The Jungle-style Thread - Pop Culture Iconography of the Dark Continent

On 2009-12-03 09:07, bigbrotiki wrote:

BUT, as mentioned above, the South Seas/African melange was much easier to justify (not that anybody cared) with the participation of the Oceanic tribes of Melanesia, which certainly used spears and shields.

Yeah but were the designers of those Tiki bars and restaurants even aware of the Oceanic tribes of Melanesia? What's the pop cultural reference point? I'm sure most people in the 1950's had seen "King Kong" and those Uga Booga natives running around on that tropical jungle island (with shield and spear in hand). "King Kong" was a hugely successful and influential film that might have cemented this stereotypical blueprint for decades to come.

I wanna see a picture of King Kong in your next book. :)

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2009-12-03 11:53 ]

More 1930's Pre-Tiki Jungle Madness....

Ingagi has King Kong beat by three years (1930 vs. 1933).

From IMDB: Igagi plot;
An expedition enters an area of the Congo jungle to investigate reports of a gorilla-worshipping tribe. After many dangerous adventures, they come upon the tribe they sought, only to watch as a virgin is sacrificed to a huge gorilla, who takes her away. The expedition follows the gorilla in an attempt to save the woman.

However, I'm sure King Kong was seen by way more people.

Yes, in terms of pop culture impact and influence, King Kong was it. Something tells me though that the makers of "INGAGI" might have tried to sue the KING KONG producers... :D

Check out BigBro's shirt.

Proof positive that African Pop Primitism is the key to unleashing your inner Tarzan sex appeal.

Forget, Tiki-style. If you wanna get lucky with the wahines then go Jungle-style !!

Nononono....it's not that easy:

Papua New Guinea shields = South Sea artifacts = part of Tiki style --NOT Jungle style.

My bad. I thought those were Zulu shields.

Hmmm... Melanesian, huh? The term Poly-Pop might not be inclusive enough.

Oceanic Pop, anyone ?? :)

Yeah right, John, that's SUCH a buzzword, it'll stick with everybody long after "Polynesian pop" is forgotten!

Stop trying to rewrite history. Polynesian pop is called that because at least 3/4 of the imagery used in it is from Polynesia (or it SHOULD be), and 100% of its inspiration and motivation came from Polynesia. The few exceptions just prove the rule.

I'm not trying to rewrite history BigBro, I'm just engaging in some internet philosophizing (and kidding around). :)

Dude, I'm one of your best Tiki students and I want to explore the other "25%" of Poly-Pop (and related fun stuff) that doesn't get as much discussion around here. I take your work very seriously.

TC should be more that just a message board for party notices, pictures of dirty cocktail napkins, people asking the same question over and over, and one sentence posts. I'm just trying to add some variety here.

Anyway, I think it's time to get back to the cheesecake. Everyone seems to like that. :D

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2009-12-04 19:54 ]

By your command John-O.........just had my finger on the trgger for a few days now!

I think many people forget that Tiki culture is meant to be FUN!

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2009-12-04 21:11 ]

John-O, I totally agree. I am indeed grateful for your continued posting and probing, and I have followed you down this path gladly -up to a point! And then, when it gets TOO ridiculous, you get the stick. :D

But really, thank you for your mostly intelligent, sometimes a little off incentives to engage in intelligent conversation about this ridiculously unimportant topic we call Tiki. You have made me re-think, or re-assert stuff I had taken for granted.

Oh A.T. Punk, why did you have to do that. Unfortunately, our Betty has become a cliche of a cliche, and only elicits a tepid yawn from the ephemera seeker. Tiki CentraL is about pop culture ARCHEOLOGY, the hunt for and discovery of never before glimpsed visual treasures and rarefied imagery previously unknown to the masses!

Well until I have something more rare, Bettie will have to do.
Unless anyone has a pic of Vampira in a bikini?

But Sven, that is why we count on you for the rare stuff, although I think you are minimizing Bettie's impact on pop culture.

[ Edited by: PiPhiRho 2009-12-05 03:28 ]

On 2009-12-04 22:22, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:

Unless anyone has a pic of Vampira in a bikini?

OK... Vampira in a bikini:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzAWK7dCJmA&feature=related

You Guys are great! sorry about hijacking the thread John-O.
so to get back on track, John-O you were moving into the 1940s & 50s, influences of Primitive & African culture on those times.

Ok, you do like cheesecake, but what about "torta de queso".

Tongolele, Queen of Tahitian Dance. And in my book Queen of Faux Fur Bikini too (sorry Bettie).

Beware of euro-leopardas.

End hijack.

[ Edited by: Mister Naufrago 2009-12-05 06:21 ]

[ Edited by: Mister Naufrago 2009-12-05 06:29 ]

Back to the safari (old continent style)

img]https://tikicentral.com/uploads/9089/4b1a6fb1.jpg[/img]

El Safari Park is was a Spanish institution. Half a zoo, half an amusement park.
Some were cool but lots of them just were plain tourist traps.

Well, among all of these (WTF does Vampyra have to do with Jungle pop?), Tongolele is the closest related, her clips on U-tube are fantastic, this series most of all!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7a_BVYFSlk

Her bio is quite interesting:

Yolanda "Tongolele" Montes (b. Yolanda Ivonne Montes Farrington, January 3, 1932, Spokane, Washington) is an exotic dancer and actress of the Cinema of Mexico. In Mexico she is considered the seminal "rumbera" and exotic dancer along Kalantán and Su Muy Key.
Tongolele became a professional dancer when she was only 15 years old. Her father was Spanish/Swedish, her mother French/English and her maternal grandmother was of Tahitian descent.
She starred in several films from the 1940s through the 1980s but most people remember her from the classic 1971 film "Isle of the Snake People" starring Boris Karloff in one of his last roles. Tongolele is still active in television, theatre, and nightclubs. She is still well known in Spain and Latin America.

I would LOVE to hear that album!

Back on page 3 Bigbrotiki posted the Swerer’s Safari matchbook ~

Tiki-Kate also has this and while helping her find information on it we found out that Swerer's Safari looked like this ~

and that Swerer is Bob Swerer (One of these guys, I'd guess Mr. Glasses in the middle)

and he released this album ~

Here is his version of Groovin.

According to Google searches it looks like Bob is still kicking and currently some kinda outdoorsy filmmaker, still in Fort Collins. Nice!

Sorry about the small pictures. :roll:

More fun Safari album covers here.

Last but not least my only very reflective Safari matchbook ~

Good finds!

Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh yeah…..

1. Bettie Page - No need to apologize to me on this one ATP. I still remember the visceral thrill I got when I first picked up the "Bettie Pages" some 20 year ago and thought "Hmmm. This is interesting……". I also assumed I was familiar with all the existing Jungle Bettie pics but that zebra one was new to me. Thanks.

2. Vampira - We should start a new thread for Vampy on "Beyond Tiki". She's one of the original old-school Goth girls for the sub-culture that refuses to die (ha, ha). Also Vampira had a close Las Vegas relationship with mid-century pop icons Liberace and Elvis Presley. I'm sure they all hung out together at the Aku Aku and DTBC LV at some point.

3. BigBro comments "…..thank you for your mostly intelligent, sometimes a little off incentives to engage in intelligent conversation about this ridiculously unimportant topic we call Tiki." - Hey I take that as a major compliment from Tiki's very own Yoda. And yes I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes use Tiki as an excuse rather than the point for my many rambling pop cultural posts.

This next one is no exception: :)

OK, so what do the following animal-skinned hotties have in common:

Well IMHO they were all inspired by a particular 1940's genre called "Good Girl Art". This is a term used to describe the comic books which featured scantily clad, amply proportioned heroines. A sub-genre of "Good Girl Art" was the Jungle Girls. Now I know many of you might be familiar with "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" (since she had her own live-action 1950's TV show) but the overall number of JGs was staggering. In addition to Sheena, there was Jana of the Jungle, Jann of the Jungle, Jill of the Jungle, Judy of the Jungle, White Princess of the Jungle, Nyoka the Jungle Girl, Princess Pantha, Jungle Lil, Leopard Girl, Zegra Jungle Empress, the list goes on and on. Even Pre-Tiki icon Dorothy Lamour got in on the action.

One of the most explicit JGs was "Rulah, Jungle Goddess". Check out the suggestive phallic symbology.

Eventually this all caught up with the comic book publishers as the Hayes Code did with the movie studios in the early 1930's. In his book "Seduction of the Innocent", psychiatrist Fredric Wertham accused the horror, crime, and "sex" comics of the time as being a key influencer of juvenile delinquency. Even Batman and Robin were accused of a "homosexual wish-fulfillment" relationship. This lead to U.S. Congressional inquiries which resulted in the self-imposed CCA (Comics Code Authority) in 1954. Comic books were then neutered and made safe for America's children.

Here's an interesting observation. This is an example of one of Bettie Page's many fetish photos. In the 1950's this had to be obtained under the counter or via mail order. Now compare that to a common (pre-CCA) Jungle Girl theme that was available to any boy with 10 cents in his pocket. Ahh, to be a kid back in the good old days. :)

OK, obviously the 1940's Jungle Girls are a part of the African Pop theme of this thread.

I might also argue, however, they were a precursor to the Tiki-style Exotica girls posted on this site.

Is this a stretch? How about some Exotica album art featuring obvious Jungle Girls?

Actually as BigBro suggested, any African/Safari Pop album art would be a great addition.

[ Edited by: JOHN-O 2009-12-06 08:02 ]

On 2009-12-05 07:42, bigbrotiki wrote:

Please translate, Mr Naufrago.
And yes, enough Exotica girl stuff. How about some record covers IN THE GENRE at hand ?

“Besides being a great dancer with a long and impressive career, Yolanda Montez-Tongolele is a remarkable painter and ceramist. When the Lord endows someone with talent, he does it by the handful".
Amen.
Truly enjoyable art.

As for exotica-africana record covers, Bert Kaempefert´s Swinging Safari is one of my favourites. His music full appreciation maybe requires some ear training for non europeans. :)
An Euro easy listening masterpiece.

Boris, Swerer's Safari with THAT sign, that building, that band, and that album is truly it!

Tracing back to WHEN and WHERE the pop cliches of a generic African/ Jungle land and its VISUAL icons developed, I would like to begin much earlier than King Kong, very much similar to my time line for what led up to Polynesian pop (in Tiki Modern):

Early Explorers' reports --Adventure authors create fiction--Illustrators (lacking photographs) illustrate that fiction freely:

(1895 illustration for a Jules Verne book)

Early Zoos/ Colonial/World Expos display living natives:

Silent movies beginning with Tarzan:

Serials and 50s exploitation movies run the whole bandwidth of tropical cliches:

"The Big Safari of Voodoo Terror" (!!?)

For my personal interests, and to stay connected to Tiki, I prefer the TROPICS theme:
The term includes Africa, South America, the Carribean, AND the South Seas --everywhere where there was jungle, and natives, and strange rituals.

This is how come that at THE TROPICS Motel in Palm Springs there were Tikis, a Sambo's, and, initially, the Congo Room:

(Above: the Blythe Tropics)

...and that's why SHE is there:

In Pre-Tiki poly pop and later, there were lots of "Tropics":

Many were generic South Seas, but some did have something of an African theme:

...the "Tropics" concept threw a wider net than Polynesia, but could mix with it freely.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-12-09 00:40 ]

A picture request:
Did anyone photograph the cool A-frame and sign of the BEL-CONGO Motel right next to the Kona Lanes in Costa Mesa when it was still standing? It was "Belgian-Congo" tropics pop that would fit in here well, but I ignorantly neglected to photograph it because it was NOT TIKI! :roll:

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-12-09 00:59 ]

This is my back yard, I mean you grow up around these places & they just get taken for granted, until they are gone.
I drive by this location almost everyday, it is just a fancy generic strip mall now, but now I miss it, there was a great Googie style building right across the street, that is now a bank.

Never thought to take photos......

My neighborhood growing up was Brookhurst and Yorktown, Huntington Beach (1963-1977).

I remember the general area of Adams Ave. and Harbor Blvd very well. We used to grocery shop at Thriftimart at that corner (now Mesa Verde center). I learned to bowl at Kona Lanes. I went to the Edwards Cinema movie theater monthly (1st movie shown there was A Hard Days Night. Beatlemania at its OC peak.) The googie style building ATP talks about above - I think its the same building I'm thinking of - used to be a home-improvement/hardware/nursery center. Up and down that strip north and south of Adams Ave. were auto dealers, many with googie style showrooms, many A-frame buildings, tiki motels, etc. Costa Mesa in general was hugely a Polynesian vibe back then.

Back in the early to mid-1980s I moved back to Costa Mesa and lived in the apartment complex off of Harbor Blvd just south of Fair Dr.

This was the era of wholesale destruction of my beloved googie buildings. I took a compact VHS video camera around the area and taped all up and down Harbor Blvd., from Costa Mesa up to Disneyland. I'm sure I have footage of the motel Bigbro is requesting. I just need to find the damn tapes - needless to say that is going to take an effort to find the video tapes let alone the requested footage. The tapes may be destroyed or lost; I've moved many many times since then.

I'll start my search over the Christmas holiday and get back with everyone later.

On 2009-12-09 00:56, bigbrotiki wrote:
A picture request:
Did anyone photograph the cool A-frame and sign of the BEL-CONGO Motel right next to the Kona Lanes in Costa Mesa when it was still standing?

Bigbro,

I have an old postcard from the Bel Congo Motel. A great A-frame but no Congo-themed items when it was first built. Did the sign change over time?

DC

Great postcard. I do not have the BOT handy, but besides the Bel Congo A-frame showing in profile underneath the Kona Lanes sign (on the bowling alley page), I also seem to remember the green sign peaking out somewhere...?

I don't think this Motel was in the same area as Kona Lanes, it might of been across the street, a little further down Harbor Blvd.
I did find a news story about the Bel Congo from the 1970s here: http://titanyearbook.com/archives/1976/1976-11-11.PDF ,look at X rated movie story.

I spent alot of time there as a youth, Edwards Cinema, Swensen's Ice Cream, Kona Lanes, Music Market,Ice Chalet,etc & there was no Motel there.
from the Postcard Picture it looks like it was in the area north of the 405.

So I mapped this out, Kona Lanes was in the 2700 Block of Harbor Blvd. Off Mesa Verde & Harbor past Adams going south.
Bel Congo was at 20201 Harbor Blvd.

Address is not same area as Kona Lanes was, sorry Sven.

After further research I have found the Motel address to have been at 2665 Harbor Blvd, this puts the motel a half block south on Harbor from Kona Lanes, you would have been able to see a Motel sign from there, but still not in the same parking lot area as Kona Lanes/Ice Chalet on the other side of Mesa Verde ave.

The address on the above postcard may have been an even older location, I have found some info stating the motel was demolished in 1995
I am still researching this.

Atomic Tiki Punk it’s not your fault and now you have the correct address. I have a boring matchbook for the Bel Congo that says the address is 2665 Harbor Blvd (I’ll scan that tomorrow) so yes the address had changed at some point, the Kona Lanes was at 2699 Harbor Blvd.

You can see the roof and part of the sign of the Bel Congo in this picture from The Book of Tiki pg 197 that it was across Mesa Verde Dr. East. The Bel Congo sign in the picture is cooler than the one on the post card.

I can’t believe you don’t remember it was next to the 7-11 on the corner. As a former Costa Mesan I suggest you lay low on the "I'm Mr. Costa Mesa" stuff for a few days. :wink:

Just for fun here is an aerial shot from 1994 - The Bel Congo is already gone but you can see where it was.

Now back to John-O’s Jungle-style Thread!

Thanks Bora Boris,
I would have added that it was where a Rents4less is now, which is right next to the 7/11 is today, just did not seem important.
My description in my previous post,nails the location, so do I get to stay in Costa Mesa for now? :lol:

:sheckymug: I do have to say I don't remember the Bel Congo well, because there was a whole string of old school motels all the way down Harbor Blvd at the time, most of them a bit seedy.:sheckymug:

Also my memory is a bit fuzzy due to a few Slam Dancing accidents in the 1970s

Oh that’s fine and I think it was knocked down for being a Flea Bag Motel in the end. I remember in High School they would rent rooms to kids for parties and you can’t tell from the post card but the pool was out front practically on Harbor Blvd. Nice!

Now that we’ve moved into Orange County territory I remember when the original Safari Sam’s opened up in Huntington Beach there was thatch inside and Sam would wear a Pith helmet.

Back to Los Angeles County - how has the Safari Room in Mission Hills very close the former Lucky Tiki location not been mentioned? I haven’t been (I suck) but I know PiPhiRho is a fan and I trust him.

Boris Boris,

BigBro mentioned the Safari Room previously on this thread. I plan to take interior pics on my next visit and will post here. It's the only themed Jungle/Safari bar/restaurant in So Ca that I'm aware of. There used to be a themed Korean bar in Cypress called the Jungle Bar but I think it closed several years ago.

How about a little swizzle sizzle action:

The in-famous Zulu Lulu set.

A cool swizzle from ebay - the Afrikoko Magic Drum Cocktail.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2009-12-10 17:48 ]

More movie madness...lots of "Africa" movies with Tikis, Tapa, Hawaiian Clothes, Shrunken Heads

Forbidden Jungle

This silly South Seas Jungle fun with African animals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrRtIp3jylk

White Witch Doctor with Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward

The Tiki on the left can also be seen in Bird Of Paradise & some episodes of Adventures In Paradise

Never really looked into this genre before, must say that there is a lot of fun stuff out there on the net that is sort-of Tiki cross-over.

A program from Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club.

Brochure from Safari Motel in Florida.

DC

How about the amusement parks with that Jungleland theme.

The famous Jungleland Queen and the Volcano on the Miracle Strip at Panama City Beach, Florida

And Melody May at Jungleland.

Jungle Land at Storytown in Lake George, New York.

Another Jungle Land at the Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey.

It's a jungle out there.

DC

It's a jungle/african veldt in Irvine!

http://theimaginaryworld.com/lc.html

My wife and I toured Lion Country Safari on our honeymoon in 1982, shortly before it closed in 1984. I can't imagine a theme park like that now in the California age of idiots and rampant lawyers

I could not agree more!

I will say this, however: I watched an old home movie from the early 70's that my Dad made there, and you could see Lions, rhinos, elephants and other very dangerous animals just walking around lose. We knew to stay in our car, that's for sure!

I doubt today's generation has the same common sense. You can see how slow they walk across intersections, for example...as though they are made of armor!

But back to the subject at hand, Lion Country safari had two of my favorite african type rides..."african auto trek", which was a jeep ride (on a track) through a jungle, with fake animals jumping out at you, and the "zambezi river ride:, which was a jungle boat cruise.

A close observation of wild rivers in irvine will reveal some remnants of this awesome theme park!

Not only did I visit LCS Irvine with my parents back in the day, I once toured LCS as part of a field trip - in grade school(!) - inside a f'ckin SCHOOL BUS!

I seem to think LCS Corporation was caught sedating some of the animals via tranqs or something due to mounting lawsuits - or am I just thinking/rehashing an urban legend?

It was a long time ago those damn 1970s