vintage pics of trader vics portland and kon tiki

don't know if anyone posted this yet - here's a unique glimpse of the interiors of the portland trader vics and kon tiki. these were shot in 1959, i'm guessing prior to the grand opening to be used for publicity. Incredible images you can own through vintage roadside.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageRoadside?ref=listing-shop-header-item-count

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2013-08-17 19:55 ]

Thanks for the kind mention Tipsy! These were indeed shot by Portland professional commercial photographers in 1959 for each place. The incredible thing is to see the numerous other shots taken at the same time or on subsequent shoots. Trader Vic's for example only used a couple of the shots and the rest of the negatives ended up in a filing cabinet until we pulled them out and worked out a way to share them. The Kon Tiki images were shot during a press preview event.

We're hoping you all enjoy them and we can continue digging around the vault for more to share. We've got a batch of 1957 Hawaiian Village images we'd love to show you all.

Also, we're working to get additional sizes of prints listed. We've used a $90,000.00 drum scanner to scan the original large format negatives and can make prints big enough to cover a wall. :)

Very exciting. I love how visual treasure troves such as this are still unearthed. The Kon Tiki entrance is pretty amazing, so much stuff crammed in there, and one can even see the entrance hut's interior, which was moved to and still lives on at the Alibi in Portland. The entrance hut concept was (like much else for his Kon Tiki chain) taken from Steve Cranes Luau in Beverly Hills (from which its actual hut was later transported to the Hanalei Hotel tower courtyard)

The Luau Beverly Hills menu illustration

Hanalei Tower courtyard

Close up of Luau hut in Hanalei courtyard

In case you are staying there for Oasis right now: It's not there anymore :(

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2013-08-18 10:33 ]

Thanks for the entrance hut photos Sven! It's great to know the original Portland hut still lives on at the Alibi.

One of the reasons I chose that photo to print was both the hut, and several of the light fixtures that Mrs. Crane herself built for the Portland location. A couple of which she described as "laundry baskets with coolie hats stuck on top." She said she was inspired to create these after a visit to a basket shop in Hong Kong.