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<\/a>Earnest Gantt AKA Don Beach<\/p><\/div>\n
When you hear the name, Don the Beachcomber<\/strong>, your mind typically goes to visions of tropical beaches, tiki bars and drinks with umbrellas in them.\u00a0 And maybe, if you\u2019re really curious you wonder, was there really a Don the Beachcomber or is that just a made-up name? \u00a0Well, both!\u00a0 There really was a Don the Beachcomber and it is a made-up name, but there is so much more to the story.<\/p>\n I had the pleasure of attending the Newport Beach Film Festival<\/strong> last week and saw a full-length documentary called \u2018Don the Beachcomber<\/em>\u2019.\u00a0 Several of our neighbors were invited by neighbor, Pam Michael, whose daughter, Britney is friends with one of the producers of this documentary.\u00a0 It is a most fascinating tale, of which I\u2019ll only be able to tell bits and pieces of it here.<\/p>\n I’ll have a famous Zombie or four!<\/p><\/div>\n To set the record straight, the person known as Don the Beachcomber was born in Texas . . . or Louisiana, no one\u2019s quite sure, so much for setting the record straight!\u00a0 But his name, which we are sure of, was not Don anything, but rather, Earnest Gantt<\/strong>.\u00a0 At the age of 20 he decided that he wanted to travel around the world, which he did.\u00a0 When he returned, he got a job crewing on a yacht traveling to Australia; after that he spent a good deal of time traveling around many South Pacific Islands.\u00a0 In 1933, when he was 26, and Prohibition<\/strong> had just ended, he returned home and opened a bar in Hollywood<\/strong> and called it Don\u2019s Beachcomber<\/strong>, which was tropically decorated and served a variety of rum drinks \u2013 he is generally credited with inventing the entire \u2018Tiki\u2019 genre as well as the popular drink, the Zombie<\/strong>.\u00a0 The food at the restaurant was mostly Cantonese<\/strong>, which he picked up a taste for in his many travels.\u00a0 He is also credited with creating the first pu pu platter<\/strong>. When he ultimately started calling himself Don the Beachcomber, he legally changed his name to Don Beach<\/strong>.\u00a0 He was a cigar smoking, story-telling guy, who could bullshit with the best of them in his affected British accent.\u00a0 He thus wooed to his restaurant many of the top Hollywood stars of the time, like Marlene Dietrich, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, David Niven<\/strong> and Vivien Leigh<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Check out the trailer on YouTube<\/p><\/div>\n In the mid-1930s Don got married to Sunny Sund<\/strong>, who\u00a0became a very good business partner, in fact so good, that she took over the entire operation and opened several restaurants without him.\u00a0 The most famous one was the Don the Beachcomber in Chicago, where she shared ownership with the Mob<\/strong>.\u00a0 Don and Sunny divorced in 1940, but Don stayed on as a business consultant.<\/p>\n In 1942 with the U.S. at war, he joined the US Air Force<\/strong> and became a Lieutenant Colonel<\/strong>, and while he did receive a Purple Heart<\/strong> for being injured while on a ship that was hit, he was mostly stationed at places where military people came to rest and relax.\u00a0 With his creativeness, he invented a number of \u2018military drinks\u2019, like the B-52 <\/strong>and the Navy Grog<\/strong> to name a couple, which kept the troops happy and earned him a Bronze Star<\/strong> for his efforts of keeping up the morale of the troops.<\/p>\n After the war, he had signed an agreement with Sunny, who was now his ex-wife, that he couldn\u2019t open a Don the Beachcomber in the U.S., so he moved to Hawaii<\/strong>, which was then a territory, and opened a Don the Beachcomber in Waikiki<\/strong>. While there, he created two Polynesian Villages<\/strong>, the International Market Place<\/strong> and a series of Don the Beachcomber restaurants<\/strong><\/p>\n The OC’s Beachcomber at Crystal Cove<\/p><\/div>\n Don married again and divorced again, then married again and moved, with his latest wife, to Moorea<\/strong>, in the French Polynesia<\/strong> islands where he lived happily before passing away in 1989 at the age of 82.<\/p>\n The trailer for this documentary is currently available on YouTube<\/strong>, and the full documentary should be available on various streaming services by the end of the year; I\u2019d highly recommend checking it out.<\/p>\n As a salute to the most famous ‘Beachcomber’, Linda and I, along with Jack & JJ Budd, who we were staying with at their Marriott timeshare at Newport Coast<\/strong> for a couple of nights, went for breakfast at the Beachcomber at Crystal Cove<\/strong> \u2013 a great restaurant right on the sand, but unfortunately it was a little too early for a Zombie<\/strong>!!\u00a0 But I\u2019m going to order one next time I get the chance!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow When you hear the name, Don the Beachcomber, your mind typically goes to visions of tropical beaches, tiki bars and drinks with umbrellas in them.\u00a0 And maybe, if you\u2019re really curious you wonder, was there really a … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Zombie-1-300x169.jpg\")
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