Post #603610 by TikiTomD on Tue, Aug 23, 2011 12:20 PM

Bigbrotiki, appreciate your insights on the origins of the Kona Kai and Trader Vic’s Maori logo Tikis. Those have always been among my favorite of mid-century Polynesian restaurant icons.

There are interesting Trader Vic / de Young intersections. According to this web site, http://www.heald.edu/about/history, “Trader Vic” Bergeron and Michael de Young, after whom the museum was named, were both alumni of Heald College in San Francisco. De Young published the predecessor newspaper of the San Francisco Chronicle and died in 1925, long before Trader Vic launched his restaurant empire. So I’d file that as merely a coincidental artifact.

However, this publication on the web indicates an early 1950's Trader Vic engagement inside the de Young Museum, so perhaps the Trader actually viewed the original Maori Tiki inside the museum and took a photo himself or had one taken: http://www.rcj.com/PacificaDesigns.pdf

Here’s the relevant excerpt...

-Tom