Elvis missed his chance. The Witco bed that he could have purchased for Graceland now lives down the hall from Kim’s Nauga Hydaway.
Cross my heart and hope to die. It’s not a fairytale. I just can’t help believin’ that Elvis likely considered, maybe even tried out, the same bed that now belongs to Kim. Why did he pass it up? The answer is known only to him. Once you see the Witco masterpiece, you can’t help falling in love with it too. According to Kim’s research, Elvis bought his famous den (now known as the Jungle Room) furniture for Graceland in the same Furnitureland showroom as Harrison Joyce, the original owner of the Witco bedroom suite. Joyce purchased the bedroom set in 1973 at the same location where Elvis was taking care of business. Thirty years later, Kim, an avid collector of Witco, teamed up with Sven Kirsten, the well-known Tiki and Witco author, to place the winning bid for the Witco windfall, a lot that included the bedroom suite and several other beautiful and rare finds.
So how did Kim and Sven end up as a Witco-winning team? It didn’t start off that way. Kim had the fever for collecting pieces of William Westenhaver’s Western International Trading Co (or Witco, as it’s more commonly known today) for decades. In the early days of eBay, “BigBro” Sven and “IslandCulture” Kim were shoppin’ around and unknowingly bid for the same Witco pieces. Back then, you didn’t know a person’s identity from a username, so their search and rescue, along with other frequent bidders, continued anonymously for years until word got out at the Hukilau that IslandCulture and BigBro were both in attendance. Christie White, the Hukilau’s co-organizer and good friend, knew both Kim and Sven quite well.
“Sven is looking for IslandCulture. Would you like me to introduce you?” Christie asked.
“No, I’ll introduce myself,” Kim gulped. She was not expecting this to go well. Kim needed to collect her wits. Unknowingly, she had been bidding against one of the world’s foremost Witco urban archeologists. She needed to be mentally prepared. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before Kim gathered her courage during a quiet break between the surf bands.
Kim walked up and caught his attention. She softly and tenderly said the words, “Sven, I heard you’re looking for me.”
“Who are you?” Sven gently replied. “I’m IslandCulture,” Kim answered. Would this be the meeting of two suspicious minds? After what felt like almost two millennia but probably only lasted two seconds, Sven broke into a smile, gave Kim the grandest of hugs, and the two started sharing Witco stories. Sven was a kindred spirit. I feel like I’ve known you forever, Kim likely thought. No more would they compete; they would be friends.
From that point forward, because of love for Witco, they were a team. It wasn’t a “finders keepers, losers weepers” attitude at all. When it came to finding Witco, it was a thing called love, all for the heart. As such, when the big find of the entire bedroom set, along with a Tahitian bar, a couch, and a throne, went on the market, they were ready teddy. Although each started with separate bids for the whole lot, the price got steep. Kim developed a spreadsheet to determine what might happen if they combined their purchasing power but split the pieces up. It was sound advice. Kim would get the bedroom set while Sven got the other pieces. It worked! Sven won the bid, and Kim got the bedroom suite.
Kim’s eyes light up when she talks about her collection: “Witco feeds my sense of adventure. I don’t know a better way of putting it. It’s unique. It’s organic. These pieces will stand the test of time. A hundred years from now, they will be around. They speak to me. They just speak to me.”
“Witco ties my past with my present,” Kim added. Kim grew up on Florida’s Space Coast, visiting the Hawaiian Inn and the Islander. Later, she worked as a health care nurse in Australia. Kim spent five months in New Zealand and returned to the States in the ’90s, just in time for the Tiki Revival. She estimates that she currently has between 125 to 150 pieces of Witco in her modest mid-century home in Orlando. That’s after culling down her collection to just the Tiki and Polynesian pieces. By and by, she likely had more than 300 pieces of Witco, items of all styles.
The focal point of Kim’s collection is her home Tiki bar, the Nauga Hydaway. I must admit, I adore the name. Kim offered to let me sip on a “Paint Thinner” (a Painkiller according to Witco’s Westenhaver legend) when I arrived. Although she told me I could sit anywhere I wanted, I felt a combination of trepidation and reverence since every seat was vintage Witco. Eventually, I chose to perch at the Tahitian bar, but only as lightly as possible. After a little less conversation, we strolled in the garden, peeked in her outdoor shower, stepped inside her camper, and ended up sauntering back through her house. Every space was filled with Witco. Kim’s house is a house that has everything a Polynesiac would love. The end of the road? I got to see the bed, likely graced by the King himself.
Such a night! That evening, I saw more Witco than I’d ever seen in my life. My wish came true, and I was all shook up. It was just too much. Some pieces were so rare I suspect I’ll never again see them. Sure, the Jungle Room at Graceland is beautiful, but it just doesn’t compare to Kim’s Nauga Hydaway. I wasn’t jealous of Elvis. If anything, I’d say Elvis would have been jealous of me. I’d gone from a jack to a king.
