The Tonga Lei motel and adjoining bar and restaurant was a mainstay on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, for nearly three decades. It was a little bit of Polynesia on the California coast, with its thatched-trim roof, tiki gods and big drinks topped with small umbrellas.
It opened in 1961 on a beachside plot of land purchased seven years earlier for $20,000 and had previously been the seafood restaurant The Drift Inn.
Jayne Mansfield, the platinum blonde Hollywood pin-up of the 50s, attended the opening and actor David Janssen, star of the television series the fugitive, was a regular.
Mostly, however, it was patronized by loyal regulars who considered it their own little paradise with a South Pacific flavor, including students and staff from Pepperdine University. It later became a Don the Beachcomber but over the years the building took a battering from the storms that occasionally hit the Pacific coast and in 1987, the owners decided to let the Tonga Lei go. It was scrapped and the site is now the Malibu Beach Inn.