Now online is the fantastic 1969 Mai-Kai calendar. This one features sisters Leila and Andree and their cousin Liva.

HERE

Gay Head. Just sayin’.

Another addition to Knoxville Then and Now is the Redmon Court. Not exactly confident I found it. You decide.

Redmon Court

A New Year’s resolution was to add more to the Swank Pad, and so we have an addition to Knoxville Then and Now!

This is the Ridgeview Motel in Clinton. See the place now at the site:

Ridgeview Motel.

As a public service, let me bring to your attention the fact that the year 2013 is exactly the same as the year 1963. So you can re-use that 1963 calendar this year, and you can print out the 1963 Mai-Kai calendar for this purpose from my site!

For this year I included the calendar pages.

See it HERE.

p.s. You can also use the 1974 calendar this year, but that actual calendar part is not on the site.

I am excited to announce what I hope is the first of my “Mai-Kai Memories Series”. This is an individual sized Mystery bowl designed after the 1950s original.

They are on sale now at the Swank Pad Productions website and next week in the Mai-Kai gift shop!

 We were a bit shocked to find that Knoxville weekly indepenant paper Metropulse had made me the cover story this week. And I was very pleasantly surprised to find they did a really great job on the article that captures the past and present of Tiki well.

Read it HERE.

In an effort to turn blog posts to web pages, I have started with the Mai-Kai calendars. This also gives me a chance to share a bit of history along the way.

If you are interested in helping with this project, please email me. I do not have every calendar.

Mai-Kai Calendar Girls

Check back for updates!

Or maybe this is the all Dusty Cajun hour! Try looking through these for some OG Tiki Central feelings:

Mah Jong, Syosett, Long Island, NY
The Tahitian, Pasadena, CA

Ports O Call, Dallas

Tropics Motor Hotel, Seattle, WA

I just got this postcard of the Myrtle Beach Hawaiian Village. Great to see the exterior and another interior shot. The front is classic A-frame with Witco onthe doors.

Another view of the Witco Tiki in the center. Check out the funky round lights on the tables.

Previously on the Swank Pad Blather: Post 1 and Post 2

We recently sold our 1968 Serro Scotty “canned ham” 15 foot camper for something with more room and amenities. We got a 1964 Avion 24 foot Holiday. Great vintage style. We look forward to making our own and bringing it back to a classic, vintage modern look. Click the above image for the brochure featuring our camper and the whole Avion line.

Not much to add to this. Please click the article and read for the exact heaping praise this great magazine put upon the Mai-Kai. And try this very elusive recipe for the Moonkist Coconut. One of very few of Mariano’s recipes that have been made public.

Long live Mai-Kai and the Mystery Girl!

This record has lots of great images. It is meant to be a sort of scrapbook of your Hawaiian Honeymoon. Places to add notes and it is generally a nice bit of eye candy. I expected the most watered down tripe from the vinyl inside.

Instead I found some good music. Even some great music! The track “He Aloha No O Honolulu” at first gave me a little chill and then it shot straight into breath taking.

THIS page says: It showcases the unique talents of Bunny Brown,
Kihei Brown. Arthur Kaua, Mona Kalima, and Buddy Brown at their best; Bunny Brown recalls, “The whole album was incredibly recorded in just one session.”

Bunny passed away at age 90 in 2009.

THIS is the stuff I play in the Hapa Haole Hideaway. It gives me the feeling that is my ideallic soundtrack.

Hilo Hawaiians – Honeymoon in Hawaii

Download it HERE

Elvis was huge in Hawaii, but I guess that crossed on over to Samoa and Mr. Fatu got the bug.

I don’t know much about what is going on here, so I will leave off with comments. I will note that the track names are as they were printed on the LP.

Hawaiian Inn pics, history and commentary HERE and more HERE

There is something distinctly sleazy about Mr. Cannova. His picture is bigger than Fatu’s and he doesn’t really have a role here that we can be sure of…

Download it here 

This image is from the June 1959 issue of Esquire magazine. It says:

“The fabulous mixologist Mariano Licudine of the famed Mai-Kai Restaurant in Florida creates new ways with rum in his Derby Daiquiri. The secret: one ounce of fresh orange juice, one half ounce of fresh lime juice, one scant teaspoon of sugar, one andone half ounces of Puerto Rican white label rum, one cup of crushed ice; mix in a blender for 10 seconds or shake vigorously. The bee? Oh, he’s just buzzy. But this, designated the oficial drink of the Florida Derby, is the DERBY DAIQUIRI.”

This date seems to have confused people into thinking this was named the official drink of the Derby in 1959. The Derby Daiquiri has been on the Mai-Kai drink menu since the earliest printings. And it has always been pictured served in the special Jockey glass. So, I would assume it has been the drink of the Derby since 1957 at least, which is the copyright date on the oldest menus I have seen.

Here is Mai-Kai owner Bob Thornton holding the drink with the original coaster.

Derby Daiquiri

Here is my glass with the coaster.

UPDATE 8/10/2011:  After extensive research, though the Derby Daiquiri was on the first Mai-Kai menu, it did not become the official drink of the Gulfstream Derby until probably 1959.

Yes, that’s right, it’s a bear with topless island girls, having a cocktail. Oh, and an old miner too. That’s from the drink menu for a very unique Tiki bar in Alaska. Right, Alaska. This great menu is obviously a perversion parody or the classic Trader Vic’s menu. In one image, that bear is doing something with an Alaskan native totem pole. For a moment I wondered if this wasn’t pre-Tiki, as the only Tiki cocktail on the menu was Don the Beachcomber’s Zombie. But then, duh! It’s the Trader’s menu! So, maybe it is mid to late 30′s. Very low prices and few classic cocktails as we knew them.

There is a great thread on Tiki Central that details the quest for this place and what might remain of it. Pictures unearthed by Unga Bunga and Taboo Dan:

James Teitelbaum was on his way to try to find what remained of the place, but, it turns out, most everything there was destroyed by an earthquake in 1964. Bummer.

More ripped live Hapa Haole vinyl. I had recorded this record in 2007, but just recorded it again. It appears to be from the 70s. Looks like the dying end of the Tiki Epoch. Everyone in the images is elderly. The show was recorded in the Malia Polynesian Room in Asbury Park, NJ. I find no internet record of this place existing.

Sad, as Sam Makia made one of my all time favorite records. Take it as you will.

Download it here.

I have narrowed my collecting over the years, mainly due to the fact that I could quickly run out of space. Now that the Hideaway is in operation, I limited it even more.

One of the few things I do collect now are items from the Hawaii Kai, NYC. In the last few months, my very favorite recordings have become the live recordings from various island and Tiki establishments. Nothing is better than the sound of forks on plates in the background!

So when I came across this LP I thought I had hit a home run. However, I was more than a little disappointed to find out that it was a studio recording.

Here it is for you to download. If some expert out there can tell me what is causing the high end distortionin my recordings I’d appreciate it. My guess is the needle on the turntable. It is not a problem with recording levels, etc. It is at the source.

Download it here.

Lots of info on the Hawaii Kai here

Related post on the Goddess of Love mug

And the girls of the Hawaii Kai menu

Back in 2001, I made Swank Vinyl Exotica I to sell at the first Hukilau. It turns out that was the only money made on the first Hukilau! I made a second and sold them both on my website.

I just didn’t feel like putting in the time to make the CDs anymore and they ended.

I decided to resurrect them and share them now. I do not swear by the quality of these recordings, only their mood, which at those times, they reflected.

So, download and enjoy!

This is one of many, many records I picked up at thrift stores over the years. Back in 2004 I ripped it to the computer, at least the first side. Recently I was making new mixes for the Hideaway and included their “Hasegawa General Store” and every time it comes around, I crank it up. I just love it. Something about the sounds of forks hitting plates in the background just endears it to me.

George passed away in 2000. I am not sure when this was released. Some evidence on the web indicates 1992, but I am thinking earlier.

So, enjoy the piano bar in Hawaii, done as well as anyone. Live from the Maui Hilton Hotel on the beach at Kaanapali in the Lokelani Room.

Download here before it goes away!

Hula records Stereo HS-539

UPDATE: “ George Jr., entertains at The Royal Lahaina, Kaanapali every weekend.”

You’d think that after searching for 6 years for all things Mai Kai I would have seen every postcard there was. No. This one appeared on Ebay a few weeks ago. More things to try to find!

I got a request for this, so I am putting it out there again. I have not listened to this in maybe 6 years, so, no guess about the sound quality.

Download here

I’ve always loved this mug. Such a nice sentiment to have “Goddess of Love” tattooed across the top of a skull mug. A wonderful image for a drink. The Hawaii Kai is a legendary tiki bar from New York, best known as the location of Joe Pesci’s famous “Do I amuse you” scene in Goodfellas. I was very pleased to add this one to my collection.

Another card to add to the original post and now website of Mai Kai postcards.

This is the famous large Barney West at the south end of the Mai Kai. It stands there to this day. But today the highway has encroached to the point that this guy is right on the edge.