Tiki Devolution back in ???

"Mutant Ninja Turtles" or Tikis? I found this image a while back in my files, and thought it might be a nice urban archeology quiz to ask where these failed attempts at Tikis hail from:

I know, who else does? :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-06-15 08:47 ]

I don't know where they're from, but I know who they are related to...

That scene has a wintry vibe and everything is white; are those things made out of snow?

Both are good suggestions, I can see the snowman connection, but no, these are Californian.

Well I'm out. I was gonna say FAO Schwarz, but there isn't one in CA.

Well the rumaki eating grin and the headdress bring The tiki from Judges' to mind.

Well one thing is for sure, the person responsible for these "things" never researched the historical context of Tiki, they did not reference what was so great about both, ancient AND mid-century Tiki culture, making these "Tiki" art pieces uninteresting, unfunny, and fall "flat". And not "Tiki".
Right?
Or is that Poppa Smurftiki and friend?

On 2008-06-15 19:39, bananabobs wrote:
Well one thing is for sure, the person responsible for these "things" never researched the historical context of Tiki, they did not reference what was so great about both, ancient AND mid-century Tiki culture, making these "Tiki" art pieces uninteresting, unfunny, and fall "flat". And not "Tiki".

That's very well put! Where did you get that? :D
Yet they are not that far removed that they can not be identified as Tikis, mainly because of the head dress, I would say.
Looking at the whole figure, the Tiki reference becomes a little clearer:

Their size actually makes the Ghostbuster's Stay Puft Marshmallow Man reference very fitting, too. These suckers were among the largest Tiki statues ever built. To not hold you all in suspense for any longer, here is the answer: They hail from the early 70s and are proof that by that time the Tiki period was beginning its descend. These puppies stood at the Tropicana Lanes in Inglewood, L.A.:

Now by today's standards, this place was pretty amazing, but compared to some of the early 60s A-frame bowling alleys it is already lacking in style. Except for the sign, which had all the Googie one would want:

Yet when regarding the postcard rendering of the interior, it becomes sadly clear that Tiki's time had passed:

One has to wonder how they arrived at "Tastefully decorated in the Polynesian motif" claim: :)

Yet this place also yielded one of the classics of Tiki matchbook art:

(easily identified by the typeface of the sign)

Not only does this matchbook (which I showed in the BOT) have a cut out in the shape of a bowling pin, but the back (with its well rendered Tiki) has a little cut out stand that can be pulled out to set it upright on the table!:

What leaves the urban archeologist wondering is how, with all the lack of Polynesian decor, they even bothered to put what looks like "The Tahitian" table lamps on the tables:

(...IF they were ever used, and exist not only in the rendering)

Although I was trying to be funny by quoting you, in fact I think It more truth than jest. As I recall in the early 70's most poly pop was morphed into weirdness like we see. Just look at the cars being puked on the public, for gosh sakes; Torinos? Pintos and the Cordoba? (Corinthian leather!) Like today, designers and artists were running to the paycheck rather than going deep to the bone and calling upon the marrow of their discipline.
To prove my point consider, More early 70's; The honeymoon was over for the Summer of Love, The Beatles released their last song and the release of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album.
In the theaters, 1969 brought the counter-cultural Easy Rider and by 1971 we had slipped to Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song! And who wishes they could forget Billy Jack.

The statues may also have just been a poor interpretation of the tiki on the matchbook. The matchbook illustrations could have been part of an original design concept done by an artist who had nothing to do with the sign and the tikis. A sign company was probably hired to make the sign and tikis based on the design concept and hence the weird tiki-majigs. (Less likely but still a nice thought: The tiki-majigs came first and some in-the-know illustrator thought "Those suck!" and tweaked the images.)

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

The rendering of the Tropicana Lanes interior:

Has some similarities to pictures of Trader Vic's Las Vegas (posted by Ojaitimo):

(Ojaitimo's complete photo tour of Trader Vic' Las Vegas can be seen HERE)

It seems in both cases (and also with the recent Tiki Room NYC...I gave up looking for images of that) they were reaching for a clean and modern version of Tiki. They reached and they reached...

OMG! Trader Vic's LV looks horrible! Yuck.

I too thought the first photo on this thread looked like Stay Puft. Those tikis frighten me. 8)

BigBro, thanks for posting the photo of those lamps. Got to go write "rope" down in my house reno notebook. Great textural element.

WoofMutt, thanks for posting the LV pix and the link to the original post.

[ Edited by: irishf 2008-06-16 08:27 ]

BigBro, were the "The Tahitian" table lamps on the tables: from The Tahitian restaurant in Torrence or from Disneyland?
Are any of these still in existence? Which brings up another question related to the other thread; if there is a lamp still around, would duplicating it for circulation today be considered "bad tiki art"?

Great stuff -- it goes from scary, to funny, to fascinating, to cool, to deeply uncool, and right back 'round to scary again (::shudder:: -- this is the first pic I've seen of the Vegas Vic's). Thanks for sharing!

While we're on the subject of the Tropicana Lanes here is an old Yellow pages ad.

Humu gets a hug for being back, Boris gets a question: From what year is that ad?, and regarding Banana man's questions:
The Disneyland venue was called Tahitian Terrace, The Tahitian had two locations, in Pasadena and in Studio City (see the BOT and here http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4404&forum=1 ). and the question about bad Tiki art is based on a misunderstanding in Grog's essay in my other thread that I will not answer here because it would start the whole thing over again. :)

The ad is from the 60's. I know that's a crappy answer but I'll have to go back to the library and write the year down. It was from the first time I found any ads so I was freaking out and forgot to take notes. Here is another ad, this one is from the 80's and it's no longer open 24 Hours :)

My sister worked there in the early 80's and I went in there a couple of times. I don't remember any of those Puffy Tiki Snow People being there then.

WOW. I must have missed this place the first time the post was going around. Another great googie bowling alley with a Tiki twist. Here is a great old B & W photo I found showing the sign, the building and the Tiki things.

DC

Found this Tropicana Lanes postcard where the "Polynesian atmosphere prevails throughout this fabulous 56 lane community bowling center." Uh hum. Besides the ferns I don't quite see the Polynesian atmosphere prevailing here. Regardless, I have to give them some credit for this fine lobby. At least what might have been the lobby...