Post #564816 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Nov 12, 2010 9:27 PM

More photos dug out of my old 90s albums (remember photo albums? :) )
These had been on my mind to post for a while, and the recent Beachcomber post finally made me dig them all up together.
I hope they provide some additional thrills for us Waikikian geeks here:

A moody shot of a Tiki (already over-painted) and flaming Tiki torch in the Waikikian Tiki Gardens.
Looking up from that, the tower of the Ilikai looms over the quaint Waikikian, dwarfing A-frames and Tikis, and announcing the new era of Hawaii 5.0 Waikiki:

My son Diego and me as a young man in one of the Tahitian Lanai's dining huts at the end of the gardens:

Now here is a flash-lit shot, which I usually abhor, of the room:

But I felt I needed to document the amazing carved desk that every room sported. Where else have you seen a CARVED likeness of the Tiki temple as part of the decor!? It really proves how much that A-frame was the logo of the place. Couldn't take that with me, but the dressers had little carved drawer pulls:

I wonder who owns one of those desks now!
After the Waikikian was gone, my friend Doug Miller helped me to track down the original artist's rendering of the hotel:

It was a beaute, over 4 and 1/2 feet long in all. It was in the possession of the wife of the contractor who had torn down the place. Unfortunately she did not want to sell it. Life is no fair sometimes. Luckily I got to use the rendering in Bosko's(?) brochure for Tiki Modern.

Last not least here is a pic of me at the home bar of black velvet painter David Voss. I interviewed him for Tiki News.

David's black velvet nudes graced the Tahitian Lanai. He was one of the regulars there since the beginning, and even had met his wife there. I hope they switched to La Marianas when the Lanai shut down.