unkle Mike Roberts and his photographs

Even if I´m not into seriously collecting vintage Hawaiiana postcards I have several señor Roberts cards bought at spanish antique shops.

Muchos años & muchas millas.

Not tiki...

Like the Kennedy one, these are all jumbo sized postcards measuring 8.5" x 5.5"




This one shows the size difference between the jumbos and the regulars:

Buzzy Out!

Aloha!

Good stuff all. You are filling in many gaps. I find it all fascinating about a relative I really had very little contact with overall.

QSL and postcard from Fiji around 1967... Probably a comission for a friend... I bought this a year or so ago thinking I saw a moai in the background. It turned out (upon closer examination} to be a boat motor. Love the shell fountain though.

Seeing all these photos from all over, it seems unlikely your uncle took them all himself: His business must have also been a successful photo agency, where various photographers licensed out the their pics, right?

Sven,

Well, we've established he did farm out work, I just don't know to what extent...

It does seem that he took great pride in his photos and did credit others work he himself published.

Jim from San Francisco shares this with me and you...

Taken in 1952... I remember him smoking that pipe in the '70's.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2009-08-27 01:00 ]

Found one more....This chimp is too cool....

On 2009-08-27 14:50, Tiki-Tim wrote:
Found one more....This chimp is too cool....

Awesome find Tiki Tim, check out this thread for the sad story on this chimp
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=28343&forum=2&hilite=jungle

Found this stack of eight Hoover Dam postcards at a garage sale on Saturday. I was going to pass them by until I flipped them over and found they were all Mike Roberts images. I think they charged me 50 cents for the lot.

You want 'em, Phil? They're yours.

Sabu

Coco Palms House of Singing Bamboo Dining Room and Lagoon

Waikiki Hula Dancers

Hula Dancer

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

Waikiki Beach Hotel Area

Tree Climber
Although not attributed to him on the card, I was told that this is a Mike Roberts image. This is a WWII era card; note the mark on the lower left of card's reverse which reads "LETS GO! USA * KEEP 'EM FLYING!"

Looking through the postcards I have collected, I found a few that haven't been posted yet (I think)?

I have a few hundred or so to go through, so I will keep looking.

Later,

PTD

Here are a few of my faves, have another dozen or so...love the 40's street scenes. Does anyone know anything about the Tradewinds? Just a funky mix of styles? Phil, what info do you about the codes? Since you mentioned that the previous KC was not your uncle's work, and most start with C or SC and that one was a C. Could it be "C" means Contracted and "SC" means Self Contracted or Composed? Just wondering. Thanks for all the great info and good luck w/ the book. OGR

On 2009-09-19 10:36, Or Got Rum? wrote:
Phil, what info do you about the codes? Since you mentioned that the previous KC was not your uncle's work, and most start with C or SC and that one was a C. Could it be "C" means Contracted and "SC" means Self Contracted or Composed? Just wondering. Thanks for all the great info and good luck w/ the book. OGR

Hmmm, Good question and one I have no answer to. Sorry. I mostly remember him playing canasta at Marina Green in San Francisco with my dad and his pals on Sundays...

"Shipwreck Kelly's" interior, Hawaii circa 1972

Aloha,

Richard,

I am not sure that I have any from the Queen Mary, but I will check the small archive I have and If I have them I would be glad to forward them to you. I will also post this message on a board I am on. If anyone could help, these are the people. Tiki Central's community, whom I love and have helped me flesh out memories of my uncle mike are superb researchers and collectors. Also I will pass your message to the formost researcher of Mike's photos and career.

Best of luck in your endeavor, and Im truely sorry for your loss.

Phillip

On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 2:36 PM,

As you can see from the email chain below, my wife & I are searching for some photos taken on the Queen Mary in the 1980's by you uncle, Mike Roberts . Some of the photos were used in post cards in one of which shows our deceased son climbing on a anti-aircraft gun emplacement. Were hoping based on the email chain (from Mr. Will Kayne a PR representative at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. ) below that you might still have some of photos or negatives.

Unfortunately management of the ship has changed several times over the years. All the shops today are independently leased and have no records of inventory back that far. I did Google Mike Roberts and found his nephew, Phillip Roberts at a site named Tiki Central Forums. On this Web site he talks about owning some of his late uncles negatives. You might pursue contact with Phillip.

Good Luck.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Some time ago my wife and I purchased several Mike Roberts Post cards of your Royal Lady. One of the cards (attached) displayed a combination of for photos. The right-lowermost photo shows several youngsters climbing on one of the antiaircraft guns. The young man wearing shorts in the foreground is my son Christian. We lost Chris in 1988 and would be grateful if you could direct us to the photographer or any other source of photographs taken . . . probably Summer 1985.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Warmest Regards,

Richard

Here's some more Mike Robert postcards from the Mini Print series.

Phil, what's happening with the BOOK? Can't find it announced anywhere, not even on the Bess Press site...I am worried.
Well, then again, Jeff Berry's re-issue is overdue, and he said it's because the art director took his time to make it that much better! :)

Aloha,

On 2010-02-11 07:36, bigbrotiki wrote:
Phil, what's happening with the BOOK? Can't find it announced anywhere, not even on the Bess Press site...I am worried.
Well, then again, Jeff Berry's re-issue is overdue, and he said it's because the art director took his time to make it that much better! :)

Sven. I'm not worried. There have been delays that I did not foresee, but "Waikiki Tiki" is still on track for release later this year. Art direction and a new cover design have been discussed.

Great. Thank you Phil for the update, that was fast! If you're not worried, nobody is. :)
And I'm sure that image above is just a quickly pieced together thing so the publisher would have something to show. My books did not come out when I WANTED them to, but when they were good and ready! Better to make it best you can and wait a while longer, than put out something you are not 99% percent happy with (cuz it's never 100% ...in my case, at least :) )

I am so looking forward to getting a copy of your book Phil !!!

On 2010-02-11 11:08, The Sperm Whale wrote:
I am so looking forward to getting a copy of your book Phil !!!

Thanks Buddy.

Oh jeez, is that the one!? What happened to it, who has it?

On 2010-02-11 12:10, bigbrotiki wrote:
Oh jeez, is that the one!? What happened to it, who has it?

What is that?

LOL Tiki - That's the tiki sculpture that Ed Brownlee carved for the Canlis restaurant in Honolulu. More info on this thread:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=34862&forum=2&14

:lol: ...I am sorry...I know that cancer is not funny...but I just read that post above in one swoop as:

"What is that? Ovarian cancer research?"

Sorry.

On 2010-02-11 12:29, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
LOL Tiki - That's the tiki sculpture that Ed Brownlee carved for the Canlis restaurant in Honolulu. More info on this thread:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=34862&forum=2&14

Thanks Sabu - I'll take a look!

On 2010-02-11 12:35, bigbrotiki wrote:
:lol: ...I am sorry...I know that cancer is not funny...but I just read that post above in one swoop as:

"What is that? Ovarian cancer research?"

Sorry.

At a glance he does look like he's positioned for an exam!

No worries though - I'm not a humorless disciple of the Church of PC.

Anyhow, Back to the topic of the thread... I don't think this was previously posted...

Mike Roberts, Maori Canoe at the Polynesian Cultural Center

davey jones locker

kanapali beach hotel

kodak dancers

In an earlier post, you mentioned your uncle Mike Roberts also took photographs of the mainland West. I found 4 yellow folios of large (10x7.5) "Color Prints of the West". Each folio is numbered and has 5 or 6 reproductions that say on the back "Reproduced by Spectratone from An Original Kodachrome by Mike Roberts". The photography's composition looks very similar to many of the ones you posted here online. Each photo in the folio has a number, like "C15" or "C3" with a description of the place. Do you know if this is the same Mike Roberts as your uncle? I'm trying to find out some more information about the photographer, and the folios. I am attaching one of the images here, but am happy to attach more if you like.

Aloha,

Probably. Looks like his style. Never seen those folios before.

Those are great pictures. My family is from Kauai and both of my grandparents used to work at Cocoa Palms resort which I see in a few of the shots. Thanks for sharing, they look like great work and brought back a lot of memories.

Aloha Phillip!! Thats great you are carrying on the tradition. Its always great to see awesome photographs like that. I have been around the tiki scene for a couple of years so I cant say to much about back then, but I am studying up on it. Hope you keep it up!! :). Mahaloz for sharing the photographs.

Aloha Phillip. Thank you for sharing your uncle's photos...and LOVE your book, Waikiki Tiki!