 |
Honolulu Harry's Waikiki Restaurant, Chicago, IL (restaurant) |
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3946
From: Santa Barbara, CA
|  Posted: 2010-01-19 12:14 pm Permalink
Puamana,
Nice matchbook. You posted the two front sides, what's the back side look like?
Looks like Honolulu Harry may have come along after the Waikiki started.
DC
|
puamana
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 02, 2002
Posts: 291
From: Seattle, WA
| Posted: 2010-01-19 3:52 pm Permalink
Oops, just fixed the pics, thanks DC! By the way, those 2 business cards & the photo folder
are nice finds!
|
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3946
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-01-22 11:48 pm Permalink
Here is another pre-Honolulu Harry matchbook from the Club Waikiki.
DC
|
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3946
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-01-24 08:58 am Permalink
Then there's this older matchbook with Honolulu Harry. I don't think that it was the Club Waikiki without Harry for that long.
 
DC
Edited with upgraded photo
[ This Message was edited by: Dustycajun 2012-07-25 18:22 ]
|
Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2010-02-23 9:14 pm Permalink
Honolulu Harry had a bit of clever marketing with his goddess, "Hina":
Here is Hina arriving in Chicago from Hawaii (an archival news bureau photo from July 1955):
"HOPE" COMES TO CHICAGO ... Hina, traditional Hawaiian emblem of hope, the first to come to Chicago, was flown in yesterday by Untited Airlines. It is claimed Hina will grant any reasonable wish made to her - provided a token donation is made to charity. Hina is 'alive' - carved from a living fern root and sprouts leaves and flowers. A special niche has been prepared at Club Waikiki. A group of Polynesians greeted the legendary figure at the airport by performing flower and sword dances to island music. From L to R, Nailei, who did a ritual hula, and Honolulu Harry.
_________________
|
TikiFan
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Posts: 12 | Posted: 2010-11-17 10:07 am Permalink
I found this picture on ebay. Auction for the negative ends tonight.
|
Tipsy McStagger
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 21, 2004
Posts: 3394
From: HELL
| Posted: 2011-03-26 12:13 pm Permalink
here's a menu i found at an estate sale.
_________________
" I may not know karate..... but I do know crazy !!"
|
Ragbag Comics
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Feb 24, 2009
Posts: 70
From: Chicago
| Posted: 2011-12-01 7:12 pm Permalink
Does anyone know why there are two different addresses listed for Honolulu Harry's?
In older materials (there's a 1940's postcard that seems to pop up on eBay fairly frequently) the address is listed at 4541 N. Broadway, and it's called "Honolulu Harry's Waikiki." On later matchbooks and promotional materials, it's listed at 804 W. Wilson, and the name has changed to "Club Waikiki."
Granted, these addresses aren't too terribly far from each other (I should know, we live a few blocks from there) but I'm wondering if the same bar moved, or if there were two totally different Waikiki-themed bars within a couple blocks of each other once upon a time?
Worth mentioning, too, that the Polynesian Village used to be in the Edgewater Beach hotel, too (just a bit north of the 804 Wilson locale on Sheridan.)
Here is where I would share cool pictures of ephemera from the Polynesian Village...
...unfortunately I don't have any.
|
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3946
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-01-21 05:33 am Permalink
Quote:
|
On 2011-12-01 19:12, Ragbag Comics wrote:
Does anyone know why there are two different addresses listed for Honolulu Harry's?
|
|
Ragbag,
Nice observation, never noticed that before. This early postcard is the only piece of paper I have seen that has the 4551 Broadway address. It was Honolulu Harry's so I am assuming the place moved early on.
Here is another photo of the building exterior.
Here is where I would share cool pictures of ephemera from the Polynesian Village...
...unfortunately I don't have any.
And here is the link to the cool stuff from the Polynesian Village.
http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=34213&forum=2&hilite=polynesian
DC
|
tikibars
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 11, 2002
Posts: 2014
From: Aku Hall, Chicago
| Posted: 2012-01-21 11:50 am Permalink
The Broadway address is at the corner of Broadway and Wilson, so it might have been a zoning thing, or maybe their entrance moved around the corner or something?
|
Ragbag Comics
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Feb 24, 2009
Posts: 70
From: Chicago
| Posted: 2012-02-09 8:41 pm Permalink
I know Broadway and Wilson was voted dry some time in the 1960's or early 70's, but Harry's would've moved to Wilson way before that (in fact, it likely closed in the 1960's, as most of the ephemera I've seen from there dries up around the mid-to-late 1950's. Anybody know exactly when it closed?)
Even if Harry's HAD made it deep into the '60's, by the 70's the neighborhood had gotten so bad people were razing their buildings for insurance money. The 1980's saw a new alderman and a massive influx of social services and public housing that was still going on up to her retirement a year ago.
My assumption is the building that housed Harry's was probably torn down during the mass exodus of more affluent folks from the neighborhood in the 60's and 70's. Many neighborhood business shuttered their doors around that time. By the 1980's, even the noble, classic Chicago gem that is the Green Mill (Al Capone's ACTUAL old hang out) was more or less abandoned and full of junkies until the current owner bought and restored it in 1989 (leading to a kind of slow renaissance that's still going on today.)
But I digress... no way Harry's was gonna weather that perfect storm.
--Pete
|
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3946
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2012-02-20 10:21 am Permalink
Spotted these napkins on ebay that show the rather seamless progression from Club Waikiki on Wilson to Honolulu Harry's Waikiki on Broadway.
DC
|
Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3946
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 27 days ago; 7:24 pm Permalink
Picked up another matchcover from the Waikiki with some nice graphics.
Back of the matchcover advertises a free Hawaiian Lucky Charm... wonder what that looked like?
DC
|
