Monday, August 12, 2019
Ok, I realize I'm a year late in posting this and I thought I had at least mentioned Tiki Oasis last year but I guess that is not the case. Anyway, I have a love of old movies but I haven't seen too many with a South Seas theme except for South Pacific.
The following is information from the Tiki Oasis website regarding last year's event:
"Our homage to “South Pacific” was launched with the help of the Los Angeles based group “South Seas Cinema.” South Seas Cinema is a motion picture genre that is set on tropical islands of the Pacific. More specifically the isles of Oceania (Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia), or using the “Hollywood” definition – any tropical Oceanic isle."
"If you can’t travel to a tropical paradise, at least you can watch it on the big screen and imagine you are there. Like Tiki bars, Hollywood recreated an environment of the South Seas for the similar purpose of allowing the landlocked urbanite to escape the concrete jungle, if only for a couple hours. While visiting Tiki bars and Polynesian supper clubs, Americans cast themselves as the stars of their own South Seas movie. The Hollywood stories (Hurricane, Mutiny on the Bounty, South Pacific), the film sets (bamboo huts and waterfalls), the special effects (like backdrops and dioramas), all enabled the creation of the same environment in the Tiki Lounge."
"The SSC genre is anchored by documentaries like Jack London’s Adventures in the South Sea Islands (1913) or Moana (1926) or Kon-Tiki (1950) that give a glimpse of Western man’s excursions into the Pacific Islands. It also includes action movies such as The Hurricane (1937), Wake of the Red Witch (1948), or She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)."
"And musicals such as Waikiki Wedding (1937), Song of the Islands (1942), Pagan Love Song (1950), or Elvis’ 1960s Hawaiian trilogy of Blue Hawaii; Girls, Girls, Girls; and Paradise Hawaiian Style plus dozens more movies that ensured the islands were in our ears as well as our eyes and our hearts."
"The pinnacle of South Seas Cinema is the Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical South Pacific (1958), from the James A. Michener book that dealt with Colonialism and racism, as well as the classic Romanticism of idyllic tropical islands."
"We were honored to host esteemed members of the South Seas Cinema organization including the premiere Hawaiian Pop Culture historian DeSoto Brown’s “Hollywood’s Pacific War”; Ed Rampell’s “Sex in South Seas Cinema”; Matthew Locey’s “South Seas Musicals”; Luis I. Reyes’ “Hollywood Icons of Tiki Cinema.”"
"We had so many entertaining seminars one could barely see them all! Ron Ferrell’s “The Golden Age of South Seas Cinema”; Kathy Zuckerman & director Brian Gillogly present “Accidental Icon”; as well as presentations from: adam foshko, bailey pryor, Beachbum Berry, Blair Reynolds, Brandon Kleyla, Brother Cleve, Bbop Burnie, Charles Phoenix, Daniele Dalla Palo, Darren Bradley, David Marley, Di’Lovely, Domenic Priore, Eric Hainline, Eric October, Eve Bergeron (Trader Vic’s), Humuhumu Trott, Jason Henderson, Jason T. Smith, Jeff Cioletti, Jo Weldon, Karen Finlay, Kelly Merrell, Kiki Lovelace, King Kukulele, Lola Demure, Mike Skinner, Miss Mia (Denmark), Nani Maka / Randy Avon, Nicole Pacheco, Ram Udwin, Richard Greene, and Stefan Kéry (Sweden). We featured the San Diego premiere of a new film by Iguana Productions “Dr. Trimrose’s Cannibalistic Sex-Crazed Blood Island of the Tiki-Bot”."
"The Tiki Oasis lobby featured a South Seas Cinema poster exhibit. “Pagan Island” star Nani Maka hosted a showing of the film, complete with Q&A and a hula dance! A WWII uniform exhibit by Anthony Ardisone also gave a nod to the movie “South Pacific.” And the true stars of SSC, Tikis that have appeared in films, were on exhibit on loan from classic decor suppliers Oceanic Arts!"
