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Urban Archeology with BigBro, Sabu & Tangaroa (WARNING: Image heavy! About 4 megs...) |
Tangaroa
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 25, 2002
Posts: 1550 |  Posted: 2004-12-03 4:22 pm Permalink
Hi all - as an early Holiday gift I've decided to share some pix of a little field trip BigBro, Sabu & I took to visit Jim Casey last week.
For those of you who don't know, Jim is a sculptor with an incredibly diverse background. He attended Chouinard Art Institute in the 40s, was a musician & took up carving when he was in the Navy! Due to his friendship with Pacific Ocean Park concept artist Dave Constable, one of his first sculpting jobs had him creating virtually everything (with the exception of the main entrance) at P.O.P. in 1957.
Here he is hacking tikis out of telephone poles...
And the finished result:
I had met Jim before, while doing research on P.O.P. and had found some unique things in his backyard. So I asked BigBro & Sabu if they'd like to play hooky this Wed. and drive out to visit Jim. We all met up at the Del Mar Vista Lanes Coffee Shop for lunch first. Here we are looking at old P.O.P. clippings - (not seen here, Sabu's awe-inspiring, multi binder volumes of Polynesian themed tiki bars & restaurants).
Here's the coffee shops difficult to photograph tiki, standing guard out front:
After lunch, we all piled into BigBro's car and drove to Jim's.... Ja Vol!
BigBro's radio has the coolest logo ever on it:
Anyway - Jim has some pretty neat artifacts from his carving days in his backyard & I knew BigBro & Sabu would be interested.
His backyard has some cool tiki carvings, some of which I know were at P.O.P.
Anyone recognize this guy? No - not Sabu, the guy on the roof...
Here he is after many years exposed to the elements...
Give up? How about this character?
No - not the German Urban Archeologist - the bird?
Yep - Jim carved all the decor for the rarely photographed Aloha Jhoe's (see pages 28 & 29 of The Book Of Tiki)... Here's a couple of vintage photos from Jim's scrapbook.
Here's the bird again, taken from the roof:
Sabu also discovered a rare Witco sword hanging on the side of the garage...
Also out of Jim's scrapbook, he did these cannibal heads that once rested on the top of sticks at the entrance to P.O.P.s Banana Train Ride:
It turns out that Jim did a lot of carving for various restaurants and hotels in the 50s & 60s. Here are some more pages out of his scrapbooks showing tikis for P.O.P. & Steve Crane's Luau...
After our exploration of Jim's backyard, we came back in to talk & look through his "source files" he used back when still sculpting.
Here's BigBro with a nice photo from New Ireland, I believe. When he unfolded it, Jim said, "I haven't looked at that in 40 years!"
Here's Sabu looking through a super-rare 'Cargoes By Carter' catalogue...
And lastly, here's Jim today with some of his sketches for a tiki carving, done in the 60s most likely....
Hope you enjoyed the photos as much as we enjoyed taking them! Thanks again to BigBro & Sabu for playing hooky with me!
Happy Holidays everyone!
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From my limbs, let new life fall..."
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[ This Message was edited by: Tangaroa on 2004-12-03 16:56 ]
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Benzart
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 09, 2004
Posts: 10306
From: Port Saint Lucie, Florida
| Posted: 2004-12-03 4:34 pm Permalink
WOW!!!
Thanks for sharing this outing. What a trip. You guys had to be in tiki heaven.
happyhappyhappy
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Unga Bunga
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 06, 2003
Posts: 5734
From: CaliTikifornia
| Posted: 2004-12-03 4:35 pm Permalink
Thanks Tangaroa!
I really enjoyed that.
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tikifish
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 2720
From: Toronto,Canada
| Posted: 2004-12-03 4:42 pm Permalink
Fantastic! Bravo!
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Raffertiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 31, 2003
Posts: 1527
From: L.I.
| Posted: 2004-12-03 4:52 pm Permalink
Thanks for the education.
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Polynesiac
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 29, 2004
Posts: 2022
From: San Pedro, CA
| Posted: 2004-12-03 5:59 pm Permalink
Looks like you guys had a great time, and he sounds like the type of guy who has TONS of interesting stories. Thanks for sharing the pictures of some amazing carvings!
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Polynesiac - putting the "F" back in "ART"
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tikibars
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 11, 2002
Posts: 2014
From: Aku Hall, Chicago
| Posted: 2004-12-03 6:25 pm Permalink
Hey BigBro
Having seen that big Sepik-style Tiki in Aku Hall, which we more or less figured out is from the Luau (it is the one seen in the pic you loaned me for TRT page 78, the one all the way on the left of the pic in the foreground), can you confirm that my Tiki is the same one seen in Jim's scrapbook (in the pictures posted above, it is all the way on the right, seen in profile, on the bottom of the two pics of his scrapbook, the pics with the yellow backgrounds)?
I am very stoked to have (probably) found out who carved my most favorite Tiki treasure!
Thanks for all of the research, fellas!
_________________
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My new book is "Destination: Cocktails": www.destinationcocktails.com.
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KuKuAhu
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Dec 23, 2002
Posts: 567
From: Kahiki, Ohio
| Posted: 2004-12-03 6:31 pm Permalink
Awesome! Thanks!
Ahu
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8FT Tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
Posts: 1172
From: Kansas City, MO
| Posted: 2004-12-03 6:34 pm Permalink
Awesome stuff guys! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!
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I once was lost..... but now I'm found.....
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Tangaroa
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 25, 2002
Posts: 1550 | Posted: 2004-12-03 6:55 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-12-03 18:25, tikibars wrote:
can you confirm that my Tiki is the same one seen in Jim's scrapbook (in the pictures posted above, it is all the way on the right, seen in profile, on the bottom of the two pics of his scrapbook, the pics with the yellow backgrounds)?
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Can you post a pic of it? I have hi-rez scans of the portfolio, I could compare them...
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puamana
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 02, 2002
Posts: 291
From: Seattle, WA
| Posted: 2004-12-03 7:58 pm Permalink
Wow ! What a treat, thanks so much for this great post !
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FreakBear
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 15, 2004
Posts: 361
From: Springfield, Ohio
| Posted: 2004-12-03 8:08 pm Permalink
Much enjoyed and appreciated!
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johntiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 31, 2002
Posts: 1525
From: MD
| Posted: 2004-12-03 8:10 pm Permalink
This may be a little off topic - but what kinda car is Sven driving?
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2004-12-03 10:46 pm Permalink
A 1960 Buick LeSabre. Last year they made it with fins. Great underrated jet design on that car. Known as "Das Boat" among my friends. Had it for 20 years.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2004-12-03 10:52 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2004-12-03 18:25, tikibars wrote:
Hey BigBro
Having seen that big Sepik-style Tiki can you confirm that my Tiki is the same one seen in Jim's scrapbook.
I am very stoked to have (probably) found out who carved my most favorite Tiki treasure!
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I would say it is likely, since Jim knew and did work for Stephen Crane. The one for the Luau had bird carvings on it's head though. The one in the photo is very clean. But the style is very similar, it makes sense. If we go back, we should have a photo of your baby and show it to Jim and ask him if he carved it.
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