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One more Hawaiian-themed post before I move on to other things: Humuhumu posted these gorgeous scans from a 1963 promotional cookbook put out by Hollywood Health Foods called, Gourmet Recipes of Hawaii [Link]. These glorious Technicolor images and recipes for luscious luau treats made with healthy ingredients like Hollywood Saf-flower Mayonnaise and Whipped Saf-flower Margarine will make your mouth water.
Now who wants Cheese 'n' Pineapple Pupus? I do! I do!
Continuing with the tropical music theme, let's move on to something a bit more authentic than Mouseketeers in muu-muus, and take a look back at that all-too brief period of time in the early 20th century when Hawaiian slack-key guitarists and ukulele players fused island rhythms and melodies with swing and ragtime to produce a happy hybrid jazz that had toes tapping and hips hula-ing all over the U.S. mainland. Even if you're unfamiliar with Hawaiian bandleaders like Lani McIntire, Augie Goupil, or Andy Iona, you'd probably recognize many of the tunes they played as genre classics.
Re-read this fine article on the history of Hawaiian music I linked to a while back [Link], or have a look at this extensive Hawaiian sheet music cover gallery [Link]
Like a lot of American boys in the 60's, I had a serious crush on Annette Funicello. I suspect it was the juxtaposition of her cute Disney mouse ears and tight angora sweaters that drove us pre-pubescent lads wild. In addition to her stint as a Mouseketeer, she also appeared in a whole slew of lame beach movies, which I nevertheless attended religiously (I remember forcing my dad to take me to see Beach Blanket Bingo while we were living in Iran back in 1966).
Here's HawaiiAnnette warbling Pineapple Princess by Robert and Richard Sherman, who went on to win an Academy Award for writing the Mary Poppins' song, Chim Chim Cheree. Note how they totally rip off the bassline from Brazil.
As this cover illustration from this 1959 issue of Marvel's Tales To Astonish suggests, comic god Jack Kirby apparently got into Moai in a big way after Thor Heyerdahl published Aku Aku, the account of his expedition to Easter Island. However, Jack clearly didn't read Thor's book very carefully (or any old National Geographics for that matter), since his protagonistic wrongly proclaims, "Nobody's ever figured out why they are only heads...why the bodies also were not carved out!" You can see 4 pages of this timeless classic posted on Tiki Central [Link] or you can buy it for a measly $130 at Mile High Comics [Link].
Does your bitch wanna hula? Then buy her this fetching grass skirt and tropical-print doggie bra. [Link]. A stud version is also available [Link]. Arf-loha Oe! [via Tiki Talk]
When you've finished finding your Easter baskets and biting the heads off of chocolate bunnies, please allow me to refer you to yet another terrific photo essay from The 'Lope on the mysterious Moai of Rapa Nui, and the many forms it's taken on in western pop-culture. [Link]
Okay, I think that's enough sleazy, Z-grade movie posts for a while. Now it's time for something nice the whole family can enjoy.
The lovely and talented Humuhumu recently became an official model for Disney apparel, and appears on their shopping website wearing a limited-edition reproduction of the Enchanted Tiki Room dress, worn by the hostesses who worked at the classic Disney attraction back in the 1960's (there's also a guy's shirt with the same pattern). The story of how this came to pass is a good one, so make sure you follow the links to her earlier posts. It just goes to show that Eisner and his cronies didn't manage to poison and destroy everything good about the Magic Kingdom during his unfortunate tenure, and that committed enthusiasts really can make a difference in preserving cool Poly-pop landmarks like the Enchanted Tiki Room, although they must remain ever-vigilant to keep park executives from "updating" them for modern audiences.
[Link: Enchanted Tiki Room Dress story]
Update: Humu informs me that the male model in those photographs is artist, Kevin Kidney, who's designed a line of tiki mugs and other Disney collectibles. [Link]
This post over at Dumb Angel [link] got me thinking about the mystical convergence of five things that I love: surf music, tiki, monsters, kustom kar kulture, and old beach movies. Now when I say beach movies, I'm not talking about that safe-as-milk Frankie and Annette crap, I'm talking about horny-teen, drive-in schlock like Del Tenney's Z-grade classic, Horror of Party Beach [link], a solid-gold cinematic turkey that billed itself as, "The First Horror Monster Musical" and managed to incorporate at least three of the genres I mentioned above. Once you've seen it, you'll never forget the Del-Aires' [link] performance of their monster-surf classic, Zombie Stomp, or the cheesy radioactive monster who looks like he's got a mouth full of hot dogs [link].
Nowadays, there are any number of excellent bands carrying on the monster-surf-kustom kar tradition, and those swingin' undertakers, The Ghastly Ones [link], have even sunk their fangs (somewhat tentatively, I admit) into Polynesian-pop culture by hawking "tiki" pendants [link] and contributing tunes to the Halloween episode of SpongeBob Squarepants [link].
If you dig those Ghastly sounds, here are a few other bands you should check out: The Moon Rays [link], The Route 66 Killers [link], Monsters From Mars [link], Atomic Mosquitos [link], The Coffin Daggers [link], and just because I like their name, The Space Turds From Butt-Tron VII (AKA The Outlanders) [link].
