This mug is faithfully crafted after the Aloha Jhoe's mascot Duk-Duk. Aloha Joe's was a well-known tiki bar and restaurant in Palm Springs in the early 60s.
Aloha Jhoe's was created by Lyle R. Wheeler, a prolific Hollywood Art Director who won Oscars for his work on Gone with the Wind, Anna and the King of Siam, The Robe, The King and I and The Diary of Anne Frank, and was nominated another 24 times (many years, against himself). Wheeler was an Art Director on South Pacific four years before the opening of Aloha Jhoe's.
Duk-Duk is a secret society, part of the traditional culture of the Tolai people of the Rabaul area of New Britain, the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea, in the South Pacific.
This mug was released at Tiki Caliente 15, May 2nd-5th, 2024, at The Caliente Tropics, Palm Springs, California, United States. It was designed by Doug Horne and sculpted and manufactured by Eekum Bookum.
The regular edition for participants was in brown, but John Mulder created 2 in blue for himself and Rory Snyder.