February, 22 1907
Ernest Raymond Gantt, later known as Donn Beach, is born in Tiger Prairie, Texas.

1929
Donn takes his initial steps towards Don the Beachcomber with his first visits to Hawaii and Tahiti.

1932
Donn opens his café, a speakeasy in the lobby of the McCadden Hotel, located at 1722 N. McCadden Place. It’s at
this location where Donn will invent his first rum-based tropical cocktails.

1934
Donn moves his café across the street to 1727 N. McCadden Place, where he will be able to serve food along with his cocktails, a new requirement of the post-prohibition liquor laws. Donn invents his popular (and potent) cocktail, the Zombie, along with other classics such as the Three Dots and a Dash, the Vicious Virgin, Test Pilot, Sunakora, Rum Barrel, and the Q.B. Cooler, which is the supposed inspiration for Trader Vic’s Mai Tai.

1937
Donn marries Cora “Sunny” Sund. Their marriage is short lived and ends in March of 1940.

May 1940
During a snow storm in Chicago, Don the Beachcomber opens to the public, bringing Donn’s Rhum Rhapsodies to
the midwest.

1941
Donn is interested in opening a DTB location in Waikiki, Hawaii, however, the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 detail those plans. 5 months later, in May 1942, “Donn Beach-Comber” joins the Army Air Forces as a commissioned officer. Donn returns home from service as a Colonel.

May 1, 1948
Donn’s vision of a Don the Beachcomber in Waikiki is finally realized, as his first Hawaii location opens.

October 1953
Sunny opens her Palm Springs, CA Don the Beachcomber location.

1956
Donn expands his footprint in Waikiki with the opening of his shopping and cultural center, the Waikiki Village, later known as the International Market Place, which featured shops, a steakhouse, coffee, Donn’s Dagger Bar. The historic banyan tree was home to Donn’s treehouse, where he lived and worked. The tree, planted in the mid-1800’s, along with Donn’s treehouse, remain a tourist attraction to this day.

January, 1974
Cora “Sunny” Sund passes away.

June 7, 1989
Donn Beach passes away, buried at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punch Bowl, just
a few miles away from the International Market Place in Waikiki.

Mid-to-late 1990s
Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, a historian of tropical tiki drinks and culture, begins researching, reconstructing, and reverse-engineering long-lost recipes of Donn’s famous Rhum Rhapsodies, with the help of the very bartenders who worked along side Donn himself. Jeff, along with other fellow tiki enthusiasts like Sven Kirsten, Otto Von Stroheim, Bosko, Martin Cate, and many others, are credited with re-popularizing Polyensian-Pop culture in the late 20th Century.

2018
The last mainland location of Don the Beachcomber, located
in Huntington Beach, CA, in the historic building that housed Sam’s Seafood, closes.

2023
Like Donn’s legendary cocktail the Zombie, Don the Beachcomber raises from the dead! Tampa-based 23 Restaurant Services acquires the DTB brand and creates the Don the Beachcomber Advisory Board, which features luminaries such as DTB and Mai Kai historian Tim “Swanky” Glazner, “Book of Tiki” author Sven Kirsten, Smuggler’s Cove owner Martin Cate, bar designer Daniel “Tiki Diablo” Gallardo, tiki mug maker John “Eekum Bookum” Mulder, and podcast host and tiki enthusiast Adrian Eustaquio, who lend their experience to the reopening of Don the Beachcomber.

Marie King, from the legendary North Hollywood tiki bar Tonga Hut, joins the 23 team as Beverage Director, promising to deliver Donn’s cocktails like the Missonary’s Downfall, Cobra’s Fang, 151 Swizzle, and Navy Grog in their original and classic forms.