Trader Luke..anyone ever heard of him?

Theres this garden shop in my neighborhood, that has had some plam logs I've had my eye on. They've just been sitting there for the longest time so I decided yesterday to stop and see what their plans were for them. Before I can park my car, I see some fella outside hammering chunks out of one with a chisel. I start to get excited...
His name is Miles Bradley, he learned to carve from a guy in San Pedro Ca. named Trader Luke in the 60's. He talked about how much he loved to carve but since he has moved to Colorado he doesn't get to carve much anymore. He also talked about learning to carve out of nessecity to help supplement his income (a butcher) during the early 60's. He said he has never had any problems getting rid of his carvings, all his tikis have always sold. It was kinda cool, watching him get jazzed about his carvings. You could tell it was something he really enjoyed doing. His nephew, who owns the garden shop had been bugging him to come to town and carve for him. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone from the area has ever heard of or knows any history on this Trader Luke?

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2004-10-12 20:42 ]

Trader Luke is OLD SCHOOL Dawn. I heard his shop was on Anahiem st, but is long gone. Bob and Leroy told me about him.

PEDRO!!!!

okay, I believe his shop was along harbor Blvd, but I may be wrong - maybe sabu or Dr. Z know exactly. I'll hit up my ol' pedro buddy (who knows everything about pedro) and ask him when I see him next (probably Friday).
In tiki news #17 (I think that's the number - it's the one with the colored Shag cover) there is a reprint of an article about trader luke.
I'll see if I can get you more info

I talked with alan today and he told me that trader luke lived and worked in Pedro in the 50's. His first shop was on Channel St, directly under the 110 freeway (channel street intersects Gaffy and pacific by the waterfront, near where Harbor blvd starts) and then later moved to B street in Wilmington (alan couldn't remember exactly where).
According to the article reprinted in the tiki news, you could travel down to trader lukes store and have a tiki custom carved for you on the spot within a few hours. He also sold a TON of nautical bric-a-brac (or junk or crap depending on how you look at it). The picture of Trader Luke's store in the tiki news shows a rather large building, so I'm assuming that it was the wilmington location.
Alans personal recolection of the guy is that he was a real "character". If you ever come to know San Pedro, you'll find out very quickly that there are quite a few "character"'s here. He said he didn't particularly care for Trader Lukes style of carving, but was very impressed that he could make a living doing it - and that so many people loved it.

Thanks for the help guys, and very nice detective work Polynesiac, I knew the TC crew would dig up something for me. I went back after a few days to see what Miles had found inside of the palm logs he was working on. They turned out nice, not alot of detail but he hasn't carve in nearly 20 years. I may go back after the holidays and see if there are any left. Thanks again :D

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2004-10-22 20:37 ]

I've never heard of Trader Luke... but I've heard of Smuggler Han.

was that too geeky?