06Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Black Power Statuette Do-It-Yourself Coloring Kit

06Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Black Power Statuette Do-It-Yourself Coloring Kit

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A black power statuette raising his fist in pride but when you pull him outta the box he’s a white man…! This is one of the greatest examples of Soul Kitsch in my collection. So perfect a product in the late 60’s for a market that had long been under-served in terms of ubiquitous pop culture memorabilia. But like The Supremes White Bread and Touch O’ Soul “Off-Black” pantyhose featured earlier in this blog, and boasting on the box that it’s a “Equality- Justice statuette”, couldn’t the product manager have spent a few more minutes thinking about his target audience and poured a little tan tint into the resin before locking down the molds?

Made of “sturdy plastic with base tab” (whatever a base tab is), The Black Power Statuette was manufactured by Zap-Co of Roseville, Michigan.

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05Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Brass Dachshund Bottle and Can Opener & Paperweight

05Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Brass Dachshund Bottle and Can Opener & Paperweight

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Only 5″ long and less than 1″ high, this solid brass puppy weighs a ton. For years he sat on my desk atop my most important notes, making me less resentful of going through the stacks of papers he kept in place while I procrastinated going through them every day. One day he fell on the floor and I noticed how strangely shaped his little feet were. Only then, after almost 20 years of being a paper protector, did I realize the dachshund was, in fact, a bottle cap opener on his front legs and a can opener in the rear.

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Discoveries like this make me very happy. It seems like I have a brand-new object in the house! He’s definitely hand sculpted – be careful around his sharp butt! – but his polished smooth body makes him very fun to handle and easy to operate. I do miss him guarding my papers but he seems much happier in his new and more exciting role.

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03Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Roberta Flack Puzzle

03Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Roberta Flack Puzzle

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Nothing wrong with Roberta Flack (other than so many of her songs were so slooooooooow) and nothing wrong with puzzles. But Roberta Flack so doesn’t seem like the type of celebrity who a puzzle seems the right match for. J.J. Walker maybe, The Partridge Family or Fat Albert, but Roberta Flack?!
Made in 1972 by Let’s Save The Children, Inc., USA, this is one product I’m happy they made so the shape of Roberta’s afro could be preserved forever. I love afros that are round and massive but then the back is sheared as flat as a wall. I also love how the afro on the standup bass player’s head fuses into Roberta’s giving hers that extra oomph at the top.

Nothing wrong with Roberta Flack (other than so many of her songs were so slooooooooow) and nothing wrong with puzzles. But Roberta Flack so doesn’t seem like the type of celebrity who a puzzle seems the right match for. J.J. Walker maybe, The Partridge Family or Fat Albert, but Roberta Flack?!

Made in 1972 by Let’s Save The Children, Inc., USA, this is one product I’m happy they made so the shape of Roberta’s afro could be preserved forever. I love afros that are round and massive but then the back is sheared as flat as a wall. I also love how the afro on the standup bass player’s head fuses into Roberta’s giving hers that extra oomph at the top.

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02Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Lawrence Welk Musical Spoons

02Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Lawrence Welk Musical Spoons

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Lawrence Welk was always too square for me except that that’s where I could continue to get my Mickey Mouse Club fix when in 1961 Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess won a dance contest to Welk’s hit, “Calcutta” (an LW record I LOVED) and became a regular on the show two years after the mouse ears left the air. Though Bobby went from being a hip kid to an excessively corny adult as soon as he hitched to Mr. Wunnerful Wunnerful wagon, I still appreciated his move as otherwise I may have missed Lawrence Welk and his jaw droppingly cheesy production numbers that became a primer in my never ending education in Kitsch. Combine that with the fact that I never learned how to play an instrument and you end up with my excitement about these musical spoons which became one of the first instruments I “played” when I started to write songs.
Forget the spoons, the packaging on this is fantastic. With not an inch left uncovered, it boasts “Get on the beat!”, “Be a champion!”and “The international pastime – spooning!” Perhaps so, but not that kind of spooning.

Lawrence Welk was always too square for me except that that’s where I could continue to get my Mickey Mouse Club fix when, in 1961, Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess won a dance contest to Welk’s hit, “Calcutta” and became a regular on the show two years after the mouse ears left the air. Though Bobby went from being a hip kid to an excessively corny adult as soon as he hitched to Mr. Wunnerful Wunnerful’s wonderful wagon, I still appreciated his move as otherwise I may have missed Lawrence Welk and his jaw droppingly cheesy production numbers that became a primer in my neverending education in Kitsch. Combine that with the fact that I never learned how to play an instrument and you end up with my excitement about these musical spoons which became one of the first instruments I “played” when I started to write songs.

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Forget the spoons, the packaging on this is fantastic. With not an inch left uncovered, it boasts “Get on the beat!”, “Be a champion!”and “The international pastime – spooning!” Perhaps so, but not that kind of spooning.

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Bobby Burgess went on to become Welk’s longtime accordionist, Myron Floren’s, son-in law. Here they are doing The Chicken Dance, which, according to them, is “one of the most popular dances in America” and which, according to me, “wasn’t”.

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Here’s Welk’s biggest and only Top 10 hit, “Calcutta”:

Lawrence-Welk--calcutta

01Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Bacon Wallet

01Nov 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Bacon Wallet

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It’s a fact that when bacon is involved in any of my KOTD posts the number of comments skyrocket. Makes sense to me as not only is it one of my (and others’ obviously) favorite foodstuff EVER but bacon’s long, straight design with undulating, bubbling edges allows it to translate well as a design element onto almost any object of decent size imaginable. Maybe it’s the element of danger or lving vicariously as, really, under what other circumstances would you want a greasy piece of bacon in your pocket?…

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…or on your shoes?:

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Made in China in 2006 for Accoutrements, the bacon wallet is still fresh and available at Archie McPhee.

29Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – The Betty Furness Westinghouse Thermometer Set

29Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – The Betty Furness Westinghouse Thermometer Set

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At one point in the 1950s Betty Furness was as ubiquitous on TV as Lucy. Known for her signature hype line, “You can be sure… if it’s Westinghouse.” Furness opened more refrigerator doors then the chef at the Waldorf. Taking advantage of how the former movie actress’s easy-going manner connected with the burgeoning flock of middle-class housewives owning modern appliances for the first time, Westinghouse rushed out this signature thermometer set consisting of a combo candy, icing and deep fat thermometer as well as a roast meat thermometer and skewer. 
Although she hawked all kinds of Westinghouse appliances, the commercial Furness is best known for she didn’t even do. In one of TVs earliest and most infamous bloopers, the lovely model went to open the frig door but it was locked shut. Although legend has this etched in stone as Betty’s finest moment, she was actually out that day and it was little-known actress June Graham who couldn’t muster up the strength to pop the door.
Made by The Chaney Maufacturing Co., Inc of Springfield, Ohio, the box is faded and stained but the thermometers have never been used. There were so many of these BF Westinghouse Thermometer Sets made that when I first started hitting thrift shops in the 1970s I could count on seeing one in almost every store.

At one point in the 1950s Betty Furness was as ubiquitous on TV as Lucy. Known for her signature hype line, “You can be sure… if it’s Westinghouse.” Furness opened more refrigerator doors then the chef at the Waldorf. Taking advantage of how the former movie actress’s easy-going manner connected with the burgeoning flock of middle-class housewives owning modern appliances for the first time, Westinghouse rushed out this signature thermometer set consisting of a combo candy, icing and deep fat thermometer as well as a roast meat thermometer and skewer. 

Although she hawked all kinds of Westinghouse appliances, the commercial Furness is best known for she didn’t even do. In one of TVs earliest and most infamous bloopers, the lovely model went to open the frig door but it was locked shut. Although legend has this etched in stone as Betty’s finest moment, she was actually out that day and it was little-known actress June Graham who couldn’t muster up the strength to pop the door.

Made by The Chaney Maufacturing Co., Inc of Springfield, Ohio, the box is faded and stained but the thermometers have never been used. There were so many of these BF Westinghouse Thermometer Sets made that when I first started hitting thrift shops in the 1970s I could count on seeing one in almost every store.

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Here’s Betty demonstrating the new Westinghouse Washer/ Dryer combo:

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28Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – HMS Nutcracker

28Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – HMS Nutcracker

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These nutcracker heads were very popular in the 1950s. You hold a nut in the mouth and twist the notched wooden peg that comes through the bottom until it squeezes the nut so tight that shells spew out like machine gun fire. Handy but messy so wear protective goggles while attending to nuts!

Oftentimes glorifying politically incorrect characters, this breed of nutcrackers usually consisted of carvings of personality types with notoriously big mouths like the sailor on leave you see here.

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27Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Flying Saucer Transistor Radio

27Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Flying Saucer Transistor Radio

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Although just about every transistor radio that was made since they were commercially available in 1954 through the transistorized 1960s was completely gorgeous, the rare ones that were shaped like flying saucers were my favorites. MAde in Hong Kong, this baby is rare as most though most Realtone models bore Space Age names like Galaxy and Electras they came in more traditional rectangular shapes.
Made in Hong Kong, this baby still hums like the day it was born. Turn the plastic thumbwheel and music blasts through slits on the bottom as though the soundwaves could propel this spacecraft off the kidney shaped coffee table it most likely was sitting on.

Although just about every transistor radio made in the ’50s and ’60s was completely gorgeous, the rarer ones shaped like flying saucers were my favorites. Made in Hong Kong, this Realtone is rare among the popular brands’ models that bore Space Age names like Galaxy and Electras but usually came in more traditional rectangular shapes like this:

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Made in Hong Kong, my baby still hums like the day it was born. Turn the plastic thumbwheel and music blasts through the portals on the bottom as though the soundwaves could have propelled this spacecraft right off the kidney shaped coffee table it most likely sat on.

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