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The real Dr. Funk |
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10561
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
|  Posted: 2008-07-11 1:40 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2008-07-11 12:50, The Gnomon wrote:
Anyone know what Bernard Funk looked like? Maybe he sported a Fu Manchu. I can find any pics of the guy yet.
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I got as far as this:
http://202.4.48.191/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?op=do_search&type=opac&marclist=∧_or=and&excluding=&operator=contains&value=Robert+Louis+Stevenson
...but I think one has to contact them and find out if they can scan a photo....
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GatorRob
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 20, 2004
Posts: 1766
From: 3 hrs 33 mins to paradise
| Posted: 2008-07-11 1:47 pm Permalink
I can just see the confused look we're all going to receive next time we're in a Trader Vic's and order a "Doctor Foonk". Damn the Germans and their foonky pronunciations! 
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10561
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2008-07-11 2:54 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2008-07-11 13:47, GatorRob wrote:
I can just see the confused look we're all going to receive next time we're in a Trader Vic's....
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...upon which we are gonna launch into this lengthy tirade about WHY this is correct, irrevocably outing ourselves as the Tiki know-it-all nerds we are!
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Tabu
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 136
From: Port Hope, Ont.
| Posted: 2008-07-12 2:51 pm Permalink
I always wondered about that cocktail. Since I like my booze with a little history I'm off to make one. Cool thread.
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Tabu
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 136
From: Port Hope, Ont.
| Posted: 2008-07-13 08:21 am Permalink
Ok. I tried it and it was delicious. I am going to make it a regular at my house. Did not have any geranium leaves handy so that's something to try in the future. I'm not sure if that would add any scent or flavor to the whole experience but otherwise it was great.
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MrBaliHai
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 01, 2002
Posts: 775 | Posted: 2008-07-13 2:30 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2008-07-13 08:21, Tabu wrote:
Ok. I tried it and it was delicious.
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Did you make it without rum?
_________________
Weblog: Eye of the Goof
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Tabu
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 136
From: Port Hope, Ont.
| Posted: 2008-07-13 8:14 pm Permalink
There was rum. Had to go with Goslings black.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10561
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2008-07-14 4:00 pm Permalink
Here's even a Trader Vic's version that is rum only, completely mitout Absinthe, from a 1940s booklet that I lent someone and forgot who (boo hoo):
Vic knowingly changed it and thus renamed it. Even though (if the illustration is supposed to depict Dr. Funk) he seemed to had an inkling that the good Dr. was of Caucasian origin, I doubt he knew about the R.L. Stevenson connection, because he repeats the "Dr Funk of Tahiti" moniker, while we now know that the man lived and practiced in Samoa...
Re-reading the text passage that I started this thread with:
"But his fame spread...from Samoa to Tahiti..."Dr Funk" one hears in every club and bar.."
It appears to me that the DRINK spread to Tahiti and became THE thing there, and so "Dr. Funk of Tahiti" is meant in regards to the cocktail, not the man. I asked Mr. Berry, and he believes that it was here that Don the B picked up the recipe, on one of his early travels.
Both Vic and Don liked a good story, and if they would have been privy to the fact that the cocktail was invented by the physician of a famous South Seas writer, they would have used that.
Which means A.) We now know more than Don and Vic did, and B.) We still need to find the original recipe, the one without rum.
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-07-14 16:22 ]
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Johnny Dollar
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 2916
From: Baltimore, Maryland, PNG
| Posted: 2008-07-14 7:09 pm Permalink
cool. we got the funk.
hey bigbro, doesn't "funk" mean "radio/wireless" in german or somesuch?
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10561
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2008-07-14 7:32 pm Permalink
Correct:
"Rundfunk", and its abbreviation "Funk", means Radio (not the object, but the institution)
A "Funker" is a radio operator.
"Funken" as a verb means to radio, to transmit, and as a subject "Der Funken" it means "the spark" ---which is probably were the above terms originated in the German language, from the spark of the telegraph clicker...
...which doesn't really help us one bit in the above quest
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MrBaliHai
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 01, 2002
Posts: 775 | Posted: 2008-07-14 8:06 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2008-07-14 19:32, bigbrotiki wrote:
A "Funker" is a radio operator.
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Then his mom would be a "Mutterfunker".
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TraderPeg
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Aug 10, 2006
Posts: 91
From: Haunted Hudson Valley
| Posted: 2008-07-19 1:11 pm Permalink
This is a great thread. Leave it to BigBro to sniff out the provenance on the Dr. Funk, which could turn out to be the oldest Tiki drink recipe of all!
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3923
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2008-08-19 11:12 pm Permalink
Here is a Dr. Funk entry from the Luau Room at the Hotel del Coronado
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Carmine Verandah
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Oct 23, 2007
Posts: 107
From: Denver area
| Posted: 2010-01-12 4:45 pm Permalink
Love this thread -- quirky history being one of La Verandah's pet hobbies.
I recently came across this reference to Dr. Bernard Funk under a section titled Prominent Personalities, in an old book reprinted online called "Island Reminiscences: A graphic, detailed Romance of a Life spent in the South Sea Islands," by Thomas Trood, British Vice-Consul at Apia, Samoa:
http://www.archive.org/stream/islandreminiscen00trooiala/islandreminiscen00trooiala_djvu.txt
"...Dr. Bernard Funk, the oldest medical practitioner in Apia,
made his bow to the invalid public here about the same period,
1881, and since then has won golden opinions by his medical success.
In obstetric cases especially he is the man."
In another book mentioned on Google, "Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson," Dr. Funk is mentioned in Fanny Stevenson's diary as a "boisterous surgeon" with a strident voice.
Sounds like quite the character, in keeping with someone who would invent a memorable cocktail. 
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TikiTomD
Grand Member (3 years) 
Joined: Sep 20, 2009
Posts: 629
From: Flagler Beach, FL
| Posted: 2010-01-17 12:28 pm Permalink
Another reference to the enigmatic Dr. Bernard Funk, from "Samoa 'Uma, Where Life is Different" by Llewella Pierce Churchill, Forest and Stream Publishing Company, New York (1902), digitized by Google on www.archive.org:
"With a Mother's affection and gratitude, this volume is dedicated to Dr. Bernard Funk, whose great skill and unceasing care saved the life of my dear Son at Apia, Samoa."
I'll drink to that!
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