Remember — black lite? This is the Hawaiian dress I wore to the recent Tiki weekend once the regular lights went down, and the show lights went on. This makes me want to wear my vintage tiki clothes all the time.

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My favorite artisan at the Luau on the Lake was Dave Hansen, who does hand carvings like these. His company is Lake Tiki / South Pacific Street, and he is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (another one of my “hometowns” as I went to college there.) I thought his work was gorgeous, and we bought our first piece. Oh my, tiki is possibly the only thing we have not started collecting yet. Where will it go? You can contact Dave here.

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I don’t think that I have ever shown a photo of Mr. Retro Renovation on the blog. That is me with my husband David at the Luau on the Lake. He nearly has pneumonia right now, but he is holding up and hanging in there with me as we enjoy our tiki weekend in Lake George, New York. The dinner and Polynesian show at the Tiki Motor Inn Resort were a hoot. The dinner included Spam prepared in some unique way that no one quite cared about, because rum was also being imbibed. Mai Tai’s have re-entered my consciousness in a big way.  They will not outpace the importance of coffee in my life, but woah I like them a lot. Tiki people are super fun.  We are having a very good time. “Ohana”: I learned that it means: Family.

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I am at the Ohana Luau on the Lake all weekend. It is being held at the Tiki Motor Inn Resort on Lake George, NY, which is billed as the last surviving 60s era tiki resort in America. I am so excited — in particular because Mr. Retro Renovation adores tiki. I plan to take lots of photos, drink many large sweet rum drinks, and acquire a polynesian name. So watch for a tiki report next week.

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GHOST OF ELVIS (aka Arne) recently scored the fantastic Witco tiki bar for sale on Ebay – and had it hauled all the way from the east coast to his Jungle Room in Albuquerque. I am so jealous!

GofE explains that, ” This tiki bar made its way from the thrift store outside Washington D.C. where the ebay seller first found it around the time that President Obama was inaugurated… to a consignment store in Virginia, and then through the magic of this blog, ebay, and craters and freighters the whole set ended up in my jungle room in a mid-century ranch home in New Mexico built in 1953….” Click through for more on the story, along with some Witco history… and 2 more great photos…

GofE aka Arne also adds is a little advice on repairing vintage Witco furniture and tikis when a piece chips off and bare wood is exposed. He says:

Witco decor is generally made out of red cedar with dark walnut stain.  In the original pictures that Chad sent in, you’ll notice that a piece is broken off the foot of the bar on the right side.  The original care and treatment instructions from Witco advise to darken such bare wood with dark walnut stain and then rub smooth.   That’s just what I did, and you’ll notice the bare wood area is gone when the bar appears in my pics.

-Arne

Thanks, Ghost of Elvis! I really don’t know much about tiki, or about Witco…but I found out a bit online:

From TikiCentral.com 2 years ago:

Hi,

My name is Burke Hovde (aka…The Witco Kid on www.tikicentral.com). I’m the son of Ron Hovde, one of the Witco Co-Founders and Artists with Bill Westenhaver. I grew up with Witco everywhere. Witco wallhangings and furniture are all over my parents house and our family’s cabin. Witco started out as Western International Trading Company and imported South Pacific home furnishing items like Capishell Lamps. They also were into carvings that eventually evolved into the rough cedar chain saw carved furniture and Tikis that most people know Witco for. The artwork and production plant was in Mt. Vernon, Washington and they eventually sold $15 million worth of Witco products throughout the world over a 10 year run in the 1970’s. Through my Ebay Storefront at “intertrader2005″ you can purchase a book on “Fun and Profitable Chainsaw Carving” that Ron Hovde and Bill Westenhaver published under their company Westho (i.e. Westenhaver/Hovde) after Witco shut down. If I can answer any other questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at hovdeinternational@hotmail.com

Cheers!
Burke Hovde
Hovde International

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This vintage Witco tiki bar – with a real cultural mash-up of leopard and tiger print upholstery – along with all the pieces, including spears and shield – may just be the greatest rumpus room bar set ever in the history of the retro universe. It’s for sale on ebay now. Read on for seller Chad’s story and 7 photos of the entire set…

Chad writes:

I found it at the Indian Head thrift store just outside of D.C. It was all bound together with packing tape in a big ball of leopard fur. Being an avid rockabilly and Elvis fan i would keep it if i had ANYWHERE to put it. I actually set it up, popped on some Elvis and had a tiki cocktail with a friend. I was going to put in the auction that the Obama’s should have this for the White House, good enough for Graceland, and Barack is the new Elvis. But then i thought some people might take that the wrong way. I have a cool vintage leather jacket that i painted for an art show with Elvis in the Creation Sistene Chapel scene on the back, thought about listing it in conjunction with “Tiki Heaven” Thanx for the plug Pam.

 

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Great video – you MUST watch it!

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal declared that, “A Polynesian Pop revival is under way” — with tiki bars all the rage on the west coast. Some of the 50s and 60s classic tiki bars still exist…and, some entrepreneurs are even recreating that favorite vintage style in all-new designs.

Bradbury.com – vintage reproduction Tiki wallpaper

No question – we retro renovators have long embraced tiki-dom. After all, so many of our houses have basements all ready to go, with built-in bars stuffed in the corner.

Brian over at Atomic Addiction is a particular tiki-maniac. See this string of posts all featuring different home-grown tiki bars that he has catalogued. Brian also found the great video with Tiki Quest author Duke Carter (above) and points out that his book is the “must have” for tiki collectors.

Read on for more facts from the Wall Street Journal and the complete story –>

Meanwhile, here are some tiki facts from the Journal:

• Polynesian restaurants that proliferated in the ’50s and ’60s were once power tables for the elite. The Trader Vic’s at New York’s Plaza Hotel was a favorite of the buttoned-down preppy crowd. And many were the Gotham debutantes who, like journalist Nikki Finke, had their “first drunken evening on Samoan Fog Cutters at Trader Vic’s.”
• Polynesian Pop was also an eminent variety of Americana. When Nikita Khrushchev and his wife visited San Francisco in September 1959, Madame Khrushchev slipped away from her official minders and went off to experience America first-hand. She shopped at Sears and lunched at Trader Vic’s. When Queen Elizabeth II visited California in 1983, it was at Trader Vic’s that the Reagans took her to dine.
• Today, twenty-somethings have embraced Polynesian Pop in their own way, adorning themselves with Maori tribal tattoos. And even through the lean years of the past two decades, some of the great old tiki joints managed to survive, among them the magnificent Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the intimate Tiki-Ti in L.A.

The official Beachcomber’s Creed:

“Of ALL Life’s Pleasures deeply drink/At every worry give a wink/It’s MUCH MUCH later than you think.”

Reading:

• The complete Wall Street Journal story
• The “Tiki timeline” that Courtney sent in a few months ago.

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Recommended by Courtney, this 2004 L.A. Times article also includes a great timeline of the Asian-Tiki trend – which the Times calls “Tropi-California”:

A century under the palms

Tropi-California décor has evolved from exotic to kitsch to the essence of contemporary casual. The highlights of 100 years of a homegrown style:

1904-19: East Coast emigres find their Victorian parlor wicker (once paired with potted palms in the solarium) to be lightweight and durable enough to use in and out of doors, as the climate of California encouraged.

1920-29: Sica, a thin round vine also known as stick rattan, is introduced into such furniture as casual angular armchairs with built-in magazine slots by companies such as Heywood-Wakefield, below. In Europe, Mies van der Rohe designs modernist tubular metal chairs with wicker seats.

1930-39: Inspired by Filipino craftsmen who bend thick rattan rods into organic shapes, American designers twist the pliable but weather resistant material into fanciful Deco and Streamline shapes. As a decorative accent, rattan, cane and sea grass are often mixed with Philippine mahogany. Ernest Beaumont-Gantt opens Don the Beachcomber, the big kahuna of Tiki restaurants.

1940-48: Rattan is the most prevalent furniture among American servicemen stationed in the Pacific. As imports grow, manufacturers such as Tropical Sun Rattan in Pasadena, above, and Ritts Co. in Los Angeles spring up. Furniture designer Paul Frankl’s pretzel-shaped armchair becomes an icon of the era. Rattan with loud floral upholstery becomes popular for porches and rec rooms across the country.

1949-52: Architect Paul Williams builds a new wing at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The Martinique banana-leaf print wallpaper selected by decorator Don Loper defines the postwar tropical look in Los Angeles. The hotel’s lunch counter, right, looks the same today. In 1952, Danny Ho Fong opens Tropi-Cal in Los Angeles.

1953-58: In the years before Hawaii became the 49th state, the look of Hawaii and Polynesia become popularized in “From Here to Eternity” (1953) and “South Pacific” (1958). Trader Vic’s becomes a national chain, opening an outpost in the Beverly Hilton that still stands. As U.S. manufacturers cut corners, rattan starts to look ratty and is soon surpassed in popularity by plywood and molded fiberglass modern furniture.

1959-65: “Gidget” and its sequel “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” are released and Elvis goes to the islands in “Blue Hawaii,” launching the surf craze in America and the beach movie genre around the world.

1966-70: Woven furniture is reinvented with sleek designs from Scandinavia and Japan. During this era, the often-imitated 1959 hanging egg chair, left, by Nanna and Jorgen Ditzel becomes a symbol of the swinging ’60s.

1971-79: Interest in Art Deco and Victoriana keeps classic rattan and wicker out of dumpsters, but the tropical look falls into dormancy.

1980-89: The sun-soaked style catches a new wave of popularity with set-in-Florida TV shows such as “Miami Vice” and “The Golden Girls.” Prewar rattan classics like fan-arm chairs, below, used on the set of the latter become highly collectible.

1990-95: The Sunset Marquis Hotel and Villas in West Hollywood, above, reinterprets Tropi-California in rooms decorated with floral prints on European furniture. The lounge music revival leads to a new appreciation of midcentury tiki kitsch. Former decorator Joe O’Brien opens the surf-centric Cabana Joe’s in Venice.

1996-99: As Buddhism becomes hip, Asian influences join Moroccan accents in Tropi-California design. Warisan, a Balinese antique emporium and design firm, opens a retail shop on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. Schiffer publishes “Rattan: Tropical Comfort Throughout the House.”

2000-04: Orange County artist Shag mixes Polynesian imagery with midcentury furniture for gallery paintings and commercial illustrations. The tiki torch ceremony becomes must-see TV on “Survivor.” The 50-year-old rattan firm McGuire releases a collection by designer Barbara Barry. Tommy Bahama and Cabana Joe’s become household names. National Geographic licenses its name for tropical furniture by Palecek like the Serengeti chair, above.

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These are fabulous beyond belief — I am blown away that they still make these great, cone fireplaces! Okay, we’re now into 60s style…but I think one of these Malm Fireplaces will look great on the screen porch we’re planning out back. Alternatively: In the attic, when we get around to finishing off the space as an all purpose open space for yoga, reading, my daughter’s sleepovers and a spare guest room.

You can find cheaper versions of these, originals, on eBay. A company called “Preway” also made them, including in the famous orange. But, I think that buying this classic design but new is a great idea – including going with the gas logs!

url: malmfireplaces.com

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