The Beefcake Bonanza of Hula Boy Memorabilia

The hula is a traditional Hawaiian interpretive dance accompanied by music.  Although practiced for hundreds of years, it did not become widely known outside Hawaii until the Tiki Craze of the mid-20th century brought various aspects of Polynesian culture to restaurants, bars, and game rooms across the U.S.

Men and women both performed, and not in grass skirts -- women wore pa'us, and men malo loincloths.

You can find a lot of hula boy memorabilia in antique shops and on ebay.  You may have to buy boy and girl figurines and throw out the girl, or endure the sappy heterosexist "He's looking for a hula girl," but you can get some nice retro Hawaiian beefcake.







A very muscular figure in a beige grass skirt.

Car bobbler with the same face as the above figure, but different hair.  A skirt of real fibers and a ukelele.

A rare ceramic figure from the 1950s.  Not exactly hula, but he has a ukelele and a flower lei.














This hot cartoonish Hawaiian guy is decked out like Father Christmas.  He's actually on wall paper; his "hula girl" is on the next panel.

More after the break.

A hand-colored photo of a "Hawaiian boy," on a postcard from the 1920s.

Boy and girl jugs with a Hawaiian boy and coconut tree.  I'm not sure exactly how he's sitting.

Take your pick of a aquamarine or yellow grass-skirted bobbler.  Does that face remind you of Bob Hope?

An interesting ceramic version, very brown, looks African rather than native Hawaiian.  He's shaking a goard.

Of course, nothing compares with the beefcake bonanza of a photograph.