This article regards the fictional location. For the dining-service of the same name, see Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar.
The Enchanted Tiki Bar, also known as known as Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar or simply Trader Sam's is the fictitious setting of the dining-service of the same name at the Disneyland Hotel.
Description[]
The Enchanted Tiki Bar is a structure on an unidentified Polynesian island, seemingly within a Polynesian village. The bar was enchanted by the magics of various, "Tiki Gods" and its magic-user proprietor, Trader Sam. The bar and its Polynesian region were part of the, "Wilds of Adventureland", a domain of exotic regions connected across the world via the supernatural, "Rivers of Adventure". The bar seemingly shared its structure with the, "Tangaroa Terrace", a similar dining-service connected to the same, "Tiki Gods".
History[]
Background[]
Founding[]
The Enchanted Tiki Bar was opened in the mid 1930s by the ancient South American magic-user, "Trader Sam" with assistance from the colonial Jungle Navigation Company. Sam was originally a magical trader and salesman of shrunken heads who following being bitten by a, "Bartending Bug" would travel the world studying liquor brews in locations such as the Amazon rainforest, Caribbean, Congo Basin, Mystic Point, Polynesia and Vulcania.[1][2] Sam was a prominent figure in the local Polynesian village where he often womanized and commit serial-murders for shrunken-heads and cannibalistic urges.
The bar was enchanted by the magics of various, "Tiki Gods" who also blessed the Polynesian Adventureland feature of the Enchanted Tiki Room which the Enchanted TIki Bar was potentially (but not confirmed to be) on the same island of. The bar would be decorated with many belongings of Sam which he obtained over the years, post-cards and letters from his countless contacts, and various photographs of his adventures. Fellow bar-owner Marion Ravenwood and several members of Sam's friends in the Adventurers Club sent Sam gifts to commemorate the bar's opening. Sam often received mail at this location delivered via the Jungle Navigation Company.
Jungle Cruise & Indiana Jones[]
Around the summer of 1936, Sam was contacted by one Sallah Mohammed Faisel el-Kahir of the Lost Delta Archaeological Expedition which was excavating the Temple of the Forbidden Eye in the Lost Delta of India, a region connected to Adventureland. The expedition was being pressured by their patrons in British Colonial Affairs to bring more tourists to the temple with Sallah believing Sam could bring patrons over. Around 1936, Sam used his bar to commemorate the arrive of the colonial Adventure Trading Company in Adventureland, crafting a brew called, "Juju Juice" named for their jujus. When Sam's staff lost the recipe, they relied on new recruits of the company to track down the location of Sam's spare recipe and gave them a Tiki Mask Juju for their work.
Sam's friend and ally Indiana Jones would frequent the bar and leave behind a bullwhip and fedora as a gift to Sam. After the year 1937, the Adventurers Club sent many of their belongings from their headquarters in Pleasure Island to Sam while they went on expedition. By 1940, Adventurers Club member Hathaway Browne often stopped in the bar to purchase enchanted liquor which he used as plane-fuel. Following 1941, Sam's best customer became one Walt Disney who befriended Sam on his vacation to South America.
Tiki craze[]
By the 1950s, the manager of the bar from the JNC was one Skip Dockmonkey. During the Holiday seasons, Sam put the bars through Christmas themed overlays coinciding with paranormal, "Tropical Snowstorms" which engulfed the island region with a blizzard from the nearby volcano (possibly Krakatoa). By this point in time, notable artifacts in Sam's collection included the bottled pirate-ship The Wicked Wench, the idols of several Tiki Gods, the lamp belonging to the Genie of Agrabah, a vintage plush and carving of Donald Duck, the bronze bust of one Dr. Albert Falls, a figurine of the Orange Bird, the propeller from Hathaway Browne's plane, a coin jar labelled, "Paradise Falls", and a mask dubbed, "Joe".
Around the year 1960, Trader Sam, Skip, and Sam's cousin Chief Nah-mee opened a sister-location to the Enchanted Tiki Bar. This was built in an, "East Coast" Polynesian village, likewise connected to the Tiki Gods.
Development history[]
Creation & changes[]
The Enchanted Tiki Bar opened in the May of 2011. The bar shares a building with the Tangaroa Terrace Tropical Bar & Grill.
Racism[]
Trader Sam was created as a racist stereotype of the Jivaroan peoples of the Amazon. In the Spanish Colonial Period, conquistadors perpetuated a racist propagandistic myth that the Jivaro are the antithesis of, "Civilization" in retaliation to being unsuccessful at conquering Jivaroan territory. Sam being a cannibal was based on general racist myths as the Jivaroan are not known to practice cannibalism nor are any South American Indigenous tribe. Sam's dark-skinned design also seemed to be more based on an African
Shrunken head trading is inspired by how in the 1910s, many South American Indigenous peoples were pressured into selling shrunken-heads to European colonists who considered them to be exotic souvenirs. Traditionally, shrunken-heads are religious items used to bind the spirit of a potentially vengeful enemy, not items sought after for profit or collection.
These bars were based around the character of Trader Sam. Because of this, many of the harmful stereotypes identified with the character were perpetuated in the bars. Amongst these were a shrunken head motif and various references to Trader Sam and his family (represented by shrunken-heads) being cannibalistic. Many of these references were removed in 2021. The bars also revealed Sam to be a magic-user and possibly immortal, an adaptation of the, "Magical Native American" trope which has been criticized for being a minority-token trope that ostracizes Indigenous peoples, exploits Indigenous people as, "Exotic", and trivializes Indigenous spiritualism as Western perceptions of occultism and magic.
Appearances[]
Attractions[]
Adventure Trading Company[]
This was the setting of the Tiki Mask Juju while also being advertised in the Jungle Handbook for River Navigation, The Bird Call, and The Daily Gnus.
Trader Sam's[]
Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar[]
This is the bar's setting.
Trader Sam's Grog Grotto[]
The Enchanted Tiki Bar is referenced.
Television[]
Chibi Tiny Tales[]
At the end of a Jungle Cruise themed short, Donald Duck, his nephews, Scrooge McDuck and Launchpad McQuack crashed into the Enchanted Tiki Bar (labelled, "Trader Sam's") where they lost their golden banana to one of Sam's employees.
Trivia[]
- The Daily Gnus newspaper in the Adventure Trading Company referenced the bar as being located within the, "Disneyland Hotel", possibly implying an in-universe Disneyland Hotel which the bar is located within. This is however complicated by Sam having canonically first encountered Walt Disney in 1941, roughly six years after the events of Adventure Trading Company when the hotel is referenced. The reference was also there mainly to direct players to the bar's real-word location outside of Disneyland Park, making it more unreliable.
- In a hallucination scene of the Disney+ series Loki, the Loki variant Sylvie drinks from Trader Sam's HippopotoMai-Tai with a mind-controlled member of the Time Variance Authority who had happy memories of the drink.
Gallery[]
