Tiki Culture
Tiki culture
Tiki culture has inspired us with a lot more than tiki torches and refers to a 20th-century theme used in Polynesian-style restaurants and clubs originally in the United States and then, to a lesser degree, around the world. Although inspired in part by Tiki carvings and mythology, the connection is loose and stylistic.
Martin Denny
Martin Denny (April 10, 1911-March 2, 2005) was an American piano-player and composer best known as the “father of exotica.” In a long career that saw him performing well into his 80s, he toured the world popularizing his brand of lounge music which included exotic percussion, imaginative rearrangements of popular songs, and original songs that celebrated Tiki culture.
Don the Beachcomber
Donn Beach (February 22, 1907 – June 7, 1989), born Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, is the acknowledged founding father of tiki restaurants, bars and nightclubs. The many so-called “Polynesian” restaurants and pubs that enjoyed great popularity are directly descended from what he created. After years of being called Don the Beachcomber because of his original bar/restaurant, Gantt changed his name several times, using Donn Beach-Comber, to Donn Beachcomber, and finally settling on Donn Beach.
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania (Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Southeast Asia, and especially Hawaii). Denny described the musical style as “a combination of the South Pacific and the Orient…what a lot of people imagined the islands to be like…it’s pure fantasy though.” While the South Seas forms the core region, exotica reflects the “musical impressions” of every place from standard travel destinations to the mythical “shangri-las” dreamt of by armchair safari-ers.
Hawaiian Dick
Hawaiian Dick is a comic book created by writer B. Clay Moore and artist Steven Griffin, and published by Image Comics. The first Hawaiian Dick mini-series hit comic shops in December of 2002, and was subsequently followed in late 2003 by a second four issue mini-series called Hawaiian Dick: the Last Resort. The second series ran into numerous publication delays, but was completed in July of 2006.
Arthur Lyman
Arthur Lyman (February 2, 1932 – February 24, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His group popularized a style of faux-Polynesian music during the 1950s and 1960s which later became known as exotica. His albums became favorite stereo-effect demonstration discs during the early days of the stereophonic LP album for their elaborate and colorful percussion, deep bass and 3-dimensional recording soundstage. Lyman was known as “the King of Lounge music.”
Mai-Kai Restaurant
The Mai-Kai is a tiki-themed restaurant located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It opened to the public on December 28, 1956, and is one of the few “Grand Polynesian Palaces of Tiki” still in operation today.
Moai
Moai, or mo’ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island, Chile between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island’s perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most would be cast down during later conflicts between clans.
Polynesian culture
Polynesian culture refers to the indigenous peoples’ culture of Polynesia who share common traits in language, customs and society. Chronologically, the development of Polynesian culture can be divided into four different historical eras:
Relocation of moai objects
Since the removal of the first moai Hoa Hakananai’a from Easter Island in 1869 by the crew of HMS Topaze, 79 complete moai, heads, torsos, pukao, and moai figurines are also known to have been removed from their original sites, and transferred to either private collections, the collections of museums (including the Museo Arqueological Padre Sebastian Englert on Easter Island), or, most recently to the university grounds of the American University, Washington D.C. in 2000. Some of the moai have been further transferred between museums and private collections, for reasons such as the moais’ preservation, academic research and for public education, or – in the instance of the moai from Centro Cultural Recoleta – for repatriation after 80 years overseas.
Rumaki
Rumaki is an hors d’oeuvre of mock-Polynesian origin. It was probably invented by Victor Bergeron, known as Trader Vic.
The Tiki Bar Is Open
The Tiki Bar is Open was singer-songwriter John Hiatt’s sixteenth album, released in 2001. It was his last album with Vanguard Records. It was coincidentally released on September 11, 2001.
Tiki Bar TV
Tiki Bar TV is a web series distributed in the pioneering field of video podcasting or “vodcast.” Produced in an apartment Tiki bar on a low budget, the humorous and heavily ad-libbed show is a creative outlet for its creators Jeff Macpherson and Kevin Gamble. The show garnered additional attention after being mentioned at Apple’s iPod Video launch. Each episode features a problem that is rectified by the episode’s namesake cocktail, which is scribbled on a prescription pad by Dr. Tiki (Macpherson) and “filled” by the bartender Johnny Johnny (Gamble) who explains the construction of the cocktail. Lala is the Tiki Bar’s primary denizen who opens each episode with a dance. Most episodes also include a segment called “Tiki Mail,” where mail from viewers or disgruntled neighbours is answered. Episodes usually end with outtakes, the cast dancing, and a slate giving the official website and email address. The show originates from Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. It is considered by many to be one of the pioneering video podcasts credited with launching the genre.
Tiki mugs
Tiki mugs are ceramic drink ware originating in mid-century American tiki bars and tropical themed restaurants, believed to have been pioneered by Don the Beachcomber. The term “Tiki mugs” is a generic, blanket term for sculptural drink ware that depict imagery from Polynesia, Micronesia or Melanesia, and of more recent is also used to describe these mugs depicting anything tropical, wahines, surf or other images or themes connected to the escapism and cultures those bars draw inspiration from and conjure.
Tiki Ti
The Tiki Ti is a Polynesian-themed tiki bar on Sunset Boulevard, in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. It is considered by many to be the very epitome of the Tiki tavern style.
Tiki bar
A tiki bar is an exotic-themed drinking establishment that serves elaborate cocktails, especially rum-based mixed drinks such as the “mai tai” or “Zombie cocktail”. Tiki bars are aesthetically defined by their Tiki culture décor which is based upon a romanticized conception of primitive tropical cultures, most commonly Polynesian.
Volcano bowl
Volcano bowls are ceramic drinkware originally associated with mid-century American tiki bars and tropical-themed restaurants. Drinks served in volcano bowls are typically rum-based, mixed with tropical fruit juices and other liquors such as brandy, vodka, and triple sec, and garnished with fruit. The Flaming Volcano cocktail is especially associated with this drinkware.
The Waikikis
The Waikikis were a Belgian studio band, mostly known for their single “Hawaii Tattoo”, released in the U.S. in 1964, on Kapp Records. “Hawaii Tattoo” was recorded in 1961 in Belgium and spent two months in the Belgian chart. It was a huge hit in Germany, spending 21 weeks in the Top Ten and also reached the Top Fifty in the U.S., Canada and the UK.
Harry Yee
Harry K. Yee is a bartender from Honolulu, Hawaii credited with helping spread tiki bars and tiki culture during the middle 20th century, both in Hawaii and to the United States Mainland.