Tiki Archeology-The Trade Winds-Oxnard, Ca (Image Heavy)

should this thread be moved to Locating Tiki?

Ojatimo,

Wow, that is a great old photo, thanks for posting. Some very impressive Tiki carving.

Bigtikidude,

There are quite a few of these great old Tiki Archeology threads that were started by Bongo, Sabu, Puamana and others before the advent of Locating Tiki. I agree, it would be nice to move them if another thread has not been started yet.

DC

I remember that place from when I was a kid. When did it stop being Don the Beachcombers? Wish it was still there. L&L Hawaiian BBQ on the other side of oxn blvd just can't measure up.

These 2 pictures of Trade Winds mugs popped up on Facebook recently

In the distance are the palm trees at the former location of the Trade Wind's restaurant in Wagon Wheel Junction.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2013-09-29 18:18 ]

I was just enjoying the Flickr photostream of "Conejo Through The Lens" and found this nice vintage image of a local (Thousand Oaks, CA) family dining at the Trade Winds restaurant in Oxnard. http://www.flickr.com/photos/conejovalley/4990941459/in/photostream/

The Burns family at Trade Winds Restaurant, Oxnard
From left to right: Mary Burns, Paul Burns, Gail Burns, and Bob Burns at Trade Winds, circa 1963. Donated by Dawn Burns Bloom. Conejo Through the Lens, Thousand Oaks Library Special Collections Photo ID # CTLblo01.

Behind the cobra chair it appears that wine bottles with holes drilled in their bottoms are mounted end-to-end on heavy ropes suspended from the ceiling and are separated by round cork fishing net floats. An interesting decorative idea...

And if anyone knows where I can score a nice condition TW menu, grog list, ashtray, etc. please let me know!

Enjoy!

Great find - really digging that photo and the bottle/cork partition is really interesting...

On 2014-01-05 21:39, TikiHula wrote:
Great find - really digging that photo and the bottle/cork partition is really interesting...

The Hawaiian Room in Bellflower has the bottle/cork thing going on. It is very, very cool. It's on 9875 Alondra Blvd in the city of Bellflower. Very cool place, real chill, and the drinks are cheap.
Here's a pic I took a couple of years ago

Aloha!
I discovered an undocumented image of a Polynesian restaurant while sorting a batch of vintage 35mm slides last night. Dated May 1964 this color slide doesn't really show much at first glance but upon close scrutiny reveals this is the Trade Winds and is of early vintage. Taken at the lagoon area shortly after the restaurant's initial opening, you may spot the Trade Winds signature tiki (hiding in shadows) and a Richard Ellis Moai style head too. Pretty cool! Without this thread with many great photos already posted, I probably wouldn't have put two and two together and identified this image. Enjoy!

Here is an amazing Trade Winds Restaurant discovery I have to share with my fellow tiki archaeologists.

I was able to locate the gentleman who was the head Asian food chef at the Trade Winds Restaurant in Oxnard from 1968-1972. His name is Mr. See W. Lee, and he and his family still live in Oxnard. Remarkably, he had a small collection of items from the Trade Winds which he recently allowed me to purchase. The items depicted in the photos include:

• Two massive 9’ 9” long carved vertical wood beams which he said came from the large banquet room. One beam is carved with four fish and the other depicts a monkey
  reaching to pick a coconut. These are thick and heavy beams and have been stored outdoors, face down, up on blocks on the paved side yard of his home for the past 30 years.
  They are in reasonably nice condition considering they were stored outdoors. It would be interesting to determine if these would have been carved by Richard Ellis who carved
  all the tikis for the Trade Winds restaurant.

Does anyone know of any interior decor pieces Richard Ellis might have worked on? I recall reading somewhere here on Tiki Central that there may have been an Oceanic Arts connection. Maybe Bob and Leroy collaborated with him on these?

Carving details...

• Local newspaper clipping from 1968 with a photo of some of the restaurant staff, including Mr. Lee. He is pictured second from the right,
  though incorrectly identified in the newspaper as "Mar". Included is also an 8" x 10” b/w photo of Mr. Lee in the Trade Winds kitchen, taken the same year.

• Trade Winds embroidered staff uniform patch with back clasp pins. Over 3” diameter. Worn by Mr. Lee while employed at Trade Winds. Amazing!!

With his son, Dan, acting as translator, we had a nice conversation about his Trade Winds recollections. After Mr. Lee left the Trade Winds in 1972, he
opened his own Chinese food restaurant in Oxnard, the Fortune Inn, and ran it for over 33 years before retiring. During that period, Trade Winds developer
Martin V. “Bud” Smith would occasionally come in to dine. One day, during a visit, Martin Smith said that since the Trade Winds had been sold
to an investment group and the new owners wanted to tear the place down, Mr. Lee was welcome to come by the Trade Winds building and take whatever
items he wanted before demolition began. So, Mr. Lee went back, but found there wasn’t much left except the two large wood beams you see in the photos.
Remarkably, he kept these items all these years. Even his son didn't know what the wood carvings looked like!

And of course, I couldn't end this most-excellent adventure without getting a photo with Mr. Lee himself!

My plans are to thoroughly dry out the wood beams (after the recent rains), clean (gentle media blasting), lightly stain, and seal the beams to restore them to their former glory. Each of the items are unique finds, but combined with learning of Mr. Lee’s connection to the restaurant, and his long history in the local Oxnard community, it made for a MOST rewarding day!

Great stuff!

Thanks 20th Century Man!

Thanks, Boris.
I've continued my conversation with Mr. Lee through his son and I now have a clearer picture of his place in the history of the Trade Winds restaurant. Mr. Lee had been hired in 1968 by Hop Louie, who had taken over Trade Winds from Martin "Bud" Smith. In 1971, Mr. Lee, manager Mike Smalley (pictured with Mr. Lee in the staff photo above), and a third partner named "Dale" (last name not recalled) acquired the Trade Winds from Hop Louie. In 1972, Mr. Lee sold out his interest in the Trade Winds to the other two partners.

This would explain the TW newspaper ad here in this TC thread (see page 6) which shows "Mike and Dale's Tradewinds." Note also that the top TW ad displayed on the same page says: "Your host Mr. and Mrs. Mike Smalley." Mr. Lee took the proceeds from the sale of his share of the Trade Winds to start his own Chinese restaurant, The Fortune Inn, in Oxnard which he operated from 1972 until he retired and sold the restaurant in 2005.

I saw that Born Tiki (page 3 of this TC thread) said his grandfather, Kai Fee Chin, had been executive chef at the Trade Winds at one time, so I asked Mr. Lee if he had ever worked with Mr. Chin, but he replied he had not.

I hope that this background information from Mr. Lee fills in some of the Trade Winds history between 1968-1975 on the timeline created by Dustycajun (nice job, Dusty) on page 6 of this TC thread.

Aloha!
20th Century Man

Bump-a-gogo!

Great finds! What are your going to do with those panels? The embroidered staff uniform patch is killer, you don't see that sort of thing everyday.

The

Hi Dusty,
I'm glad you're enjoying this Trade Winds discovery, too!

Honestly, I'm not sure what to do with the wood beams/posts once they've been cleaned up a bit.
They are such a remarkable find that I wasn't thinking beyond the acquisition and preservation stage.
I've been planning to do up the loft space in our two-story condo as a tiki lounge, and though we have
the vertical space these posts would require, I'm not sure they could be a good "visual" fit - they were
designed to fit in a 200-seat banquet room!

And the Trade Winds uniform patch was a wonderful surprise. Who knew they even existed?

It's amazing where a search can lead you once you start down the path. For me, the fun is not just in
the discovery of new artifacts, but as in Mr. Lee's case, it's also the discovery of people and their connection
to the artifacts.

Bump. Sorry, can't help m'self.

Picked up a couple o nice items from the Trade Winds. First up, a small souvenir menu with the great rendering on the cover.

The inside of the menu with the dinner choices.

The other item that came with the menu was a rare 20-page brochure from the Trade Winds that gave the entire history of the development of the restaurant!

Here are the pages on the Tikis that were carved be Rick Ellis, it even tells us where they were located! Like a Tiki treasure map.

That is Bongo Fury's Tiki at the top.

And this is the description of panels that were found by 20th Century Man.

How cool is that!!!

There is a ton more information in the brochure, will post some more later.

DC

Wow! Fantastic find!

Nice!! Cool carvings!

Well done DC and congrats 20Th CMan Thanks for the searching and sharing.

Wow, Dusty!
What a fantastic score! How cool is that? Your awesome Trade Winds mini-menu and brochure find ALSO
provided us with provenance to a number of the carvings located around the TW restaurant property.
Bongofury's "Mani" (who knew it had a name?), and the two carved beams I found, among them - all carved by Rick Ellis!

The "...Irreverent facts" brochure you acquired seems to be a pretty unique item. Maybe you or BigBroTiki would know,
but was it common back in the day, for restaurants to publish such information for guests about their interior and exterior decor?

Thanks again for sharing your great find with us. I'll look forward to learning what other interesting information you find in the brochure.

Mahalo!
20th Century Man

Neat finds, Dusty!

Wunnerful, wunnerful indeed!

This is one of our favorite kind of threads on here -- dedicated urban archaeology that ends up with a personal connection, too. I'm sure Mr. Lee is as excited about all this as we are on here. Thanks, 20th Century Man, for sharing your experience!

This is such a good reminder that not only is there good 'stuff' still out in the wild, but people who were there, too. Time to get busy!

[ Edited by: mike and marie 2015-03-15 19:58 ]

wow!! check out that brochure! how incredible that they would take the time and effort to chronicle the specific tikis carved throughout the restaurant, as well as announce the carver and describe the details/locations. that's classy!!!

amazing documentation to have. incredible find!

Hey y'all, I just acquired a rare hot drink cup originally from the Trade Winds Restaurant in Oxnard. It was listed on an
auction site as being from the "world famous Trade Winds cruise ship." The sellers were clueless, but I recognized the
mug from the Trade Winds grog list photo posted by Bongofury on p. 6 above. Drinks to be served in the cup included:
Coffee Grog, Hot Buttered Rum, and Hot Rum Cow. Score!!

That is a great find !! Congratulations.

Nice one indeed! Had not been on my radar before.

Completely awesome!

Awesome!

bump

OK, time for a bump on this great thread. I clipped some photos from ebay last year from the Trade Winds. The women who was selling them had a cache of slides from her father who went around the country photographing Tiki establishments for ideas on his developments in Arizona.

Great shots the front of the building.

And Bongo Fury's Tiki in situ.

DC

A sad memory, not knowing where all those great slides have gone, and if they will ever see the light of day again.

Just wanted to wipe off those watermarks and repost those last three photos. :)

[ Edited by Trader Tom on 2022-12-07 13:46:01 ]

Sweet. I love this thread.