HOLY GRAIL (for me) FOUND: Cleveland Tiki!

I've been looking for Tiki in my hometown of Cleveland for many, many years (I have lived in Chicago since 1993).

Aside from the long-closed Kon Tiki Ports, a strangely lost land-locked Sea World, and two Tiki-dive bars in the far eastern suburbs, I have had no evidence, of Cleve-O Tiki, ever.

I was there this week helping my dad clean out his attic (he and mom are moving after 32 years in the house), and I went out for a drink with my buddies on Wednesday night.

Most of them headed home early, but my ol' pal Rose decided I had to go to 80s night at the Phantasy, an ancient punk club that has been open for decades.

The Phantasy has a large concert venue on the ground floor (I cannot even begin to list all of the punk and new wave shows I saw there in the 1980s), and a smaller venue upstairs.

The upstairs venue is interesting because there is a giant half-scale pirate ship, broken in half, in the room.

The lighting board is on one half of the ship, and the sound mixing board is on the other.

For many, many years, circa 1983-1992, I went to shows in this club, and never paid attention to how really cool it is that there is an almost life-sized pirate ship crammed into this small 2nd floor nightclub.

It also astounded me and floored me and confused me that somehow, during the hundreds of times I went to this place during my wasted youth, I failed to notice the FIVE FOOT TALL WITCO-INSPIRED TIKI FOUNTAIN IN THE DOORWAY!

My tiki god, I had gone to this club for years as a kid, and never made note of the Tiki! Was I fucking high (errr... don't answer that - I probably was!). Or is it a new aquisition? Did someone just pull it out of the basement, or was it sitting there by the door all those years...?

And after spending the past decade scouring Cleveland for Tiki every time I went there (2 to 3 times per year, family being there and all), I never would have thought that I'd finally score a Tiki find right under my nose, right in my old stomping grounds.

And then I began to put it together... a big Tiki... pirate ships... and hey, that bar does look pretty vintage... and those articificial plank-roofed 'shacks' on either side of the room... and this place has been here HOW long? It was already run down in the early 80s...

Is my old 1980s punk rock stomping grounds actually the new incarnation of the mythical lost Cleveland Tiki Bar?

Could life work like this?

Could all of the stars align so precisely?

Stay tuned... I am working on answers...

OOOoooh, SCORE!!

Congrats, tikibars! What a HUGE treat! A personal holy grail - well, temple? I dance a living room hula in your honor!

I eagerly await the further fact-finding (as I'm sure is everyone else).

Clearly a case of 80s Tiki amnesia! I am working on this theory that in the 80s a invisible gaseous cloud lowered itself on America causing what I'd like to call The Great Consensus Tiki Forgetting. Only a few escaped the effect, just like Auguste Ciparis, who escaped the destruction of his Martinique town when Mount Pelee blew up because he was locked in a dungeon, even though it's exploding Rum distillery set the streets afire with flaming rum...but I am digressing here.
I was spared this effect because I came from a foreign country, but others were so struck with Tiki ignorance that they started to tear down Tiki temples and renovate them.

My experiences with showing innocent citizens pictures of Tikis in the early 90s made me arrive at this theory. The reaction was always the same, the subjects seemed to dimly remember Tiki sites they had been to, but were not sure if they had dreamt about them or if they had really existed. It was as if the aliens that had built the Easter Island statues had come back to earth to erase the memory of the cult...

Your story, James, proves that the human mind never forgets: You did not SEE the Tiki elements, struck by the 80s GCTF, but your subconscious registered them, and (maybe in resistance to alien programming) they worked on you slowly. In short: Your obsession of having to visit and catalog every Tiki Bar in the United States was all caused by being denied to SEE the one Tiki Bar of your youth, and now you have found it! You have come full circle, you are healed!
...BUT, since old habits are hard to brake, don't worry, you will still search out the Tiki and it's habitat.

Prof.Dr.Kirsten, working tirelessly on eliminating the GCTF effect

On 2004-03-05 19:38, bigbrotiki wrote:
Clearly a case of 80s Tiki amnesia! I am working on this theory that in the 80s a invisible gaseous cloud lowered itself on America causing what I'd like to call The Great Consensus Tiki Forgetting.

Not gas, it was more likely a dust in the form of cocaine.

That is a genuine Witco "Fountain Of Fortune", Catalog number X-960 (info courtesy of Keigs). I found one just like it recently here in the sunny south. Very nice score!

i love witco!

On 2004-03-06 00:33, Basement Kahuna wrote:
That is a genuine Witco "Fountain Of Fortune",

Hmmm... I didn't thik Witco made anything that goofy, with the crossed eyes and big red tounge sticking out. Interesting. Headed back to Cleve-O in April, and research into the history of the Phantasy and it's suspected previous incarnations will ensue at that time.

The tongue on the one you had pictured is actually a homemade replacement, but it is still a very nice piece. The item number is right out of the catalog.

Damn... they match! The eyes as well as the tounge look like an afterthought...

I gazed longingly at the Witco Fountain at Hala Kahiki last night and cursed your good fortune BK! :wink: :wink: I have plans though to try and create my own original Lake Surfer tiki fountain... I'll keep you posted... thanks again Keigs!

just to bring some closure to this thread, came across this during research, and think most of your answers are here regarding the "nautical" history of the phantasy nightclub:

http://www.cleveland.com/obituaries/index.ssf/2011/01/john_a_de_frasia_founded_phant.html

John A. De Frasia spent 2½ months building a half-size replica of the HMS Bounty. He used it to entertain generations of Lakewood revelers, from blue-hairs to Goths.

At his Piccadilly Square restaurant, which opened in 1968, De Frasia served drinks in the captain's quarters and meals on the quarterdeck. At the Phantasy Nite Club, which began in the 1970s, he separated the front and rear halves of the 24-foot ship to improve the view.

He died Jan. 4 at home in Rocky River. He was 91.

De Frasia got blueprints of the Bounty from MGM Studios and built the replica with professional help. He took it to Detroit Ave., first to Piccaddily Square, then the Phantasy, now a complex a block long for live rock, dance and more. He often drummed with local bands and hosted national stars like Iggy Pop and Nine Inch Nails there.

Some thik Witco made something that crazy, with all the surpassed face and big red tounge sticking out. Intriguing. Went to Cleve-O throughout April, as well as study in to the good reputation for the particular Phantasy and it's really thought earlier incarnations may happen then.

[ Edited by: Hakalugi - spam links removed - 2013-07-01 08:53 ]

On 2013-07-01 00:04, Ludwiger wrote:
Some thik Witco made something that crazy, with all the surpassed face and big red tounge sticking out. Intriguing. Went to Cleve-O throughout April, as well as study in to the good reputation for the particular Phantasy and it's really thought earlier incarnations may happen then.

WHAT?

On 2013-07-01 05:01, TIKI DAVID wrote:

On 2013-07-01 00:04, Ludwiger wrote:
Some thik Witco made something that crazy, with all the surpassed face and big red tounge sticking out. Intriguing. Went to Cleve-O throughout April, as well as study in to the good reputation for the particular Phantasy and it's really thought earlier incarnations may happen then.

WHAT?

i believe this is a very sophisticated spammer. somehow scrapes text from other posters to generate it's own post, just to get you to click the sig links. fascinating really.

admin, feel free to delete this post when you're done housekeeping.

I use to go there in the late 80s early 90s. Trent Reznor(NIN) came up through there and it wasn't uncommon to see him hanging or playing there, was a big place in the Industrial rock scene. Sad news is placed burned down in 2010.

On 2013-07-02 17:47, Tiki Toli wrote: Sad news is placed burned down in 2010.

it's still there and operating today. the fire was only in the storefront portion of the club from what i remember.

On 2013-07-03 08:28, porco wrote:

On 2013-07-02 17:47, Tiki Toli wrote: Sad news is placed burned down in 2010.

it's still there and operating today. the fire was only in the storefront portion of the club from what i remember.

building and clubs are still there ,but I bought the Witco God of Fortune Tiki fountain, with the replacement 'Red Tounge' a long time ago.

On 2013-07-01 00:04, Ludwiger wrote:
Some thik Witco made something that crazy, with all the surpassed face and big red tounge sticking out. Intriguing. Went to Cleve-O throughout April, as well as study in to the good reputation for the particular Phantasy and it's really thought earlier incarnations may happen then.

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[ Edited by: Hakalugi - spam links removed - 2013-07-01 08:53 ]

Huh?

On 2013-07-20 07:43, Tiki-kitty wrote:

On 2013-07-01 00:04, Ludwiger wrote:
Some thik Witco made something that crazy, with all the surpassed face and big red tounge sticking out. Intriguing. Went to Cleve-O throughout April, as well as study in to the good reputation for the particular Phantasy and it's really thought earlier incarnations may happen then.

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[ Edited by: Hakalugi - spam links removed - 2013-07-01 08:53 ]

Huh?

What Kitty said.

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga - spam removed to improve dietary guidelines - 2013-07-01 08:53 ]