“Tiki culture as we know it was invented in Hollywood — couldn’t have happened anywhere else. The founding father was a bootlegging fabulist known as Don the Beachcomber who became friends with producers and actors by consulting on movies set in the Pacific; he said he had lived in the South Seas and therefore had first-hand experience, but that’s almost certainly not true. He brought Navy Grog and rumaki to the swell set through a series of tall tales about rum’s purity (it was actually just the cheapest booze) and “the Orient’s exotic flavors” (you know, soy sauce and brown sugar).”
Read the article here:
Tiki: A California Invention
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