Tiki Bars: The History of a Fantasy
Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust captured the imagination of audiences in New York and around the country, before winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2024. It’s a simple story, set in the mundane (fictional) town of Cranberry New York, one of many scenic hamlets tucked against Lake Ontario. But within this quotidian setting, lies the unexpectedly colorful backdrop of Primary Trust: Wally’s, a tiki bar nestled between Cranberry’s restaurants, bars, and banks. But why choose to tell this story in a Tiki Bar? To answer this question, the cast and creative team of Primary Trust took a trip to Houston’s own Lei Low, where we heard from owner Russel Theode about the interesting history of the Tiki bar, and its resonance in our modern world.
The tiki bar is the brainchild of a single man: the enigmatic and colorful Donn Beach, AKA Don the Beachcomber, AKA Ernest Gantt, who (surprisingly) was a native of Texas. Little is known about Donn—and this is entirely by design. He was raised in Mexia, Texas (a relatively small city of less than 3,000 people) before eventually moving to Hollywood amid the burgeoning film industry of the 1920s. Between Mexia and Hollywood, the details become unclear. Donn claimed to have traveled the world, spending much of his time in the South Pacific. Though some of his stories are corroborated, it’s also likely that he played on contemporary conceptions of the Hawaiian Islands, whose culture and music had already taken hold in popular culture in Texas. Whether or not his travels were genuine, he was able to use those stories to fashion himself as a sort of impresario, who became known for throwing lavish themed parties for the growing collection of celebrities and artists who began to call Hollywood home.
So, why did the pet project of this mysterious Texan take hold in American consciousness? It’s important to note the historical context surrounding Donn’s earliest ventures into the world of entertainment; his earliest parties took place during prohibition, and his first formal bar was opened during the early stages of the Great Depression. Donn’s bar (appropriately named Don’s Beachcomber) offered patrons an escape—from the hot weather of California, from the chaos of a quickly growing city, and from the increasing financial and social pressures of American life. It’s interesting to note that his business empire tended to grow in popularity during times of great cultural or financial stress—another boom came with the second World War, during which time the public expressed a renewed interest in indulging in Donn’s fantasy world of beachy relaxation, strong rum drinks, and soothing music.
Today, this American tradition of blissful escapism continues with the modern tiki revival, which is currently in full swing. It seems that, once again, people are expressing an urge to disconnect from society, to indulge in another world, to slip into a fantasy. In essence, this is what a tiki bar represents: the American fantasy of a place that’s anywhere but here. Eboni Booth has tapped into this fantasy with Kenneth, the central character of Primary Trust. Like so many Americans, Kenneth spends his days in his favorite tiki bar, in an attempt to escape the crushing realities of everyday life in Cranberry. Primary Trust deals with the pivotal moment when a person decides to step outside of the fantasy, and return to the real world.
