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Mai Kai 50th Anniv. - a look back in pictures! |
nibblegribitz
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jun 30, 2008
Posts: 29 |  Posted: 2008-10-17 10:06 am Permalink
Hey Jeff,
Yes that is my father. That's the album he made when he was playing at the Yankee Clipper Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. Im guessing mid to late sixties. I got to know a lot of beautiful Polynesian dancers. My two brothers and I sing backup vocals on some of the tracks. Also, one of the dancers was Nani Maka who had the female lead in a movie called "PAGAN ISALND". If you're not familiar with check it out, it's a real hoot.
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Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2009-11-27 2:05 pm Permalink
Here's a hypnotic image from a City of Ft. Lauderdale promotional brochure, dated 1969. (Plus I wanted to bump one of my favorite threads again).
I like the innocent view of the beautiful maiden on the bridge contrasted with the ominous, fearsome tiki above her right shoulder:
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3916
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-11-27 4:51 pm Permalink
Sabu,
That's a great visual from the brochure, for sure.
This is a scene from the Aloft airline magazine.
DC
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GatorRob
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 20, 2004
Posts: 1766
From: 3 hrs 33 mins to paradise
| Posted: 2009-11-27 6:37 pm Permalink
Sabu, that is one fantabulous picture. Love the lighting. The fearsome tiki looming over her is the winged tiki after it was moved into the indoor garden (and now stands in the outdoor garden). 
DC, the rest of the article please?  What's the date on it? Sounds to me like early to mid '70s.
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tiki_kiliki
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Apr 01, 2002
Posts: 988
From: Hamtown USA
| Posted: 2009-11-29 10:26 am Permalink
Sabu, one of my favorite threads too! That picture is amazing!! I agree with Rob, great lighting!
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Yee-Haw & Aloha,
The Hukilau
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Swanky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2009-11-30 09:44 am Permalink
I'll add this picture posted on Facebook:
"Mr. and Mrs. Abinader were in for dinner last week from Virginia Beach and were kind enough to give us this nice picture of them on their honeymoon back in 1959. A beautiful photo of them at the front entrance of the Mai-Kai. They came back to celebrate their 50th Anniversary! What a beautiful couple!"
Besides being a nice picture from 1959, it is the only picture I have seen of the doors. Ron Licudine told me about the doors. They were mahogony and as you can see, they look like the vintage drink menu, with "Mai Kai" on one side and the cannibal trio on the other:
So, you walk up to the Mai-Kai and pull open these big doors and then sit down and you are handed this menu, that looks just like the doors you just walked through...
Fantastic! So, are these doors out there in storage?
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[ This Message was edited by: Swanky 2009-11-30 09:45 ]
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10561
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-11-30 11:30 am Permalink
Great find. Like the Lanai in San Mateo: There the carved door also became one of menu covers. Some Tiki temple doors (and door handles) really had some nice creative concepts. Trader Vic's S.F., the Chin Tiki...
And now we also know where the Traders Restaurant at the Aku Tiki Inn...
http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=29385&forum=5&vpost=421637
...took its entrance door concept:
Meet the Chipmunk Cannibals! (also page 262 in Tiki Modern)
And yet another example how the Mai Kai really was the cradle of Florida East-coast Tiki and inspired others to follow its lead.
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uncle trav
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1531
From: Kalamazoo
| Posted: 2009-11-30 11:52 am Permalink
Great stuff. hhmmm.. a Tiki door and door handle thread maybe?
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tiki_kiliki
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Apr 01, 2002
Posts: 988
From: Hamtown USA
| Posted: 2009-11-30 4:30 pm Permalink
Great photo! Glad this thread is hoppin' again. I'll try to post something tonight!
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Yee-Haw & Aloha,
The Hukilau
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AlohaStation
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: 2003
From: So FL
| Posted: 2009-11-30 6:46 pm Permalink
Great thread!
What I have not seen and would like to see, is, some pictures of the Large Barney West tiki that fell last year?? There has to be some photos of it from "back in the day" (preferably in color if available)?
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10561
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-11-30 8:50 pm Permalink
Sometimes I get the feeling folks get a little spoiled by the rich offerings of Tiki Central (and the 6 - 700 images in each of my books) and take them for granted. Let's not forget that until the 2000s, there was NOTHING out there! Every little vintage Tiki image is a jewel uncovered, a rare gift from the gods, an ephemeral testament that has survived the vagaries of time! You can't order them up, they come to us by diligence and sheer luck --just like Swanky meeting that couple and for the first time realizing that door/menu connection.
(This is not to be taken personal, oh valuable and honored contributor A.S., just me taking this opportunity to point something out that has been on my mind.)
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JOHN-O
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: May 16, 2008
Posts: 2454
From: Dogtown, USA
| Posted: 2009-11-30 9:04 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2009-11-30 20:50, bigbrotiki wrote:
Sometimes I get the feeling folks get a little spoiled by the rich offerings of Tiki Central (and the 6 - 700 images in each of my books) and take them for granted.
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You want to know how to fix that?
Shut down TC for a month. 
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10561
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-11-30 9:16 pm Permalink
Yes and no, there now are other sites with Tiki ephemera, and since "Google Images" you can order them up with the click of a button -to a point. This is not to deride the advances of the internet which have made "Tiki" a household search word, and which has led countless non-interested newbies to go and dig up Tiki ephemera -something that a handful of urban archeologists could not match. Though the efforts of a focused few in the field stand high above that. RAMBLE RAMBLE...
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1961surf
Grand Member (3 years) 
Joined: May 03, 2007
Posts: 1894
From: Newport Beach, Ca .
| Posted: 2009-12-03 11:00 am Permalink
If I lived in or near Ft.Lauderdale,I would be living at the Mai Kai.Really one of
the oldest and still standing Tiki temples in the US, but you knew that already .
Long live the Mai Kai .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k4pjEunOz0
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1961surf
Grand Member (3 years)
Joined: May 03, 2007
Posts: 1894
From: Newport Beach, Ca .
| Posted: 2009-12-04 6:15 pm Permalink
Bump ditty bump
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