About a year or two ago, I fell headfirst into the Tiki craze. I loved the drinks, the idols, and the carefree culture. And did I mention the drinks? They are incredibly intricate: two or three different rums in a single glass, specific syrups, and fresh juices, all measured to the quarter-ounce to create the perfect cocktail.
Like most people who catch the Tiki bug, you eventually learn the name Don the Beachcomber, or is it Donn Beach. Or, as I learned in the new documentary The Donn of Tiki, was it Don Gantt? Or finally, Ernest Raymond Gantt?
Directed by Alex Lamb and Max Well, the film dives deep into Gantt’s life, or at least as deep as one can go with a man who lived such a colorful existence. It turns out some of his early life may have been embellished: Was he born in Texas or New Orleans? Did he have a British or American accent? To me, those fabrications only make him more mysterious. After all, this is the man who essentially invented the Zombie and laid the groundwork for the cocktails we (especially me!) are still obsessed with today.
The documentary highlights a pivotal moment in his youth: his father offered to pay for either college or a year of world travel. Gantt chose the world. Those travels exposed him to global flavors and, most importantly, rum. When he returned to America and settled in Los Angeles, he worked odd jobs in the movie industry before opening a bar at the end of Prohibition. Since rum was cheap and his knowledge of it was vast, he began crafting recipes that he would spend hours, sometimes years, perfecting.
His bar, Don the Beachcomber, became a magnet for Golden Age celebrities, turning Gantt into a mini-celebrity himself. But like many creative geniuses, he was a terrible businessman. When he landed in jail and couldn’t afford bail, a woman named Cora Irene “Sunny” Sund offered him a way out. The catch? He had to marry her and sign over half the business.
That bargain marked the beginning of a cycle of success and loss. The film captures his business trajectory: Sunny eventually muscled him out, the mob got involved, and he fled town only to start over again. He would build a successful business, marry, lose the business, and repeat.
Eventually, Don moved to Hawaii for a fresh start. There, he found success yet again by creating an elaborate Tahitian Village that drew visitors from around the world.
As an old-school Hollywood fan and Tiki lover, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. It was fascinating to hear how stars flocked to his bar for a Planter’s Punch, and equally heartbreaking to see his generosity used against him. He was a man who could build an empire out of nothing but often lacked the business-sense to keep it.
The Donn of Tiki is the ultimate story of the American Dream, building something from scratch… three times over. For anyone in that Tiki mindset who loves a deep dive into cocktail history, this film is right up your alley.
