Does anyone know anything about the Zamboanga?

I saw this on Mike's Tiki Room website a while back and the interior of the place gave me a '49 Woody! :D I guess I have a thing for 40's nightclubs, and it's now my screen saver. BUT I can't find ANY info on the net about this place. I bid on a menu that I believe came from there, but I guess someone has more money (and less sense) than I do this week! :lol:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2221740907&category=1437&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBBI%3AIT&rd=1

BTW Zamboanga Is a city in the area of Mindinao, Philippines that is harrassed regularly by the Abu Sayyaf :o Maybe it just sounded romantic to the owner OR maybe they were Philippino?

BTW Zamboanga Is a city in the area of Mindinao, Philippines that is harrassed regularly by the Abu Sayyaf :o Maybe it just sounded romantic to the owner OR maybe they were Philippino?

The Abu Sayyaf problem and NPA (communist separatists) are recent problems (circa 1970s), but I heard that it is beautiful there.

Rattiki - That menu that was just auctioned off was definitely from the same place. Here's the picture:


I'm an avid collector of all things having to do with the Zamboanga, but don't know much about the actual club myself. I'd love to know some of the history, since it was a local joint. I have that menu, several postcards, a napkin and a matchbook. Here's one of the postcards, showing one of the most beautiful murals I've ever seen. (Wish I could see it in color).



The Zamboanga obviously was not a place for children or the prudish.

As early as 1935, there was a book entitled "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga", by Capt. S.P. Meek. It was about American soldiers who were stationed in the Far-east at that time. The joke in the book was that if you cut off a monkey's tail, it could pass for a Filipino. (Remember, this was a very racially insensitive era).

Either at that time, or even possibly during WWII, U.S. sailors stationed in the Phillipines made up this little ditty:

"Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zam-bo-an-ga
Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zam-bo-an-ga
Oh, the monkeys have no tails, they were bitten off by whales,
Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zam-bo-an-ga"

I've heard John Wayne sing it in the movie, "Donovan's Reef". I've also heard the Beav' sing it in an episode of "Leave it to Beaver".

Thus the name of the club and it's signature drink, "The Tailess Monkey". (or so I assume). Which probably meant the club was built during or just after the war. I have no idea how long it lasted - the fact that there seem to be no color images leads me to believe it either didn't last long, or became more of a dive-bar in the later years. Like I said, I'm interested in any history of this Hollywood club.

Sabu

If someone cares to unearth it, there is a thread on this board about this place, and the song "The monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga" where the Zamboanga's house cocktail, "The Tailess Monkey" took it's name from...
Wait, I just found where I posted that info:

"Great postcard! I don't know anything about the club itself, but Zamboanga is a city in the Phillipines, and the "Home of the Tail-less Monkeys" thing is a reference to an old song called "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga." The song dates back to the turn of the century, I believe, but it was popular with American army/marine troops in the Pacific during WWII. For movie fans, it's the song playing on Lee Marvin's broken Victrola in DONOVAN'S REEF. Words and music can be found at: http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/lookup.cgi?ti=ZAMBANGA&tt=ZAMBANGA."

Don't know if that link is still active.

Joe Chastek, owner of the Zamboanga, later opened "The Vagabond's House" on Sunset Blvd, named after Don Blanding's famous poem.

Joe Chastek obviously had an eye for quality. The ephemera from Vagabond House are also some of the most beautiful items in my collection. Thanks for making the connection for me, Bigbro.

Sabu

The Abu Sayyaf problem and NPA (communist separatists) are recent problems (circa 1970s), but I heard that it is beautiful there.

Well they may be new names or ideologizes but there has a been a separtist problem in the Sula - Mindanoa region since before the Spanish and American War's US take over of the P.I. The 45 automatic was reputed to have been developed and issued as the officers sidearm as a way to stop the charging Moro.

On 2004-02-05 12:21, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
Thus the name of the club and it's signature drink, "The Tailess Monkey". (or so I assume). Which probably meant the club was built during or just after the war. I have no idea how long it lasted - the fact that there seem to be no color images leads me to believe it either didn't last long, or became more of a dive-bar in the later years. Like I said, I'm interested in any history of this Hollywood club.

Sabu

Kewl info and postcards Sabu but your conclusion that the club was built during or just after the war may not be necessarily so as we held the Philippines as a territory from 1898 until 1946. Though that menu's copyright IS from 1943 and the photos have the look of no later than the 40's. I guess what I am speculating is that the club could have even been from the 20's or 30's, since it looks more like a nightclub (stage and all) then just a Polypop Tiki Bar. A matter of fact I see NO signs of post Trader Vic's Polypop or Tikis at all! :o

[ Edited by: Rattiki on 2004-02-05 17:07 ]

The mural in the first photo of the dining room looks like caricatures. Got a better view of that one? Maybe it would clue more to the time frame with the faces they used.

According to the dateline on the "Evolution Of Polynesian Pop" chart put together by the learned, everything PRE-1950 can be considered pre-Tiki, so it is fitting that there would be no Tikis in an early 40s tropical bar (especially since it was not Polynesian themed).

quote:
".... The joke in the book was that if you cut off a monkey's tail, it could pass for a Filipino."

HA HA HA, that is so funny!!!...I remember back in the 40s me and good ole Herman (Goehring) slapping our knees over that one ("That's what Adolf always sez. Ze Amerikanz are such a wize guise!")

HA Ha...ha.Gecko? GECKO!? You're not laughing..?

I blew it up on my photo shop and it is quite blurry, but from what I can make out there is Bogey, Garbo, Groucho and maybe Sid Ceasar. That would be reflective of the 30's and 40's.

Personally I am curious as to what kind of entertainment they had and when and why it closed. I think you're right Sabu, it must have gone under a long time ago, maybe even before the actual 50's-60's Polypop craze.

To get an idea of what Zamboanga in the Philippines is REALLY like have a look at this :o So much for the Hollywood fantasy! :lol:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2223072251&category=20264

On 2004-02-05 12:21, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
The joke in the book was that if you cut off a monkey's tail, it could pass for a Filipino. (Remember, this was a very racially insensitive era).

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, that's awful. Also absurd. Pinoys can't look like tailess monkeys; I can't grow a moustache, let alone hair anywhere else on my body.

On 2004-02-05 17:45, bigbrotiki wrote:
quote:
".... The joke in the book was that if you cut off a monkey's tail, it could pass for a Filipino."

HA HA HA, that is so funny!!!...I remember back in the 40s me and good ole Herman (Goehring) slapping our knees over that one ("That's what Adolf always sez. Ze Amerikanz are such a wize guise!")

HA Ha...ha.Gecko? GECKO!? You're not laughing..?

I'm not laughing either.

I know, that's about as bad as racism can get, right up there with the race theories of the Nazis (which I was hinting at). I just wanted to crank the "ouch" effect up a notch.

Remember, we are all making fun of the naivitee of mid century racist stereotyping with Tiki. This joke is an example of really crossing the line.

More on this in my reply on the "Dodge Kahuna" thread.

Reminds me of a song my Dad taught me as a kid:

"OHHHH, the Monkey wrapped his tail around the Flagpole, to see his A$$hole!"

On 2004-02-06 12:36, bigbrotiki wrote:
I know, that's about as bad as racism can get, right up there with the race theories of the Nazis (which I was hinting at). I just wanted to crank the "ouch" effect up a notch.

Remember, we are all making fun of the naivitee of mid century racist stereotyping with Tiki. This joke is an example of really crossing the line.

More on this in my reply on the "Dodge Kahuna" thread.

Of course if you have spent any time in Thailand, Japan or China* (if not elsewhere in Asia and the rest of the 2nd, 3rd & 4th world) you would know that such racism STILL exists towards Westerners and other Asians regularly to this day.

Bat-chi-gai means white chicken, a Chinese dish and a slur for Whites. There are worse examples, especially in Japan. :o

I asked Jim Heimann, he believes the Zamboanga existed from the late 30s to the early 50s, but he will substantiate this by looking it up in his archives.
He said the building is still there on Slauson and houses the American Legion now.

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-10 13:52 ]

Thanks bigbrotiki that is some kewl info!

And now some preview pix of my Tiki Coupe' which is ALMOST finished and I will do a full spread on ASAP

Like I said, these are kind of old and I have done a LOT more as you will see soon! :wink:

[ Edited by: Rattiki on 2004-02-12 05:50 ]

The plot thickens, look at this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3386216556&category=18824

And it thickens again, an e-mail I recieved today as follows:

From: "Baron Maurer"
Subject: Zamboanga
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:45:56 -0700

Hi There,

I was just surfing around to see what kind of things might be out there on my Late Grandpa Joe Chastek and I came upon the Tiki Forum. I have quite a few items from both the Zamboanga and Vagabond's House. I think I have 1 of the original menus from the Zamboanga. I also have some matches from Vagabond's House that the matches themselves are figures of naked women with the match head obviously the head of the woman (like nothing I've ever seen before). My Grandfather was always into Naked Polynesian Women. I'm also looking at one of the ceramic tailless monkeys that I have right here in my office. Drop me a line and I'll see if I can't help you out. I'll dig through what I have and let you know.

Baron

Baron Maurer

Draper, UT 84020

I with held the address and phone numbers that came with the e-mail. :wink:

On 2006-11-01 07:30, Rattiki wrote:

From: "Baron Maurer"
I also have some matches from Vagabond's House that the matches themselves are figures of naked women with the match head obviously the head of the woman (like nothing I've ever seen before). My Grandfather was always into Naked Polynesian Women.

How great, I love it when actual relatives of Poly pop proprietors come out of the woodwork. The best thing that can happen to an urban archeologist!

Those matches will be in my upcoming book, as an illustration of how Poly pop changed from the Wahine imagery of the 30s/40s to the Tiki icon in the 50s/60s, for which I have a matchbook where every match has a Tiki on it instead.

Tiki Modern will also have that nude mural postcard, and the great monkey back bar mural from the Zamboanga in it. Jim Heimann has a whole slew of paper ephemera on that place...and it actually DID call itself a "Polynesian Paradise" on some of them.

[ Edited by: bifcozz 2007-02-09 21:39 ]

I wrote him back saying he should post here along with some pix of the things he has and and that I was posting his e-mail to me and he replied:

Right on Carl! Thanks for throwing that on there. I'll have to register on tikicentral and post some photos. My Grandfather and I were pretty close, it was hard to see him go. He did live a very full life indeed though. I believe he was 86 when he died. Started out as a little skin cancer on his face and within a year that was it, had gone to his lungs etc. He was in the Navy and sailed the seven seas, probably no government paid sunscreen, lol, so it's amazing he didn't have problems earlier on. Thanks again!

Aloha,

Baron

PS. There was a story that my mother has told me about 1 of the restaurants having a large aquarium that had silver dollars lining the bottom of the tank with a sign on the front of the tank saying something like "take as many as you can." The catch was that the tank was filled with Piranha. That was Joe Chastek

Aloha,

Those Post Cards are great! I found a drawing that Don Blanding drew on a piece of cardboard with a black felt pen. It looks like it is of a Maui Pier. On the front it says "To Jack - aloha always. Don Blanding. And on the back it says "To Rona & Joe Aloha Nui, I deed this to you, Jack. I'll have to ask my mom who Jack is, and I really don't know who Rona is either. I still have quite a bit of stuff to go through, so more to come. I'm working on the pics too. Have patience, I'm working on Island time, LOL.

Hope this helps!

[ Edited by: hiltiki 2006-11-02 22:40 ]

Here are some pis of that ceramic monkey I was talking about.
Front say: ZAMBOANGA HOME OF THE TAILESS MONKEYS LOS ANGELES
Back says: "NO TAIL?" with an arrow pointing to where a tail would be. More to come.

This is fantastic! My son, Archipelago, informed me about the site, and I think I can make some interesting contributions.

My father, Joe Chastek, first was introduced to Polynesia when he and a high school buddy stowed away to the Philippines when they were both 17. After that, he became so immersed in the culture that it literally became his whole life until he died in 1995. He was one of the first to open a nightclub with the South Seas motif. His first was the Zamboanga, where he entertained movie stars and sports celebrities. The Zamboanga was featured on the TV Biography series that discussed early 1940's South Seas nightclubs in Los Angeles. His second nightclub was the Tradewinds. His third, the Vagabond's House was on Wilshire Blvd in LA, and was incredibly popular with, again, movie stars and sports celebrities.

I have been communicating with a man who is writing a book about Don Blanding, who wrote the original poem, "Vagabond House". He and my father were acquaintances, and I am fortunate enough to have some of their correspondence and a picture of Don. My son has posted a few pictures from the Zamboanga, which I was pleased to see. One of Joe's close friends at that nightclub was Johnny Weismuller. I have a very early picture of the two of them, and then have a later one taken at the Vagabond's House years later.

Here's some more...
This 1st pic is of Joe Chastek & Spike Jones at the Zamboanga. You can see the tailess monkeys in the background behind the glass.

Here's one of the menus...

And here's a Luau ticket...

More to come...

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing this!

Holy Smokes! There were ACTUAL LIVE MONKEYS behind glass there?! Wow! You just would never see that now-a-days.

I find this incredibly intriguing.

My wife is from Zamboanga. It's a beautiful port city with lots of old charm, and is thriving despite the bad news often associated with it. One thing to bear in mind is that if separatist violence occurs, say, 100 miles from Zamboanga, the story will be "datelined" Zamboanga as it is the biggest city in the region. This often gives the impression that the problem occurred in the Zamboanga City, even when it didn't. To paraphrase the old Merril Lynch commercial, we're bullish on Zamboanga.

Of likely interest to many TCers, there is a famous bamboo tree house in Pasonanca Park in Zamboanga City. Google and/or Google Images " pasonanca park zamboanga tree house " and lots comes up. The following is from http://www.jetlink.com.ph/~zambo/tree.htm :
**
TREE HOUSE
at Pasonanca Park

Any visitor, foreign or native, who comes for a brief sojourn hereabouts may ask for a reservation of the Tree House through the Office of the City Mayor. The stay is for FREE, but it is only good for a night or two, to give everybody a chance, it being the one and only of its kind in the city and in the country...

ZAMBOANGA TREE HOUSE
Elizabeth Stafford
Pasonanca Park Tree-House
September 30, 1963

From the heart of an Acacia tree
Come these words from me to thee
In a tree-house I now stay
My third day, out Zamboanga way.

Leafy boughs frame screen-tight windows
and sky is etched in swaying palm-frond rows.

Beyond shines the Celebes Sea
while close around "my" tree
Brilliant bougainvilla reaches up to me.

The rainbow tips a bird's wing
While friendly Filipino voices sing.
In pretty Pasonanca Park
Where Tree-House living is a lark
A stream-fed pool
Invites a swim that's cool.

There's room for two
But one alone "can do"
With frig and lightss
And comfort for all rites.

At dusk and dawn
A cricket combo will help you yawn.
Rare fruits tease
Sun-sweet breezes please.

How much: much No price!
It's just to be nice
To City Guests who stay
Out Zamboanga way.

But of pesos -- leave a few
La Lavandera will wash for you.

This sweet little scheme
For enchantment - whose dream?
That of Cesar Climaco, a mayor
With imagination of his mind plus hair.

For every visitor out Zamboanga Way
This my heart is glad to say.

Impressions of other guests:

PAKISTAN AMBASSADOR MALIK: "To live on the tree top without being uncivilized is heavenly." 1963

American actor, JEFFREY HUNTER: "The perfect story of romance! An adventure in a tree-house in the distant reaches of the Pacific! Zamboanga, a name that fires the imagination, a name that is synonymous with friendly, smilinmg people. More wonderful than fiction is the fact that Zamboanga is now our most treasured memoir of the Philippines." 1962

PAULINE BUSS, 4-H Club, Michigan: "I will always remember my night in the tree house. It was so much fun. This house and park really add to the beauty of Zamboanga." 1965

(end of quote)

By the way, that ditty about the monkeys with no tails is suddenly and inexplicably sung by the female lead in the Frank Sinatra movie, A HOLE IN THE HEAD, which is rather corny but hey, is in Miami in 1959, which makes it cool despite it all. It was the first time my wife and I ever heard it and we suddenly turned to each other with shocked expressions (then rewound the video and relistened to it about five times to make sure). A funny moment.

The more I think of it I'm proud, in a funny way, of the fact that the mean-spirited, racist meaning behind the "monkeys with no tails" thing (the idea that it's actually referring to the people, and therein lies the "joke," which now seems so obvious and unavoidable now that it's been pointed out) hadn't even occurred to me at first. Makes me feel like I was "innocent" in a good kind of way. And now the idea kind of fills me with a sour disappointment, though one easily dismissed, thank goodness.
Edited to add: Lovely artifacts from the "other" Zamboanga presented here, and great discussion! I hadn't known about the establishment at all. I don't wish to derail the topic from that primary focus but there had also been some discussion of the actual city interweaved here as well.

[ Edited by: Thomas 2006-11-08 09:32 ]

Anyone know the recipe for a Tailless Monkey cocktail?

I drove by the Zamboanga’s address to see what it looks like now as the Jackie Robinson American Legion Hall. The front still has the big wide curved line design. I don’t know what you would call that. Anyway I was taking pictures for less than two minutes before someone came out and half-angrily across 4 lanes of traffic asked, “What’s going on?” I replied with “Just taking pictures of the building.” I should have crossed the street and explained more but they went inside. I later tried to Google the Jackie Robinson American Legion Hall to see if they had an email address so I could explain and see if anything inside was still intact but couldn’t find any email.

According to some event calendars that I came across on Google they have live jazz there sometimes so maybe part of it is still intact.

[ Edited by: Bora Boris 2006-11-22 18:55 ]

On 2006-11-03 15:07, Haole'akamai wrote:
Holy Smokes! There were ACTUAL LIVE MONKEYS behind glass there?! Wow! You just would never see that now-a-days.

I find this incredibly intriguing.

Hey Red,

You got to go to the Kon Tiki Tucson and meet Thor. You can sit at the bar and watch him chill on his trunk. Big ass monitor lizard!

I remember this place from my childhood. There was a huge gorilla, probably would have
stood about 8 feet tall, sitting on the parapet of the front wall. The sign, as I recall it,
said, "Zamboanga, Home of the Tailless Ape!" I never went inside, being a kid, and I didn't
know that Zamboanga was a Phillipine Island, rather than someplace in Africa. It sure would
be fun to see, if someone had a picture of the building with the ape in place.