Bob & Jack Thornton
proprietor · designer
Two Chicago boys who remembered a restaurant — and built a better one 1,300 miles away
Donn Beach
proprietor · bartender · designer · 1907–1989
He invented the tiki bar, then lost the right to use his own name
Glenn Andrew Billingsley
proprietor · 1912–1984
The Stork Club's nephew, who quietly ran more Polynesian rooms than almost anyone
Harry K. Yee
bartender · 1918–2022
The man who put the orchid in the glass — to keep the ashtrays clean
James K. Dobbs
proprietor · c. 1894–1960
The man who industrialised tiki
Mariano Licudine
bartender · 1907–1980
The Houdini of the liquids — the man who poured the Mai-Kai into being
Mireille Thornton
choreographer · designer · proprietor
The dancer who couldn't dance — then ran the show for sixty years
Stephen Crane
proprietor · 1916–1985
The host who franchised the South Seas — and left nothing standing