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The Great Enchanted Tiki Room Dress Story |
Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
|  Posted: 2006-01-13 5:56 pm Permalink
I've been dying to tell this story for a while now, and today the wait is over!
This past summer, to celebrate the new Enchanted Tiki Room merchandise that Kevin Kidney & Jody Daily created for Disney, they were invited to do a presentation to the NFFC (that's a huge Disney fan organization) at their big annual Disneyana convention in Anaheim. Kevin & Jody, who have a pretty darned good sense of show themselves, decided to go beyond just a simple "here's what we're selling" spiel, and instead developed a whole performance emceed by King Kukulele. There was singing, there was whistling, there was comedy bits. It was a smash success.
For the show, they wore their reproduction purple Enchanted Tiki Room shirts, one of the more anticipated items in the new merchandise. Kevin & Jody also happened to have the original, vintage, matching purple Enchanted Tiki Room dress; they had pressed the Powers That Be at Disney to also do a repro of the dress, and they were laughed at -- their coworkers said no one would be caught dead in such a frumpy, dated dress! So, only the shirt was made.
Kevin & Jody asked me to participate in their show for the NFFC, and I got to wear their vintage Enchanted Tiki Room dress, which was a dream. We were quite a sight, all four of us in our matching purple Tiki Room prints, and after the show was over we went to Disneyland in them. It was a blast. I posted the story of this event, and the pictures from it, on Tiki Central in this thread:
http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=15605&forum=1
Fast forward a bit -- Kevin walks into the Disney offices one morning to see this picture of me, EVERYWHERE:
It was on everybody's desk, including the VP, and one of the women in the apparel group had it blown up to be a few feet tall and mounted on posterboard. You can probably imagine Kevin's "what the...?!?" expression that morning, trying to figure out why he was seeing a picture of his weekly drinking buddy all over the place at work. He asked around to find out where everybody had gotten the picture, and discovered that someone at Disney had -- totally independently from any efforts of Kevin & Jody -- found that Tiki Central thread about the NFFC show, and the picture of me in that dress, and had flipped their lid! All of a sudden, they now LOVE this dress, and decided to make it!
They had already used all of the purple fabric for making the shirts. They were already underway on developing a reproduction of the vintage green version of the shirt, so they decided to make this dress in the green fabric.
So, this spring, you will be able to purchase this dress, in the same print but with a green background instead of purple, thanks to this bizarre turn of events!
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Critiki - Ooga-Mooga - Humu Kon Tiki
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I dream of tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 12, 2004
Posts: 494
From: Pittsburgh, PA
| Posted: 2006-01-13 6:09 pm Permalink
Wow, Hum! Talk about serendipity. What a great story! Thanx for sharing.
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Unga Bunga
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 06, 2003
Posts: 5734
From: CaliTikifornia
| Posted: 2006-01-13 6:22 pm Permalink
I know that Johnny Dollar is gonna be excited!
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pablus
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 23, 2003
Posts: 2146
From: www.crazedmugs.com
| Posted: 2006-01-13 7:31 pm Permalink
Great story. I give it an 8.
The dress gets a 9.
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mrs. pineapple
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 12, 2003
Posts: 611 | Posted: 2006-01-13 7:42 pm Permalink
Wow - thanks for the inspiration to continue with Weight Watchers, lose the baby weight and get into one of those dresses!
mrs. p
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gwenners
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Feb 08, 2005
Posts: 97
From: SF Bay Area
| Posted: 2006-01-14 8:49 pm Permalink
The line forms behind me. I've wanted one of these for *ages*. 
Cheers,
Gwen Smith
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tikivixen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 28, 2002
Posts: 724
From: Vallejo CA
| Posted: 2006-01-14 10:25 pm Permalink
Oh, me too!!! MEYOW!!
If it sells well maybe they'll make more purple fabric 
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tikivixen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 28, 2002
Posts: 724
From: Vallejo CA
| Posted: 2006-01-14 10:29 pm Permalink
Oh, and they really oughta give you the nearly-life-sized posterboard YOU!
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Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2006-01-15 12:07 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2006-01-14 22:29, tikivixen wrote:
Oh, and they really oughta give you the nearly-life-sized posterboard YOU!
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Haha! I don't know what I'd be able to do with it, though. I do know that Kevin was lobbying to have Sven & me as the catalog models for the green shirt & dress (the guy they got last time to model the tiki room shirt showed up with black nail polish on -- I'm all for wacky nail polish, but it didn't exactly go with the outfit). *That* would have been neat!
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cynfulcynner
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 1800
From: Ocean Beach, San Francisco
| Posted: 2006-01-15 8:29 pm Permalink
I'd be happy just to get the fabric, so I could make my own dress (probably a cheongsam).
I have a feeling that style will make zaftig chicks like me look pregnant, even when they're not. 
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tikicleen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 11, 2003
Posts: 324
From: ripon: almond capital yet no orgeat
| Posted: 2006-01-15 10:08 pm Permalink
this is such a neat story! and you definitely need to get the life size poster of yourself. you can stick it on a cardboard life size cut out and put it in the doorway of tc events to guide people. and im sure the creative people of tc could think of more (possibly scary) uses for it as well. and damn right they need to use your image to model the new dress! you look fabulous in it!
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inkylouise
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: May 18, 2002
Posts: 522
From: las vegas
| Posted: 2006-01-21 1:40 pm Permalink
you look so great; Humu in a muu-muu!
How could the powers at be not want to repro that shift?!
I want one too!!
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mbonga
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Dec 04, 2005
Posts: 556
From: La Mesa, California
| Posted: 2006-01-21 1:59 pm Permalink
Do those coconut shells go under the dress?
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fatuhiva
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 634
From: Melbourne Beach, FL
| Posted: 2006-01-21 6:24 pm Permalink
wow- great story.
Those shirts and the dress are one of the pinnacles of tiki. I am stoked they are coming back. There is actually another dress as well, with shrunken heads and spears.. my wife has one, and someone else posted theirs recently.
Now since TC seems to have some influence on the decision makers at Disney- perhaps we can convince them to reverse that GOD AWFUL faux pas they made when they redid the Tiki Room show and wrecked it completely.
I still go in there with my kid when I am Disney (world) but UGH how much of Gilbert Godfrey's **annoying screaming** can you take?
PLEASE if anyone at Disney is listening, get the "new management" OUT of the tiki room and get the old show back- or at least something soothing and neat, not obnoxiously stupid like it was altered to become.
I almost feel guilty bringing my son into the "new school" tiki room and depriving his childhood memories of the authentic greatness it once had.. to be replaced with goofy Buster Poindexter
That being said, man, I'm glad these dresses and shirts are coming back- that RULES! While you're at it, bring back the little wooden tiki statues too!
EDIT:
Here is the other dress- (my wife had it slightly altered to be a better fit) along with one of the wooden statues and the Disney Polynesian Village lidded mug (ala Mr. Bali Hai)
[ This Message was edited by: fatuhiva 2006-01-21 18:36 ]
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Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2006-01-21 11:59 pm Permalink
Whoa! I had no idea that there'd been a mug for the Polynesian Village Resort!
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