page_title: Tiki culture
section_title: Post-World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Tiki culture / Post-World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Ezio Pinza, Barbara Luna, Michael or Noel De Leon, Mary Martin, in the final scene of the original production of South Pacific (1949)
context_page_description: Tiki culture is a motif of exotically decorated bars and restaurants catering to an escapist longing for travel to tropical regions of the South Pacific. Featuring mock tiki carvings and complex, alluringly named alcoholic drinks, it eventually influenced residential recreation.
  Starting in California in the 1930s and then spreading around the world, it was inspired by the sentimental appeal of an idealized South Pacific, particularly Hawaii, Polynesia and Oceania, as viewed through the experiences of those who had visited such areas and a Hollywood lens focused on beautiful scenery, forbidden love and the potential for danger. Over time it selectively incorporated more cultural elements of other regions that affected Polynesia, such as Southeast Asia.
  Tiki culture changed over time, influenced by World War II and the firsthand exposure hundreds of thousands of American servicemen gained during that conflict. In time its appeal wore off and both the culture and the hospitality industry theme all but died off.
  The early decades of the 21st century have seen a small renaissance of interest in tiki culture, including a limited commercial revival.
context_section_description: When American servicemen returned home after the end of World War II in 1945, they brought with them stories and souvenirs from their time in the South Pacific that helped to reinforce the popularity of what Hollywood had set the stage for Donn Beach to create. Beach was himself a WWII veteran, and he had invented the Three Dots & A Dash cocktail, which is Morse code for "V" (for victory). Women wore "victory roll" hairstyles and people were in the mood to celebrate.
  The excitement surrounding Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition and its award-winning film helped to once again promote tropical exploration. Importantly within the context of tiki culture, it successfully injected the word "tiki" into the popular American lexicon on a large scale (Hawaiians had not used the word "tiki", but rather "ki‘i"). Heyerdahl's work also expanded the theme's mythology to include the west coast of South America in what became an ever increasing mix of cultural motifs, both real and imagined. Easter Island statues (moai) also became iconic with the publication of his book Aku-Aku.
  Steven Crane of The Luau restaurant took advantage of the public's fascination with Heyerdahl and further followed in the footsteps of Beach and Bergeron by building a chain of tiki restaurants in partnership with Sheraton Hotels called Kon-Tiki Ports. Crane is generally credited with also bringing tiki to the forefront of decorations at such restaurants and bars, prominently placing their image on his menu covers, matchbooks, entry ways, and other signage. Southern Pacific themes continued to stray more into the even further imagined realm of the mysterious "Tiki".
  James Michener won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for his collection of short stories, Tales of the South Pacific, which in turn was the basis for South Pacific, the 1949 musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein that included the song Bali Ha'i about a mystical tropical island. The Bali Hai restaurant opened a few years later on San Diego's Shelter Island, introducing its faux-tiki mascot and signature cocktail, the Mr. Bali Hai.
  In addition to the returning World War II veterans, several other factors contributed to the mid-century American explosion in tiki culture. Post-war America saw the rise of the middle class as an economic force. This coupled with ever-increasing affordability of travel, particularly newly established civilian air travel to Hawaii (which had been halted during the war), helped to propel the nation's disposable income into all things tropical. Just as the Matson Line had done with their boats, the airlines aggressively marketed flights to consumers.
  Donn Beach moved to Hawaii, where he later lived on a houseboat and was a driving force behind the 1956 creation of the International Market Place in Waikiki. He opened a Don the Beachcomber there, along with the Dagger Bar and created a treehouse office in the top of a giant banyan tree that oversaw a complex of multiple thatch-roofed buildings and huts that sold a variety of goods from around the tropical world. Other tiki bars opened in Hawaii as well, staffed at first by native bartenders who didn't know what the alleged Hawaiian drinks were that the American tourists were asking for. Hawaiian bartender Harry Yee created the iconic Blue Hawaii cocktail in 1957.
  Over the 1950s Polynesian design began to infuse many aspects of the country's visual aesthetic, from home accessories to architecture. The Trader Vic's in Palo Alto eventually even spawned architectural choices, such as the concept behind the odd-looking Tiki Inn Motel, which still exists as the Stanford Terrace Inn. Single family homes, apartment complexes, bowling alleys and other business were heavily influenced by assumed Polynesian aesthetics, in some cases incorporating the motif into entire residential areas and shopping districts. Much of it was accomplished by purchashing material from the company Oceanic Arts, which opened in 1956 by both importing materials and doing original wood carvings in California.
  Ultimately, Beach and his ex-wife had at least 25 restauran
caption: Scene from South Pacific
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