1960s Florida Tiki Carver - Frank Schmudde

Here is another great article from the google timeline, loaded with info - I can tell I'm not gonna get any actual work down today...

St. Petersburg Time - Feb. 25, 1966

Brooding Polynesian Gods, Devils Emerge From Rough Cypress Logs

Indian Rocks Beach South Shore - Frank Schmudde is an artist in wood.

Not little chunks of wood that gleam and curve in contemporary art, but great rough cypress logs which he lovingly carved into brooding Polynesian gods.

Two months ago Schmudde took over an empty service station and attached open carport on Gulf Boulevard where he has plenty of space to store the big unhewn logs and room to spare for his gods in various stages of completion.

Passersby can see the short fat evil spirits and the tall majestic protective gods under the shed roof, with Schmudde carving and chiseling and polishing them.

Originally from Miami, Schmudde says he worked in wood on and off all his life, always liking to create authentic figures. Five years ago it became his profession. His first big job was the Hawaiian Village in Tampa where he designed all the native decor and wood sculpturing for owner Sam Taub.

Now nearing completion is a Polynesian Pole, designed to show the status of the island natives. It differs from the American Indian totem pole in that the totem pole told a story of a tribe.

Central Florida Loggers keep in mind Schmudde's requests for trees and ship them to his door, sometimes 40 inches across.

He also is designing at this time a motel building in Panama City which will feature Polynesian architecture.

He spends many hours researching for pictures of his gods, in reference books, old National Geographic Magazines, old historic reports, and other available resources.

Among the many favorites are carving of Tiki, the man god; Kava Kava, the ghost man; the fisherman god; Ku, the war god (there's one 10 feet tall and 40 inches around he did for the Hawaiian Village); and even some in cement and featherstone (volcanic ash). One of these is the Happy Lady, a reproduction of a statue on Easter Island.

On his list of things to do is a carving for a church in Cape Coral. The Church has asked for Christ with two children. He has the wood on hand now, a solid piece of heart redwood. He's waiting for the"fell" for that piece of wood.

Schmudde, clad always in a wide straw hat, old work shorts and gaily patterned shirt, plans to enlarge and decorate his shop when he has a few spare minutes.

Probably someday there will be a Teko Teko god at the door.

The crappy thing is this article does have a photo of him carving a tiki, but again the google scan is so bad that it is just a black square.

Anybody heard of this guy before? Sounds like an east coast Eli. wonder what, if any, was his association with Tiki Gardens, since they are in the same small town. Or, was he just riding the tiki wave that Tiki Gardens started. Anybody got a picture of that Ku at Hawaiian Village?

Great find! Exactly what we have been talking about here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=32087&forum=1&27

There are people finder services on the net that charge a couple of bucks, but could dig this guy up --alive, that is. Because, contrary to popular belief, not ALL the old timers of Poly pop have kicked the bucket yet! Case in point:
Another Google Time Line find by Mo-Eye:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=22385&forum=2&vpost=448908

Can't wait to see what surfaces from there! Or how about this guy, the actual house photographer of Sambo's:

http://www.sambosphotos.com/

He's alive and well, and he's digging up his photos he has of the mythic Palm Springs Tropics' Cellar right now for my friend Pete.

Not much tiki, but here's another article about Schmudde:

Evening Independent - Jun 8, 1970

Minature Golf Course Work is Scheduled

Work is scheduled to begin this week on an 18 hole miniature golf course at 19811 Gulf Blvd., Indian Rocks Beach South Shores.

The course, "Around the World in 18 Holes," is owned by Thomas E. Groves of Redington Shores and James R. Feimster, owner of the Casa Chica Motel in South Shores.

Estimated cost of the development is $50,000 and work is to take 30 to 45 days, depending on the weather.

Among the attractions will be golf holes with a Japanese bridge, pagoda, Viking ship, Indian Teepee, lighthouse, Sphinx, Windmill, castle and prehistoric animals. There will be parking for 42 cars with room to add more if necessary.

The course was designed by Frank Schmudde of South Shores who has done work for the Hawaiian Village in Tampa and for Busch Gardens.

Wonder if there was an Easter Island or South Pacific hole????

Here's another one, that gives a little insight to his personality.

Evening Independant - June 27, 1975

Carvings Reflect Past Era

Madeira Beach - Frank Schmudde has spent the past four months in a world where people fit in your hand and monsters walk the earth.

"I can close my eyes and see it," he says.

What he sees and has created is a miniature world of thunder lizards, bizarre foliage and a colony of cave dwellers, with more colors than a kaleidoscope.

Frank Schmudde is a pleasure to watch. As perspiration beads across his tanned body, a deft wrist guides and old steak knife through a chunk of styrofoam and emerges 15 minutes later with a 4 inch Neanderthal ready to stalk a 10 inch Mastadon.

To understand what the 55 year old Madeira Beach man is doing, you must know something about his past. A boat builder by trade, he took to carving and working with molded plastics 15 years ago when he created the Polynesian decorations for the Hawaiian Inn in Tampa. That led to motifs for the new Kapok Tree on Duhme Road, Busch Garden's Boma and creation of the strange figures that adorn many area miniature golf courses.

All that time a dream milled around in the back of his mind that he would one day re-create the past. The past, he laughs, so long ago he could use his imagination any way he pleased.

Night after night he at down and beefed up on primeval, finding an old book here, reading a story there and etching it into his great plan to one day build "Millions BC."

In March he rented a tin shed near Bay Pines War Veterans Park and set out - 12 to 13 hours a day, seven days a week - to build himself a trailer and the dream to go inside.

With hunks of styrofoam ant that old steak knife he got during a gas station give away, Schmudde began carving out Ornithopods, Ankelosaurs, Sauropods, Stegosaurs and the beastly Tyrannosaurus - 60 of them, to be exact. Everything, he decided, would be 1/12 the size of the real thing... so it would fit in his 32 foot long trailer.

No prehistoric countryside would be complete without a waterfall and running stream, so he built one. The cave dwellers are warmed by tiny lights, the skies are filled with birds and a storm over the mountains, and disobedient Neanderthal children are chased by a lizard.

All this he did without plans except for the sketch he created in his mind. when he was stumped with "How do you make the sky look real and not have a crease in it," he flew to Washington DC, spent an hour in the Smithsonian Institution galleries and flew home. "I made a note on how they did it and came on back," he says. "There wasn't any reason to stay longer."

Which brought up another question: "How do you go about carving a horned Triceratops?" "Simple," says Schmudde, with a reply as old as the creatures he was creating, "you just cut away everything that doesn't look like a dinosaur."

"You have to talk to these characters," he smiles, painting the body of some strange looking armored beast, "and bring them something to feed on or they'll eat up the trees. I worked for the little people too (all 47 of them). They didn't have to paint their own caves, I did all of that." He built up their caves with stacks of styrofoam sheets.

He uses plastic floral arrangements, cannibalizing a leaf here and a flower there to come up with the plant he wants and then planting it in the styrofoam soil. "My wife says only God can make a tree but I tell her it's okay because I already got permission."

But it all isn't for fun. He wants to start touring the state - Maybe spending a summer in Gatlinburg, Tenn. - and charge admission to his project. He has built an awning and queue to keep visitors out of the sun and rain.

This fall the display will be available for organizations to rent as a money raising project. "It's fun but it has to provide a living."

There are a few finishing touches left to go on his prehistoric Lilliput - "There always will be," he says - but it's open now to the public, through July 4, on Gulf Boulevard at 144th Avenue to raise money for the Madiera Beach Chamber of Commerce new building fund.

"For relaxation, I'm just going to keep working on it," he says. "I'll get around to a narrated tape and there's some sign painting yet to do, but I've got other things going around in my head to do next." What for instance? "I was thinking about another one. How do you think it would look in 1/4 scale?"

Here's a picture of him with a big Buddha for the miniature golf course.

So, the article above puts him at 89 years old now, so he could still be around. I couldn't find and obit notice in the Florida papers. On the people searches on the web, he is listed as being in Iverness, FL. Anyone local want to look him up???

Found another article - Dec. 4, 1967 Evening Independent

Native Woods Become Gods

If you want something really different for a Christmas gift, there's just the place to find it down at Indian Rocks Beach South Shore.

There, Frank Schmudde carves huge brooding native gods from great logs of Florida cypress.

His workshop is on Gulf Boulevard under a shedlike structure attached to a small white frame building. The logs and finished gods spill out all around him so that those passing are startled by ferocious wood creatures which grimace at them.

Frank set up shop here about two years ago, as he neared completion of five years of work at Tampa's Hawaiian Village.

At the moment two great unhewn logs are lying out front. He picked out the trees himself deep in Florida's cypress swamps. Central Florida loggers and three sawmills keep in mind his need for trees and ship them to his door.

He spends most of his days carving, chiseling and polishing the short fat evil spirits or tall majestic protective gods, no two quite alike.

Frank says he has worked with wood all his life, always trying to create authentic figures. With Hawaiian Village, it became a profession. He calls his custom carving shop "The Workroom of Native Decor."

A beautiful cypress totem pole, for a Clearwater restaurant, has its base coat of white paint. When done, it will be splashed with vivid color and have its winglike crossbar of sugar pine affixed near the top.

Frank explains that the American Indians' totem pole tells the story of the tribe. In contrast, the Polynesian memorial pole is designed to show the social status of the island natives.

The ideas and designs for all his pieces are carefully researched in museum and library pictures, reference books, old copies of National Geographic magazines, historic reports and other available resources.

Some of his favorites are carvings of Tiki, the man god; Kava Kava, the ghost man; the fisherman god; Ky, the war god; and even some is cement and featherstone (volcanic ash). One of the latter he finished a while back was "happy lady" a reproduction of an Easter Island statue.

So if you want a Christmas gift that's on a grand scale and custom made, order a carved god and tie a red bow around his neck. You'll have to deliver it yourself though. Santa's sleigh just wouldn't have room.

And this one had some usable pictures!

Notice those tikis behind the turtle? They look exactly like Witco bar stools...

Great thread, here's what came up on google about a restaurant Frank co-owned:

Santa Madeira to bid farewell at auction

An auction will be held Wednesday at the restaurant, which is housed in a replica of a Spanish sailing ship.

By Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 27, 2003

MADEIRA BEACH - Looking for binnacles or a brass diving suit at a price you can afford? Try the Santa Madeira restaurant on Wednesday morning.

Everything in and out of the restaurant, which is housed in a replica of a Spanish sailing ship, will be auctioned to the highest bidder, said Tom Farner, owner of Bay Area Auction Inc. There is a large assortment of nautical decor such as the model ships that decorated the wooden mantel in the dining room area or the cannons that guarded the restaurant's exterior.

The restaurant, also once known as the Brown Derby, closed in April. The Santa Madeira's original owner, "Trader" Jack Pearsall, and his business partner, Frank Schmudde, opened the restaurant in 1977.

"(Santa Madeira) is part of the dying breed," Farner said. "They just don't have 600-seat restaurants anymore. It's just one of the last of them."

Some of the former restaurant's clientele already have their eyes on a few items such as the restaurant's bar stools and chandeliers, Farner said.

"It's great that people have the opportunity to get a piece of it," Farner said.

A preview of the auction will begin at 8 a.m. Wednesday followed by the live auction at 10 a.m.

The Santa Madeira is at 601 American Legion Drive. Call 548-9303 for more information.

A binnacle, by the way, is an upright stand, typically cylindrical, that holds a ship's compass.

Here's a website with some pictures, but no carvings.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://locationsagent.com/santa_madeira/santa_8.jpg&imgrefurl=http://locationsagent.com/santa_madeira/santa_madeira.htm&usg=__lwTQh_z-d9UU9gLUjdrPbTqvdJQ=&h=240&w=320&sz=12&hl=en&start=2&sig2=wNjXC32_9sgoQrHXZYJqnw&tbnid=E2bhUEVume8vtM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsite:locationsagent.com%2BSanta%2BMadeira%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den&ei=AED3SaiNDeaEmAeyguSZDg

Here's a tiki I picked up around Treasure Island, might be one Frank carved.

Thanks for this info.
Now armed, I'll start asking around Indian Rocks (lots of friends there) and see if I can find a few treasures from the man.

You know - Indian Rocks ain't all that. I wonder what the draw was in the day? This gentleman, Tiki Gardens... I'm guessing cheap waterfront near between St. Pete and Clearwater.

It's not cheap now.
I have a friend there on the water whose property tax payments are about quadruple my mortgage payments.

Thanks for posting that, Senior! I had found that article, then forgot all about it. Haven't seen those photo before. So, the website link you have lists the building available for Hollywood type explosions. Did this ever actually happen?

I also just found a short 1970 article that his "Around the World in 18 Holes" miniature golf course did have one hole featuring a "Polynesian fisherman's idol" and that Frank also built courses in Texas and Arizona.

Man, is that man still alive!? An unsung American pop sculpture hero. When comparing these photos...

....it becomes evident that he was the artiste that carved all those amazing gods at the Tahitian resort:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=29685&forum=2

...and probably the Tikis at the Makai restaurant at the Tahitian Gardens development:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=32239&forum=2

"...However, the exterior had really cool human-sized abstract (almost 50s biomorphic style) tikis carved of lava that were set into the exterior walls. There was also plenty of Polynesian-style wood trim (tiki totems, etc.)...."

That SOUNDS like his work, now if we could only get good photos of it!

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-05-11 13:06 ]

O.K. I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to know. I did it, I dug him up. I left a stuttering message on his answering machine, who knows if he will call me back (and IF it is him). If it is, he sounded good for his 89 (!) years.

And who knows if he has anything left in terms of photos and visual evidence of his work. Americans move a lot, and when they do they throw away a lot of old stuff. My research mentioned that at some point he was the owner of "Trader Lee's Outpost". Anybody ever heard anything about that place?

That's awesome to see the tiki from the paper actually in place!!

This is not him then:
SCHMUDDE, FRANK W., 86, of Inverness, died Wednesday (April 5, 2006) in the Citrus Hospital Hospice Unit Inverness. He was born in Chicago. He was a Merchant Marine veteran and former owner of Le Outpost Hwy 44 East Inverness. He had developed an RV park in Bushnell and known for his custom built carports. Survivors include his wife, Le Thi Muoi Schmudde. Heinz Funeral Home & Cremation, Inverness.

I believe that is him. Bad news. Maybe I talked to a ghost machine message, who knows how long that thing has been on! My people finder service probably just added up the years, ignorant of his passing. Bohooo, found and lost within hours. And a few years too late. :(

Very cool thread.
In the post before the last one by Senioraqua, it says he was survived by his wife. Why not give her a try to see if she happens to have anything like albums or something from back in the day??
You never know and she might actually want to talk about this guy and add some new information about him.

She would probably also be interested in hearing that he is still creating a bit of a buzz all these years later. Worth a shot for someone other than this distant Canuck!

TabooDan

On 2009-05-11 11:56, bigbrotiki wrote:
Man, is that man still alive!? An unsung American pop sculpture hero. When comparing these photos...

....it becomes evident that he was the artiste that carved all those amazing gods at the Tahitian resort:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=29685&forum=2

...and probably the Tikis at the Makai restaurant at the Tahitian Gardens development:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=32239&forum=2

"...However, the exterior had really cool human-sized abstract (almost 50s biomorphic style) tikis carved of lava that were set into the exterior walls. There was also plenty of Polynesian-style wood trim (tiki totems, etc.)...."

That SOUNDS like his work, now if we could only get good photos of it!

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-05-11 13:06 ]

here are more views of the god of fertility, from the back in this postcard

and in very sad condition in 2008

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar 2010-09-02 07:25 ]

I was in contact with Frank's widow last year, which was a task because she spoke with a heavy Vietnamese dialect. She said anything documenting Frank's work was given away and was not sure how to contact the person she gave the items to. Was worth giving it a shot.

Definitely worth it. I am really sad that this one "got away". And so did a lot of his work. Damn. Mo-eye did such great research. But without sufficient visual support, Schmuddes's story it is not publishable as more than a side note. It reads great, but I really believe in the fact that the picture tells the story.

Here is a newswire photo of Frank Schmudde carving (from ebay).

Photo was taken in December, 1965.

Looks kind of like a Kava man.

DC

Nice photo DC!

Here's another one from ebay. Show's Frank holding a ship that was a model for the Santa Madeira restaurant of Miami Beach that he was a business partner in.

Thanks guys, anything found on this forgotten artiste is great.

On 2012-06-15 14:17, bigbrotiki wrote:
Thanks guys, anything found on this forgotten artiste is great.

Bigbro,

Here is a little more information on Mr. Schmudde.

The article states that he carved the Tikis for to the Hawaiian Village in Tampa. Wonder if he was responsible for the flaming Moai out front?

DC

A little more history on Schmudde. He carved the Tiki for the Tiki Lounge at the Surfside Restaurant in Cape Coral.

DC

What incredible tiki timing ... we were just down at Tahitian Gardens last week and are working with the current owner to restore all of the tikis!

The Santa Madeira connection was new to us -- we tried to save it, and the neighboring Captain's Galley, back when they were endangered. But alas, that was during one of Florida's real estate booms and there was not enough interest in historic preservation. The irony is that those places would be worth so much more in so many ways today had the right investor seen them...