South Seas Cinema Website

This thread is made to answer any questions or to comment on South Seas Cinema and southseascinema.org Didn't want to sidetrack other good treads with this subject so if anyone has any thing to add post it here. I know there are other great threads on Tiki films, Tiki TV and Tiki in commercial and I don't want to take away from them so I think the focus on this thread should be on South Seas Cinema Society and it's website. Especially stuff you would like to see.

To start below is a discussion started in JOHN-O's Zombie Road Trip... In Search of Ancient Chinese Secrets !! (without the photos)

On 2013-02-22 13:49, JOHN-O wrote:

Are you the webmaster of southseascinema.org ?? That site is awesome !!

And actually was the Chin Tiki really that Chinesy, aside from being owned by the Chin family? From what I've seen in pictures, it looks like a full blown Tiki-style palace rather than a Chinese restaurant jumping on the bandwagon. I must say however their logo does vibe kinda Oriental...

But not quite the Tiki Chinaman as Bob Loos (was this actually a carved Tiki ??)...

(above images courtesy of Dustycajun, as usual !!)

I've always thought the Tiki Tiki in Richmond VA (which I have yet to visit) as the most deliberate combination of the 2 genres...

Edit - And I'm not suggesting the above is good style, just deliberate.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2013-02-22 14:05 ]

creativenative
Tiki Centralite

Joined: Feb 17, 2012
Posts: 34
From: Island of O'ahu
Posted: Today; 12:04 am Permalink

Thanks for the "props" for southseascinema.org There are about 8 South Seas Cinema Society members that contribute to our research. I prefer to call myself the compiler of data but yes I'm the webmaster. I also do lots of research myself but today for example I got a call from a TV expert from Makaka and yesterday an email from L.A. to add a few titles to our grand list (a cartoon episode from Hanna Barbera and Movie shorts by Gaston Méliès brother of early film legend George who sent Gaston to the South Seas in 1913). The website does not cover all our categories of productions set in the Pacific islands.

Last year we also did a grand list (22 pages & growing) of Polynesian Pop titles (with scenes of Polynesian influences set outside of Oceania - from back yard & private luaus, sets in Tiki bars & restaurants, Polynesian themed frat parties, etc.) in movies, TV, toons and others types of major productions. (Sorry this list wont go on the website yet - cause its my Masters paper subject and if I post it now I can't use it for my school paper) Might be in a book in a few months though.

About 5 years ago Sven asked for information on Tikis in movies and when we went through our database we realized that we didn't do a thorough job of documenting tiki in South Seas films (over 600 of them). WE use a lot of key words in our title descriptions for searches but the important word "tiki" wasn't done well. We have been going back and watching a lot of movies & TV shows to make sure we don't miss "tiki" in our descriptions so in the near future one can look up tiki (a very key word in this genre) and find all the titles with tiki in it. I have over 15 pages (and growing) of corrections and additions (including the word "tiki")to put in the website. We are also compiling a large image database of the Poly images in this genre of screen captures and short clips. Now you know where I get all my screen captures.

And yes you are right Chin Tiki was only a Polynesian restaurant in the Detroit area. ONLY the name and its front type was Chinese. But I'm into images and that is a great Poly-Chinese image. Last and coincidentally, someone took this picture yesterday of myself, in the middle, and a couple of other South Seas Cinema Society members. On the left is the infamous DeSoto Brown, author, Hawaiian historian, mega collector and major contributor to our research from Bishop Museum and Dan Long (on right), movie theater builder and also major collector. We are at the annual Hawaii Collectors Show where I doubled my collection of ceramic tikis. Help! I got the bug and I can't kill it! (Do I want to? ....Noooo!) Everyone on TC is in the same boat. Good tiki hunting everyone!

Tiki Movies & Tiki TV @ southseascinema.org

Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite

Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3796
From: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Today; 08:42 am Permalink

Creativenaitive,

Thanks for all of the hard work on creating and updating your great website. When do you think the Tiki update will be done?

Also would love to see that Polynesian Pop listing some day.

DC

bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite

Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10345
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
Posted: Today; 09:31 am Permalink

Aaaah, the Hawaii Collectors Show, much money can be left there! Thank you for your update and all your work, it DOES seem you have caught the fever, I feel for you.

For your research, you should talk to Ron "Bongofury" Ferrel, our resident Tiki Movie expert. He has dug up some really obscure celluloid examples of our hero (or the appropriate environs) making it on the big (or small) screen.

Tiki Movies & Tiki TV @ southseascinema.org

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-02-25 09:17 ]

To DC & Big Bro

First, thank you guys for the recognition.

I searched "tiki" in the website this morning and I found a lot more tiki titles than I thought. I remembered I did update the site last year. But I have more to do. We are finding more titles, & more tiki all the time. We get some info from TC and it's members - thanks! Again I have over 15 pages worth of stuff to add in and I will take a break and do it this week. Probably take a week to input it all in.

The Poly Pop list is tricky because hopefully we will do a book maybe a year from now and we don't want to give things away yet and again it is my paper for my master's degree of which I'll start next fall. Looking for a part time job though. The tentative reference book title: "WIKITIKIPEDIA: Encyclopedia of Polynesia in the Media" an exhaustive book on not only Pacific Island images in films and TV but also in Animations, commercials, print ads, the music industry and posters. Of course Poly Pop will have a chapter and tiki will be all over the book's pages. It would be a very visual book. Not just a boring list book because one of the keys to this subject are the visuals these industries created for our escape imagination. Wish us luck. Oh and for you Big Brother yes there will be stuff on sensuality from this genre, this would be the "The Taboo" or "Tropic Exotic Erotic" chapter. Here are some teasers for that chapter:

Well let's start with a drilldown link to your awesome site !! :)

http://southseascinema.org

Edit - I would also recommend adding the word "Website" to the title of this thread to provide clarity.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2013-02-25 08:20 ]

Aaaah, naaaaice! This is gonna be good! I am very glad to hear you will incorporate all sorts of media in the book, I think it is important to go beyond the (slightly dusty) feel of movie memorabilia" - no matter how much WE love them.

There are so many great visuals in print ads, and I also love ad campaign books, here are some of my favorite proposals from the "His Majesty O'Keefe" campaign booklet:

I doubt that any theater owner actually picked up on these suggestions, it would be so great to have photos of these set ups :)

Thanks John-0 for your help.

For BigBro as we say in Hawaii, Oh-Wow Laulau! Naaaice back to you. Where did you get that from the movie's pressbook? I've seen something similar but it's in our stuff put away and it is not scanned into our database, so I'll have to check our pressbooks to find it.

Here's a tiki teaser:
A publicity still from the movie Hawaii. The serious acting Max Van Sydow between takes:

Tiki Movies & Tiki TV @ southseascinema.org

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-02-25 13:46 ]

Don't think we will need 2 books, so let me know if I can be of assistance.

Aloha Bongo, I've been hearing good things about you on and off TC. LOVE to have some kind of assistance from you. Let's PM.

As a fan of old films, sexploitation, and tiki, I look forward to what comes out of this!

Hi,
I'm not sure if this is adding to this discussion or if it belongs in another thread.

I recently was perusing the Netflix streaming titles and came across this one:
The Girls of Pleasure Island

http://nflx.it/13fXsRK

This is listed on the South Seas Cinema web site.

I actually really enjoyed it, having recently watched on HBO The Pacific mini series it was interesting to compare this romanticized version of WWII life in this 1953 film, to the more realistic recent HBO series.

I also saw some cool Tapa pattern clothing which the girls wore.

If you want a little escape, this movie isn't bad.

Whadda ya mean, "romanticized" !? That is how G.I.s lived in the islands !!

The Pacific War was all one big party! :wink: After all, in the Amazon description of the "Book of Tiki" we can read thus:

"Tiki is the manifestation of exotic visions of island culture borrowed from tales told by American soldiers stationed in the South Pacific during World War II: trees loaded with exotic fruits, sleepy lagoons, white-sand beaches, and gorgeous people wearing grass feathers as they danced half-naked during all-night orgies of food and music"

What it really should read is that after WW II nobody (including many G.I.s) wanted to hear the horror stories about blown-up bodies and burned-out beaches, and everyone silently agreed to do a big "South Pacific" sing-along, and pick up right where the Polynesian pop cliches had left off before the war.

What a point Big Bro, If a lot of Poly Pop was created by fond memories of the war but thousands of US troops died on these islands what kind of fond memories were they? I can only think of those Hawaii stops (and training) for almost all US troops coming in and out of the Pacific theater. After Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was relatively a safe heaven. Those Honolulu tropical bars and whorehouses were packed. Anyway maybe that is why Poly Pop is full of dark bars, alcohol and mellow music. One vet can escape the negative of the War and remember only the good, even though the good was a short period of their time in the South Seas.

In film, in the next 20 or so years after WWII we had the action patriotic war pictures, the comedies, than the serious (and at times not so patriotic realistic) heavy dramas. I guess it is a matter of the times and what the public is ready to watch on screen. Now WWII movies are in full realistic gore.

An earlier subject, Sven here is what I was thinking about in an old French press book of HULA:


Yeah, like what theater owner or manager would build this today.
Your example is way more cool, on a trailer AND with a tiki no less.

Sorry after editing one page of southseascinema.org my up-links aren't working. Waiting for my computer genius son to help me. Meanwhile enjoy this cinematic tiki image, so far one of the earliest tiki bars on motion picture film (by a set decorator anyway). 1928 ISLE OF LOST MEN

1928 silent Polynesian Pop ?? Is that a lost film ?

Good post. :)

I don't know of a copy of this film, John-O but it might be in someone's private silent film collection. This Lobby Card is all we got visually. In our early days of research (before IMDB improved as it is everyday) sometimes a rare, poster or herald or foreign poster was the only evidence that a film existed. Later in the web further film listings would confirm most of these films but a poster even if was only words would be all the evidence we would need.

On another front, good news, my son fixed my up-links to our web server remotely. I finished up dating the feature lists and changed the "MISC" image section to "TOONS" images. Added a lot more animation images with tons of tikis among other South Seas clichés. If one reads the note on the top of this "Image/Toons page one can read how South Seas and Poly Pop images are mixed there and what the difference is. Enjoy. Give me a couple of weeks to finish the rest of the pages. Link: http://www.southseascinema.org/images2.html

Here's an example from THE PIRATES movie:

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-03-29 05:59 ]

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-03-29 06:00 ]

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-03-29 06:01 ]

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-03-29 06:03 ]

Wow, what a boat load of eye candy! :)

On 2013-02-27 18:23, creativenative wrote:
What a point Big Bro, If a lot of Poly Pop was created by fond memories of the war but thousands of US troops died on these islands what kind of fond memories were they? I can only think of those Hawaii stops (and training) for almost all US troops coming in and out of the Pacific theater. After Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was relatively a safe heaven. Those Honolulu tropical bars and whorehouses were packed. Anyway maybe that is why Poly Pop is full of dark bars, alcohol and mellow music. One vet can escape the negative of the War and remember only the good, even though the good was a short period of their time in the South Seas.

In film, in the next 20 or so years after WWII we had the action patriotic war pictures, the comedies, than the serious (and at times not so patriotic realistic) heavy dramas. I guess it is a matter of the times and what the public is ready to watch on screen. Now WWII movies are in full realistic gore.

An earlier subject, Sven here is what I was thinking about in an old French press book of HULA:


Yeah, like what theater owner or manager would build this today.
Your example is way more cool, on a trailer AND with a tiki no less.

It also could be that for a lot of former soldiers and sailors, you end up looking back at the places you went and things you saw with fondness, despite the fact that when you were there...it wasn;t always so fun. I know that is the case with me...looking back, they were the best years of my life but while I was there I was looking forward to getting out.

Creanative, you mention the bars in honolulu....I wish someone would do a thread about them with historic photos and info....me and my pirate buddies were regulars at places like "the harbor lounge" and other dirty, nasty places on Hotel Street....places that were old, dark and full of whores but for me the allure was that most still had the original WW2 era jukeboxes with Glen Miller and Dorsey brothers....no one ever played them, of course. But I was there.

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2013-03-29 09:26 ]

I love the South Seas Cinema website. What an incredible amount of information there. I have a very modest collection of South Seas Cinema. I have films (DVD and VHS), posters, lobby cards, and publicity stills. Here’s a sample:

Original movie poster from “On The Isle of Samoa” framed and displayed in my Tiki lounge. 1950 film starring Jon Hall.

Original lobby card for “Aloma of the South Seas” unframed.

Original Mexican lobby card for “Kon Tiki” unframed.

Original lobby card for “Gidget”. Framed and on display in my Tiki lounge. I know you don’t have this movie listed on the site and I’m not saying it should be – no part of it takes place in the South Seas. You have “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” listed no argument there. I find the first “Gidget” film utterly fascinating for the cultural impact that it had. Surfing is Hawaiian and Duke Kahanamoku is unquestionably the father of modern surfing. But, when the movie “Gidget” was released there were about 5,000 people surfing in California. After the movie, that included Cliff Robertson’s portrayal of the ‘Kahuna’, there were 2 to 3 million surfers in California in just three years’ time. More than one source credits “Gidget” with jump starting the popularity of surfing in the U.S. and giving birth to the ‘surf’ culture there.

I just got a DVD copy of the movie “Hurricane”. This is the 1979 Dino DeLaurentiis version. I was in college when the film was released and saw it opening weekend at the theater with a date. I believe the movie was a critical and commercial failure but I have fond memories of that evening so many years ago. Probably the best thing to come from the movie was the hotels that Dino DeLaurentiis built to house the cast and crew during the filming. It’s interesting hearing his granddaughter Giada, on her cooking show, talk about the times she spent as a little girl at those hotels.
I am going to send an e-mail about becoming a member of the South Seas Cinema website. I have my own website where I have been cataloging my collections. I haven’t gotten around to any of the film stuff yet but I have only been working on the site for six years now (ha ha). If you are interested you can check out the site here:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzep0565/index.html

Thanks for the responses and comments.

To Bigbro: more to come in the future.

To Lucas Vigor: Nice comments. Good to hear from a guy who lived the history. Sorry though, I couldn't to a thread on bars I don't know enough about them. I do remember filming in some old Chinatown bars in the 80s some are still around but I don't think they are intact in the interiors. But you are right they were "dirty & nasty".

To khan tiki mon: Love your love for the genre. See some good picts in your post. Love your SOUTH OF SAMOA insert poster, reminds me of one of my favorites the 3-sheet SOUTH OF SAMOA which is almost like yours but BIGGER. I think framed inserts and lobby card posters are better for home tiki lounges though, because 3-sheets and larger are too big, they'll take a whole wall. Perusing through a bunch of smaller tiki collectibles are more in the spirit of a true tiki room.

Also love your Mexican KON TIKI lobby card, the graphics are nice, especially the tiki idol and hula dancer images. You are correct on GIDGET on all aspects. This first GIDGET movie is set in So Cal so it is not a true South Seas Cinema film BUT it is what we call a Polynesian Pop Picture because it is set outside the Pacific Ocean with Polynesian influences which are many in a "Beach" movie such as this. You are right it is a good movie with the prospective that it has the stereotypical Hawaiian surfing, aloha shirts, tikis and of course the "big Kahuna". There will be in the future website a page for Polynesian Pop Pictures, may I say the offspring of South Seas Cinema. GIDGET will definitely be among that list. Maybe combining the two production categories one could call it Tiki Theater.

Anyway PM me about becoming a member, it will be faster.

Thanks

P.S. I also love the fact that were discussing South Seas & Poly Pop movie ephemera here on this thread. The genre and website is also about the images the studios pumped out for promotions or publicity. You TCers like khan share you Tiki Theater collectible images here.

Tomorrow (Tuesday April 2) at 6AM EDT, TCM will be showing "White Shadows in the South Seas" (1928) which is listed on the South Seas Cinema website on this page. Here's the synopsis from the TCM website:

An alcoholic doctor runs off to Tahiti, where he finds love with a native girl.

and here's the Leonard Maltin review:

D: W. S. Van Dyke. Monte Blue, Raquel Torres, Robert Anderson. MGM's first sound film features stunning, Oscar-winning cinematography of the Marquesas Islands (now French Polynesia) welded to a story about the corrupting influence of Western civilization, with Blue as an alcoholic doctor who falls in love with native Torres and clashes with exploitative trader Anderson. Portions of the beautiful, documentary-style footage were shot under the supervision of Robert Flaherty, who fought with the studio over its emphasis on a melodramatic plot and left the production.

Those interested may want to set their DVRs (I have).

Thanks for the info. WLM and welcome aboard Tiki Central and South Seas Cinema websites. I always felt the most proper way to "surf" the net is to surf Polynesia websites since surfing came from Polynesia :). Wikipedia is also ok to surf since wiki is a Polynesian word :).

Also posting to announce that the southseascinema.org has just finished updating. BUT, always a "but", because the research is never ending there is more. The last few years our research for South Sea-Tiki titles was slowing to a slow creep. Were we finally finishing up this grand assignment? Did we find everything there is to find on productions set in or influenced by Oceania? NOT! Last night we found 3 new shows alone. The three are: TWO-MAN SUBMARINE (1944) COLUMBIA Stars Tom Neal & Ann Savage a “who done it” WWII “B” movie involving a scientist, a shipwrecked surviving sailor, a two-man Japanese submarine off shore with Nazis inside and three natives on a South Seas island. The next two new finds are Poly Pop Pictures (which are not listed yet in the website but are added to our master research list)but for your edification they are; ST. LOUIS BLUES (1939) PARAMOUNT Broadway star who is tired of being stereotyped in South Seas plays runs off to disappear in a small Mississippi town. Guess who’s the star? There she meets and befriends un unsuccessful Riverboat owner. Together they put together a new show for the boat. One still has their dancers rehearsing a hula while you guessed it, Dorothy Lamour sits and watches in her sarong. And BACKDOOR FOLLIES (1948) RKO Short 19 mins. Stars Leon Errol who's wife calls the cops on neighbors club because of suspected strip teasing. Neighbor club owner sends one the girls over to convince Errol to cool his wife down. Lobby card has the dancers in hula outfits.

Also last night a key Society member found this on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXQTNDIVLRo Entitled partly "Bizarre" which is correct but the reference of the movie which the clip came from was missing so after a email conference with some of the Society members we found that it was from a bizarre movie called DOWN TO THE LAST YACHT (1934) RKO although we knew this movie existed and it was criticized as a very bad movie none of us has ever seen it or any part of it till now. The critics were right. One of the worst in South Seas Cinema. But thank God for the net and sites like YouTube (until a clip gets pulled) and sites like TC & SSC.org! Long live tiki especially on the net! P.S. Now-a-days most of our images that we post or buy also comes from the net.

Ephemera on TWO-MAN SUBMARINE which help to confirm the production's existence.

Here's the production still from ST. LOUIS BLUES:

and a poster from BACKDOOR FOLLIES:

Tiki Movies & Tiki TV @ southseascinema.org

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-04-04 15:13 ]

Caught this the other night on the tube, a rerun from Season 7 of KING OF THE HILL which originally aired in 2002. Titled: Get Your Freak Off where Hank doesn't like Bobby's new girl friends parents who are too liberal and progressive for him but wife Peggy loves it. Here are a couple screen captures of these this liberal parents home with their progressive tiki paintings on the wall.

These images will be added to the TOONS section of the IMAGES page of southseascinema.org shortly along with a couple shots from THE CRITIC. Thanks Grog and King Bushwich for you assistance in finding some of the newer shows from which we captured these newer images

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-04-21 07:28 ]

The first frame Tiki is copied from an Armet & Davis blue print in the BOT, the second from two Shag paintings :)

Good info Bigbro. I was wondering about the artist style of these paintings, they were much too different and more sophisticated then the style of the animator of KING OF THE HILL so I was thinking he or she may have "borrowed" the style from someone else. Thanks for clearing that up Sven. At least on TC artist can get the credit when credit (even partial credit) is due.

Here is a still from DeSoto Brown's "SSC Items of the Week" which has been only distributed to a small list of South Seas Cinema Society members via email but will now be distributed to all members and highlight images will be also shown here.

Production still of Anita Hall & tiki from SOUTH PACIFIC:

Also a mention in the 2012 Australian book: "Hollywood's South Seas & the Pacific War: Searching for Dorothy Lamour". See cover and page below with the South Seas Cinema Society mention of a Dorothy Lamour tribute but coincidentally we will have a Lamour Tribute this Saturday in Honolulu.

,

Couple special shorts will be shown at this Tribute about Dorothy along with her feature HER JUNGLE LOVE. These special shorts will shortly be released on YouTube and I'll let everyone know here when and what titles to look up. Too bad no direct video images on TC yet but I'll put the YouTube links here. Mahalo

P.S. I ordered this book by Sean Brawley & Chris Dixon on the net and should be getting it shortly. Should be an interesting read and may give us more insights on what the WWII Pacific soldiers experienced for real as compared to their Hollywood's expectations. I'll write a review here on TC soon.
Mahalo hou!

Hey doesn't that tiki on the SOUTH PACIFIC production still above look like the tiki on the first image on this thread, movie poster of BIRD OF PARADISE. No web pun intended.

Here's a fun bit of trivia for your site: The 1932 RKO flick Bird of Paradise has Sam Kamaka Jr. and Fred Kamaka Sr. in it playing local boys. The Kamakas are from the famous Kamaka ukulele family. I found this bit of info on the Kamaka ukulele website.

Bird of Paradise is also apparently available for legal download at the Internet Archive.

Thanks for the great info. TikiTacky. The real challenge is finding a good copy of the 1951 FOX version of BIRD OF PARADISE. Don't know why they won't release it unless it's tangled in a legal web.

As promised here's two YouTube links to the Dorothy Lamour shorts that were shown at our last South Seas Cinema Society meeting: http://youtu.be/u0x8CCi36u4 & http://youtu.be/a6GcfBoSsYo

Just finished another update. All pages have add'l titles or added information for older show titles. There is more foreign posters at the bottom of the IMAGE page and more TOON images at the bottom of the IMAGE TOON page. Samples below:

Mandark of Dexter's Laboratory with tiki surfboard:

Tiki in Lost Paradise Spanish poster:

I lucked onto this poster for the Spanish version of Pearl of the South Pacific a few years ago:

From the South Seas Cinema website:

PEARL OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC (1955) RKO Virginia Mayo stars in sarong and in murder plot of treasure of black pearls guarded by giant octopus. Tikis, canoes, sarongs, luau, native dancing and Al Kikume as a spear chucking extra – all the ingredients of a good South Seas flick. What more can one ask for?

Nice. Never seen these. Sexy legs. Thanks for sharing, BigT.

Hey any TCers that lives on O'ahu or is visiting this weekend the South Seas Cinema Society has a meeting/screening/potluck/paina (party in Hawaiian) this Sat. Sept. 28th. PM me (clink on the above "Personal Messages" link) for details and to RSVP. We have a surprise special guest. Past special guests have been Gardner McKay and Martin Denny and many others.

Mahalo

I went to the Los Angeles Arboretum on Monday and they have a display showing the movies that were filmed there through the years. The lagoon was also used in Road to Bali and several Tarzan movies.
I know that Africa isn't in the South Pacific.

Attack of the Giant Leeches!

This is what the lagoon looks like now.

Nice info. and photos TLB. Thanks for the post.

Future and present South Seas Cinema news: Might he posted on other threads, the Cameron Crowe untitled Hawaii movie just wrapped shooting in Hawaii (former titles were Dark Tiki and Deep Tiki), The new American Godzilla teaser trailer was recently released. Remember the giant gecko attacks Waikiki in this one and chases yours truly down the street, (hope I make the final cut or at lease the DVD Making Of), Disney officially announced their major animation release of 2018 titled, "Moana"-young Polynesian girl on a long distance canoe voyage to help her village (there will be interactions with Polynesian ledgendary characters-possible tiki gods maybe? I think Moana had the working title Tiki a couple of years ago when Disney got a couple of writers together. Couple of SSC members just released a book titled; "The Hawaii Movie and Television Book" Rampell and Reyes, Mutual Publishing. Check it out.

P.S. Should mention Warner Bros. is moving along with the movie version of "Gilligan's Island" One of the stars, Josh Gad, was announced about 10 days ago. Supposed have the same characters but set in current times.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-12-28 03:15 ]

Another update to the website, mostly foreign films and some indigenous films from New Zealand as well as some additions and up dates. Also an important commentary was added to the bottom of the home page.

creativenative, this is a list of the movies and TV shows that have been filmed at the LA Arboretum. The list is from the LA Arboretum website and it needs to be updated. I know that they have filmed at that site since 1984. Lots of adventure type films.

http://www.arboretum.org/explore/our-history/

Filmed at Baldwin Lake
1936 Tarzan Escapes
1937 Wakiki Wedding
1937 The Buccaneer
1938 Straight, Place And Show
1938 Devil’s Island
1939 Gantry The Great
1939 Honeymoon In Bali
1939 Road To Singapore
1939 Safari
1939 Typhoon
1939 The Women
1939 Man In The Iron Mask
194O Moon Over Burma
1940 Susan And God
1940 Victory
1940 The Lady Eve
1941 Among The Living
1941 Malaya
1942 Manila Calling
1942 Gentleman Jim
1943 Passage To Marseilles
1943 Cobra Woman
1944 Mr. Winkle Goes To War
1944 Tarzan And The Amazons
1945 Tarzan And The Leopard Woman
1945 Notorius
1946 Till The Clouds Roll By
1946 Anna And The King Of Siam
1946 The Yearling
1946 The Best Years Of Our Lives
1946 Tarzan And The Huntress
1947 Tycoon
1948 Wake Of The Red Witch
1948 Jungle Jim
1948 Under Capricorn
1949 Johnny Allegro
1949 Tarzan And The Slave Girl
1949 Bomba On Panther Island
1949 Mark Of The Gorilla
1949 Captive Girl
1950 On The Isle Of Samoa
1950 Lost Volcano
1950 Pygmy Island
1950 Tarzan’s Peril
1951 The Golden Hawk
1951 Jungle Manhunt
1952 Miss Robinson Crusoe
1952-53 Ramar Of The Jungle
1953 Royal African Rifles
1953 Rage In The Jungles
1953 Bomba And The Golden Gilr
1954 Beachhead
1954 Gambler From Natchez
1954 Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle
1954 Cannibal Attack
1954 Killer Leopard
1954 The Lone Wolf
1955 Lord Of The Jungle
1955 Brooba
1955 Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle
1956 The Cyclops
1956 Congo Crossing
1958 Sea Hunt
1959 Attack Of The Giant Leeches
1965 Three On A Couch
1965 Lassie
1965 Daniel Boone
1968 Mission Impossible
1969 Too Late The Hero
1970 The Immortal
1971 Longstreet
1974 Carl Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln
1974 Six Million Dollar Man
1975 Wonder Woman
1976 Marathon Man
1976 Binonic Woman
1976 The Captains And The Kings
1977 Macarthur The Rebel General
1977 The Secret Life Of Plants
1977 Testimony Of Two Men
1977 Man From Atlantis
1977-82 Fantasy island
1978 Roots II
1978 Love Boat
1978 Studs Lonigan
1979 Buck Rogers In The 25th Century
1979 The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo
1979 Wild Times
1980 The Women’s Room
1980 Revenge Of The Stepford Wives
1980 Steve Martin Special
1980 Here’s Boomer
1981 The Letter
1981 Knot’s Landing
1981 Dallas
1981 First Lady Of The World
1982 Flamingo Road
1982 Bring Them Back Alive
1982 Hart To Hart
1983 Matt Houston
1983 Falcon Crest
1983 Fantasy Island
1983 Remington Steele
1983 The Fall Guy
1984 Scarecrow And Mrs. King
1984 Dynasty
1984 Stick

Thanks longbeach for your work. I have been check out titles from your film list from the Arboretum.

Just did some updating to southseascinema.org In the "Shows" pages some corrections, additions and new titles. In the "Images" page 115 new lobby cards added, in addition to some inserts, 3 sheets and a replacement for the billboard 24 sheet. Check it out. Also below are some lobby cards with tikis. I'll roughly list them from worst to best:

[ Edited by: creativenative 2014-07-03 17:37 ]

Here a bonus, an insert poster of SHE GODS OF SHARK REEF. Nude women sacrifice, giant tiki (abet underwater) and sharks. Which brings up the questions, why are only pretty, young woman getting sacrificed? Are the gods just as superficial and sexist as mortal man?

Just released; The Cameron Crowe untitled Hawaii (formerly "Dark Tiki") movie has a released date of May 29, 2015 and now has a plain vanilla and safe title called "Aloha". Boring and unoriginal. I think this film saw many edits and the final film will be boring but with many stars, none listed are Hawaiian, they may have been cut also but we shall see. One lead, Emma Stone, plays a part Hawaiian with blonde hair. Yikes! Hope this is not an indication of the rest of the movie? I also hope some of the Hawaiian lore remains in the film.

Below is a sneak peek photo of a Hawaiian Beach scene with Bradley Cooper and Rachel McAdams in this love triangle comedy.

I propose as the title "American sniper meets Tommy Bahama Hula Girl"

Hey creativenative, I just wanted to say thanks for being one of the few arbiters
and historian of classic cinema, we seem to be a dying breed.

Funny Big Bro. I was thinking the same thing and thanks ATP for your comments. Years ago I would lecture older people and they would be excited about south seas films that they have forgotten. Now we have to teach the kids who people like John Wayne or who Gary Cooper was. At lest I can still get them excited about McLovins Hawaii drivers license or that all the clones in Star Wars and all major ururks (spelling?) in LTR are Polynesian. Boy, times have changed.

Added 47 new images to the Images - Toon page
Enjoy
http://www.southseascinema.org/images2.html

Some samples below:

Now that I finished my graduate work, I'll be adding many new titles to the "shows" section of the website and thinking about adding a "Poly Pop Pictures" section as well (productions not set in the Pacific Isles but set outside the Pacific with scenes with Pacific culture influences like Tiki restaurants and bars, backyard luaus, etc. In other words TV and films discussed in TC plus more. The homework or research is almost done (it's always on going) but putting the work to the web is a handful. The "Toon Image page are actually a mix of South Seas Cinema genre and Poly Pop Pictures sub-genre.

Before I do that I just went on a Southwest trip where I visited Burt's Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque, Adrift Tiki bar in Denver, and while in L.A., on the way home, I had the privilege to be in invited to a special screening in Beverly Hills of one of the most obscure or rare films ever made called "Chief Zabu" (originally released in 1986)

Some big wig Hollywood producers were in the screening room and as well as some actors. Although Chief Zabu had a very limited release it's producer and star, Zack Norman (AKA Howard Zuker), was well connected. In the popular "Mystery Science Theater 3000" when ever the robots watched an obscure film they would associate it with 'Chief Zabu'. Even the popular SNL character reviewer Stefon, mentioned the film but cracked up so much at this obscure reference of obscurity he barely got the words out. Here is my rare tee-shirt on the subject. Apparently Zack Norman put out an add in the trades for many months but no one saw the picture nor even knew where to view it. The ads (see tee shirt) must of cost more than the "B" movie film. As a result and having a cult following, the ads are way more popular than the film .

Yes "Chief Zabu" is a South Seas Cinema film (the most obscure and rare). The plot is about a Polynesian island that has a new President and the word is he is ready to deal with outsiders. Some New York investor/developers are ready to pounce on the island and all the realities of the island unfold at the end making for a tragic comedy. The majestic chief (who turns out to be a small hardware store owner) is played by prominent Polynesian actor Manu Tupou while more importantly Sammy is played by Zack Norman.

FYI this film is not even listed in the South Seas Cinema website yet but it will be in the next round of edits and additions.

Ok, the moment you've been waiting for - the new Polynesian Pop page for the website. This page has a list of over 500 titles of movies (Poly Pop Pictures), film shorts (Poly Pop Shorts), TV shows (Tiki TV), and cartoons (Tiki Toons) from our South Seas Cinema Society private (not anymore) research database. Not any images yet from our database but we will get there. This addition is more for your (TCers) information. While many titles were also updated on the South Seas lists (mostly silents), not much more to be documented in that area but there is much more documenting to be done and shows to be found in the Poly Pop motion picture realm. With the aid of urban archeologists like you TCers and keen observation by all of us in the various TV and movie threads we can accomplish a lot because here we have more eyes. So feel free and browse the data on this site and we will add more together. Heavens, I noticed tons of small errors and typos throughout the site, there is just so much data to proofread but I'm chipping away at it. Like carving a stone tiki from the side of a mountain - haha!

Below is a screen shot of the top of the new webpage. Got rid of the blog and shop which is evident on the "Bamboo Page Bar" and the "Poly Pop Picts" button was added. Enjoy.

Again a link to the home page: http://www.southseascinema.org/index.html

[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-08-01 22:08 ]

Warning a funky font appears on handheld devices, need to work on that. Sorry.

Okay, did a newer cleaner look for the site, it's more consistent as well as a more common font that shows across various computer platforms and devices.

Been on the mainland so I didn't finish polishing the updates. Now that I'm back, I just completed a copy edit on the new "Poly Pop Picts" pages and on the "About" page. Lighten the background woven mats throughout the site for a better read because it was too yellow. Added pictures to the "Poly Pop Picts" pages and got rid of the table format in some of the older pages for a better and more consistent read throughout. Finally added new members to the beach of fame. See if you can spot them. I noted we had images in our database but not the written descriptions to the tiles so I know I have more to do to add these titles. But I'm beat, any additions will be on the next round of updates. Here are some Poly Pop motion picture images recently added.

http://www.southseascinema.org/shop.html
Link to the "Poly Pop Picts" page and from there one can surf the site:

[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-08-23 17:32 ]

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[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-08-24 01:58 ]