The best classic golden age Tiki postcards...(post your scans here!) New Southeast views added!

Thought we should have a thread here showing our best of these...To me vintage postcards are one of the richest sources of information on the classic Tiki Temple available...and fast getting expensive (12-25.00 for a good one on e-bay!) for the beginner, so it's only right to have a place all can see and enjoy despite the prices. I'll break the ice with one I just picked up and re-join the posting shortly. A scarcer view of the interior of the Kon Tiki at the Cleveland Sheraton..Notice the huge Maori tiki on the left as well as the Fijian Sali club and crossed Solomon Island ceremonial paddles on the walls...hot stuff!

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2003-12-10 21:20 ]

Some of the most "classic" tiki postcards that I've seen are NOT in my collection, but in the collections of others, alas. For instance, there was this drop-jaw, beautiful postcard that ZuluMagoo posted awhile back from the Outrigger Club in Ardmore, Oklahoma:



For me, these nighttime images capture the exotic, mysterious feel of a tiki bar better than any others. I am instantly transported back to my 1960s childhood looking at that one.

The one you posted, BK, is classic! But even better, (in my opinion), is the postcard of the Imperial Luau you posted back in March.

Dig that crazy floor! Plus you own one of the Tikis in that photo, which makes it even better.

I'll have to dig through my own collection and see which postcards best capture the essence of the golden age of tiki. I'll get back to you.

Sabu

There's already a load of great postcards posted on Mike's Tiki Room website.

http://www.tikiroom.net/gallery/postcards

Don't make work- just visit that and add to it!

me 2 cents.

I think you missed the point.

Here's one of the old South Pacific Restaurant in Hallandale, Fla. near Maimi. I have a few cards of this place, but this is the only one I have scanned. I would love to have been able to visit here.

Grrreat card. That facade is killer.

Here are a few more shots of the South Pacific

I have a decent size collection, I don't think it can compare to Sabu's, but here a few few of my favorites.

Skipper Kent's

I love the colors in this card - the Tahitian Inn, Tampa, Florida

This is a common card for the Trader Vic's in Scottsdale Arizona

But here's a card showing a street scene along 5th Avenue (card is dated 1970) in Scottsdale. The distinctive roof line of the Trader Vic's restaurant is plainly visible behid the Lady Mardens store.

Here's a card from across the pond. It's from the Beachcomber in the May Fair Hotel in London. TraderWoody, do you know anything about this place?

Here is a Polynesian Pop contribution from Lincoln, Nebraska

The Samoan Village in Phoenix, Arizona (card postmarked 1965)

lots of tikis here

And finally, my favorite card in my collection.

The back of the card reads "Costa Mesa, California - Entrance to a midway at the Orange County Fair, which is held in midsummer at the County Fair grounds north of downtown Costa Mesa."

I think this is the best part of the part, look at this boy checking out the tiki being carved on the ground, he looks captivated.

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo on 2003-11-28 12:06 ]

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo on 2003-11-28 12:08 ]

That May Fair Beachcomber is one of the better interior shot out there...Just great..I'll post another good one tonight from the Monteleone Luau Room in New Orleans (the interior is to die for). I also have a matchbook from the Samoan Village I'll post.

This has been brought up before but, does anyone in their vast postcard collections have a copy of a postcard from the Hawaiian Room at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore MD? I have been searching for one for about a year and have never found one or even seen proof that they exist! I have been dying to see what the place looked like!

Here are some tasty vintage tiki tidbits from my neck of the woods (the Southeastern U.S.)..First the UNBELIEVEABLE Hawaiian Luau at the Fontainbleau Hotel in New Orleans...this room is just PACKED AND STACKED to the rafters the way I like'em. Second is the obscure card of "The Tiki", the resident tour boat at Tiki Gardens in Indian Rocks Beach, leaving the dock for another tour of the artificial Eden! Next we have three cards that I adore just for their campiness...The Yankee Clipper Polynesian Room in the early days of Ft. Lauderdale, when it was owned by the Gills Hotel chain, (check out those cheesy plastic leis and the fantabulous Aloha shirts on the band!) and two views after it was purchased by the Sheraton chain...The Polynesian Room show as it was then (again check out those goofy bass drum heads!) and a view of the exclusive "Luau Buffet, complete with a Polynesian warrior on the buffet made entirely out of chicken! (Look closely between the chefs). And last but not least a view of Daytona's Aku Tiki Inn, sporting one of the finest tiki signs ever in existence (it still remains to this day, but with only the Moai image and a boring new logo)

Once again, BH, thanks for the great pics and info. My wife and I get to New Orleans once or twice a year, but have never known about those hotel tiki rooms there. Now, we have a "mission" next time we go. If they aren't there anymore, maybe some old timer can tell us which rooms they were in. We just drove by the old Chin Tiki in Detroit a couple of weeks ago and paid our respects...

http://www.samgambino.com

[ Edited by: Sam Gambino on 2003-12-10 23:57 ]

What a great post! There's an incredible amount of visual information found in these old postcards. The old adage of a picture is worth a 1000 words certainly holds true here.

Zulu, I posted a little bit of information about the Mayfair Beachcomber here: https://tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=528&forum=1 but I strongly urge you to download the free low-res 60's footage of the place available at http://www.britishpathe.com. (Search for 'Beachcomber' or 'Crocodile Club'. It's great viewing!

Trader Woody

Sam~
Sorry to burst a bubble, but the Fountainbleau Hotel isn't even there anymore. After a long series of ever-rattier incarnations, it's now a rental storage facility, and I guarantee no one there now will know what you're talking about. There used to be a dinner theatre where the Luau was in the late eighties, early nineties, I used to do some work there. I don't remember anything Polynesian still being there even then.
(Oh, hell, does that mean I'm an old-timer?)

[ Edited by: purple jade on 2003-12-11 09:25 ]

Thanks, purple jade, for bursting my bubble. I would never say that you're an old timer, though. At least The Monteleone is still alive and kicking (I do know that).
You did save me the trouble of driving around only to find a ratty storage warehouse...

http://www.samgambino.com

[ Edited by: Sam Gambino on 2003-12-11 13:03 ]

Purple jade, my wife thanks you, too. She sometimes gets tired of me driving around what are many times, broken-down urban areas to see what is left of long-gone businesses.

http://www.samgambino.com

No prob. Let me know when you guys are coming to town again.

Trader Vic's New York at the Savoy Hilton

And this mysterious boob tiki is there, with a bit saggier boobs. It must be a grand-momma.

The Swank Pad Broadcast - If it's Swank...

[ Edited by: Swanky on 2003-12-11 20:23 ]

Question: Does anyone have the Molokai Bar postcard from the Mai Kai that is a drawn artist's rendering?

I have it, BK. I'll try to post a picture soon.

Sabu

How about a Polynesian ski resort! The back of the interior card begins "Tan-Tar-A Resort, Osage Beach, Missouri...The Happy House Lounge brings exotic South Sea Islands atmosphere to Tan-Tar-A resort". Check out the logo on the A-frame...

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2003-12-29 20:55 ]

On 2003-12-29 20:53, Basement Kahuna wrote:
How about a Polynesian ski resort! The back of the interior card begins "Tan-Tar-A Resort, Osage Beach, Missouri..."
[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2003-12-29 20:55 ]

hey BK, I have a matchbook from "Tan-Tar-A" it was/is a Mariott establishment if i recall. i will try and scan and post if you want...

j$

Cool!

From my meager collection:

The South Pacific Polynesian Restaurant, Us Route #1, South Florida:

The Hawaiian, 4645 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA:

The Luau, 79th. Street Causeway, Miami Beach. Moais with flames coming out the tops of their head and a great enormous sign. Wow!:

I haven't been collecting postcards at all... but this thread sure makes me want to! For a while I kept ploughing thorough all the postcard dealers stock at flea markets, but after several collective hours of doing so, and not one tiki postcard, I gave up. Is there a trick? Or do you get them all on Ebay? All I saw was reams and reams of 'OTTAWA- OUR NATIONS CAPITAL' or 'BUFFALO NY EXCITEMENT!' and 'OVER THE FALLS IN A BARREL! GREETINGS FROM NIAGARA!'

Can anyone tell me why the pictures I upload to Shutterfly always appear so much smaller when viewed on the web (vs. on my computer)? How do you remove the white space around the photo without cropping the photo (Shutterfly seems to cut off the ends when I remove the border)?

On 2003-12-30 06:50, Johnny Dollar wrote:

On 2003-12-29 20:53, Basement Kahuna wrote:
How about a Polynesian ski resort! The back of the interior card begins "Tan-Tar-A Resort, Osage Beach, Missouri..."
[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2003-12-29 20:55 ]

hey BK, I have a matchbook from "Tan-Tar-A" it was/is a Mariott establishment if i recall. i will try and scan and post if you want...

j$

whoop, there it is:

apparently it is/was a "sparkling playground..."

j$

breaking news it looks like the establishment still exists http://www.tan-tar-a.com
"bear" (har) in mind that this is the part of the country that the Waltons came from. based on the photo below of the " black bear lodge," they may have de-polynesed it in favor of adirondack flavour:

such is the nature of the fickle marketplace. if you squint your eyes enuf, tho, it looks tiki.

[ Edited by: Johnny Dollar on 2003-12-31 07:46 ]

On 2003-12-30 22:30, tikifish wrote:
I haven't been collecting postcards at all... but this thread sure makes me want to! For a while I kept ploughing thorough all the postcard dealers stock at flea markets, but after several collective hours of doing so, and not one tiki postcard, I gave up. Is there a trick? Or do you get them all on Ebay? All I saw was reams and reams of 'OTTAWA- OUR NATIONS CAPITAL' or 'BUFFALO NY EXCITEMENT!' and 'OVER THE FALLS IN A BARREL! GREETINGS FROM NIAGARA!'

In all my digging at flea markets and antique stores over the years I've only found a few. I always look through small stacks at flea markets but in these big antique shows I never have the patience so I just look for any category of restaurants or bars. I have a nice small collection of bar postcards but not many of tiki bars. I haven't bought any on Ebay yet.

Sorry tikifish, no tricks of the trade to make your search easier. Ebay is course the easiest, but not much fun. Postcard and paper shows are a little more difficult, there are usually lots of dealers and they already have their collections sorted, but the vast number of cards can be overwhelming. Then of course, the most difficult search is at the flea markets, estate sales and antique stores. You just have to spend the time looking through all of them, however, there are two upsides. 1. You will be able to buy the unsorted cards for a song, usually .25 - 1.00 a piece. 2. Looking through any stack of unsorted cards, you are bound to find all kinds of cool cards that are fun to pick up, expecially for the lower prices. They are usually cards you would have never even of thought of looking for. It takes a long time to get a good collection of Polynesian Pop postcards, but for me, the thrill is in the hunt.

Sabu, any other tips?

I do most of my collecting on E-bay. I must have over 50 regular searches containing hundreds of keywords that I submit every few days automatically. I then weed through the results looking for those hidden Polynesian Pop postcards that don't have the word "Tiki" anywhere in the title or description, (although I look at the "Tiki" postcards too, just in case I find something that I can't live without - but I hate paying the high prices). The weeding-through process goes by pretty fast nowadays because I've seen 80% of the items before. The new ones kinda jump out at you.

I also look for mis-spellings of all the main tiki restaurants. That way I can add a few of those "Mia Kai" Mystery Girl postcards to my collection for $2.00 to do trades with later.

Finding the hidden gems on E-bay has become just as much fun for me as finding them in antique malls and postcard shows. It's just taken me about a year to develop my arsenal of search words. I add new ones every week. I have had pretty good luck at swapmeets as well. I just bought a whole stack of San Diego's Hanalei Island Room jumbo postcards at last month's Long Beach Swapmeet.

If you want the tricks of finding postcards at the postcard shows, you should get Puamana's advice, as well as TikiHula's. They both seem to come home with a small stack of tiki postcards each time they visit a show.

Sabu

BK,

Here's that artist's rendition of the Molokai Bar at the Mai Kai I was promising you.

And here's a link to a extreme close-up:
http://www.tikiroom.net/gallery/album02/agw?full=1

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2004-01-15 12:42 ]

Here's a hum-doozie.."The B-Hive Grocery in Sanibel Island, Florida...Gourmet Grocer-Drugs-Shell Supplies-Cameras and Film. Visit our "Tiki Hut" for unusual gifts." I wonder if that Witco fountain is sitting in a backroom somewhere?

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2004-01-24 18:59 ]

Another good one I just picked up: The Kon Tiki Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.

Basement Kahuna & BigBro,

Here's my postcard of the Witco Fountain at the B-Hive Grocery. Evidently they produced a few images of their prized Witco.

Bigbro, if you'd like to use this image as well as BK's please let me know.

Sabu

Here's a favorite postcard of the Maui Girls at the Kahiki in Columbus, Ohio. These were the cocktail waitresses who served drinks in the Piano Bar and the Maui Lounge.

The tiki is a gorgeous example of the craft. I'm not sure if he has a touch of paint, or if it's just the lighting in the room that gives that impression:

Later, I was looking through the BOT and noticed something new, (like I always do when reading the BOT), in this photo of a corner of the warehouse at Oceanic Arts in the 60s:

It looks like we know where that Kahiki tiki came from.

Does anyone know if this tiki still existed at the time the Kahiki closed down?

Sabu
[img]

I like the 2nd girl from the left (back row). Not buxom or exotic looking in the least, but she's still out there doing her thang. That takes balls! Er, maybe balls is the wrong word.

On 2004-02-04 13:24, tikifish wrote:
I like the 2nd girl from the left (back row). Not buxom or exotic looking in the least, but she's still out there doing her thang. That takes balls! Er, maybe balls is the wrong word.

It's like a which one doesn't fit game.

Great postcard, Sabu, and good Tiki eyes.

That Tiki was machine carved and multiples of it existed, check out BOT page 235 ("at the prom"). I have the little Maori guy in front of him in the pic on page 244, I got him from The Tikis (page 108, under the gable), it was also mass-made by O.A. and was a steady seller there.

I did not see that Kahiki/prom/O.A. Ku at the Kahiki when I photographed all things Tiki there in January of '96, and I explored everything from the basement to the upstairs lounge.

Great postcards everyone! They are just so cool.

I was wondering if anyone had seen any images, postcards or other of the Don the Beachcomber that was in Victoria, B.C. (The address was 711 Broughton St.)

I'm going to be doing some research on the place, since it was torn down in 1979 I believe. I'll be visiting the City archives and whatnot.

I'd love to see what it once looked like, inside or out!

Thanks!

No Canada......here is Chicago

Hotel Inter-Continental, Quito, Ecuador

Kon Tiki Lounge- Sheraton Waikiki

I happened to look down while thrifting today and picked up this postcard showing the preperation of a few pigs for a luau. Oddly enough the text on the back (not scanned) is written by the sender in spanish.
ARRIBA!

-one man aspiring to be everyone’s favorite unkle.
http://www.unklejohn.com

[ Edited by: Unkle John on 2004-02-13 22:06 ]

I finally got a post card of my 12 foot fire place in the 'Tiki Lounge' over at "Tahiti" Restaurant 3rd and Fairfax, LA. A little to late... as far as I know this guy was just demolished after the place sold and changed management etc...
So much for my dreams of going down in Tiki Antiquity......as a request, the guy even had a pineapple head... maybe the unadulterated tribute to Wayne Coombs was it's demise???

Niiice piece, Al...foam or concrete? You could well give lessons to the "giant nasal spray commercial face" fireplace crowd on "Monster House". I'd have been pissed if that was my house! Too bad they couldn't think to save this.

That fireplace was the best thing about that whole joint!
The Tahiti is another example of how difficult it seems to keep a contemporary Tiki Bar at float. It was too trendy and "nouveaux" for me, but for that very reason it SHOULD have been commercially successful in that neighbourhood (West LA).

What ever happened, I remember there was one guy here on TC that really kept an eye on it after it closed...?

a stucco wonder of metal studs and lath... earthquake proof, so i hoped

and a sparkley black sand finish
sob...snif

Coconut Bar @ T.V. Motel
Troi-Rivieres, Quebec:

This was agood one... (bump!)

New views on the way, if I can Kinescope them (scanner no-can-do)

I love viewing these old postcards. Right now outside my house it is 10 degrees, yet looking at these tropical paradises warms my heart and soul.
Thanks for sharing them.