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Canlis', Honolulu, HI (restaurant) |
Tiki Shaker
Grand Member (6 years) 
Joined: Jun 28, 2008
Posts: 702
From: Menifee, CA
|  Posted: 2009-12-09 5:27 pm Permalink
Name:Canlis'
Type:restaurant
Street:2100 King Kalakaua Ave.
City:Honolulu
State:HI
Zip:
country:USA
Phone:
Status:defunct
Description:
Found a postcard for the Canlis in Honolulu. Shared items and info from the Seattle Canlis can here:
http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=34455&forum=2&hilite=canlis
[ This Message was edited by: Tiki Shaker 2009-12-09 17:28 ]
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 4074
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2009-12-09 5:47 pm Permalink
Tiki Shaker,
Glad you started a thread for this location. Here is an exterior postcard I have.
Some additional images found on the web.
The great menu from Mimi Payne's website.
DC
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 4074
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-02-10 4:33 pm Permalink
Another graphic of the Honolulu restaurant that is from the inside of a menu I have from the Seattle Canlis.
DC
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 11003
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-02-10 5:17 pm Permalink
Looking at that Tiki totem pole and trying to figure out its stylistic elements got me stumped. I wonder if the rendering is based on imagination, or if there was a sculpture like it in or around the outside of the Restaurant. It just seems so specific on one hand, but so pieced together on the other:
First of all, there was no totem-like Tiki stacking in old Hawaii as far as I know (in Maori-dom there was). But the MOUTH of the bottom Tiki is based on a famous Hawaiian idol -yet he has a little head between his legs (correction: on his belly), which is Maori ...!??
Buzzy, you know the Hawaiian carving tradition best, can you trace the influence on the top Tiki? And the rest?
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-02-10 17:37 ]
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aquarj
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Apr 02, 2002
Posts: 1057
From: SF bay area, CA
| Posted: 2010-02-10 6:02 pm Permalink
Cross-posted newspaper scan, from the old Tahitian Lanai thread where Canlis came into the discussion.
BTW, in those stacked tikis, the top one looks kinda Kanaloa to me, especially the zig-zaggy cuts. The bottom one looks like the offspring from another kanaloa variation mated with a maori tiki, and maybe something else in the mix too.
-Randy
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 11003
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-02-10 7:50 pm Permalink
OK, now I wanna see what it looked like after it had become a police station. 
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Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2789
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2010-02-11 12:07 am Permalink
Let me give the Canlis tiki a try, bigbro. You can tell me if my guesses hold any water.
1. We know that Edward Brownlee was hired by Wimberly & Cook to do the Canlis. So I assume the tiki is his.
2. In a 1958 interview, Brownlee said that his greatest inspiration for carving was the collection at the Bishop Musuem. This is wonderful, because the Bishop had the world's greatest collection ancient Hawaiian temple carvings in a large range of styles, plus tikis from other islands as well - what a treasure trove of source material for the young carver! I can imagine him walking past the display cases with his sketchbook, grabbing images here and there to incorporate into his carvings.
So let's look at the Canlis Carving, element by element and see what pieces on display in the Bishop Museum might have inspired it:
The top face looks to me like this fairly famous and enigmatic temple image from the Bishop:
 
It looks like Ed just reconstructed the face, giving it the chin-mouth-tongue feature that makes it look like it is whistling and is stylistically unique to Hawaii. (You can see it in the background tiki in the second image above.) This protruding mouth appears often and was thought to possibly represent the similarly carved lei niho palaoa which was worn as a sign of rank, or maybe just grimace of superiority and contempt worn by the warrior elite.
The crest on the top of the upper tiki looks like it was taken from this plank-image, also in the Bishop:
 
Looking at the lower tiki in the totem, bigbro, I wager we both immediately think of this famous temple post from the Bishop...
 
... with its closed-off double-opening mouth. In fact, Edward Brownlee carved a much more faithful representation of this tiki for the Waikikian, which you can see in "Sippin' Safari". By the time of the Canlis, he was getting more abstract and creative with the same imagery. In this case he only used the face of the two-mouth tiki. What you thought was a body with a face in the crotch was actually...
A Hawaiian support figure: 
These stocky little guys appear on all sorts of carved bowls, drums, tables, etc. and are there are also many examples at the Bishop.
But why carve it in a totem style, when, as you said, there are no example of stacked Hawaiian tikis from antiquity?
Not so hard to imagine when you realize that this tiki (from another island, I assume) is also on display at the Bishop:
Anyway, that's my crazy theory. We'll never really know without asking Ed Brownlee himself and that is Phil Roberts' department.
_________________
[ This Message was edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-02-11 12:17 ]
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 11003
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-02-11 08:13 am Permalink
Whooa, let's back up a little here:
Quote:
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On 2010-02-11 00:07, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
1. We know that Edward Brownlee was hired by Wimberly & Cook to do the Canlis. So I assume the tiki is his.
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Is that a photo of THAT Tiki inside of Canlis? So it did exist as rendered! That answers my 1st question.
And is that image above of that unattainable book that that woman wrote about Wimberly/Cook, that they only made 50 copies of for universities, and which Zulu has as a pdf file? Each time I think of that it burns me....My theory why they did that is that the new Wimberly/Cook firm is worried about their image as getting pegged as "dated", and that's why they did not want it in larger circulation.
I knew about Brownlee doing Canlis, but in his Tikis he mostly tried to stick to the originals, like the one at the Waikikian you mentioned. This one is so far out for his style, really patchwork-like. Then again, he did that International Marketplace PNG totem pole...
Very good on the other elements, especially the bowl/drum figure on the bottom, I didn't see that. But what's up with that "bib" the top one has?
On 2010-02-11 00:07, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
We'll never really know without asking Ed Brownlee himself and that is Phil Roberts' (filslash's) department.
[/quote]
...or Jeff Berry's, who dug him up on the mainland and got all his material for Sippin' Safari from him.
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 468
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2010-02-11 09:58 am Permalink
No, the book that Sabu is showing is different. It may be the book that came out in 1995 about Wimberly & Cook.
The other publication that bigbro refered to was published in 2003. It was really frustrating that they did all of that work to document 1950's architecture in Waikiki and then only published it ia a VERY LIMITED run. If I remember correctly, they only published 25 copies or so and distrubuted them to local libraries on the island. Here is all of the info contained in the Canlis chapter of that book.
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Phillip Roberts
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 09, 2003
Posts: 1568
From: OAHU/Seattle
| Posted: 2010-02-11 11:08 am Permalink
Aloha,
Quote:
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On 2010-02-11 00:07, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
Anyway, that's my crazy theory. We'll never really know without asking Ed Brownlee himself and that is Phil Roberts' department.
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...geez... As usual, I am guilty about saving stuff for "Waikiki Tiki" and not telling what I know...
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 11003
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-02-11 11:24 am Permalink
Wow-weee! Look at all that great art! That mosaic! The wall sculpture! AND the Tiki! Thank You, Mike!
Well, zooming in on that Tiki, as best as I can make out, it becomes apparent that the artist who drew the menu rendering added, subtracted and changed stuff freely, like that bib/collar on the top Tiki, which is really his chest, apparently. Wonder what Brownlee thought when he saw that rendering!
Mike, what's that '95 Wimberly book? I was so disappointed by the blandness of the "Hawaiian Modern" book...
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Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (first year)
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2789
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2010-02-11 11:25 am Permalink
Sweet!
I hoped we'd flush you and Zulu out of the woodwork with this post. You both have rare info so thanks for sharing.
Zulu - at least you have the pdf file for that book. You're right - the picture I posted is one that tikifish shared a long time ago from a book on restaurant architecture. I don't think it's involved specifically with Wimberly & Cook.
I love the details in that article. I think I'm fondest of that mosaic by Bumpei Akaji. It's just beautiful. I can see other Bishop Museum influences in it.
Phil! - Now that's the kind of photo I'm talkin' about. Get your damn book published.
_________________
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ZuluMagoo
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 26, 2002
Posts: 468
From: Denver, CO
| Posted: 2010-02-11 11:40 am Permalink
This is the book that was published in 2003, titled "1950's Buildings in Waikiki and Honolulu"
Here is a little better shot of the Bumpei tile mosaic.
The other book I'm refering to is "The Hospitality & Leisure Architecture of Wimberly Alison Tong & Goo" by Howard J. Wolff (1995)
[ This Message was edited by: ZuluMagoo 2010-02-11 11:46 ]
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 4074
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-02-11 12:02 pm Permalink
Zulu,
That was great stuff, thanks for posting.
Here is another postcard with an interior scene.
And an album recorded here: Clay at Canlis from Clay Wheeler.
DC
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 11003
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-02-11 12:17 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2010-02-11 11:08, Phillip Roberts wrote:
Aloha,
Quote:
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On 2010-02-11 00:07, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
Anyway, that's my crazy theory. We'll never really know without asking Ed Brownlee himself and that is Phil Roberts' department.
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...geez... As usual, I am guilty about saving stuff for "Waikiki Tiki" and not telling what I know...
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Aaaaah, I am behind in posts today, (there is a life outside of TC), and just got back to this one!
So Phil, can you confirm that the menu art is not an accurate rendering of the original carving?
Thanks everybody for adding to this thread, which just grew in leaps and bounds!!! THIS is where Tiki Central shines!
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-02-11 12:21 ]
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