Don the Beachcomber - The Locations (Updated 01-09-20)

Found a few more nuggets of Don the Beachcomber history. This article from 1947 documents Donn's attempts to build his first restaurant in Hawaii on the Ala Moana waterfront near the old tea house site. The building shown is the Tahitian Longhouse.

This next article indicates that the plans did not get approved due to issues related to the access roadway alignment so Donn hired Pete Wimberly to design his next attempt in the coconut grove on Kalakaua Avenue. This is an early artist rendering of what would later becomes Donn's thatched hut restaurants on Kalakaua.

And the rest is history.

DC

U stud

Thanks Hang 10. Another article from 1955 which details Donn's first concept for the International Market Place as designed and drawn by Pete Wimberly.

DC

Made a Google map of the Don the Beachcomber locations:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1jhizH3mMzwmz6zBNkEJN2sDttiQ&ll=31.51265885230462%2C-122.36456465000003&z=5

Dusty, once again your research proves to be amazing. Thanks for sharing your finds with us and linking together some obscure DTB locational info.
Cheers to you!
:drink:

Spotted this cool Luau invitation with accompanying photo of Mrs. Sklar at Don's in Hawaii.

An "ample accompaniment of Don's inimitable Liquid Refreshments". You gotta love that.

Great outfit (and the Tikis' not bad either)!

DC

I spotted this great color photo of the 1966 fire at the Don the Beachcomber in the International Market Place on ebay.

I had done some research on this. The fire occurred on July 18 and destroyed the Tahitian Long House building that house the Colonel's Plantation and Christopher's and caused heavy damage to Don the Beachcomber's Mandalay Lounge.

Donn sat and watched,

and helped move the carts,

and even did some cover-up posters on the construction fence.

What a site at the entrance in Waikiki.

Donn and the owner with immediate plans for rebuilding.

Would be interesting task to count up all of the thatched-roof south seas watering holes that eventually went up in smoke.

DC

On 2010-11-28 12:25, Bora Boris wrote:
Nice work DC,

what I've been wondering about that house for a while is how do we find the address to see if it's still standing?

I found a short article in the Los Angeles Times about Donn's 1-acre plantation in Encino.

The article is titled "Samoa in the San Fernando Valley"

These two pictures ran with the story

The following year Donn's place was listed for sale in the LA Times classified ads

It looks like Donn only lived there for a short period of time (1941-1949). The ad lists the address of the home as 5047 Encino Ave.

Google image from 2017 shows the large 1 acre site. Its hard to tell if the original house is still standing but improved and expanded, the photos don't match that up well. However, skylights are still visible and the original story references a solarium.

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo 2017-06-28 08:46 ]

So many great photos! Cheers!

[ Edited by: Dr_Feel_Good 2017-11-15 07:13 ]

I had written the Seattle location off as non-existent, now this shows up! Perhaps a number 34 on the list of Don the Beachcomber locations.

Thanks to Tikicoma for the find.

DC

This topic is so long I hope I'm not repeating photos already posted. The first photo is from Cabaret Quarterly magazine volume five, 1956. The second photo is from a 10 inch Columbia record called Hawaiian Festival recorded by Lani McIntire.

Found a photo of the Don the Beachcomber restaurant at Vacation Village in San Diego.

DC

Here is another Luau invite from the DTB on Hawaii.

What a dress code!

DC

On 2018-06-26 16:53, Dustycajun wrote:
Here is another Luau invite from the DTB on Hawaii.

That dude reminds me of one of the earliest Barney West carvings. From an old Trad'r Bill post:

On 2013-11-14 14:55, Trad'r Bill wrote:
Thought I'd share this photo I just picked up - it's an original news photo (referenced earlier in this thread). Love the stilts, and the ship's ladder on the right:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=22078&forum=1&vpost=699440

Where on earth is that style from?

Press photo of the lovely staff at the Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood.

DC

OK, here is the 24th out of 34 Don the Beachcomber locations on the list (see page 1) - Seattle, Washington, 1979 (thanks to Tikicoma for the find and the images).

The Seattle location has been listed on matchbooks and menus but never confirmed.

The confirmation comes from the book "Lost Restaurants of Seattle":

The address was the former Elks building which sold in the 1970s. The building is now occupied by the China Harbor restaurant.

DC

On 2016-01-27 17:58, kenbo-jitsu wrote:
So much to love about this thread! I especially think this is cool...

On 2009-04-22 19:09, Dustycajun wrote:
.

On 2009-04-22 21:47, Bora Boris wrote:
Opening in 1943? :o Unless that token is some sort of morale building promotion, I would think that the Japanese occupation of both the Philippines and Singapore during that time put a damper on those expansion plans. :wink:

On 2009-04-24 07:24, Limbo Lizard wrote:
I think you're right about them being a morale-booster, BB. The Brits and Yanks were rather ignominiously defeated in Singapore and the PI, early on. I know that in the case of the Philippines, retaking them was more important symbolically than tactically. IIRC, some considered it a better, quicker plan to bypass them, as we battled toward Japan, but McArthur would have none of that - said he'd return, and that's that, dammit! I'll bet those tokens were one of Donn's contributions to the war effort - given to servicemen, implying that by that date, those locations would not only have been liberated from the "Japs", but a soldier could imagine himself, cleaned-up and comfortable, relaxing in a newly built DTB,... and with claim to a whole barrel of rum!
Great find - combo WWII/Tiki memorabilia.

Not mentioned yet is the significance of the date November 11th -- known to us Americans now as Veterans Day but known at the time as Armistice Day -- the day the Great War, the War to End All Wars (World War 1) ended. People at the time would have understood the implication. Too bad, for everyone, the war in the Pacific didn't end in the fall of 1943.

This is exactly correct. I have a contemporary article which talks about this as a tongue in cheek jab at the WWII enemy.

Based on drink prices, I have not seen a menu older than maybe 1950s. We have a 1957 Mai-Kai drink menu with base prices in the 90 cent area and I think this is a dating mechanism universally.

Taking the Navy Grog as a base, this is the oldest menu I have seen (copyright 1941, but actually later) with the Navy Grog at $1.65, which I would guess is a late 50's early price as it's close the Mai-Kai 1957 Samoan Grog price.

Who has an earlier drink menu? A 1930s drink would probably prices around 35 cents.

On 2019-07-02 11:12, Swanky wrote:
Based on drink prices, I have not seen a menu older than maybe 1950s. We have a 1957 Mai-Kai drink menu with base prices in the 90 cent area and I think this is a dating mechanism universally.

Taking the Navy Grog as a base, this is the oldest menu I have seen (copyright 1941, but actually later) with the Navy Grog at $1.65, which I would guess is a late 50's early price as it's close the Mai-Kai 1957 Samoan Grog price.

Who has an earlier drink menu? A 1930s drink would probably prices around 35 cents.

Interesting you'd use the Navy Grog as the point of reference cuz the prices on my menu mostly range between $.05-30 cheaper than yours, while some are the same, but oddly, the Navy Grog is more expensive. I think that's the only drink on mine that's more than yours. This one also has the 1941 copyright.

On 2019-07-02 11:57, mikehooker wrote:

On 2019-07-02 11:12, Swanky wrote:
Based on drink prices, I have not seen a menu older than maybe 1950s. We have a 1957 Mai-Kai drink menu with base prices in the 90 cent area and I think this is a dating mechanism universally.

Taking the Navy Grog as a base, this is the oldest menu I have seen (copyright 1941, but actually later) with the Navy Grog at $1.65, which I would guess is a late 50's early price as it's close the Mai-Kai 1957 Samoan Grog price.

Who has an earlier drink menu? A 1930s drink would probably prices around 35 cents.

Interesting you'd use the Navy Grog as the point of reference cuz the prices on my menu mostly range between $.05-30 cheaper than yours, while some are the same, but oddly, the Navy Grog is more expensive. I think that's the only drink on mine that's more than yours. This one also has the 1941 copyright.

Maybe use the Cuban Daiquiri as a guide as we may assume it's ingredients are a stable price? So 90 to 95 cents. Yours is a few years younger.

My menu is not any older than April 1944. Navy Grog is $1.19; Cuban Daiquiri is $0.63.

Cool. I'd love to see more variations and observe what changed over time besides drink costs. It's a shame the later menus didn't have exact copyright dates like Hamo's. I assume the 1941 date that appears in so many DtB menus began with that particular front and back cover illustration. Obviously Swanky and mine pre-date 1960 or so, not only logically reasoned by Swanky's price comparison of a Mai Kai menu from '57, but also because the Cuban embargo wasn't yet enacted since the Cuban Daiquiri is still featured on both menus.

Another thing to note... The Mai Tai is not on Hamo's 1944 menu. That's the year synonymous with Trader Vic inventing the drink, which soon became a world wide phenomenon. We know by the 50s and 60 when the tiki craze really spread across America, practically every tiki bar had their version of a Mai Tai on the menu. But when did Don's adapt it? Obviously they had it in the mid-late 50s as indicated in Swanky and my menus, but the Mai Tai was 10 years old by then and Vic was already on his third iteration of the cocktail, having obliterated the worlds supply of J. Wray 17 and 15 year. Presumably, Don's would have had a Mai Tai earlier than all the bandwagon hoppers, but can we determine when?

Now, to complicate matters further, can we substantiate the 1944 date that we've adapted as the birth of the Mai Tai? I personally have never seen a TV menu from that year with a Mai Tai on it. I BELIEVE I have a menu from '44 that has a Mai KAI, but not a Mai TAI. I don't have any of my books or menus next to me right now to provide empirical evidence, but perhaps the Mai Tai was known for a short while as the Mai Kai, cuz I have seen the Mai Tai on 1947 menus, and I think the Mai Kai disappears at that time. Even if that's not the case, when did it seriously catch on and become the worlds most famous drink? It would be interesting (to me, anyway) to see DtB menus from later in 1944 through about 1950 to figure out the arrival date of the Mai Tai on their menu.

EDIT: I just looked at the link to Hamo's menu and the artwork is different than the later ones, which debunks my thought that the 1941 copyright had to do with the artwork. I guess it's just protecting the overall intellectual property of DtB. Possibly something Sunny enacted after taking over operations.

[ Edited by: mikehooker 2019-07-03 14:00 ]

Mai-Kai menus have the same thing, a copyright date of 1957 or 1959 that never changes over a decade or more. Only the changing prices indicate an approximate age.

Is the Mai Tai connected to TV Hawaii? Is that where it really took off and spread?

At risk of derailing this thread into a Mai Tai discussion, the Bum's exposition on pages 64-69 of Remixed addresses some of the other questions above. From page 67:

"However, there is no Mai Tai listed on any Don The Beachcomber's menu printed before the Kennedy era. At least, not any Beachcomber's menu we've seen, and we've seen quite a few. When we contacted Phoebe [Beach] and Arnold [Bitner] about this, they referred us to an article in the October 2006 issue of Aloha Spirit magazine, which reprints what the magazine claims is a 1941 Beachcomber's menu offering a Mai Tai. But the menu is closer to 1961 than 1941. On this menu a Beachcomber's punch costs $1.10, while a 1940 menu in the Bum's collection lists the same drink for 60 cents. (The Aloha Spirit menu's 1941 copyright date is irrelevant, since every Beachcomber's menu printed between that year and the late 1970s carries a 1941 copyright.)"

I wonder if that copyright refers to the drink artwork? That seems to be the constant between our menus.

And speaking of the Mai Tai, and thinking of Vic's original formulation (and possibly complicating things):

On 2019-07-05 15:35, Hamo wrote:
At risk of derailing this thread into a Mai Tai discussion, the Bum's exposition on pages 64-69 of Remixed addresses some of the other questions above. From page 67:

"However, there is no Mai Tai listed on any Don The Beachcomber's menu printed before the Kennedy era. At least, not any Beachcomber's menu we've seen, and we've seen quite a few. When we contacted Phoebe [Beach] and Arnold [Bitner] about this, they referred us to an article in the October 2006 issue of Aloha Spirit magazine, which reprints what the magazine claims is a 1941 Beachcomber's menu offering a Mai Tai. But the menu is closer to 1961 than 1941. On this menu a Beachcomber's punch costs $1.10, while a 1940 menu in the Bum's collection lists the same drink for 60 cents. (The Aloha Spirit menu's 1941 copyright date is irrelevant, since every Beachcomber's menu printed between that year and the late 1970s carries a 1941 copyright.)"

I wonder if that copyright refers to the drink artwork? That seems to be the constant between our menus.

And speaking of the Mai Tai, and thinking of Vic's original formulation (and possibly complicating things):

Good info Hamo. I too have noticed the "exclusive for Don" bottling of J Wray 17yo on menus I've seen online and have pondered how that could be. Perhaps a few years later they lost the exclusivity, or maybe the Don version was just different than what was on the regular commercial market? What puzzles me, if Vic was serving Mai Tai's with a two ounce pour of 17 year old rum, wouldn't that make the drink prohibitively expensive?

On 2019-07-05 16:06, mikehooker wrote:

On 2019-07-05 15:35, Hamo wrote:
At risk of derailing this thread into a Mai Tai discussion, the Bum's exposition on pages 64-69 of Remixed addresses some of the other questions above. From page 67:

"However, there is no Mai Tai listed on any Don The Beachcomber's menu printed before the Kennedy era. At least, not any Beachcomber's menu we've seen, and we've seen quite a few. When we contacted Phoebe [Beach] and Arnold [Bitner] about this, they referred us to an article in the October 2006 issue of Aloha Spirit magazine, which reprints what the magazine claims is a 1941 Beachcomber's menu offering a Mai Tai. But the menu is closer to 1961 than 1941. On this menu a Beachcomber's punch costs $1.10, while a 1940 menu in the Bum's collection lists the same drink for 60 cents. (The Aloha Spirit menu's 1941 copyright date is irrelevant, since every Beachcomber's menu printed between that year and the late 1970s carries a 1941 copyright.)"

I wonder if that copyright refers to the drink artwork? That seems to be the constant between our menus.

And speaking of the Mai Tai, and thinking of Vic's original formulation (and possibly complicating things):

Good info Hamo. I too have noticed the "exclusive for Don" bottling of J Wray 17yo on menus I've seen online and have pondered how that could be. Perhaps a few years later they lost the exclusivity, or maybe the Don version was just different than what was on the regular commercial market? What puzzles me, if Vic was serving Mai Tai's with a two ounce pour of 17 year old rum, wouldn't that make the drink prohibitively expensive?

I heard a bit of the history of this rum at Hukilau. That it was the Wray & Nephew 15 year, but for 2 years they could not export, so for one year, they bottle a 17 year version simply by accident. I can imagine Don buying up the whole lot, or trying to.

I've been discussing the Mona Punch with a friend and that's how this started. It seems clear that is a Don drink named for the rum in it, and when that rum ran out, the drink changed names. Some think it's Don's Special Daiquiri, and it was the Mona Punch. I wonder if "Punch" is also a rum name reference. "Zombie Punch" because of Dagger Punch and Appleton Punch rum?

So that .63 cent menu may be the oldest, the actual 1941 printing.

On 2019-07-06 06:41, Swanky wrote:

I've been discussing the Mona Punch with a friend and that's how this started. It seems clear that is a Don drink named for the rum in it, and when that rum ran out, the drink changed names. Some think it's Don's Special Daiquiri, and it was the Mona Punch. I wonder if "Punch" is also a rum name reference. "Zombie Punch" because of Dagger Punch and Appleton Punch rum?

I've wondered about those DtB cocktails named after the rum they were made with -- specifically, Governor General, Mona Punch and Sugar Loaf Punch, which I assume were made with Gilbey’s Governor General, Myers’s Mona and Sugar Loaf rums respectively. I noted in "Sippin' Safari" The Bum states that the Golden Stag was an early DtB cocktail made with a now defunct Golden Stag brand rum. I wonder if they weren't all similar (or even the same) cocktails with just different rums. When I see Cuban Daiquiri and Panama Daiquiri on the same menu, it seems to reinforce that possibility.

Spotted this great old photo of the Tikis in front of the Don the Beachcomber restaurant that was located at the entrance to the International Market Place.

And the rendering.

DC

Wow, what a find!

Visited Maui in July, and although DtB isn’t there anymore, they still had quite a few of these Mai Tai glasses in the Royal Lahaina gift shop.

That is such a great photo Dustycajun.

Here are a few more early DTB postcards I picked up from the Hollywood-Chicago locations with the Don the Beachcomber Rum bottle and 66 classic drinks, and the Matson Line cruise ship with the Hawaiian words dictionary (dated 1941). Oldies but goodies from the godfather of Rum and ambassador of Hawaii!

DC

Another tourist photo of the Don the Beachcomber treehouse restaurant at the International Market Place.

DC

I think this is the only reference I've seen to a cocktail called "Don's Teki." Any ideas?

Arriano,

Good catch on the Don's Teki, I don't think I have seen that before either. Will have to look at some of my old menus.

OK, here is a little bit of history I did not know. It turns out that Sunny Sund sold the Don the Beachcomber restaurants in Hollywood and Palm springs as well the Don the Beachcomber trademark to a group headed by Barron Hilton in 1961. Sund held onto the Chicago restaurant, which was the first one she opened without Don. Here are some articles discussing the sale.

What is interesting about this is that the Hilton hotel chain was the home of numerous Trader Vic’s restaurants, including Beverly Hills, Puerto Rico, Havana, London, Dallas, Houston, New York, Chicago, Washington DC to name a few. The article says that the new owners were looking to expand the Don the Beachcomber operations in the US. Getty bought the Don the Beachcomber corporation in 1968, so that means the Hilton-based operators opened the new restaurants from 1961 to 1968 which included Las Vegas at the Sahara (1962) and St. Paul, Minnesota at the Hilton Hotel (1966), which now makes sense!

The second article also mentions that Duke Kahanamoku bought the Don's in Honolulu around the same time. Here is Donn handing over the keys to Duke.

DC

Found this nice photo of Donn on a Pan Am flight to Tahiti looking at drawings for his proposed expansion of the Les Tropiques Hotel Bungalows on Tahiti. Donn and his partner had built and operated the 16-bungalow hotel on the beach outside of Papeete for a few years and were looking to expand the hotel with 45 new bungalows.

I managed to uncover some photos of the original Les Tropiques Hotel bungalows that Donn built. You can tell Donn had a hand in the design of the place.

Some more great Donn history.

DC

Wow
Dusty hits another home rum
:)

Thanks Hangten. Here is an ad from July 4, 1953 announcing the grand opening of the Les Tropique Bungalow Hotel and Beachcomber Bar and Restaurant by Don Beach in association with Fredrick Barnes.

Funny that Don Beach had to indicate in parenthesis that he was Don the Beachcomber! Also interesting to note that he used only one n in "Don", maybe a typo? Given that there was a Beachcomber Bar and Restaurant at this facility, I am adding it to the official list of locations on page 1 bringing us to a total of 35.

DC

Excellent detective work as always!

Article from 1979 again confirming that Don The Beachcomber opened a restaurant in Seattle, WA.

And two articles from 1970 which document that Donn sold his Hawaiian franchise rights to the Getty Corporattion who by now had bought the company on the mainland. One article states that Donn was retained and looking to open additional locations on the islands. I wonder if that is how the Don the Beachcomber restaurant at the Royal Lahaina Hotel got started?

DC

Another tourist photo of the tree-house.

The sign reads:
Waikiki Branch
Blue Lagoon Development Corp.
Don The Beachcomber LTD, HK
South Seas and Far East Enterprises

So this was from the period when Donn was trying to develop the Blue Lagoon Bungalow Hotel in Tahiti.

DC

What this?? A new Don the Beachcomber location never seen before??!!

Well, kind of. I picked up this movie photo showing the bar set of the "Mango Inn" from the Charlie Chan Movie "Dangerous Money". Don the Beachcomber (aka Donn Beach) was the set consultant on the film which explains why the Mango Inn looks a lot like an early Don the Beachcomber restaurant.

Here are some more movie photos of the bar interior and exterior.

A typical Don the Beachcomber restaurant interior for comparison.

DC

On 2019-07-02 11:12, Swanky wrote:
Based on drink prices, I have not seen a menu older than maybe 1950s. We have a 1957 Mai-Kai drink menu with base prices in the 90 cent area and I think this is a dating mechanism universally.

Taking the Navy Grog as a base, this is the oldest menu I have seen (copyright 1941, but actually later) with the Navy Grog at $1.65, which I would guess is a late 50's early price as it's close the Mai-Kai 1957 Samoan Grog price.

Who has an earlier drink menu? A 1930s drink would probably prices around 35 cents.

Actually, I'm guessing this menu dates from 1959. My reasoning is that it includes a cocktail called Silver Anniversary, and 1959 would have been Don the Beachcomber's 25th year.

Well we know the Corona Del Mar location existed but still no interior photo’s? Something has got to surface. Hope. In the meantime,here is an ad. Just found on the web.

Just cross-posting for posterity. I recently picked up this menu noting the Hollywood & Chicago locations. Based on prices, it seems to be from in between the years of the ones discussed above.

https://tikicentral.com/viewpost.php?post_id=803828

I would like to add a DTB Hollywood/Chicago copyright 1941 menu from my collection that seems to be older than those posted so far:

Front cover:

Inside:

Back cover:

Base price is $.50. Navy Grog is $1.00. Wray & Nephew 17 year is $.60.

I picked up this menu along with the a la carte food menu, which hasn't been posted yet on this thread.

Front cover:

Inside:

Back cover:

These separate menus were, at some point, merged. The wonderful "Ambassador of Rum" back cover was retired and Don resting below the map of the islands of the Pacific was changed to the front cover and combined with the back cover featuring the "Caribbean Sea" into one single food and drink menu.

[ Edited by The Professor on 2022-06-17 19:13:20 ]

Blueprints for Don the Beachcomber in San Diego -- photo from Classic San Diego Facebook page.

Hi everyone im fairly new to tiki within the last year and we live about 20 minutes from the former Dallas Don the beachcomber location which is now a boring storage building however I wanted to post these here. 2 carved signs that are pictured outside along with the big Dons sign. These came from the 2nd OA auction and we got to being them back home!