nobody disturbed the head during its 26-year idyll. But the head disturbed at least one person: a man from Hawaii the Austins hired to do backyard work.

The man halted, full of superstitious fear, when he spotted the head.

"If it's not facing in the right direction, all sorts of bad stuff can happen," the man stammered. "I ain't coming back there!"

The tiki community applauded the discovery.

"Of course it's a huge find," said Colleen Weidman, a Ripon resident and Islander researcher who identified the carver. "It was surrounded in mystery, kind of like folklore: What happened to the moai?"

Islander designer Warren Wong, now 87, was tickled by the tiki head's resurrection, too.

"It's like life," he said mystically, "because it regenerates itself."

The fuss may seem silly. But The Islander has gained recognition as a classic of American tiki architecture.

It certainly was one of Stockton's most distinctive buildings, said Wes Swanson, chairman of the Cultural Heritage Board,

"Were it intact today, it would easily be recognized as a Structure of Merit, and probably qualify for landmark status," Swanson said.

Sam Austin said he'll take better care of the big guy now that he knows it's a VIP.

"Maybe I'll put some linseed oil on it," he said.

nice job! here's hoping he adds marine varnish to his shopping list to save that moai!

Nice article, thanks for posting it.

This has always been our favorite thread to read and re-read. David this is just a wonderful sddition to this thread. Terrific photos. Thank you and Tiki Cleen. Wendy

After I discovered the Moai I sent an e-mail to Mike F. from the Record and let him know. Since the first article he did a few years ago I have been keeping him updated on my urban tiki archeology.

I had no idea he would want to do another story but I'm glad he did. He did a good job and I'm hoping some locals will come forward with new information after reading it.

this is cool!!!

On 2009-12-23 19:41, abstractiki wrote:
Interesting Note: The article states that Hop Louie was a chef at Trader Vic's in Oakland and later was at the Coral Reef in Sacramento.

Hop Louie really got around! Here is an ad from the Volcano with hosts Louie and Minnie.

So, the impressive Hop Louie restaurant list:

Trader Vic's - Oakland
Coral Reef - Sacramento
Volcano - Lodi
Minnie's - Stockton
Minnie's - Modesto
Islander - Stockton
Latitude 20 - Torrance
Trade Winds - Oxnard
Hop Louie's - Los Angeles

Nice work DC!

I came across an old article in the Lodi News Sentinel a long time ago that mentioned this restaurant and the fact that it is connected to Hop Louie or owned by him. I was so hoping that this place was a tiki temple but the only tiki type connection i could make was that it was named Volcano. If i remember correctly the information i found was that it served regular dinner food. It had an exterior made of rocks from the town of Volcano in the foothills outside of Lodi but they weren't volcanic rock like what we usually see at the tiki restaurants.

There is a card room/casino in that location now but i also think I read that the original restaurant may have burned down. I will see if i can find my notes on this place.

That's great that you found this and the fact that they served Chinese food and served exotic drinks finally makes that tiki connection I was looking for.

The other night at Hop Louie I noticed something cool I hadn't before and thought it was worth mentioning.

:)

The Volcano was sold to Leon Croce in 1952 and he opened Croce's Restaurant which thrived. It had a great neon sign that said, "Croce's" and had a neon martini glass and olive, that could be seen from the freeway (99).

The building did have a rock facade, it was dark-dark-gray, it looked like lava rock to me to some degree, perhaps not as porous. The building burned down in the early '90s I believe. I remember being told that the original building was built by someone in the Ferrero family, but that's just a hazy memory of a conversation that may-or-may-not have happened and newspaper articles indicate the Croce family built the restaurant, but I'm not so sure of that.

Mr. Croce rebuilt the restaurant, ran it for a few more years and eventually retired. The restaurant was rented to several other restauranteurs but never had the same success. Eventually Mr. Croce sold the property to the people who turned it into the card room that it is now (actually a pretty good place to eat). Here is a link to Mr. Croce's obituary http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_e11a6c8e-25be-11e2-8e9b-001a4bcf887a.html

Not a particularly tiki rich post, but the obituary does provide a couple of items about the Volcano.

If you Google Volcano Cafe under images there is a photo of an ashtray from the restaurant. And there is also a matchbook that says it was called "Croce's Volcano Cafe" and it served French and Italian food . . . that little restaurant site has quite an international food history!

[ Edited by: The Blue Kahuna 2012-12-25 20:32 ]

[ Edited by: Bora Boris - Removed some edited bys. - 2013-03-24 09:17 ]

More Islander Artifacts Discovered!

Ok, here is the whole story. A few years ago when Michael Fitzgerald’s story on my Islander tiki research came out in the the Record newspaper a woman called Michael and said her husband had some of the islander paintings. Michael told me about it and said he would make arrangements and take me to see the paintings and meet this man. A few weeks went by and I made multiple attempts to get Michael to take me there but it never happened. I quit bugging him and I put it on the back burner. That is until last October when I found the Islander Moai. I called Michael and told him about my Moai discovery and we made a deal. I would take him to see the Moai and he would take me to see the paintings. I took him to the Moai last October and finally yesterday was the big day when he took me over to see the paintings. As it turns out these paintings haven been hanging up in a house about a mile away from the where the Islander once stood this whole time.

The women, Barbra used to work at Payless drug store in Lincoln center south across the parking lot from the Islander. Her and her husband Michael would often have drinks and dinner at the islander. One day when the old building was getting fixed up to get ready for the new owner, Dick De Grande, she walked over on her lunch hour. She said there was no one around and just walked right in. She saw these great paintings hanging up and went in to the bathroom, got some paper towels and wrote a note to the new owner asking if she could buy the paintings. A few moths went by and she got a call from Dick De Grande offering the paintings for sail. Her husband Michael who is 87 years old now bought six of them for about two hundred a piece he said. He gave one away to his brothers nephew and sold the other one.

They have a ton of art in their home and many more from Tyree. They later would meet him and go to several of his shows. Michael and Barbara have no intention of selling them. Both were happy to show them off to us and talk about them and the Islander.

Here are some pictures, all original by Tree Burke on velvet.

Happy hunting!

Well done Abstract! Great find.

DC

Wow! Really great stories and finds. Those velvet paintings are incredible. Even though I am a late bloomer on Tiki, The Islander just looked awesome from the pics. Mahaloz for sharing. :D

Nice work as usual Abstractiki! For having the first pick of the Islander's velvets it looks like they made the right choices.

More great research and info abstractiki...thanks for sharing. OGR

Holy Moly - What a great find! Tyree truly was a master of the voluptuous Vahine portrait. Give me samoa of Samea!

super! i am so glad this finally all panned out for you david.

and i concur with boris and sven! they definitely chose well, and samea is welcomed here anytime. :)

Mahalo for the comments DC, tikiman, BB, OGR, Big Bro and Tikicleen.

Big Bro here is some "samoa of Samea" and the others. A few closeups with a touch of photoshoped contrast so we can adequately study these exquisite artifacts.

On 2013-03-24 14:40, bigbrotiki wrote:
Give me samoa of Samea!

Hokeh Hokeh....THAT'LL do, THANK YOU !!! :D :lol:

Send all of those paintings to GROG!

Great work again, Abstractiki!

Thanks so much for sharing your latest discovery! So great to find out not all was lost from the Islander.

Do you have any idea where in the restaurant these hung?

What was the condition of the paintings when you saw them up close? Have the aged well? Sometimes it's hard to get a proper assessment from photos

Oh! And do you have a approximate size on the moai that was out in front?

Mahalos again for all your tiki sleuthing!

Can you EVEN imagine paintings like that hanging in a restaurant these days??

There is ONE velvet painting that is way less suggestive than those, hanging in the Dagger Bar at Don the Beachcomber. The management have had all kinds of complaints about it. AND IT'S IN THE BAR!! Ahhhh!!!

On 2013-03-27 09:13, Luckydesigns wrote:
Can you EVEN imagine paintings like that hanging in a restaurant these days??

There is ONE velvet painting that is way less suggestive than those, hanging in the Dagger Bar at Don the Beachcomber. The management have had all kinds of complaints about it. AND IT'S IN THE BAR!! Ahhhh!!!

Spike,
This one aka "Melon Girl" is hanging in Frankie's.

We all know that Moss and Frankies is an anomaly! Haha...
Nice grab though, Ben!

On 2013-03-26 21:36, tobunga wrote:
Great work again, Abstractiki!

Thanks so much for sharing your latest discovery! So great to find out not all was lost from the Islander.

Do you have any idea where in the restaurant these hung?

What was the condition of the paintings when you saw them up close? Have the aged well? Sometimes it's hard to get a proper assessment from photos

Oh! And do you have a approximate size on the moai that was out in front?

Mahalos again for all your tiki sleuthing!

Thanks T,
The paintings were in pretty good shape,some scratches and blemishes here and there and some were better than others. They basically haven't been moved in 30 years but they do have a few imperfections and i'm sure they faded from their original brightness when new due to smoke and dust in the restaurant.

The only one with a major tear was the third one down. She is standing holding a white sheet behind her. She has a large cut to the left of her stomach. It is about 5 or 6 inches long. The owner told me that this one was hanging in the kitchen. All the rest were hanging in the main dinning area.

The Moi was 5.5 ft tall and about a foot was buried in cement so i would say it was about 6 and 1/2 feet tall.

Mahalo! I haven't been on this site since 2005. I am the daughter of Hop Louie & Minnie and have been working on their family business history since my father past away in 1988. I think it so great that he was so admired and appreciated for his restaurant career. You have done a wonderful job in piecing together this aspect of his life. I will be visiting Stockton & Modesto in May and would like to possibly meet with some of the "old-timers" that use to know Minnie & Hop back "in-the-day". Please send me a message here if you have any information or leads for me.

Again, Hop and his family thank you for piecing his TIKI years. Mahalo, Elaine

I had a long conversation with Hop Louie II last night on the phone and she wanted me to convey her deep appreciation to all the TC Ohana who have contributed to this thread.

I will soon be working with her to bring more information on Hop Louie's remarkable life and career to Tiki Central. This should include some more Islander artifacts and photos. This is a great opportunity and I'm really looking forward to it.

To all the Tiki Central urban archaeologists out there, please keep searching and posting new discoveries as they are made.

Wonderful news, can't wait! I wonder if she has seen Eric's Islander bowl, the best of all his tributes to the place yet:

(Sold immediately, of course)

Welcome to TC Hop Louie II!

WOWZA! I just saw the post on the paintings, for the first time. Those are amazing. Great job of sleuthing, as usual, Abstract.

A-LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HA HOP SING III!

Thanks Abstractiki, bigbrotiki, Atomic Tiki Punk, Hale Tiki and the other Tiki Central members for the warm welcome !! Aloha !!

Back in 2010 Valerie Lee Acoba,(Tommy Lee's oldest Daughter) sent me a photo of her family in front of the Islander. Recently I was able to visit her home to view and photograph her collection of family mementos from the Islander.

She wanted to share this history with the folks at TC.

Valerie with her husband and daughter out side the Islander. Mid 70's

Valerie and her daughter inside the front door.

Valerie and family in Tommy Lee's Office.

Framed photograph of Tommy Lee's Mercedes Benz out side the Islander. Note the sign, On Stage Randy Sparks and the Back Porch Majority.

Cool pencil artwork of Tommy Lee's Benz in front of the Islander. Valerie didn't know who created it. The painting is signed V.G.C. 72

She had a bunch of these platters.

Ashtrays

Business Card

Wooden Nickels

Match books including one I have never seen before saying just Thomas Lee on it.

Salt and Pepper Shakers

Cool Mugs

Thanks Val for sharing with us!

Happy Hunting!
Abstractiki

You are always bringing us great info and updates...many thanks abstractiki for the tireless research. OGR

Mahalo to you and Valerie for sharing this, abstractiki!

-Tom

Excellent, thanks for the photos and for sharing! I was only at the Islander twice . . . wish I remembered more!

[ Edited by: The Blue Kahuna 2013-06-16 13:36 ]

Wowzers!!! Abstraciki does it again!!!

Those family photos are great! I actually know Val... she taught dance at my high school! I totally recognize her daughter, too!

The platters are cool! I wonder how many other pieces of dinnerware were created for the restaurant?

I think you mentioned it before, but how did you come to make Val's acquaintance?

Mahalos again!

i am doing the happy dance in seeing those new (old) pictures that val was willing to share! i love it! thanks david!

So very very cool. Thanks to you, and to Valerie for letting you photograph it.

Mahalo ORG, Tiki Tom, Blue K, Tobunga, T Cleen, Hale T for you comments!

Tobunga I was contacted by her three years ago after she saw my posts on the Islander on Tiki Central. I have a few more things relating to Tommy Lee's life outside the Islander that I will post at a later date.

I really love that photo of the Benz outside the Islander and that Islander art is so 70s period cool.

:)

Wow David, thanks for posting those...the front profile with the car is fabulous. Maybe someone can do a hut bowl some day...wink wink Wendy!!!

Time to bump this great post. I found a few more photos from the Stockton archives of the Islander.

Exterior photo

With the sign announcing the Ink Spots.

The Islander on the move ...

To Pollardville.

And, a photo of Tommy Lee in his office.

DC

Cool progression (or should I say eventual demise?) picture series DC!

I never noticed the words on the building during the moving picture. Anyone know what they say? Definitely not Latitude 20. I wonder what the short term reincarnation was...possibly during dick degrades ownership.

On 2014-06-02 15:46, tikicleen wrote:

I never noticed the words on the building during the moving picture. Anyone know what they say? Definitely not Latitude 20. I wonder what the short term reincarnation was...possibly during dick degrades ownership.

Looks like it says Cosmopolitan's something.

The move was also captured on film, maybe a local TV station?

DC

Cosmopolitan Room.

Check it out!

Today:

1968:

1965ish:

This was obtained by a guy who bought it off a worker during the "move" of the Islander building in the 80's. As previously discussed in this thread, the construction crew were allowed to take home the tikis is they wanted, otherwise they were tossed out. This particular one stood in front of the latitude 20, one of two that greeted you in the walkway. The twin tiki was split badly by the time the 80's rolled around, so it probably met its demise then. No word on the cool Barney West moai.... sigh

Any thoughts as to if this was OA? Here are more close-ups.

Man, I love the islander.

thanks for sharing! so nice to see Tommy's daughter kept all that cool stuff so it doesn't disappear forever! so glad to see we can keep her dad's dream alive here!!!

Nice work Tikiclean! Your persistence paid off in discovering another great Islander artifact. It's good to see it kept inside and out of the elements.

Thanks for your persistence tikicleen!! Please let us know if it gets donated. :)

Wasn't able to attend this tiki event but thought that I would post it FYI.