1968 Time Magazine article on the sillyness of menus

I found this great article from the December 6, 1968 issue of Time Magazine, titled "Edibility Gap":

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844655,00.html

I'm so glad that Time is willing to freely share this old article. Here are some excerpts:

The Hawaiian Hut in Portland, Me., offers its Special Tiki Chicken on this verbal platter: "Truly a dish fit for the gods—beyond description." But any diner could describe it easily—chicken with bean sprouts.

Here's a postcard featuring the Hawaiian Hut I found on eBay:

The most honest and sardonic sell of all is practiced by the Brookline, Mass., delicatessen of Jack & Marion's. Several of the 345 dishes on the overwhelming (25-in. by 36-in.) card carry a star to indicate "a good profit item for Jack & Marion's. Please order."

"The funny, far-out menu is a must these days," states Manhattan Restaurateur Shelly Fireman. "The majority of people who dine out are bored with each other and need something to break down the barriers. A way-out menu gives them something to talk about." Alas, the wit is insipid.

And the menu of San Francisco's Señor Pico describes one bestseller (beef stew) with this line: "It's a real son of a bitch."

Senor Pico's was/is Trader Vic's Mexican chain -- that is the inimitable Voice of Bergeron.

Punctuation is repetitive, leading to this law: The quality of food in a restaurant is in inverse proportion to the number of semicolons and exclamation marks on the menu.

Great find, Humu! Jeff Berry is gonna love this!

fascinating.
I know which hotel that is (no longer a Sheraton) and I could now see if there is anyone there who knows the history of that restaurant - or if there is anything that remains from that period.

thanks!

..sbim

Thanks Humuhumu!!

Jeff

here's the response I got from the hotel where the Hawaiian Hut was:

Jon,

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the Hawaiian Hut. We don't have any items that I'm aware of from the Hawaiian Hut days of the hotel. There is a book called The Rines Family Legacy regarding history of the family that built the hotel with some old images of the hotel, but there is nothing mentioned about the Hawaiian Hut. We have an old image of the hotel from the early 1970's with a reader sign visible advertising a Polynesian group in the Hawaiian Hut, but the names are not fully visible. I would be happy to scan that picture and get it to you.

If I am able to locate any other information, I will certainly let you know. As we are celebrating our 80th birthday at the Eastland this year, anything historical is of particular interest to us.

Best regards,

Peter J. McNamee
General Manager

Direct Line: 207.347.6510

"A Glorious Past. A Magnificent Future."
http://www.EastlandParkHotel.com
Reservations: 888.671.8008

This was in today's paper talking about the legacy of MLK Jr.
If you look in the background, you can see a sign for the Hawaiian Hut at th Sheraton Eastland Hotel.

as a side note, I know the guy holding the flag on the right. Gerald Talbot. First black mayor in Maine (Bangor).

..sb

On 2008-01-12 15:22, Suffering Bastard in Maine wrote:
This was in today's paper talking about the legacy of MLK Jr.
If you look in the background, you can see a sign for the Hawaiian Hut at th Sheraton Eastland Hotel.

as a side note, I know the guy holding the flag on the right. Gerald Talbot. First black mayor in Maine (Bangor).

..sb

OMG I love the 61 Galaxie in that picture

Humuhumu, thanks, I had no idea Time archived so many articles from that long ago! Nice contemporary review of the cuisine. : )

Hey, some other interesting articles:

March 31, 1961: Polynesia at Dinnertime - Trader Vic's

Sep. 17, 1956: Henry's Thatched Huts - Henry J. Kaiser's Hawaiian Village

Kaiser first bought a somewhat rundown hotel next to Waikiki beach. Within four months he had ripped down the hotel, put up in its place 24 hotel bungalows, three swimming pools, a nightclub and bar. To be sure that his new toy was authentic, he used Polynesian architecture and decor (tiki gods. Hawaiian and Oriental furnishings, yards of tapa cloth, thousands of sea shells), had a Samoan Mormon colony thatch the bungalow roofs by hand.

Dec. 16, 1966: On to the Outer Island - Tourism in Hawaii

..as he sits sipping a mai tai (assorted rums, lime, sugar and pineapple), served by a statuesque dark-haired wahine in a billowing muu muu with a blood-red anthurium in her hair.

May 25, 1959: Pop Records - "Quiet Village" Martin Denny review

Aug. 17, 1962: Mood Merchant - Arthur Lyman

May 19, 1961: Spoiled Spinster - Looks like an awful Shirley MacClaine movie "Two Loves"

Shirley is really a marm—a frustrated, febrile virgin teaching a grist of young Maoris in New Zealand..the film has the artsy-craftsy exotica of Trader Vic's.

Feb. 10, 1961: Under the Bam, the Boo - MGM shoots a film in Tahiti

One studio technician, armed with crates of thin, circular, skin-colored pads, is the ultimate in Hollywood specialists; every day he sees to it that roughly 1,500 bosoms are covered so skillfully that they look uncovered, presumably satisfying both censors and audiences. ... MGM's 105-man crew ... has spread itself out in grass shacks along a ten-mile stretch of coastline, where some are so content that they may remain forever.

On 2008-01-15 06:20, Xndr du Sauvage wrote:
One studio technician, armed with crates of thin, circular, skin-colored pads, is the ultimate in Hollywood specialists; every day he sees to it that roughly 1,500 bosoms are covered so skillfully that they look uncovered, presumably satisfying both censors and audiences.

Sigh... They just don't make jobs like they used to.