Mai-Kai book project: 60th Anniversary event Dec 28th

I am working toward having my Mai-Kai book ready to shop around to publishers by the end of the year. I have collected images and of course stories for a long time now. But I am sure there are a lot of items out there in other collections that I do not have.

If you are in possession of Mai-Kai or Don the Beachcomber images or rare ephemera, please consider sharing it with me for this project. The history of the Mai-Kai is very tangled up with that of Don the Beachcombers.

The only way to know if I have what you own is to send me an image. You can just snap a simple one with your phone or whatever to find out and email me. If I do not own it, we'll work out getting it scanned later.

If you have stuff and want to help, please send me images at [email protected]

And you may also have stories that I do not know about. Feel free to share what you can there too. This book will only happen once and I'd hate for something great or interesting to be missed.

Thanks for your help and support.

-Swanky

Announcing Swank Pad and Crazy Al's Molokai Maiden!
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[ Edited by: swanky 2016-11-29 13:26 ]

Good luck with the book, Cant wait to see it finished shame we having nothing rare enough to go in it!

I sent a few things. Not sure if any will make the cut.

Sadly nothing to contribute, but REALLY looking forward to this project!

Please Like my book page of Facebook to help show support that may influence potential publishers.

HERE

Bump on the FB page liking. Just passed 400 likes. I would appreciate more votes in support of the project.

Sounds great. Count me in for a copy or two when it gets published.
FB page "Liked"!

On 2015-03-05 11:44, finky099 wrote:
Sounds great. Count me in for a copy or two when it gets published.
FB page "Liked"!

Also get on the Swank Pad mailing list. The best way to stay informed with Facebooks crappy ways. You'll probably get 3 emails a year from the list, if that many. But you will know when this thing breaks out!

On 2015-03-05 12:59, Swanky wrote:

On 2015-03-05 11:44, finky099 wrote:
Sounds great. Count me in for a copy or two when it gets published.
FB page "Liked"!

Also get on the Swank Pad mailing list. The best way to stay informed with Facebooks crappy ways. You'll probably get 3 emails a year from the list, if that many. But you will know when this thing breaks out!

Done!

Liked it!

I'm 100% on-board. Hope you are doing well and enjoying your project.

Send me your positive thoughts. Book submitted to the first batch of publishers today.

Announcing Swank Pad and Crazy Al's Molokai Maiden!

[ Edited by: Swanky 2015-04-07 10:16 ]

YES!!!

Good luck Tim!!

You are THE guy to write the Mai Kai book that's for sure.

So Tim, you got the ISBN.....Great! Does that mean you have an idea of publishing date? How about pre-ordering instructions? I'm really looking forward to this book!
Congrats, 8FT

There should be a pre-order link soon on the publisher's site. They sent me the catalog entry for review along with the cover design. I had some changes and they will be resending it for my review again. Once I okay it, we should be ready for pre-orders soon after and there should be a release date.

Get on the FB page and sign up for the email list for Swank Pad. And then help me spread the word!

What about for those of us that are not on Facebook?

Here's the link to the mailing list.

I'll be doing a presentation on Friday at Hukilau which will have some in depth stories, and video that can't be in the book. Cooking up ideas for special guests, etc. for this event.

The book will be in the print catalog in March, but it is starting to show up online for pre-order now.

Sign up for a copy at
Barnes & Noble HERE.

[ Edited by: Swanky 2016-02-05 06:07 ]

Cool. Thanks for the heads up. Copies ordered.

The book release party is being planned. It will be a weekend at the Mai-Kai with side tours of MCM architecture in the area by Charles McKirahan. There will be special drink offerings for our limited group at the Mai-Kai and of course a presentation and book signing with the local historical society present. I'll add as many special events as possible. I hope to have many of the people in the book on hand to sign the book with me in their respective chapters.

When there is a solid date, I'll let everyone know.

We will be making a hotel at North Beach Village home base. Perhaps the Victoria Park, but it will depend on availability and group size. Stay tuned!

It is the Mai-Kai's year!

On 2016-02-05 08:14, Swanky wrote:
The book release party is being planned. It will be a weekend at the Mai-Kai with side tours of MCM architecture in the area by Charles McKirahan. There will be special drink offerings for our limited group at the Mai-Kai and of course a presentation and book signing with the local historical society present. I'll add as many special events as possible. I hope to have many of the people in the book on hand to sign the book with me in their respective chapters.

When there is a solid date, I'll let everyone know.

We will be making a hotel at North Beach Village home base. Perhaps the Victoria Park, but it will depend on availability and group size. Stay tuned!

It is the Mai-Kai's year!

Looking forward to it! I regretted not getting the chance to talk to you more about it when you were up here at Porco. I'm going to try and make it to the Mai Kai release, would also love to hear about any Haole Hideaway release parties!

Looking forward to getting my hands on it. Good job!

Swanky, this looks great! Going to order at least one, maybe more for gifts. Love the Mai Kai. I won't make it to Hukilau but hopefully I'll see you at Oasis somewhere to have you sign my copy. I look forward to adding another great book of polypop to my collection!
Cheers! :drink:

Way to make it happen, mate - well done! It must be very gratifying to be nearing the finish line. Looking forward to it.

The publisher says release date will be in August. We are planning a California path for August, ending at Oasis. The book may not actually be released by then, but if all goes to schedule, it will be in the warehouse and they say they can ship advanced copies out for me. So, Californians who buy from me, may be the first ones to get the book.

Now to figure out how many books to get. I can't come home with them, but I don't want to disappoint too many people.

SF, LA and TO in August.

Awesome news Swanky! Looking forward to it. Glad the effort is going to pay off.

Paul

Now available through Amazon with a pre-order price guarantee.

Just placed my order. Congrats on getting it to press! Might have to road trip to your place one day to get it signed.

Your friend, 8FT

Congrats Swanky!!! Can't wait to get my paws on this.. :wink:

Order placed - and I can't wait to get the "preview" at the Hukilau this year. Congratulations Swanky.

kevin

I did the pre-order. We will love this book. Wendy

Just got the book galleys from the designer. Better than I hoped! Very excited to share this with the Mai-Kai fans! It's awesome!

Order placed. Looking forward to it!

On 2016-04-27 08:16, LoungeShark wrote:
Order placed. Looking forward to it!

Ditto!

Book Release Weekend at the Mai-Kai September 16-17th

See the event on FB here.

The hotel is nearly full, but more room for the Saturday presentation and book signing available. Call the Mai-Kai for reservations for that.

We just managed to convince (at great cost) the publisher to drop ship books from the printer directly to Tiki Oasis! That's 6 weeks in advance of the release date! This will be your first chance to get the book. There will be an order link on the Tiki Oasis site and quantities are very limited. All books will get signed of course.

Oh, and I'm giving a presentation at Tiki Oasis on Don the Beachcomber's role in creating the Mai-Kai. Plus! I will have a very special guests speaker with me to tell first hand stories about the Mai-Kai in it's heydays of the 50s and 60s. You will not want to miss this international "playboy's" memories!

AND! Nani Maka will be performing again with our Marina! Woohoo!

Having seen Swanky's presentation at this year's Hukilau I'm even more anxious to get a copy of the book. I'll be seeking a signature at Tiki Oasis!

kevin

Swanky, I just watched your preview video on Youtube and saw this image:

It got me very excited. Early renderings show an Easter Island looking tiki on the left side of the property, to the right of the big Barney West that's still there today:

Presumably West carved this one as well but it disappeared somewhat early on without explanation. I've only once seen photographic evidence of it actually existing, which was posted on another Mai Kai thread here a while back:

But are those the same tiki? The features are very similar but the one from the video appears to be taller and narrower like the rendering underneath it whereas the one with the two girls looks to be more elongated in the chin, kinda like this rendering:

Maybe it's just the camera angle? I'm so confused! But must know the deal and hope you could shed some light, please and thank you!

Mike, looks like it could be both camera angle and erosion to the chin from people standing on it, climbing on it, etc. It looks like its carved from pumice and not wood, and pumice is pretty soft. Or is it really wood but just looks pumice-ey?

Also, if the pumice is not very fine-celled, it could be a cut and scratch hazard when people touch it. That would be one reason for sudden removal of the piece.

Good call, I just grabbed a copy. Thanks Swanky!

On 2016-07-28 12:55, AceExplorer wrote:
Also, if the pumice is not very fine-celled, it could be a cut and scratch hazard when people touch it. That would be one reason for sudden removal of the piece.

Interesting. That could be it. I mean it was out front where it assuredly attracted much attention. Also, being that it was right by Federal Highway, maybe the road expansion was the reason for it's departure, although I'm not sure when US-1 started becoming a major road and how much of the Mai Kai's property was taken over.

What's curious is there are two different renderings where the chin is shaped very differently and photos of possibly two different mystery tikis that seem to match each rendering. So was there one or two? And how could there be so few photographs of it/them if presumably everyone wanted their picture next to it/them which may or may not have caused it's early demise??? It couldn't have been there very long.

Hopefully Swanky or the book can shed some light.

Interesting, Mike, highway expansion... I didn't realize it was right along Federal Highway. That also raises the possibility that someone could have crashed their car into it, or vandalized it. It may have been too big and heavy to steal, but then that would be underestimating the college pranksters of the time. There are many possibilities.

Pure speculation, of course. Interesting, though.

I'm enjoying this speculation as we patiently await Tim's explanation. What other scenarios can we conjure up?!

The 2 photos are of the same stone Tiki. The rendering, I can only guess. Perhaps Al Kocab painted it when the carving was on order and was guessing. I have a few pictures of it. One I can date to ~1963.

The end of that Tiki came in the dead of the night, when someone came with a crane and stole it! It's in a backyard in South FL somewhere probably waiting to be re-discovered. Perhaps the very elderly thief who knows the real story has kept it out of site, and when they pass, it will come to light...