Tiki Culture in America

Tiki culture in America began in 1934, when Don Beach, a.k.a. Don the Beachcomber, opened a Polynesian themed eatery in Hollywood that was part tap house, part funhouse. There, guests could enjoy tropical Asian cuisine and exotic rum punches while surrounded by flaming torches, rattan furniture, flower leis and brightly colored fabrics. More than a decade later, Victor Bergeron better known as Trader Vic, adapted Don's formula for success and opened his own chain of tropical taverns, including locations in Oakland, San Francisco and Beverly Hills. This was the same time that the soldiers were returning from WWII, bringing with them stories and souvenirs from the South Pacific. Americans fell in love with their romanticized version of an exotic culture, and Polynesian design began to infuse every aspect of this country's visual aesthetic, from home accessories to architecture. Musicians such as Les Baxter, Arthur Leyman and Martin Denny blended the Tiki idea through jazz augmented with Polynesian, Asian and Latin instruments and "tropical" themes creating the Exotica genre. This music blended the elements of Afro-Cuban rhythms, unusual instrumentations, environmental sounds, and lush romantic themes from Hollywood movies, topped off with evocative titles like 'Jaguar God,' into a culture hybrid native to no place outside of the San Fernando Valley.

There were two primary strains of this kind of exotica: Jungle and Tiki. Jungle exotica was definitely a Hollywood creation, with its roots in Tarzan movies and as far back as Henry Hudson's novel, Green Mansions. Les Baxter was the kind of jungle exotica, and spawned a host of imitators while opening the doors for a few more genuine articles such as Chaino, Thurston Knudson, and Guy Warren. Tiki exotica was intruduced with Martin Denny's Waikiki nightclub combo cum jungle noises cover of Baxter's "Quiet Village." Tiki rode a waive of popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s marked by the entrance of Hawaii as the 50th state in 1959 and the introduction of Tiki hut cocktail bars and restaurants around the continental US.

On 2004-06-04 13:19, k'eli wrote:
Tiki culture in America began in 1934,.....Musicians such as Les Baxter, Arthur Leyman and Martin Denny blended the Tiki idea...

We here in da islands prefer to allude to him as Arthur Lyman...

for more, dig this:
http://www.phatnav.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Tiki

http://www.atomicmag.com/articles/2002/love_of_tiki.shtml

Mahalo Nui lanikai! I be readin the news from da islands and other cites on dis. Have you been into Alohaworld.com? It brings the islands to those of us who have unfortunately moved to the mainland. Make me not so Aloha kaumaha i ka home.

Hey K'eli - I love reading about poly pop history. This is all discussed in depth in The Book Of Tiki (our "bible"). If you don't have a copy, ya gotta get one. It's written by one of our own, BigBro.

Aloha - yep Sven - right? This was in a book that my parents had and I actually knew Don (the Beachcomber) personally.