Ex-tiki place in Show Low, AZ?

About five weeks ago I happened across this googie-esque building in Show Low, AZ. It has a four-pointed star shape with up-swept roof. The torches have me wondering if its an old Tiki place. Neither the employees of the current tenant, Lucy's Restaurant, nor the woman manning the Chamber of Commerce could tell me of its history. Would anyone have any recollections? The restaurant has no phone and I didn't get the address (or I'd have put this in "locating tiki"), but it adjoins what is currently called the Downtown Nine Motel at 1457 E Deuce Of Clubs.

Wow, that is pretty awesome! Because I collect and sell lots of 50's house/building plans, I can tell you though that the arched A-Frame thing wasn't particular to tiki, so it may have just been a regular restaurant that wanted to look 'modern' and 'with it'.

Very cool!

Dang I think you found something there dude.

That torch gives it away- it was probably tiki.

Anyone remember the tiki strip mall at scottsdale+mcdowell road? all that remains is the big easter island head at the "polynesian paradise apartments" which is behind the giant a-framed bike shop (still?) which was once a dairy queen which was once something cool.

There is also a big a-framed bowling alley on i think like 19th ave and bethany that obviously was tiki at one time..

Here's another shot of this place that I took last April.
When I saw it, I wasn't thinking "Tiki"... more straight-up Googie.
Certainly a cool one!

I'm up in ShowLow several times a year to visit family. I always loved that buiding and suspected it was tiki!

I think this was one of my first posts to TC. Since then, I've learned a lot more about mid-century architecture and I'd give the place a slimmer chance of having been tiki, though the torches still make me wonder.

The basic shape of the building is similar to one referred to in Alan Hess' book, Googie Redux, as a hyperbolic paraboloid. I note this, mostly because I like to say, type or think: "hyperbolic paraboloid." Its a cool phrase and sounds like something the Enterprise did when it accidentally went back in time; but I sleepily digress...

Fatuhiva wrote:

There is also a big a-framed bowling alley on i think like 19th ave and bethany that obviously was tiki at one time.

Is this the one? I shot it this past May on Bethany Home Road in Phoenix. I doubt it was tiki, but it certainly deserves being recognized as a temple of googie goodness:

It was about the coolest thing I saw in Phoenix, even considering all the nice signs on Hwy60.

http://www.thelope.blogspot.com

[ Edited by: tikijackalope 2005-12-16 01:29 ]

Wow, that glow is amazing, is that a digital image? What resolution? I think I would like to use that for the A-frame chapter of my new book, may I?...do you have the name and location?
Thing is I already have so many cool A-frame examples, I can't fit them all in...I might just do an A-frame collage page, like I did with the matchbooks, Tiki signs and apartment names.

Neon glow just gets people every time. It's true eye candy.

On 2005-12-16 22:28, bigbrotiki wrote:
Wow, that glow is amazing, is that a digital image? What resolution? I think I would like to use that for the A-frame chapter of my new book, may I?...do you have the name and location?
Thing is I already have so many cool A-frame examples, I can't fit them all in...I might just do an A-frame collage page, like I did with the matchbooks, Tiki signs and apartment names.

Neon glow just gets people every time. It's true eye candy.

There's going to be an A-Frame chapter in the Witco book? :wink:

Big bro, its film, not digital. The resolution can be whatever you need; I usually scan prints at about 315 dpi. but this varies by publisher. Exposure was made for the interior so the exterior neon overexposed quite a bit; from the looks of this one, the windows may have been tinted. There was also dust and a wee bit of smog in the air, which added to the halo. Of course you can use it; I'll see what other frames I shot of the place.

Great! Do you, or anybody, have any info (name, date, place) on this establishment? If the photo goes into the collage, I might not use it, but it'd be good to have.

The Witco book will have a broader scope than initially intended. I am back with Taschen as a publisher, and to just do a Witco catalog was too limited for them.
I needed to do a recap of what Polynesian pop and Tiki was at the beginning of the book anyway, one can not assume that all who pick up the new book know the BOT. I extended that now, with all new material, to give a reference and context to where Witco came from.

I am concentrating on the intersecting of 50s/60s modern and Tiki, always my favorite anyway. So I have a chapter called "What modern was.." going into art, design, and jazz of the 50s, and one called "A-Frames, Tail fins and the Jet Age", for which I am thinking about the collage.

Having had 5 years between the BOT and this allowed for great new material to come together, a new generation of urban archaeologists was raised by the BOT (also: Thanks to TC!), and I am confident the new book will live up to the BOT. (Phew!)

The book's title will be "TIKI MODERN and the Wild World of WITCO". Due out in August 2006.

Yup thats the place!

Funny that you just recently post on this very old thread now, as I havent been on TC in almost a year it seems

It's a bowling alley now- they stripped it of most of its coolness through multiple "improvements" over the years.. most all that is left now is the general Aframe design and rock walls.. at least last time i saw it years ago.

They did have neon Rock 'n' Bowl there on weekend nights that was kinda fun.. there's also a cheezy little diner area

I always wondered if it was a tiki themed bowling place originally or just space-age modernica