Hilton Hotel San Diego

I borrowed some photos from a friend - I originally thought this was Sea World - but couldn't place the building. It didn't look like the Hawaiian Punch Village. Now I know why! On the back it reads:

Hilton Hotel, San Diego. Sept. '79

Hi Tangaroa,
Have you heard, are the tikis still there?

Sadly, I am deficient tiki lore outside of he amusement park realm... Anybody else know? Sven or Sabu...?

Nice find, Tangaroa!

I didn't know about these tikis - but I'll sure be looking for postcards now. Maybe one of the San Diego locals could investigate. Alnshely? I'm assuming this is the Hilton next door to Sea World at 1775 East Mission Bay Drive, although I believe there are others in San Diego.

Sabu

That's the very same Mission Bay Inn that was built by Del Webb that was the location for that Jerry Lewis movie that had the masks like the Kon Tiki Hotel in Phoenix that I showed you in my files, Tangaroa.

Whew!

"The circle of liiiiife....."

On 2004-04-26 15:33, bigbrotiki wrote:
That's the very same Mission Bay Inn that was built by Del Webb that was the location for that Jerry Lewis movie that had the masks like the Kon Tiki Hotel in Phoenix that I showed you in my files, Tangaroa.

Was it this place?

Don't know the date that Eli decorated it but the phone # is "Browning 6-4010 .

He also did Kamia Village in the middle (Sven,Otto & Kevin have been there and done that).

Villa Samoa, need to research more. He did mega stuff back then.

The page I have is all glued together so pulling it apart is a drag.

I'll post more of Eli's Portfolio in the near future.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Well, it's a mini version at least. It's at the top of the scan. Back to the drawing board to finger out this mess! I will try again and again.

Ona and Al!! Score!! Muchos Mahlos!

[ Edited by: revbambooben on 2004-04-26 21:17 ]

[ Edited by: revbambooben on 2004-04-26 21:19 ]

[ Edited by: revbambooben on 2004-04-26 21:30 ]

[ Edited by: revbambooben on 2004-04-26 21:33 ]

Yup, Del Webb's Ocean House. Had (still has?) the Jolly Roger restaurant in form of a ship's prow, a huge Island life mural on a wall at the beach, those Ku Tikis all around the pool, and stuff...it's now totally de-tikified.

Villa Samoa Apartments is still there also, the sign in the same typeface, but only two Tikis left holding up the A-frame poolhut

cOOl!

The San Diego Hilton on Mission Bay Drive is now Tiki free. I walked the grounds & searched lobby & hallway areas without finding any. There's a mural showing Hawaiian/Polynesian folk scenes around one of the pools, but that's it.

It looks like the resort has been turned into some kind of Timeshare deal & is no longer a Hotel.

Edit: I'll try to check out the Mission Bay Inn on Clairmont Blvd. between Morena Blvd. & Denver St. later, but it looks to be decorated as a standard Spanish Colonial knockoff.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance 2005-07-14 08:12 ]

Here are some pictures from a brochure.......

I will try to post some images from "The Big Mouth" that shows some great tikis from the resort.....there are also some good scenes from a newly opened Sea World.....

I'd love to see that - I still haven't seen 'The Big Mouth' yet...

Some more pics of Del Webb's OceanHouse from the Jan 1963 issue of SUNSET magazine:

A close-up where you can just make out those three giant Ku's near the pool:

Inside one of the rooms:

The Jolly Roger Cocktail Lounge:

According to the ad, Architects for the OceanHouse were: Martin Stern Jr., AIA, Architect & Associates; Leon Glucksman, AIA, Assoc.; Benton Charlses Severson, Assoc.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2008-05-24 18:05 ]

On 2008-05-24 18:02, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
A close-up where you can just make out those three giant Ku's near the pool:

...and you can clearly identify the lattice work on which Jerry Lewis is crawling in "The Big Mouth", which in the film held those tres Tiki Modern Kon-Tiki Phoenix/Tropics Lounge Wichita masks....

...their origin being an enduring mystery which I wrote about here: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=17576&forum=1

The A-frame beds are a classic, too, of course, the only other example of them I have seen was at the Miami Hawaiian Isle. Next I want to see images (vintage and current) of that Hilton's giant beach-side Polynesian mural, please! :)

I can't really give any history or background to this; but when I was little (early - late 70's) I used to ride my bike past this place 3-4 times a week. You can see, in red, the bike/walk path that still runs along the bay today. Maybe one of the locals can take an updated pic?

On 2005-07-14 07:55, freddiefreelance wrote:
The San Diego Hilton on Mission Bay Drive is now Tiki free. I walked the grounds & searched lobby & hallway areas without finding any. There's a mural showing Hawaiian/Polynesian folk scenes around one of the pools, but that's it.

As of this weekend that mural is also gone. I walk the bay a few times a week using the bike path and they have been re-doing the pool area for a few months. I noticed yesterday that the mural has been destroyed.

[ Edited by: catmomma 2008-05-27 11:31 ]

That is really sad, one would think that (if for no other reason) the powers that be would have seen that they had a for real work of art in their possession and choose to spare it.

On the other hand the mural matched nothing else in that awful place, their “Banana Cabana” place out back says it all, ugly soulless crap, that’s all this generation gets or wants.

Bosko

Thanks Bosko, at least there is a picture of it here now. I remember it being very long, and wasn't it scratched into the concrete?

yes it was probably 50 feet long and was etched into the concrete with just a little bit of color tint here and there. Lots of detail. I was very sad to see it was gone yesterday. I have walked by it hundreds of times

I picked up a few postcards and a brochure from Del Webb's Ocean House.

The first card is a nice rendering that looked strangely familiar....

That's because the architect for the Ocean House was Martin Stern who also designed the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel in Mauai that sported this postcard posted by Uncle Trav (he also did the Kuilima Hotel for Del Webb which has a new post on Locating Tiki).

Obviously the same artist.

The second card is a night shot.

It looks like the two of the three Ku statues shown in the previous photos have been moved to flank the entrance of the pool area. There also appear to be Tiki masks on the wall of the pool area.

Here is a rendering of the Ku Tikis from the brochure.

Will post more of the brochure later.

DC

A few more images from the brochure I have.

Two more of the hotel rooms, looks like some Tiki lamps, peacock chairs and bamboo trim were in play here (not to mention colors).

Purple Room

Orange Room

The third Ku Tiki gets its own little spot with a Tiki torch.

A huge ship's mural in the conference center

I swear those are Tiki curtains.

DC

(Seems like this thread should be moved to Locating Tiki)

Here are some nice old photos from Del Webb's Ocean House that Tiki Shaker told me about on ebay.

Cool shot of the pool and adjacent rec building.

You can see the Tiki masks on the fence from the Big Mouth movie.

A different Tiki next to the building with an outrigger on the roof.

The three Ku Tikis.

The Jolly Roger Lounge.

The cool ship's bow building.

And a matchbook.

Cool Tiki place from San Diego's past. I hope Tiki Shaker got the photos.

DC

When I was a kid, I lived on Rosecrans and hung out in OB and on Shelter Island. Didn't make it over to Mission Beach too much so totally missed this awesome place. Certainly ironic that I now live North of Sacramento in a Del Webb community...and not a Tiki in sight (except in my lounge).