The tiki image seemed to be here, there, everywhere on the auction tables, and the breadth of them sparked a memory for one auction-goer.
Rich’s aunts and uncles had drank from tiki cups and danced to the music at a place he remembered as the Hawaiian Cottage in New Jersey, which sold the cups. The club was more than just a hangout for his mom’s brothers and sisters. It was also the place where they celebrated their 50th anniversaries.
“That was the thing to do,” he said.
That led to a memory of the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ, where you could also drink from tiki cups, he said. All of this was new to me, from a time before I moved to Philadelphia back in the 1980s. Neither the Hawaiian Cottage nor the Latin Casino exist anymore. Both were very popular places, buttThe Latin Casino seemed to have the most heralded history.
None of the tiki ware on the auction table came from either of those clubs. This large lot seemed more like someone’s collection that family members just wanted out of the house. Most were ceramic, but there were also wall carvings and wooden statues. Most had been imported by a Japanese company named Otagiri, whose Polynesian-themed ceramics were said to be valued by collectors.
My auction-buddy Janet is drawn to the ceramic cups. But I don’t find them very interesting; they look too touristy to me. I don’t frequent themed restaurants very often, but I may have once upon a time in Tucson, AZ, eaten with friends at a Polynesian-style restaurant. Maybe I even had a drink in a tiki cup. If I did, it’s so far back in my memory that it’s a blur.
There were so many of them at the auction that they were unavoidable. When I see these images, I think of Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. I remembered tree-size totem poles from my visit some years ago to Vancouver (I even bought a print called “Thunderbirds and Man” by Charles Elliott). When most of us think of tiki, we see fruity drinks in carved cups or food from tiki-style restaurants.
In fact, the first tiki restaurants are associated with Don the Beachcomber and Victor J. Bergeron, both owners of eating places bearing their names and both of whom take credit for creating the mai tai.
The word tiki refers to the carvings of human forms found among the Polynesian people in the South Pacific of one who is called the first man. According to wikipedia, there are several versions of the story of Tiki, the first woman and the first human in Maori mythology.
Collecting tiki paraphernalia appears to be pretty popular. I found several websites for collectors, and a lot of different faces on tiki items. The selection on the auction table should’ve prepared me for the variety of products I found on the web.
The Latin Casino – pictured here – apparently had tiki torches inside and outside, as someone remembered in a website forum.
The night club was the stop for some of the biggest names in entertainment for almost 20 years (it had started out in Philadelphia). One site said it was known for its Las Vegas style-entertainment of dinner and a show until Atlantic City casinos turned on their lights. The Latin Casino changed its name but never made it back to the big time. The building was torn down after a fire in the mid-1980s.
Frank Sinatra stopped by. So did Sammy Davis Jr. Richard Pryor recorded his 1975 comedy album “Is It Something I Said” there. Others included Tom Jones, Patti Page, Ray Charles, Liberace, Frankie Avalon, The Supremes.
I knew that Jackie Wilson had suffered a heart attack during a performance in 1975 that put him in a coma for nine years before he died. I didn’t know it happened while he was on the stage of the Latin Casino singing “Lonely Teardrops.”
