Urban Archeology and Chin Tiki (Great Pics)

Hey Everybody,
Please forgive if this has already been covered... I did a search but didn't see anything.

Anyway, I stumbled across this great urban archeology site which features some a section on the old Chin Tiki.

http://www.forgottenmichigan.com/

Click on "places" its in the second row...

Have a look, some of the other locations are really cool and creepy.
Aloha,
:tiki:

[ Edited by: Tiki Royale on 2005-02-11 12:10 ]

Wow, what a neat place. Too bad its not running! It looks like its all in there too, the tikis, tables, lamps, bamboo, everything intact.

WOW!!! Except, why the ugly white ceilings!!!

The carpet looks like one of my jackets!

Have a nice Tiki Day!

[ Edited by: martiki on 2005-02-11 18:46 ]

On 2005-02-11 13:08, mrsmiley wrote:
WOW!!! Except, why the ugly white ceilings!!!

The carpet looks like one of my jackets!

On 2005-02-11 13:08, mrsmiley wrote:
The carpet looks like one of my jackets!

I have seen your jacket, and you sir are NO Chin Tiki!
Great pics. I'm sure it will make a comeback someday.
Here's a thread about the Chin Tiki mugs

don't these slightly darker ceilings look better than white!?!

NOT ABANDONED!!! ALARMED AND IN THE PROCESS OF BEING RESTORED.

:D

Wow!

That is the coolest find of the year.

Thanks for finding that. It makes me wanna start driving around the seedy parts of cities looking for similar treasure!

Awesome.

I'm lovin the giant carved Mr Peanut Mug:

I hope the rumors of re-opening are true! Not that I'd ever get to see the place first-hand but it would be phenomenal for those in the area!

On a semi-related note...why the hell did they shoot that Eminem movie there? I know he's from Detroit but why inside Chin Tiki? I just don't get it. It probably helps Mr.Chin's cause by getting exposure but are the wannabe "homies and thugs" who enthusiastically went out and saw 8-Mile, the same kind of crowd that would want to go to a tiki bar? Most of them probably have 5-8 years to go before they're of legal drinking age...just a thought.

Hey! 8-mile was a good movie. Although, my only complaint, is that the entire movie was the first 15 minutes of any other movie, stretched out to an hour and a half. And it was only just beginnning when it ended. And I hate rap. And the girl looks ugly and coked out of her mind. Okay, so the movie sucked, and I hate Eminem because appartenly some Mr Chin mugs disappeared while it was being filmed there. Alright, I've got nothing good to say, and as Thumper said "If you don't have anything good to say, you shounldn't say anything at all."

Wow, what an urban archeologist's dream! Talk about patina! The layers of time...

I have been debating for a while to go there and photograph it...where else would one find a Tiki Bar closed down for thirty years but left intact (almost). Too bad that Eminem has sort of de-virginized it.

I would love to shoot a horror movie there, about a gang that hides from the cops in there, and gets haunted by Tiki ghosts...driven to INSANITY!!! At the end, the only surviver emerges with his face frozen in a Tiki mask stare: mother of pearl eyes, flared nostrils, a frozen grin and mumbling nothing but ancient Hawaiian..

Spotted a couple of O.A. walldecor pieces (behind Marvin Chin), and I would not be surprised if they did the Tikis too. Interestingly so, they seem unfinished, just plain palmwood. The guy next to Mr. Peanut did not let me rest, the mouth was too distinctive, I had seen it before...

You can find it NOT in the BOT, but in TIKI QUEST page iv, in the small photo I took of the Chicago Kona Kai Tikis in situ, it is very similar to the left and the middle guy, and opposite page, the big one later in Duke's backyard.

These again are smaller versions of the big sucker Ed Crissman carved for the Hotel Taharaa, BOT p.245

...and I love that Witco Wahine chair. Missed one of those at the Starlite Room store, but got to photograph it. Wonder if the Witco "Tahititan Lovers" painting in the postcard is still there, maybe they just didn't picture it.

Love that painted Tiki on the door.

Did you notice that the "booth where Eminem sat" got more clicks than the other images? I guess people have different priorities...

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2005-02-11 23:21 ]

I think it would be cool if they updated the 70s feel and left all the tiki and tiki inspired things alone. But then there would be something cool to have it the way it is now. A true time machine. Think about the people that took pictures of themself 30 years ago in there and then now. The only change would be their aged faces. Oh, and there updated clothes.

Mr. Chin sold the Chin Tiki parking lot a few years back. Unfortunatly, this will make it very difficult to re-open or even sell the place for the price he wants.

Chub, please try to help, if you can and not let another Tiki place die.

Wow! What a great site! The Chin TIki pix are fun - but that abandoned theatre reeeeealllly gave me the willies....

Nice stuff.