brit-tiki...beachcomber footage online

I was lookin at boing boing and they gave a link to a pathe newsreel site, so i clicked onto it and stuck in tiki and found only one clip bah i thought how about beachcomber and it came up trumps, there is preview pics and a free low rez download...

http://www.britishpathe.com/product_display.cfm?searchfilm=beachcomber#

I was unable to determine if the clips are all from the Butlin's Beachcombers, or some from The Beachcomber at the Mayfair Hotel in London. I believe they had a live crocodile there...

Brilliant! They featured the fact that Pathe stuff was going to be made available this morning on the news. I just assumed it would be never-ending footage of the Queen and various wars the Brits have got themselves involved in over the years! Well done for trying out 'Beachcomber'. Johnny Halifax who did the film 'TikiTikiTiki' will be chuffed as he's been trying to dig out this footage for years.

I've not been able to download anything yet (first day popularity of the site), but assume that the Crocodile Bar is the Mayfair Beachcomber since they also mention the terrapins. Can't wait to see this stuff!

Trader Woody

Is it Skegness beachcomber or the mayfair, very tricky to decide coz old billy butlin ripped off the mayfair beachcomber for his butlins beachcombers. I'd say it was the Skegness bar coz the central clip is listed as such and the others are outakes from it.

I'm looking at the one above the Skegness clip, "Crocodile Bar aka Beachcomber Club".
The Mayfair was famed for having wildlife of both animal and social nature. See old thread:
https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=528&forum=1

Butlins took ideas from a bunch of sources, including an astonishing rip-off of Mr Bali Hai. While Butlin certainly took copious notes from the Beachcomber, I'd be wary of classifying the Butlins bars as straight copies.

Trader Woody

Woaaahh!!! I've just downloaded the free preview footage of the 'Crocodile Bar' stuff and it's the holy grail. Definitely the Mayfair Beachcomber...featuring the Castaway Corner, the crocs, high class clientele, the Aloha Bar, as well as the swearing parrot!

There are drinks served in pineapples, a huge Tiki, Hula dancers, some great Tiki decor, a live band, Aloha shirts on the British patrons, and some mugs that I never knew existed. I urge anyone who wants to take a look at a Tiki Bar in the 60's to download at least the free preview. Classic, classic stuff!!!!

Thanks again for the link Atomictonytiki!

Trader Woody

Wowee! OK - I'm a little excited - but this is some of the best footage (outside of Sven's stuff) that I've ever seen of a vintage Tiki Bar....
The free low rez download of this footage is somewhat complicated & I'm bummed they only offer it in Windows Media Player (Quicktime would have been much sharper, I'm sure) - bit it's still worth the hassle. I strongly advise everyone (just not all at once) to download this!

Here are some pics - will post some more later today....

"Oh mystic powers - hear my call...
From my limbs, let new life fall..."
http://home.earthlink.net/~cdylanm/

[ Edited by: Tangaroa on 2002-11-22 13:13 ]

Here are 10 more:

I may post some more later....

"Oh mystic powers - hear my call...
From my limbs, let new life fall..."
http://home.earthlink.net/~cdylanm/

[ Edited by: Tangaroa on 2002-11-22 15:22 ]

Thanks for posting those great screen-grabs, Tangaroa!

This is really pretty wonderful stuff that those folks at Pathe have put up for free. I'm amazed by what was going of Tiki-wise in the UK in the 60's. We knew those places existed, but hadn't realised they were so fuggin' brilliant. Surely similar archives must exist in the US somewhere of the classic Tiki bars?

There's a lot more to explore on Pathe...Polynesian dances, Maori hakas, as well as a show of beachwear at London Hilton, where Trader Vic's is situated. Unfortunately the site is proving so popular that it's difficult to get an 'order' at the moment but keep trying.

Trader Woody

[ Edited by: Trader Woody on 2002-11-22 19:17 ]

OK - last one for the weekend!

"The Hawaiian Echoes"...

Have a great weekend everyone!

"Oh mystic powers - hear my call...
From my limbs, let new life fall..."
http://home.earthlink.net/~cdylanm/

[ Edited by: Tangaroa on 2002-11-22 16:17 ]

And to think that this wonderfull bar ended up in a skip in 1984, enough to make ya glum, but the sighting of those beachcomber mugs hopefully more brit-tiki to find oh joy!

Another great one to check out is "South Seas Barber," where patrons were "...serviced entirely by lovely young girls in Hawaiian costume."

http://www.britishpathe.com/product_display.cfm?searchfilm=bikini

Since there isn't an entry for the Beachcomber in Locating yet, I have a new picture (from a recent issue of Q of all places). Ignore the strange caption....

thats a picture of the Butlin's Bognor Regis Beachcomber Bar, not the mayfair beachcomber aka the tahitain room. The image was taken by Edmund Nagele for butlin's postcards.

OK- Thanks for the correction Tony.

The major problem with identifying "Beachcomber" pictures is the fact there was atleast eight bars with the same name and in some cases exactly the same decor.

Here is an example of how the same tiki features in two diffrent Butlins Beachcomber bars, the pathe copyrighted image is from screenshots Tangaroa grabbed of the Skegness Beachcomber and below is postcard of the Ayr Beachcomber as you see our little tiki friend turns up twice.

So.... Has anyone been deep pocketed enough to buy this footage yet? I think on another post I brought up the idea of a bunch of us going in on buying the footage & then copying it for others? Anyone think this is a good idea?