Beach, Donn , né Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt (1907–1989), was a mixologist and restaurateur who almost single-handedly created the post-Prohibition “tiki drink” category, launching a faux-Polynesian cocktail craze that influenced American culinary culture for over four decades. See tiki.
The son of a New Orleans hotelier turned Texas oilman, Donn was born in Mexia, Texas, on February 22, 1907. At age eighteen he squandered his college fund on a trip around the world. His travels ended in Los Angeles, where in 1934 he opened Don the Beachcomber’s, a South Seas–themed bar whose “Rhum Rhapsodies”—wildly original exotic cocktails with Polynesian names but Caribbean roots—enchanted the Hollywood movie colony. By 1937 the Beachcomber’s was nationally famous and nationally imitated.
While Donn actually had combed beaches in Polynesia, it was in Jamaica that he found his “tiki” drink template: the Planter’s Punch. Donn built on this simple mix of lime juice, sugar, and rum by blending multiple juices, multiple sweeteners, and multiple rums in the same glass. He created over thirty complex, layered Planter’s variations, most famously the Zombie; other popular inventions included the Navy Grog, Rum Barrel, Pearl Diver, and Missionary’s Downfall. These were appropriated by hundreds of copycat tiki bars and restaurants that sprang up across America from the late 1930s well into the 1970s.
Mai Tai and Bergeron, Victor “Trader Vic”.See also Planter’s Punch and Zombie.
Berry, Jeff. Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari. San Jose, CA: Club Tiki Press, 2007.
Bitner, Arnold. Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Don the Beachcomber. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, 2007.
Bitner, Arnold, and Phoebe Beach. Hawaii Tropical Rum Drinks and Cuisine by Don the Beachcomber. Honolulu, HI: Mutual Publishing, 2001.
By: Jeff Berry
Donn Beach as he liked to be portrayed. From a Don the Beachcomber’s menu, ca. 1948.
Wondrich Collection.
Donn Beach as he liked to be portrayed. From a Don the Beachcomber’s menu, ca. 1948. Source: Wondrich Collection.