 |
Tiki Archeology - The Hawaii Pavillion - '64/'65 New York World's Fair |
freddiefreelance
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 15, 2003
Posts: 2983
From: San Diego, Ca.
|  Posted: 2006-04-27 2:33 pm Permalink
Sabu's listing of the '62 Seattle World's Fair Hawaii Pavillion brought this to mind for me. Since I can't find my old copy of the Official Guide to the World's Fair, or any of the tchotchkes my parents & grandparents bought, I'm building this from Internet resources.
From the 1965 Official Guide to the New York World's Fair:
Quote:
| The island state comes to life in song and dance, movies, outrigger canoe rides, bright flowers and exotic foods.
Costumed Hawaiian girls greet Fairgoers with leis and introduce them to displays of the history and culture of this melting pot of the Pacific. Hawaiian artisans work on handicrafts in a reproduction of an old-fashioned island village. The state's tourist attractions and industries are on exhibit, and its products are sold in shops.
- ALOHA THEATER. Color movies of the islands are shown daily between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and a 20-minute state show of Hawaiian songs and dances is presented twice an hour between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m.
- CANOE RIDES. Beach boys take fairgoers for trips on Meadow Lake in replicas of ancient outrigger canoes.
- RESTAURANTS. The Five Volcanoes Restaurant has buffet luncheons; at night, a three-hour, 12-course luau is held outdoors, complete with traditional dishes, rituals and dances. The Lava Pit Bar serves exotic island drinks.
|
|
A description from Jeffrey Stanton:
Quote:
| Hawaii Pavilion
The pavilion's 80 foot high Aumakua Tower with a ring of flaming torches at the 55 foot level, formed a gateway to a complex of structures; the Aloha Theme Pavilion, a Tourism and Industrial Exhibits building, the Five Volcanoes Restaurant, an arcade of shops, an ancient village and the enclosed Aloha Theater. The area was landscaped with coconut and hala trees, orchids and other tropical plants.
The exhibition hall in the hexagonal Aloha Theme Pavilion had numerous displays of the islands' history and culture, including carved reproductions of the old Polynesian gods, thrones of the monarchy and views of the state today (1964). One exhibit depicted the influx over the centuries of peoples from many Pacific lands.
In the Tourism and Industrial Exhibits, motion pictures focused on Hawaii's wonders. Wall maps depicted travel routes to the islands.
In the Ancient Hawaiian Village, craftsmen demonstrated native skills; how to construct a grass hut, shape stones into tools, and weave blossoms, seeds and strands into leis without thread or needles. Beach boys offered rides in outrigger canoes.
A one hour show "Hawaiian Extravaganza" featuring island entertainers, was presented six times daily in the Aloha Theater. It was built on a man-made peninsula that jutted into Meadow Lake.
The Five Volcanoes Restaurant had an indoor dining room, a Lava Pit Bar and an outdoor area seating 500. At night, a three-hour, 12 course luau was held outdoors, complete with traditional dishes, rituals and dances.
|
|
Here's an image of the backside of the pavillion from Bill Cotter I found at PeaceThroughUnderstanding.org:
And images of the covers from the recipe booklet and cook book from Five Volcanos, the Hawaii Pavillion's restaurant (also from PeaceThroughUnderstanding.org):
 
_________________
Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., Th.D., D.F.S
|
Phillip Roberts
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 09, 2003
Posts: 1489
From: OAHU, Hawaii.
| Posted: 2006-04-27 4:35 pm Permalink
[ This Message was edited by: filslash 2008-09-16 14:04 ]
|
cynfulcynner
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 24, 2002
Posts: 1800
From: Ocean Beach, San Francisco
| Posted: 2006-04-27 4:47 pm Permalink
I'll have to ask my upstairs neighbor about this. He grew up on Long Island and went to the Fair EVERY SINGLE DAY when he wasn't in school.
_________________
|
BC-Da-Da
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 14, 2002
Posts: 162 | Posted: 2006-04-27 5:08 pm Permalink
Cool that you posted Jeffrey Stanton. What an amazing author. I have three of his books, and there is absolutely nothing like 1974's "Summer Is Forever."
|
Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2006-04-28 12:14 am Permalink
Freddie,
Thanks for posting all that. Very cool stuff. I haven't seen any of those photos before and that menu is just beautiful.
Unfortunately, I don't have as much stuff as I should on this fair. I'm still waiting for a seller to send me a photo I won on eBay back in February, so all I have is the auction photo:
Evidently this was a Design Study of what the Hawaiian Pavillion might have looked like. It was a promotional photo from before the fair and like I said, I'd love to get my hands on it... since I paid for it, you understand.
Other than that, I've got this matchbook from the Five Volcanos 
And here's where it gets interesting. Besides the 5 Volcanos there was another Polynesian Restaurant at the New York World's Fair, outside of the Hawaiian Pavilion. It was located in The Court of The President Of The United States of America, and it was called "Moultray's"
And here's a postcard image of the same restaurant
Based on the quantity of items in my collection from the city, New York must have been absolutely crazy about Tiki in the 1960s. So it's probably not surprising that the 1964-65 World's Fair had two Polynesian restaurants.
Sabu
_________________
|
Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2006-04-28 12:18 am Permalink
I adore the lettering in that 5 Volcanos logo... thanks so much for sharing!
_________________
Critiki - Ooga-Mooga - Humu Kon Tiki
|
puamana
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 02, 2002
Posts: 291
From: Seattle, WA
| Posted: 2006-04-28 1:04 pm Permalink
Great stuff, freddiefreelance & Sabu ! I've have a little more on the NY Worlds Fair than for Seattle. Here's a brochure promoting Polynesia at the Fair, with "Authentic Native Dancers and Pearl Divers direct from Pago Pago to you" :
The inside page :
Closer view of the images on the left side of brochure, with "Road to Polynesia" map, and samples of South Pacific pearls which could be purchased:
Middle of page, closer view:
The captions read:
"See the Polynesian Island girls and boys in their colorful lava lava"
"All the delightful beauty of Polynesia can be seen at the Fair"
"Witness the Enchantment of a Polynesian dance ritual which captured by pulsating rhythm of native drums"
"Be rewarded with sights of authentic outrigger canoes, native pearl divers in pearl lagoons"
The top right illustration, shows the same building and thatched structures in Sabu's postcard, and possibly the "Pearl Lagoon" in the middle :
The illustration below features a view of the "First Luxury Hotel now being built in Pago Pago, American Samoa" :
The hotel pictured above is the Rainmaker Hotel ( formerly known as the Inter-Continental, and also the Americana ) on Pago Pago Bay. Three of the architects mentioned, Wimberly, Allison, & Tong were also responsibile for the for the design of the Waikikian, Tahiti's Hotel Bora Bora, Tahiti's Tahara'a Hotel, among others.
This gets a little sidetracked here, but I did some research online, and found quite a few photos and documentation of this hotel. This first website shows much of the hotel grounds, and the center photo in the last row matches the layout of the buildings in the illustration above:
http://www.dbas.org/rhpictures.htm
There's some well documented photos showing the Rainmaker's present dilapidated state here ( check out all the pics from the links on the side ) :
http://pagopago.com/NewBeauty/hotel.htm
O.K., now back to the original post...
The back of the brochure promotes Pago Pago and American Samoa in particular:
Also, here's some pics of a menu from Moultray's Polynesian :
[ This Message was edited by: puamana 2006-04-28 13:06 ]
|
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2006-04-29 09:27 am Permalink
Coo-elle! That somewhat failed but valiant attempt to make the Ku Tiki's head/brow line conform with the A-frame is really somethin'!
The Rainmaker, like the Tahaara Hotel, was also outfitted by Oceanic Arts.
AND, big urban archeology challenge, WHY is the mask that graces the matchbook and menu of "Moultray's Polynesian" IDENTICAL with a giant Witco mask that hung outside "The Polynesia" in Seattle? I wanted to know that for years (didn't you?)
|
GatorRob
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 20, 2004
Posts: 1766
From: 3 hrs 33 mins to paradise
| Posted: 2006-04-30 1:28 pm Permalink
This is a terrific thread everyone! Really enjoying it.
Isn't it odd that these words in the cocktail menu are either misspelled or have some funny alternate spelling: Zombi (zombie), liquer (liqueur), and lethel (lethal)?
|
Nightmaretony
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Oct 02, 2005
Posts: 39
From: Meadowbrook, CA
| Posted: 2006-05-01 01:07 am Permalink
BC-Da-Da: Jeff be a close friend of mine. He has a new version of the Venice history book, revision 3. About 150 more pages of text and photos, much more detailed. $50 and worth every penny. He is still working on the Coney Island history book.
|
freddiefreelance
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 15, 2003
Posts: 2983
From: San Diego, Ca.
| Posted: 2006-05-01 07:41 am Permalink
Quote:
|
On 2006-04-28 13:04, puamana wrote:
Great stuff, freddiefreelance & Sabu ! I've have a little more on the NY Worlds Fair than for Seattle. Here's a brochure promoting Polynesia at the Fair, with "Authentic Native Dancers and Pearl Divers direct from Pago Pago to you" :
|
|
There was also a Papua Pavillion at the Fair.
You might want to put the Polynesia Pavillion in it's own thread?
[edit]Oops, it's not Papua/New Guinea but Equitorial Guinea, my bad. But starting a separate thread for the Polynesia Pavillion is still a good idea.
_________________
Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S
[ This Message was edited by: freddiefreelance 2006-05-01 11:55 ]
|
freddiefreelance
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 15, 2003
Posts: 2983
From: San Diego, Ca.
| Posted: 2006-05-01 12:41 pm Permalink
If anyone wants a scale model of the Hawaii Pavillion, or any of the other Pavillions, Robert Bianco is making 1:600 scale models, and will make models to other scales if requested:
http://www.nywf64.com/bianco01.html
_________________
Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., Th.D., D.F.S
|
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3925
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-01-12 5:43 pm Permalink
I recently picked up some nice paper items from the New York World's Fair. The first is a photo holder from the Restaurant of the 5 Vocanos.
The outside has the standard restaurant logo with the Mod font.
The picture shows the inside of the restaurant with a couple of bee-hive gals posing with the friendly staff and enjoying their 5 Volcano Rum Punch served in traditional Pineapples.
The second set of items are two brochures from the restaurant.
The brochures both have a nice wahini on the cover.
The larger brochure gives an explanation of the Luau with an "action" photo. You can even see a tiki hiding out in the back.
And then a Luau menu.
The brochure also contains a photo of a model of the Hawaiian Pavilion and a description of the facilities. Interesting to note that their was a Lava Pit Bar and a Sandwich Isle Bar. First time I had heard about those venues. There were also outrigger canoe rides!
The second brochure contains and updated menu with higher prices so I am assuming it came out later.
I really enjoy the old World's Fair Hawaiian/Polynesian themed items.
DC
|
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3925
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-01-13 4:44 pm Permalink
After posting the brochure from the Restaurant of the 5 Volcanos I kept thinking that I had seen that picture of the luau scene and tiki before. Then it dawned on me, it is the same photo set that was used on the album cover for the Danny Kaleikini recording at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Luau!
Here is the Brochure
Here is the album cover.
It's amazing that so many images were cross referenced and copied on brochures, postcards, albums, menus, matchbooks, etc. during the heyday of the Polynesian craze. We have seem some recent examples from Bosko and BigBro. Someone should start a copycat post.
DC
|
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-01-13 5:52 pm Permalink
Ha! Cool. Polynesia Americana! Same photo session, probably shot in LA, the ocean is most likely a photo backdrop.
|
|
