Exotica!
What Is It Good For?!
So far in this site, you might be wondering who and what is Martin Denny and/or this 'Exotica' business?
To make a long music lecture incredibly short, Exotica was the soundtrack of the American Polynesian trend that was sweeping through the our land beginning in the early 50's.......and Westchester/Playa Del Rey was no different.
The Exotica was bubbling under the mainstream sub-conscious since the end of WW2 and got a head start thanks to the success of the South Pacific musical, but the starting gun was fired when the single 'Quite Village' reached #4 of Billboard Top 40 chart in 1959. The song was written and recorded by Les Baxter in 1952, but it was the singles artist, Martin Denny (right), that helped opened the doors of the tiki bar wide open!
TOP:
The bird calling mastro himself, Martin Denny, in his later years.
BELOW LEFT
The other reason Denny's record sold quite well, the model who appeared on many of his album covers, Sandy Warner!
If you've have been to the Polynesian Village page already, you'll already got a good small hint of the many tiki palaces that dotted the urban landscape and, as mentioned before, this area was no different.......and not just with the grand now-former Village. There were mini-Villages that were scattered, including the Sandpiper Lounge in Playa Del Rey area.
This small point of Westchesters tiki/exotica connection was made in the liner notes of the first detailed Martin Denny collection, 'Exotica: The Best Of Martin Denny, released in 1990 by Rhino Records. One of the writers of the CD liner notes, Brian King of Amok Books expanded on this matter in an interview in the classic book 'Incredibly Strange Music Vol. One', published by ReSearch Books in 1993.
"I grew up in Westchester (in 1962), which is next to Los Angeles Airport. It was one of the first suburbs. I remember people decorating their backyards with big tikis, or having a rumpus room with bamboo-lined walls and a shrine; this had to do with Hawaii becoming a state. The records I first heard were played at parties or barbecues, so they have a certain demented nostalgia for me. My dad would string up a volleyball net in the backyard and light up tiki torches. When I was about five, I got really drunk on a grasshopper (a disgustingly sweet mint-julep drink) and my parents found me passed out under a tree."
For further toe dipping into the exotica, one must visit Tiki Central, Tiki Oasis (the San Diego Comic Con of Exotica, only not so big and bloated and whole lot more fun), LuxuriaMusic (the internet radio station), The Exotica Group and, of course, the further adventures of The Molotov Cocktail Hour!........and we wish Mr. King a speedy recovery.