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Pago Pago - all locations under one roof |
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
|  Posted: 2009-04-17 4:39 pm Permalink
I have always been fascinated by the name of PAGO PAGO (pronounced Pungo Pungo) for Pre-Tiki Polynesian bars and supper clubs in the 1940s. Pago Pago is the main port in American Samoa, and was featured early on in literature:
"...in 1916, W. Somerset Maugham departs on a voyage to Pago Pago. Characters he meets on the voyage, including a prostitute and a missionary, inspire the story "Miss Thompson," which is published in his 1923 story collection, The Trebling of a Leaf. The story becomes the play "Rain", which is filmed three times, once starring Gloria Swanson, once with Joan Crawford, and once with Rita Hayworth.
(In 1919, Maugham published The Moon and Sixpence, featuring an unconventional artist based on Paul Gauguin.)"
The above story obviously was the inspiration for this 1940 film:
In it, a prostitute (played by Frances Farmer) falls for native Hunk Jon Hall.
Here's another publicity still of beautiful and tragic Frances Farmer:
And here she is in bad company:
"IT'S PRIMITIVE! IT'S EXCITING! IT'S SOUTH OF PAGO PAGO!" I believe it was the film that lifted the name to a pop culture status so that several different (how many?) South Seas hideaways around the U.S. chose it for their calling card. This thread shall serve for the collecting of all Pago Pago material from all locations. I will start with the Pago Pago in Tuscon, here the famous match book:
 
...and my match-up of the match book rendering to a frame capture of the 1956 film "A Kiss Before Dying":
Now here is the place to post swizzle sticks, more matchbooks, postcards and other paper ephemera from all the various Pago Pagos in Chicago, Tuscon, Portland, Long Beach and so on.
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uncle trav
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 27, 2005
Posts: 1532
From: Kalamazoo
| Posted: 2009-04-17 4:47 pm Permalink
Come on in pull up a stool and order up a cocktail. All under one roof. I like that.
Chicago Location. But which one?
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"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann
[ This Message was edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-17 16:48 ]
[ This Message was edited by: uncle trav 2009-04-17 16:50 ]
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3923
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-04-17 4:55 pm Permalink
Nice idea Bigbro.
I have this old postcard from the Portland Pago Pago.
DC
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puamana
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 02, 2002
Posts: 291
From: Seattle, WA
| Posted: 2009-04-17 5:54 pm Permalink
Pago Pago, Honolulu:
Pago Pago, Portland:
Pago Pago, Tucson:
Pago Pago, Long Beach:
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3923
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-04-17 6:07 pm Permalink
Wow!!!
Great post on the Pago Pago, Puamana.
Nice to see you back.
DC
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Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2009-04-17 6:18 pm Permalink
Hooray! Puamana! Yes! Please! Thank you!
Pago-Pago Restaurant, Milford, Mass.
- Entry in Critiki
- Thread here on TC
Still operating! Cute little barely-tiki Chinese joint.
Here's a real humdinger:
Pago-Pago Lounge, Burbank, Calif.
- Tiki Research Adventure: Disney Studios & Pago Pago on Humu Kon Tiki
- Entry in Critiki
- Thread here on TC
We had a great time researching this place a few years ago! There's a summary at my blog link above. Here's a bit of info left in a comment on my blog:
Quote:
| Sheila Corrigan says:
August 30th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Hi I grew up not far from Disney Studios (age 63). I am writing a sort of Autobiography and one of my earliest memories is being taken to the PagoPago by my Mom and her sister when her sister got off the night nursing shift.
I was thrilled to find your site to know approx. when the PagoPago disappeared (Disney expansion). I absolutely loved it. It was dark and in my three year old mind totally exotic with comfortable leather booths. It was open all day, I know that.
I went again when I was 28 (that was in 1972). It seemed the same. It was even for a bar kept pretty dark. I can’t say for sure how polynesian- not overly so anyway, but then it was also very small- 3-4 booths at the most and a big red juke box.
Sheila COrrigan |
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-04-17 6:19 pm Permalink
Mimi! I heart you!
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-04-17 7:16 pm Permalink
Humu, I forgot how far you had gotten on the Burbank Pago Pago research! Very cool...
I just met David Spafford the animator who has the sign, at Kevin and Jody's. He gave me a present he handmakes for his guests:
 
I am not sure if he knows your thread. Now I really gotta get a pic of that sign for this thread (AND for yours)!
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Jeff Central
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 23, 2002
Posts: 1528
From: Columbus, Ohio
| Posted: 2009-04-17 7:43 pm Permalink
This is a later menu from the Tucson, Arizona location.
Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff
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Humuhumu
Grand Member (5 years)
Joined: Aug 22, 2002
Posts: 3536
From: San Francisco
| Posted: 2009-04-17 8:01 pm Permalink
There are three of these neck-to-neck bottle floats at Forbidden Island, my understanding is that Bamboo Ben brought them in, and they came from Eli Hedley's decor shop, and were made for the Pago-Pago in Tucson. Dunno exactly what that means... Were made for the Pago-Pago, but never used? Were made for the Pago-Pago, and later came back to Hedley? Are identical to ones made for the Pago-Pago, but not the actual ones?
But anyway, there's supposedly some kinda Pago-Pago connection there, so there you go.
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Tiki-Kate
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 21, 2003
Posts: 1700
From: Yucaipa, CA
| Posted: 2009-04-17 8:38 pm Permalink
Matchbook from Pago Pago, Long Beach.
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RevBambooBen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 12, 2002
Posts: 7197
From: Huntikington Beach
| Posted: 2009-04-17 8:53 pm Permalink
These jade tiles freakin rock!
I wonder if they were just a drawing or real?
Just used 6 of the square ones for DtB.
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3923
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-04-17 9:50 pm Permalink
BB,
Check these ones from the Parasol.
DC
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RevBambooBen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 12, 2002
Posts: 7197
From: Huntikington Beach
| Posted: 2009-04-17 10:06 pm Permalink
Drooool!
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cheeky half
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 22, 2002
Posts: 790
From: Tucson, AZ
| Posted: 2009-04-17 10:29 pm Permalink
Pago Pago Tucson.
Dancing Hula Girl Flicker Key Chain and Ashtray:
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