Original Enchanted Tiki Room Shirt.

There is a photo of, what I believe to be, the original Enchanted Tiki Room shirt in Sven Kirsten's The Book of Tiki. Does anyone know if, in fact, it is the original shirt sold when the show opened? I would also like to know who designed it and why I can't find any mention of it online. All I can find online is the Shag version.

Thanks.

-Pharos

I know that TikiHula owns one - perhaps he knows some background on it.

Why would anyone mention the original Tiki Room shirt online? That's OLD... :wink:

They sold them there all right, but don't know when, or who designed it, sorry. No idea how many were made, but in over 10 years of urban archeology I have only met two people who own one, (and I'm not one of them).

Maybe Kevin knows...

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2004-08-08 16:42 ]

Hi, I own one of the original 1960's Tiki Room shirts that I was lucky enough to score in a thrift store. (I haven't been as lucky with mugs) I did a bit of asking around about it and while the info I got wasn't necessary 100% definitive or confirmed by officials, I did get something. I have the design that is in the Book of Tiki and I think it was the basic representative design that they sold in the marketplace building across from the ride, probably throughout the duration of the 1960's. I met someone wearing one who was not aware of the possible "specialness" of the shirt but she remembered buying it in the late 60's. (she took my number when I offered to buy it but never called me back) The one in the book is a purple backround and it is what I have. Mine has the same Disneyland tag and on the edge of the selvage inside it is dated 1964 and has "c. W.E.D. Enterprises Inc.". I haven't found any info on who designed it but it really is a superb, color-saturated design. A perfect representation of the show in my opinion. I have seen a green backround version, same design as the purple. I have also seen a simple straight dress cut from the same fabric. There is also a different shirt in the same cut that they sold at the same time but is in a different fabric and design. I have seen it in orange and the fabric has a skull motif that seems like general Adventureland design! Very very cool. Finally, there is the Tiki Room cast shirt with United Airlines fabric in a classic simple red and white Hawaiian print. Birds, flowers and United Airlines print as I recall. There was an individual selling this fabric on ebay for a while on a regular basis but I am not sure if they still do or not. This is the information I gathered from various people, hope it helps. I unfortunately don't have pics of the other shirts and my shirt is in the BOT but if you want other shots of it let me know. I hope others have 2 bits to add, I would love to hear it!
-Pete

Don't know who designed it, probably an imagineer though, huh.

I've seen the green one for sale on ebay before. And, when I wore mine to DL once a group of guys came up to me and asked me where I got it. One of them used to be a cast member at the Tiki Room and said that they wore these shirts back then too!
So not only was the red/white and blue/white United Airlines shirts worn by cast members back then, but these as well:

Me and Maynard

I have the other Adventureland fabric shirt that Larry Lava is talking about- here's a link to it in the tiki gallery:
http://www.tikiroom.net/gallery/misc/aer

mahalo

So what is an original shirt actually worth these days? It seems it might be one of those items that's considered by sellers to be worth far more than they actually go for.

Someone recently attempted to sell a size small with an opening bid of $299.99 (that's almost three hundred dollars!!!) on the eBay. No bites, so it has been relisted with a Buy It Now price of $324.99. (Makes sense. Wait, huh?)

The reproductions get listed for high prices and go unsold.

To me that just seems like someone thinking "This thing is worth a fortune!!!" and sticking to their belief in the value despite what the market tells him.

Full disclosure: I have one in XL I intend to sell (or attempt to sell) some day but am wondering if I should just wait for rainbows to start shooting out of everyone's butts again (I hear that's any day now) before I bother.