Spy Tiki

I was in San Diego last week for a few days for a business trip and was able to spend a few hours doing some tiki research in the Central Branch of the San Diego Public Library.

I found this ad for the Bali Hai in a 1963 phonebook.

I love the fact they were playng up the cold war aspect in the current political climate.

To those unfamilar with the Bali Hai, it is located directly across the channel from the US Naval Air Station at North Island (home to the US Navy Seals). It is quite a sight to see the naval traffic coming and going thru the channel while sipping a Mai Tai at the bar. While I was there, The USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Regan (both nuclear powered air craft carriers) were in port.

Maybe its time to dispatch Sam Gambino's Secret Tiki Agent 006 on the case.

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo 2009-01-31 11:06 ]

On 2009-01-31 11:02, ZuluMagoo wrote:

I love the fact they were playng up the cold war aspect in the current political climate.

It was even more appropriate back then because the Navy used to have its battleship fleet stationed directly across the channel from the Bali Hai. You can see the wrecked and decaying dock pylons where they were kept just off the shore there now. Just a bit up the shore a ways is where they currently store and load the ordinance for the ships. That's what all those small, partially underground bunkers that you can see are for. The docks have special lights on them to signal recreational boaters to stay away while they are loading the bombs. You can see that area from the Bali Hai.

Go Navy!
Buzzy Out!

[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2009-01-31 11:31 ]

You rang?

Not to mention the sub-flotilla bunked in the crevasses of Point Loma. Back in those days San Diego was one of the best protected harbors in the US. I saw Dr No at the Navy Base theater when it first came out with my cousin who was in the Navy. That theater full of Navy, Marine, Air force, Seal and other service men was such a hoot. Those guys were shouting from start to finish every time Bond won a girl or kicked some butt. I was instantly hooked on the spy genre!!!

I am really looking forward to this Oasis.

On 2009-01-31 12:27, spy-tiki wrote:
You rang?

no i did. what's shaking pal?

Of course there are dozens of examples of Spy movies and TV shows that have nominally exotic fare

I was impressed with the amount of Exotica in Our Man Flint

He has four girlfriends, one of each nationality (a common motif of Exotica record covers of the late 50s)

He has a penthouse apartment full of modern and primitive art
The entryway to his apartment has a large Papau New Guinea painting whose eye opens to reveal a camera

If you are a secret agent you go to "Exotic" nightclubs

and you hang out in Shag-like apartments like this

You frequent underground beatnik jazz clubs with burlesque dancers

The bomb in the nightclub is a topless wahine emerging from a face cream canister labeled "exotica"

Your female villain trying to kill you might look like this

And you disguise yourself as a Don the Beachcomber's waiter

Then it's off to a secret ultra-exotic tropical island
Where you will be serenaded by a flute/lute/guitar trio while bikini-clad babes wander by

of course there is a swingin 60s go go dance party going on!

and a garden of earthly delights

and a drive in movie full of MGs that are used as your seats
!

Then they escape over Niagra Falls in barrels with the logo: "exotica"

check out videos of Tiki Oasis 11 here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tikioasistv?feature=watch

[ Edited by: Otto 2012-05-16 22:29 ]

Otto tapped me as his "point man" for this year's theme. I accepted the mission and am ready for any and all assignments.

My friend Yvonne Craig was in "Our Man Flint" and had great things to say about her co-star. Unfortunately, she no longer does personal appearances so she won't be at TO12 to tell us about it. She was a special guest at my Parkway/Thrillville screening of "It Happened at the World's Fair" in August 2000, along with Gary "2001" Lockwood. Neither one had ever even seen the movie before. After 20 minutes they got up and went out in the lobby - but only after I got to sit next to Yvonne on a couch, watching Elvis seduce her on a sofa onscreen...

Yvonne Craig was certainly one of the more prolific pop culture actresses of the 1960's.

She showed up in almost every well remembered TV series from that era... 77 Sunset Strip, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, McHale's Navy, The Man from UNCLE, My Favorite Martian, The Wild Wild West, (etc. etc.) and of course Batman.

My favorite was when she played an Exotica girl from outer space in an episode of Star Trek...

Based on the spy fad and the prevalence of Tiki during that time, there's got to be lots more cross pop cultural Spy/Tiki/Exotica pollination examples that can be pointed out.

Like this great post that Sabu did...

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=302&forum=1&vpost=558053

And maybe not Spy Tiki (more like Tiki Spy), Gilligan's Island had several plots that involved secret agents...

I can ask if she'll come down anyway, since she lives in LA. She might like the "vacation."

I started going through the archives here at Spy Bop Royale a while back with the idea of selling DigiTiki on a Spy Tiki episode of Quiet Village with less success than you would think. I'm still working on it, but it seems the spies of the 60's kept mostly to South America and the Caribbean for their tropical Holidays. There are more bossa novas than you can count and several tunes that must have been written immediately after the composer listened to one of his Les Baxter albums, but very little that's directly Polynesian or faux Polynesian.

Speaking of Derek Flint, The theme to "Our Man Flint" and "Hypnotique" are practically the same tune. There's a nice medley of the two by The Moonrays on their "Thrills And Chills" CD.

[ Edited by: spy-tiki 2012-01-10 18:40 ]

One more thread which is so cool, it is off the scale.

Thank you for the Flint and other photos.

Come Spy With Me featuring beach party teen heart throb Troy Donahue
is an Exotica Spy B-Movie classic. Here is a scene in a Tiki bar

and detail of the small Tiki sitting on the bar