Milan Guanko was a tiki carver in the 1950s and 1960s in Southern California, and the Kon Tiki is home to the largest collection of Milan Guanko tikis in the world.
At least, that's what Kon Tiki's owners say. Nobody keeps records of these things.
"Nobody has actually gone around and counted all the Milan Guanko tikis in other tiki bars, but we haven't heard from anybody who's stepped up and said, 'We have more,' " says Maggie Rickard, a "Relight the Night" organizer. Currently, Kon Tiki boasts at least a dozen Milan Guanko tikis, and the bar's collection is about to get bigger.
Recently, during a closet reorganization, Kon Tiki's manager found two more tikis that had been put aside and forgotten. "Six months or so ago, Louie was cleaning up and said, 'We've found two tikis back there," says Mark Bloom, the other event organizer.
The two tikis will go back on display starting on the evening of "Relight the Night."
But there is one more tiki still waiting to be reunited with its long-lost wooden buddies.
Sometime in the 1980s (nobody's entirely sure when), a group of tikis from in front of the Kon Tiki was stolen - most likely a college prank.
Most of the heads eventually were returned, but one remained missing. Recently, Rickard and Bloom found it hanging in the corner of the Meet Rack, Tucson's most infamous watering hole (where getting literally branded with the owner's likeness will get you 50 cents off drinks for life).
"It's hanging in a rather dark corner," says Bloom.
Meet Rack proprietor Jim Anderson, who calls himself "God," says one of his bartenders, then a University of Arizona undergrad, brought the tiki in when his fraternity got tired of it. Rickard and Bloom say they'd like to persuade Anderson to return the tiki.
They'd better hope God likes tropical drinks.
Relight the Night
• When: Saturday, April 10, at 8 p.m.
• Where: Kon Tiki, 4625 E. Broadway.
• Featuring: The Disillusionists, the Tikiyaki Orchestra (Los Angeles), Thee Swank Bastards (Las Vegas), Shrimp Chaperone and Flam Chen.
• Cost: $12 in advance, $15 at the door.
