Totem pole taken by Hollywood actor returned to Alaska, 84 years later

A stolen totem pole that went from the garden decor of two golden age Hollywood actors to the basement of a Hawaii museum was returned Thursday to Alaska tribal members.

Screen legend John Barrymore was traveling the Alaska coast by yacht and directed crew members to take the totem pole from an unoccupied village in 1931, said University of Alaska Anchorage professor Steve Langdon, who has long researched the object. They sawed it in three pieces.

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Barrymore, star of such films as "Grand Hotel" and grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore, displayed the pole in the garden of his California estate. 
 
Langdon learned the totem pole was used for burials, and he said there were remains of a man inside when Barrymore had it erected at his home. Langdon does not know what happened to the remains after they were removed from the pole.

After Barrymore's death, actor Vincent Price, known for horror flicks such as "House of Wax," and his wife bought the item and also used it as a yard decoration. The couple donated it to the Honolulu Museum of Art in 1981.

Museum officials returned the cedar pole to seven Tlingit tribal members who traveled from southeast Alaska for a ceremony Thursday. 

They sang songs and thanked Hawaii for taking good care of the pole, which was packed in a crate to be shipped to Alaska. 

The pole was among more than 100 that once stood in the old village of Tuxecan on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, which was inhabited by the Tlingit people, the museum said in a news release.

Of the original Tuxecan poles, only two remain, both in Klawock, the southeast village of 80 people where the tribe moved, according to the museum.