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Kelbo's, Los Angeles, CA (restaurant) |
kiara
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 06, 2005
Posts: 109 |  Posted: 2013-01-16 4:09 pm Permalink
Here's a vintage womans T-shirt from Kelbo's coco bowl.
Kelbo's was prob one of the most unique and enigmatic of any Polynesian restaurant. Every booth had an individual character to it. Lot's of hand made decor was everywhere. One of Eli Hedley's masterpieces.
and a close up
One of the few pieces of womens clothing I've personally purchased for myself. 
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kiara
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 06, 2005
Posts: 109 | Posted: 2013-01-16 4:14 pm Permalink
I'm not sure what this means though....
"IItywimwvbmad"
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JONPAUL
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 12, 2010
Posts: 134
From: Venice, California
| Posted: 2013-01-16 5:31 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2013-01-16 15:30, Dustycajun wrote:
Picked up this nice matchbox from Kelbo's with a Moai rendering.
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Those sure look like cropped versions of the photos for the eBay auction that I won yesterday:
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 4073
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2013-01-16 5:38 pm Permalink
Ha! We were bidding against each other, I hate that. I got a second chance offer after the sale and snapped one up as well (for a few bucks less). JP, you ever seen this one before?
DC
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Hakalugi
Site Administrator
Joined: Aug 10, 2004
Posts: 2951
From: Redondo Beach, CA
| Posted: 2013-01-16 10:24 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2013-01-16 16:14, kiara wrote:
I'm not sure what this means though....
"IItywimwvbmad"
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I think that "V" is actually a "Y", so in that case, if I tell you what it means will you buy me a drink?
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10992
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2013-01-16 10:41 pm Permalink
Yep, that old school bar humor, pure genius, gets me every time.
JP and Dc, that's an unusual one for Kelbo's, so stylized, so uncartoony! You sure someone didn't print those up like counterfeit dollars? 
Kiara, I still have that T-shirt somewhere...the print-on having disintegrated much through regular wear. Here's the enamel pin to match it:
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10992
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2013-01-16 11:00 pm Permalink
...and with the double resin flower lamp flashback tonight, let me post some of the shots from this venerable place so far not on this thread:
Kelbo's forest of beachcomber lamps and menu light box below:
The famed menu light boxes at each booth:
The amazing Bob Hale mural on the side of the place:
(Didn't people feel they were destroying ART when they painted this over?)
Jukebox, back door resin window, and famed mug-inspiring "Alfred Newman" Tiki:
...which I found in DJ Cyrano's backyard many years later:
...in need of some restoration:
Now Kiara: Your resin window?
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kiara
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 06, 2005
Posts: 109 | Posted: 2013-01-17 10:30 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2013-01-16 17:31, JONPAUL wrote:
Quote:
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On 2013-01-16 15:30, Dustycajun wrote:
Picked up this nice matchbox from Kelbo's with a Moai rendering.
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Those sure look like cropped versions of the photos for the eBay auction that I won yesterday:
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That looks like it might be a rendering of a black Kelbo's mug.
This location is way too undocumented.
Sven, I'll have to dig that Resin wall panel out and take some pics.
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kiara
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 06, 2005
Posts: 109 | Posted: 2013-01-26 8:07 pm Permalink
I pulled this image off of an old thread here. This is one of the old resin wall dividers from Kelbo's. I took this photo at my previous house I lived in. There is a big overhang from the roof, so it never got weather damage. It's since been moved into storage in my garage. I rescued this out of the dumpster behind Kelbo's right after they closed. Senior Amore told me about his rescue of artifacts from the Kelbo's dumpster so I started making trips to the back parking lot everyday until I found this. It weighed a ton but I somehow found the strength to lift it into my tiny car.
It's made with some kind of opaque resin with colored resin dripped in to make the details. The top seam to be colored resin chunks (like the old lamps) embedded into the clear resin.
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kiara
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 06, 2005
Posts: 109 | Posted: 2013-01-26 8:14 pm Permalink
Here's a few images that need to be in this locating tiki thread.
And any info on the other 3 locations?
I'm not sure if this site has ever been mentioned here. There are some really amazing comments from people who used to go to Kelbo's, including Joey Cheehzy (Papa Tango?) And some incredible info on artist Bob Hale. It also has some fun info on old Los Angeles restaurants. Including Wan Q.
http://www.oldlarestaurants.com/kelbos/
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kiara
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 06, 2005
Posts: 109 | Posted: 2013-01-26 8:48 pm Permalink
Hakalugi... I owe you a drink sometime.
Quote:
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On 2013-01-16 22:24, Hakalugi wrote:
Quote:
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On 2013-01-16 16:14, kiara wrote:
I'm not sure what this means though....
"IItywimwvbmad"
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I think that "V" is actually a "Y", so in that case, if I tell you what it means will you buy me a drink?
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congawa
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 11, 2008
Posts: 353
From: Long Beach, CA
| Posted: 2013-03-10 1:24 pm Permalink
I posted this just now in the Bahooka RIP thread, but realized it should really go here.
Here's video of my friend Tom Holland (aka Monte Vista) and band Lovingkindness (featuring my brother Blair on keyboards) playing a wedding at Kelbo's Coco Bowl room in September 1991.
Lovingkindness played again, this time at the front bar, in late December 1991. I ended up riding up from Long Beach with a woman who I then began dating, and married less than 2 years later (it will be our 20th anniversary in August), so there will always be a special place in my heart for Kelbo's.
Lovingkindness was a "lounge" band that was particularly warped and sometimes caused confrontations (if you went to their shows at Bogart's in LB opening for the Dickies and Vandals, you would understand), but predated the more authentic lounge movement of the mid-90s, so sorry if anyone's musical sensibilities are damaged!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldV99KsdVKE
PS - Though I was there, but the video is not mine. PS - Swamp Zombies and not yet Tiki Tones Josh Agle and Steeve Jacobs were there that night, but I haven't spotted them, or myself for that matter, in the video--though I haven't watched from start to finish. The Coco Bowl room was, of course, not the most "Tiki" looking part of Kelbo's, and the videographer didn't capture anything else, but here you go...)
Caltiki Brent
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[ This Message was edited by: congawa 2013-03-10 13:25 ]
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bongofury
Grand Member (6 years) 
Joined: Oct 15, 2002
Posts: 1524
From: Ventura County
| Posted: 2013-04-01 5:21 pm Permalink
I saw a horror movie from the 80's that has a scene shot inside Kelbo's. Can't remember the name right now
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TropicDrinkBoy
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 27, 2011
Posts: 268 | Posted: 2013-04-02 09:05 am Permalink
I think it was called "The Curse of LovingKindness" 
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tikilongbeach
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Aug 05, 2011
Posts: 1136
From: Long Beach, CA via Dallas, TX
| Posted: 2013-05-11 06:34 am Permalink
Today in the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-lh-jay-griffith-venice-landscape-design-20130507,0,3821706.story
A landscape designer uses the old Kelbo's fountain in his test garden. The fountain doesn't look tiki, but it's interesting to see where things end up.
Fountain turned planter
Anyone familiar with the Los Angeles restaurant scene of the 1950s and ’60s may remember the Kelbo’s Hawaiian barbecue chain. When the Pico Avenue location closed, Griffith bought its oversized outdoor water fountain. The pedestal and saucer are now a dramatic focal element of the studio garden, reincarnated as a beautiful succulent planter. “It’s like a big chalice,” Griffith said. Planted with a mass of the upright red pencil tree (a cultivar of Euphorbia tirucallicalled Sticks on Fire) and cascading clumps of copper-tone stonecrop (Sedum nussbaumerianum), the piece gives the illusion of spraying and spilling water.
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[ This Message was edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-05-11 07:02 ]
[ This Message was edited by: tikilongbeach 2013-05-11 07:10 ]
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