the lost chapter: Hop Louie and the Stockton Islander (image heavy) - General Tiki

A abstractiki Tiki Socialite Lodi, CA Joined: Aug 29, 2009 Posts: 606	A abstractiki Posted posted on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 8:47 PM Well I checked out this Bamboo for sale and it’s legit, genuine Islander! I went to Stockton to look at it the other day and I asked a lot of questions. Turns out that this guy Greg who was selling it used to work at Pollardville. He started when he was about 14 in 1967 and worked there for about 10 years before becoming an electrical contractor. He became good friends with the Neil Pollard and often went back to do electrical work for the Pollards. He built Theater sets and did maintenance on the buildings. He even was there when they moved the Islander to Pollardville and did the electrical work on it during its set up as the new Chicken Kitchen. He said he was the one who guided the A-Frame down into place as it was hanging from the crane. He had the big sign from the Showboat Theater in his shop as well as some old theater stage sets he had built. The Bamboo looked just like the piece I got from the Pit Bar overhang a while back. It was dusty and dirty and had spiders and such on it. There was 125 pieces in all with some about 3ft long and a lot were 12ft long. They were split for trim work and were anywhere from 1 inch to 6 inches wide. Some of them were flattened and molded so they were kind of a rectangle shape. When I asked how he got the bamboo he explained that Neil Pollard never threw anything away. When the Islander was being prepared for the transformation into the Chicken Kitchen Neil had all the bamboo stripped and put in a huge warehouse in back of the Showboat Theater. This place was packed with old junk, lumber, spare parts and scraps and such. When Neil decided to close the place he of course packed up a bunch of the stuff he wanted, and had a big yard sale so to speak. Toward the end Neil let Greg have the Sign and whatever else he wanted. Neil salvaged some other cool stuff and the Bamboo. He said it was covered by a whole bunch of lumber and stuff; the place was so packed you could hardly walk in there. Greg kept it in his own warehouse and let it sit until he heard about all this recent interest in the Islander. Someone hooked him up to TC and then, I’m assuming, decided it was a good time to sell. Greg is a real nice guy and I enjoyed talking to him. I told him I wanted it all and he made me a fair deal. He helped me load it up and off I went with 125 pieces of vintage Islander bamboo sticking out the back of my 4-Runner. Here are a few random pictures, some before cleaning and some after. On the ones that I cleaned I used soap and water and old English oil. end part of 12ft piece, cleaned smaller piece, cleaned this is the fattest size at 5.5 or 6 inches, uncleaned, this is by far the dirtiest piece fat piece with others, 8ft uncleaned a small section of one of the rectangular shaped ones, uncleaned 8ft In a few days I'll post my plan on what to do with it all. Happy Hunting! Abstractiki

Well I checked out this Bamboo for sale and it’s legit, genuine Islander! I went to Stockton to look at it the other day and I asked a lot of questions. Turns out that this guy Greg who was selling it used to work at Pollardville. He started when he was about 14 in 1967 and worked there for about 10 years before becoming an electrical contractor. He became good friends with the Neil Pollard and often went back to do electrical work for the Pollards. He built Theater sets and did maintenance on the buildings. He even was there when they moved the Islander to Pollardville and did the electrical work on it during its set up as the new Chicken Kitchen. He said he was the one who guided the A-Frame down into place as it was hanging from the crane. He had the big sign from the Showboat Theater in his shop as well as some old theater stage sets he had built.

The Bamboo looked just like the piece I got from the Pit Bar overhang a while back. It was dusty and dirty and had spiders and such on it. There was 125 pieces in all with some about 3ft long and a lot were 12ft long. They were split for trim work and were anywhere from 1 inch to 6 inches wide. Some of them were flattened and molded so they were kind of a rectangle shape.

When I asked how he got the bamboo he explained that Neil Pollard never threw anything away. When the Islander was being prepared for the transformation into the Chicken Kitchen Neil had all the bamboo stripped and put in a huge warehouse in back of the Showboat Theater. This place was packed with old junk, lumber, spare parts and scraps and such. When Neil decided to close the place he of course packed up a bunch of the stuff he wanted, and had a big yard sale so to speak. Toward the end Neil let Greg have the Sign and whatever else he wanted. Neil salvaged some other cool stuff and the Bamboo. He said it was covered by a whole bunch of lumber and stuff; the place was so packed you could hardly walk in there.

Greg kept it in his own warehouse and let it sit until he heard about all this recent interest in the Islander. Someone hooked him up to TC and then, I’m assuming, decided it was a good time to sell. Greg is a real nice guy and I enjoyed talking to him. I told him I wanted it all and he made me a fair deal. He helped me load it up and off I went with 125 pieces of vintage Islander bamboo sticking out the back of my 4-Runner.

Here are a few random pictures, some before cleaning and some after. On the ones that I cleaned I used soap and water and old English oil.

end part of 12ft piece, cleaned

smaller piece, cleaned

this is the fattest size at 5.5 or 6 inches, uncleaned, this is by far the dirtiest piece

fat piece with others, 8ft uncleaned

a small section of one of the rectangular shaped ones, uncleaned 8ft

In a few days I'll post my plan on what to do with it all.

Happy Hunting!
Abstractiki

Post #494772 by abstractiki on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 8:47 PM