Harry Yee

Harry K. Yee (born 1920) is a bartender from Honolulu, Hawaii who is credited with having helped to spread tiki bars and tiki culture during the mid-twentieth century, both in Hawaii and in the continental United States.

Biography

Born in 1920, Yee began bartending in 1952, before the advent of jet airliners and seven years before Hawaiian statehood. He soon joined Henry Kaiser's Hawaiian Village Hotel, where he served as head bartender for more than thirty years.^[1] Along with Ernest Gantt ("Donn Beach") and Victor Jules Bergeron ("Trader Vic"), Yee did much to popularize a faux version of the tropics consisting of rum drinks, hula girls, and tourism. Yee's time at the bar spanned statehood and the rise of Hawaii as a major international travel and retirement destination. When he began, Hawaii hosted approximately 100,000 visitors per year, mostly around Waikiki. By the time he retired tourism exceeded five million visitors, compared to seven million today.^[2]

His many innovations were an attempt to create a sense of locale for his tourist customers. When they asked for Hawaiian drinks, he had nothing to offer because there was no such thing, so he invented them and often coined names on the spot. At times during his career he was a teetotaler who relied on his customers for feedback on his drinks. He does not drink rum, and instead prefers cognac. After retiring he taught for several years at the Bartending Training Institute in Honolulu.^[1] He was also a member of the AVG squadron under Lee Chenault in the 1930s and 1940s flying the P-40 Warhawk.

Notable Innovations

During his more than thirty years of bartending in Waikiki, Hawaii, Yee invented, among other things:

• The Blue Hawaii^[3]
• The Banana Daiquiri
• The vanda orchid garnish
• The Hawaiian Eye — it was featured in the television series of the same name that was set in his hotel
• The Tropical Itch (a popular drink that substitutes a bamboo backscratcher for a swizzle stick)

Notes