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The Castaways, Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL (restaurant) |
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
|  Posted: 2011-09-10 10:07 am Permalink
I was rummaging through my swizzles and decided to take a few photos of the various ones I have from the Castaways.
The Wreck Bar colors.
A few from the Tahitian Bar and one that says Castaways.
DC
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Pittsburgh pauly
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 31, 2010
Posts: 327
From: Pittsburgh
| Posted: 2012-02-13 08:57 am Permalink
WOW! This place something!
I found a maraca/can/shaker over the weekend that's mentioned in a previous post (the link to the pic no longer works), and a couple of drumsticks. Combine that with the tambourine, Stan the Great, naked go-go, nude beach, dune buggies, that's one swinging place!
The drumsticks are marked:
Castaways
America's Most Fun-derful Resort-Motel
Ocean at 163rd St., Miami Beach, Florida
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Dr. Coruba
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jun 02, 2008
Posts: 84 | Posted: 2012-04-23 05:26 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2009-04-10 10:22, bigbrotiki wrote:
Great info about him in the article! Where is Stanley Klim now? And where can I get some of those Mai Tai tumblers with his portrait on them? And all the names of those other Motels!: Thunderbird, Aztec, Surfside Six, Carib, Driftwood and The Dunes...where is my time machine!? |
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Follow up on Stanley Klim (sadly,from his obit):
"Deid sah Milk Yelnats" March 10, 2005
Deid sah Milk Yelnats. The longtime Castaways bartender was 77. The cause was lung cancer, said his wife, Wanda, who had no good explanation for how the backward name gag started. “He was a funny guy. He liked to make people laugh. Yelnats – it doesn’t take much when they’re half-loaded. But he was funny.”
Stanley Klim worked behind the bar of the Tahitian Lounge at the Castaways Motel and Night Club from 1947 through the early 1980s, when the building – on Collins and 163 Street – was razed to make way for luxury condominiums.He set the atmosphere by crowding the place with stuffed parrots and wearing leis and Hawaiian print shirts – by the time of his death, he had more than 50 – to work every night of the week.
Over the years he added hula hoops and hand buzzers, which drove away fewer customers than you might think.
He founded the Roving International Association of Turtles, which had no dues, nothing to do with turtles and no real purpose for existing. Nevertheless, it assumed brief world-historical significance in 1968 when Apollo VII astronaut Walter Cunningham, a loyal customer of Klim’s, held up an are you a turtle? sign in a high elliptical Earth orbit on live international television.
Klim had a prodigious memory, matching thousands of faces to first names and bar tabs. Many of his customers were tourists who wrote postcards from back North. Klim stapled the cards to the Tahitian’s ceiling and bet those who returned months, sometimes years later, that he could point out the postcard they’d sent. He won enough bets one year, Wanda said, to pay for a considerable portion of a European vacation.
But Klim’s finest hour came with perfection of the drink-balancing act. The act involved cowbells, trays of drinks and a very steady head. It commenced whenever the jukebox in the Tahitian started to play “The Battle of New Orleans.” When this happened, Klim balanced a tray of drinks on his head and made a slow pass down the length of the bar. At the end of each pass he added another tray, all the while ringing his cowbells in time with Johnny Horton’s voice. It is believed he worked his way up to three trays before certain laws of physics interceded. In interviews he claimed there were nights when his bar “looked like a bombed-out window factory. …. I broke thousands and thousands to get to where I am today.”
His wife said he never dropped one, and had superior balance, though she never found the trick awe-inspiring. “Ah, nothing impressed me, ” Wanda said.
After the Castaways closed, Klim did part-time work at the Sonesta Resort on Key Biscayne but in recent years limited himself to a few private parties. He did his last in December. “He knew they were going to ask him to do the balancing trick, ” said Wanda. “He was out in the garage practicing with those glasses. All night, back and forth, back and forth. I was listening – he didn’t drop any.”
A memorial Mass will be held 7 p.m. Friday at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, 415 NE 105th St. in Miami Shores. Friends and Turtles are encouraged to attend.
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-05-27 08:03 am Permalink
Dr. Coruba,
Great info on Stanley, what a character.
Here is another cool night shot from a postcard I have.
A better pic of the table topper featuring the Pool Bar and Stanley that was posted before.
And a few feature matchbooks I have seen online.
DC
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-07-04 10:29 am Permalink
I got this very early postcard of the Wreck Bar trimmed in bamboo..
If you look at the back wall, you can see some Tiki masks. First time I have spotted a Tiki at the Castaways.
DC
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-07-08 12:33 pm Permalink
A later version of the Wreck Bar. Groovy, man.
DC
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-07-28 12:51 pm Permalink
Here is a brochure showing the Polynesian waterfall on Fairyland Island and the Fountain Room.
It appears that the Shinto Room was renamed at some point to the Fountain Room.
DC
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Swanky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2012-08-25 07:35 am Permalink
Great view of that building from the pool!
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Mai-Kai Memories Series Custom ceramic mugs!
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Swanky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2012-08-25 07:40 am Permalink
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Mai-Kai Memories Series Custom ceramic mugs!
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-08-25 11:35 am Permalink
Swanky,
Great photos of the Shinto Room building. Nice find. That last one really gives some perspective of the cool layout and the great entrance!
Another Wreck Bar ad.
Madd Maids in Cages, Oh My!
DC
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tiki1963
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 12, 2003
Posts: 196
From: los angeles
| Posted: 2012-08-25 12:13 pm Permalink
here's a neat thing my mom saved and gave me recently...
i was born in miami beach and have been heavily into tiki since i was a kid.
there's NO QUESTION the Castaways and the Luau on 79th St Causeway were two HUGE influences on my fragile egg-shell mind as a lifelong love of tiki.
it's funny how different times are now. our parents had no problem dropping us off at the Castaways alone for the afternoon as they had a huge indoor swimming poor right next to the Shinto Temple and Wreck Bar. it had massive "stained-glass-style" fiberglass wall panels around the pool that let in amazing colored natural light. keeping with the poly-asian theme, there were incredible chinese dragons for each panel.
between the incredible looking, no-kids-allowed, bars and the pool, you can imagine what effect that would have on a seven year old.
anyhow, here's my attempt to tell my mother what an amazing day we had! (also funny that i'm still lazy when i draw!)
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Bora Boris
Mr. Unreasonable
Joined: Mar 25, 2005
Posts: 2401
From: Boogie Wonderland
| Posted: 2012-08-25 12:23 pm Permalink
That is awesome! Thanks for sharing Tiki1963!
Thanks also Dusty Cajun for updating this thread on a regular basis and Swanky for the great stuff you posted this morning. 
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TikiTomD
Grand Member (3 years) 
Joined: Sep 20, 2009
Posts: 629
From: Flagler Beach, FL
| Posted: 2012-12-14 5:50 pm Permalink
Great thread, everyone! Here’s another reason to like the Castaways Hotel… it is the handiwork of two architects that created the best of mid-century Fort Lauderdale, the Yankee Clipper and the Mai-Kai. As pointed out by DustyCajun in the Las Vegas Castaways thread, Miami architect Tony Sherman designed the original Miami Beach Castaways located on the oceanside. He was also the architect for Bob Gill’s Jolly Roger and Yankee Clipper hotels, as well as the original Las Vegas Tropicana Hotel. But, as we learn from the article below, Charles McKirahan, architect of the Mai-Kai, designed the signature Fairyland Island portion of the Miami Beach Castaways in a 1957 expansion of the complex. There's also a bizarre connection with someone who isn’t among the usual suspects for mid-century Poly pop temples, contemporary Fox News pundit, Bill O’Reilly...
Tropic Florida Living & Design December 2012
-Tom
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TikiTomD
Grand Member (3 years)
Joined: Sep 20, 2009
Posts: 629
From: Flagler Beach, FL
| Posted: 2012-12-15 07:00 am Permalink
There are brief drive-by views of the Castaways hotel starting about 12 seconds into this Wolfson Archives video of Miami Beach in the early 1970s.
-Tom
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-12-15 09:11 am Permalink
Tom,
Nice video. That airplane banner at the beginning of the video is also advertising the Luau restaurant.
DC
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