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Ren Clarks Home Bar |
TabooDan
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 18, 2004
Posts: 641
From: BC, Canada
|  Posted: 2009-07-18 3:59 pm Permalink
What a awesome thread!!! It's great somebody, Bifcozz, was able to save this home bar and not just any home bar!!! A bar with some true history!! That Tiki carving is awesome and truly one of a kind!! Really.... how much cooler does it get??
One of the great Tiki Establishments and the owner had his own bar at home! That's great!! And to think that this was untouched and survived all these years is another story on it's own!!
It sure makes you think about all the other possibilities out there!!
I know for a fact that there was a home bar done at the same time The Waldorf Hotel's Polynesian Rooms were done here in BC and that the builders of these rooms did a home bar in Vancouver with the same theme. Still working on that one though! The house was for sale last year so still trying to track the owners down.
Anyways, great find Bifcozz and great job saving it and doing all that work!!
Thanks for sharing!! If you didn't do this post we all never would have seen truly one of the greatest finds on here!!
I know I have a few pictures saved here of some of Ren Clarks. Let me look and see what I can find.
Mahalo, TabooDan
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TabooDan
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 18, 2004
Posts: 641
From: BC, Canada
| Posted: 2009-07-18 4:40 pm Permalink
Okay, here is a picture of a cool mug, known as the Fertility Goddess, that was from Ren Clark's that I saw a while ago:
It was also used at The Mauna Loa and a few other places.
I think Bigbro or someone asked to see photos of the inside of this place. Well, these are the only pictures I have ever seen of this place.
Here is a picture of the inside of the bar area of Ren Clark's:
The next picture is a close up of the bar area and behind it:
A little hard to see but look at all the mugs lined up along the back and up on the shelves either side!! All the named ones are there! The Fertility Goddess is lined up right there beside this awesome Wahine mug:
This Hula Bust mug is a Matt version but you see them glazed as well. The famed Severed Head mugs are right there on the right shelf along with some skull mugs!!
You can also see the same style of Logo Tiki they used in mask form right behind the bar. It looks to me that this particular mask may have been made from concrete or plaster as there are two more either side that come out of the rock wall. They look integral.
Hopefully a few of you dig these pictures!!
TabooDan
[ This Message was edited by: TabooDan 2009-07-18 16:42 ]
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NOTCH
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 23, 2006
Posts: 500
From: San Jose.Ca
| Posted: 2009-07-18 8:53 pm Permalink
WOW! Thats Amazing !
I cant believe that interior was all still there after so many years.. Heck I would have Borrowed, stole, fight for the money to make a bid on the house .
But you got a great deal and I'm glad a TCer got it and will take good care of goods..
Man, LUCKY!!
Cheers!
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Thortiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 29, 2006
Posts: 190
From: Maryland (Land of Pleasant Tiki Living)
| Posted: 2009-07-19 06:38 am Permalink
GREAT Thread
What I always love about TC. You think something like this could never happen, then it does!!! ZOWIE Thortiki
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Grand Kahu
Grand Member (2 years) 
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Posts: 142
From: Dallas, TX
| Posted: 2009-07-20 8:02 pm Permalink
A really intriguing tidbit of information I found trolling for information about the Polynesian Village and the Western Hills Hotel. Apparently the Hotel (and maybe the Village?) was highlighted on a 1955 episode of The Home Show with Arlene Francis. The entire episode was filmed there, so assuming Ren Clark's was in place by that date, one might suspect the producers would have included the PV too. Many of The Home Show episodes from the 1950s are around, though not easily available - so, if anyone has a nearby source (Museum of TV, etc.) for early recordings, this would be a fun little research project to see if anyone could turn up a FILM of the Polynesian Village (and someone sipping on a severed head).
Poi for thought...
GK
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-07-21 1:50 pm Permalink
Sorry, but there's no chance the Fort Worth Polynesian Village was in place as early as 1955.
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Grand Kahu
Grand Member (2 years)
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Posts: 142
From: Dallas, TX
| Posted: 2009-07-21 4:13 pm Permalink
Does seem early, but how do you know? It would be a simple matter to look up the business listings in Ft. Worth to see when they first appear. I noticed the opening invitation included in the lot purchased on eBay includes an opening month/day, but no year!
GK
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Grand Kahu
Tied by my Mai Tai...
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Grand Kahu
Grand Member (2 years)
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Posts: 142
From: Dallas, TX
| Posted: 2009-07-21 4:37 pm Permalink
An excerpt from an older article in the Dallas Morning News which does not clear up the date issue with specifics, but I also have seen a notice in the Ft. Worth paper of the Hotel being auctioned/sold in 1964. The "35 years" ago in the article would put the date of Clark's ownership in the early 1950s, though still no proof in that of the opening date of the PV.
I especially like the description of the rainstorms - the Tonga Room all over again.
GK
Perhaps one of the most notable accomplishments of Clark's life as a magician was the Sunken Galleon club in the Western Hills Hotel that Clark owned about 35 years ago.The Fort Worth hotel and its mystical nightclubs were written about in Time magazine, Clark said.
The Sunken Galleon featured an aquarium in which, every hour on the hour, a gong would signal the appearance of a nude woman swimming inside the tank.
Of course, it was all an illusion, but the woman, Clark said, was real. Clark would not reveal his secret for magically projecting the woman's image into the aquarium.
Guests were doubly mystified when they discovered that they could speak to the woman and she would speak back, Clark said.
"They just couldn't understand that,' Clark said. "And she would go through the motions as though she were swimming. It really attracted a lot of people.'
To enter this magical club, guests had to pass through a ship's hatch door and into a diving bell. At the push of a button, the guests would feel the sensation of motion as though they were descending into the sea. By looking out of the portholes, they would see marine life -- colored pictures of sharks, barracudas and an octupus that caused many to scream when it would appear to lunge at the porthole.
The club itself was built with materials brought back by Clark from an actual West Coast shipyard. It was built in a way to give guests the sensation that the ship was lying on the bottom of the ocean.
Another club in Clark's hotel was painstakingly made to resemble a Polynesian village, complete with a tropical storm. The sounds of thunder and flashes of lightning would become louder and more frequent until rain would eventually start to fall around the room. Then the lights would go out.
"It was very realistic,' Clark said. "Because of my magic, people would really talk about the place. I really outdid Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber.'
The Dallas Morning News
Fort Worth magician recalls lifetime of illusion
At 83, he still enjoys parlor tricks
Kathy Jackson The Dallas Morning News
Published: May 22, 1986
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Grand Kahu
Tied by my Mai Tai...
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Kane Tiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jul 10, 2005
Posts: 54
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2009-07-21 11:29 pm Permalink
According to my perpetual calender, June 20 fell on a Monday in 1949, 1955 and 1960 if that helps to narrow down an opening date.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-07-22 12:46 pm Permalink
If all my research concerning the peak period of Tiki culture (outside of California) is correct, the Village was built in 1960 then.
P.S.: Where did the June 20 date come from?
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-07-22 12:48 ]
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Tipsy McStagger
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 21, 2004
Posts: 3388
From: HELL
| Posted: 2009-07-22 12:51 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2009-07-18 15:37, bigbrotiki wrote:
...and here's that swizzle that uses Ren's logo Tiki but is from another place (or?):
found this photo in my I-photo files and cannot double-check. It's definitely one of the rarer and cooler Tiki swizzles, in my opinion.
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okay brougham, this was the swizzle i mentioned earlier except mine is brown with edmonton hotel on it...from canada, maybe?
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Kane Tiki
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Jul 10, 2005
Posts: 54
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2009-07-22 3:03 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2009-07-22 12:46, bigbrotiki wrote:
If all my research concerning the peak period of Tiki culture (outside of California) is correct, the Village was built in 1960 then.
P.S.: Where did the June 20 date come from?
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-07-22 12:48 ]
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bigbro, Monday June 20 is on the invitation posted on page 1 of this thread.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2009-07-23 03:00 am Permalink
Ah yes, right...good thinking. If it was only open from 1960 to '64, it explains why the mugs and other stuff (What about any MENUS!?) are so rare. I wonder if it was not the Polynesian Village, but the Western Hills Hotel that went under, and dragged the Village along. Ren Clark certainly spared no expense building it, maybe they overextended themselves.
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Kailuageoff
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 27, 2002
Posts: 1486
From: Honolulu Lounge,Lewes, DE
| Posted: 2009-07-23 7:26 pm Permalink
bifcozz,
What a revelation you uncovered! Whatever happened to Ren Clark has been bugging Sven for years. (Now he can prode us about something else.) Very glad to see that nice tiki recovered. What a magnificent centerpiece it will be in your bar.
KG
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Grand Kahu
Grand Member (2 years)
Joined: Jul 31, 2006
Posts: 142
From: Dallas, TX
| Posted: 2009-07-24 09:36 am Permalink
Taboo Dan,
Where did you find the pic you posted? I have some more info on Clark I will post in the next few days...
Thanks,
GK
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