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Aloha Jhoe's, Palm Springs, CA (restaurant) |
Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
|  Posted: 2008-08-10 11:04 pm Permalink
Name:Aloha Jhoe's
Type:restaurant
Street:950 S. Palm Canyon Dr
City:Palm Springs
State:CA
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct
Description:
Restaurant created by Lyle R. Wheeler, a Hollywood art director. The the famous sculptures that decorated the grounds were sculpted by Jim Casey, who also did work for Disneyland and Pacific Ocean Park.
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Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2008-08-10 11:09 pm Permalink
This photo comes from a late-60s cookbook I found at a garage-sale:
A copy of the giant hornbill carving on the roof exists (or existed) in the backyard of Jim Casey's house in Venice, CA. He also owned the original molds.
Please feel free to add more history and photos if you have them.
Sabu
_________________
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Tiki-Kate
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 21, 2003
Posts: 1700
From: Yucaipa, CA
| Posted: 2008-08-11 12:05 am Permalink
Hmm...I was just about to do a post about Aloha Jhoe's.
I went to the Palm Springs public library yesterday and took some photos of the following ads.
1963
1966
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2008-08-11 3:36 pm Permalink
I wonder how much longer they stayed open after 1966....if from 1967 on there were no ads, it's a good indication they had closed, I always thought it lasted only a brief period.
Sabu, I remember that expedition to Jim Casey's well, because the lab messed up all my shots by developing the film in the wrong soup. My shot of the hornbill would maybe work as an Aloha shirt print:
He also had that PNG Crocodile from Aloha Jhoe's on the roof of his shed, for some reason this shot turned out halfway OK:
But remember I climbed up the rickety steps to get a better shot? Here it is !!!:
With this solarization effect the backyard looks like some Denge fever vision...
...as seen by Colonel Kurtz in Apocolypse Now....
...with a touch of Alice in Wonderland on LSD...
This mask came out OK too:
I wonder what happened to all of that stuff....?
Here's a crisp shot of the Bird in situ in 1962:
...and who was "Nano" ?:
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-08-11 23:35 ]
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donhonyc
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 13, 2003
Posts: 1173
From: The Quiet EAST Village
| Posted: 2009-07-12 12:11 am Permalink
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uncle trav
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1532
From: Kalamazoo
| Posted: 2009-07-12 05:05 am Permalink
Great post. Sven I messed around with a couple of your over exposed photos to see if I could get some more detail out of it. Just to satisfy my own curiosity. They came out with a vintage feel.
_________________
"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-07-13 02:54 am Permalink
Thanks Trav, that B&W option could make the pics somewhat usable indeed, especially this one with the sign:
Here is another slide that the survived the wrong soup it was developed in a little better (with the sign in the b.g.):
And since DustyCajun is doing such great work in making individual "Locating Tiki" posts as complete as possible, here are some more Aloha Jhoe's artifacts, clipped from the collection of passionate Aloha Jhoe's collector Bongofury. All this stuff is quite rare, since the place only existed for a brief period:
Two different ashtrays:
The standard Moai mug with the logo:
The especially rare Sascha Brastoff candle holder!:
And here those highly coveted 3D slides that came up on e-bay a while back:
..of which this one proves that the top knot of the logo Tiki served as a torch!
What we are missing now are any shots of the INTERIOR.
Hmm..now I really feel inspired to share my extensive Duk Duk research on TC.... (which led to a scandalous revelation!)
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-07-13 03:14 ]
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3929
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-07-14 4:02 pm Permalink
Cool stuff there Bigbro. I didn't see all of the items Bongofury had when I visited the Rincon Room. Will have to make it back for another look-see. Awesome slides.
DC
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puamana
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 02, 2002
Posts: 291
From: Seattle, WA
| Posted: 2009-07-18 08:38 am Permalink
here's a souvenir menu mailer:
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Tiki Shaker
Grand Member (4 years) 
Joined: Jun 28, 2008
Posts: 688
From: Oceanside, CA
| Posted: 2009-07-18 08:54 am Permalink
Awesome menu! I love paper sculptures.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-07-19 01:33 am Permalink
Ok, it is time to straighten this out:
Though I do spend a lot of time digging in Oceanic Art books and researching the origins of American Tiki icons, I am not immune to being led down the wrong path and making mistakes. This is especially painful when I know better (like stating in Tiki Modern that Martin Denny recorded at the Kaiser Dome) or I repeat a mistake. Now here is one of the latter:
Being a fan of Palm Springs modernism AND Tiki, I immediately fell in love with the whimsical design of Aloha Jhoe's when I found photos of it at Oceanic Arts. I researched the artist of the main sculptures (Jim Casey, --O.A. contributed wall masks and smaller decor) and I found out that South Pacific (the movie) art director Lyle Wheeler did the design. In a promotional book for the film I found some great cartoon drawings that I attributed to Wheeler, and I added them to the double page on Aloha Jhoe's in the Book of Tiki:
And it was from this point on where I went wrong: I saw the cartoon drawing of the dancer, compared it to the Aloha Jhoe's logo Tiki (palm frond skirt, conical shape, frilly stuff on top) and went looking for its origin. I immediately came up with Duk Duk images, because the Tolai people ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duk-Duk ) live in what used to be a German colony, as the name Bismarck Archipelago still suggests.
Here's the Kaiser at the opening of the German Colonial Museum in Berlin:
A third of my Oceanic art sources are German, and the Germans LOVED the Duk Duk, so I found ample imagery of their ritual outfits:
Here's an especially beautiful rendering:
Even their construction was explained:
Note how at the bottom their set up in front of the ceremonial hut is shown
They toured from island to island to perform their dances:
A Duk Duk beaching:
But as I began to amass more and more Duk Duk images, I couldn't help but notice that there really was no variance in their design: They were all STRAIGHT cones, and the facial features, found mainly on the female (Tubuan) masks, were very simplistic.
This Duk Duk group photo, and this great fabric design that popped up on TC, sealed my conviction that I had been wrong by calling the Aloha Jhoe's mask a Duk Duk:
Too many of the same design, and not enough like my fave Palm Springs Tiki ! Damn...
Now the "basket mask with palm front skirt" concept was used by several Papua New Guines tribes, like the Sulka:
...these constructions being among my favorite:
The closest costumes to Aloha Jhoe's I could find were these two:
..of which this mask from the PNG Gulf has the frilly top, and the forehead design and ears shown in some of the Aloha Jhoe's renderings (while the one above has the grinning mouth):
Unfortunately the origin and use of these masks are not as well documented as the Duk Duk ritual, so I can only call the Aloha Jhoe's Tiki a "Papua New Guinea Gulf mask" now -not as much fun as the "Duk Duk secret society"
Last not least a theory: I wonder if Alfred Jarry, like many modern artists in the earliest 20th century, was inspired by the Duk Duk in his original designs of Pere Ubu:
...like these art students at the Hamburg Curio Haus in the 1920s:
..and I like to applaud those contemporary Tiki artists that have been inspired by Aloha Jhoe's...
...and the Duk Duk masks:
I apologize for having published shoddy research on this subject in BOTH of my books, and can only excuse it with the liberal attitude towards authenticity that prevailed in Polynesian pop and Tiki style. 
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-07-19 07:04 ]
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Tiki Shaker
Grand Member (4 years)
Joined: Jun 28, 2008
Posts: 688
From: Oceanside, CA
| Posted: 2009-07-19 09:27 am Permalink
Interesting to compare the drawing from the brochure Tiki Kate posted for the Shelter Island Inn in San Diego.
It looks like the artist pretty much copied it from this image you posted Sven.
[ This Message was edited by: Tiki Shaker 2009-07-19 09:29 ]
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-07-21 1:17 pm Permalink
Yup! Good find, Shaker-man!
But is that all? NO reaction otherwise? Outrage!, Scandall in the Fuhmeelie!, amazement?...anything? Sometimes TC is such a dead duck: I spill all this research on here, and all I get is "Duh":
Oh well: The sad fact is, who has time for this esoteric crap nowadays!? If it doesn't involve buying something for oneself, like a new mug or such, or partying, it's too much to squeeze in while being busy with the survival game. Heck, my own wife doesn't even read my e-mails. The overkill of communications is killing communication in the 21st Century.
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uncle trav
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1532
From: Kalamazoo
| Posted: 2009-07-21 2:02 pm Permalink
Sven,
Fantastic post. Often times I do not reply to your in-depth posts because the only input I can add is WOW! The amount of information and research material you have at your disposal and the ability to cross reference it all is the best. A question on the Sulka and other PNG tribes without derailing the main subject of the thread to much. Is the tradition of the costumes still around or did it die out like so many customs have? I noticed that most of the photos are turn of the century era or there about. Thanks.
_________________
"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann
[ This Message was edited by: uncle trav 2009-07-21 14:04 ]
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TikiG
Grand Member (2 years) 
Joined: Jun 17, 2008
Posts: 1519
From: Palmdale, California
| Posted: 2009-07-21 2:02 pm Permalink
THANKS SVEN!
I do read these posts and yeah I'm guilty of the occasional "duh...&!%@^!?"..
..but the value of these posts, at least for me, is the occasional gem I discover when I'm really doing research for personal benefit.
Sometimes I have no idea how valuable certain info is until I go hunting for specific esoteric subjects.
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