Allee Willis Blog » Products

02Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Canape Comedy Food Markers

02Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Canape Comedy Food Markers

canape-comedy-pics_9891

Meant to “add a little spice” to your food, this kind of risque-but-not-really stuff was all the rage in the 1950’s and 60’s. Sixteen plastic pics that hold canapes together featuring quips like “Lovers Leap – the distance between twin beds”, “Madam – one who offers vice to the lovelorn” and “Bachelor apartment- a wildlife sanctuary”. Many of them are a peek into how different attitudes toward sex were in decades past, like “Patience – the difference between rape and seduction.” Yikes. To think things like this were stuck into bacon wrapped olives and toasted Cheese Whiz baloney puffs…

31Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Pink Poodle Magazine And Book Rack

31Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Pink Poodle Magazine And Book Rack

poodle-magazine-rack_9886

Made of spun spaghetti metal, this poodle is one of the most popular pets I’ve ever owned. I almost didn’t buy it because poodles, like flamingos, harlequins and other icons of the 1950s, are over-popularized, repro’s belched out at an alarming rate in wrong colors and materials, enough to drive any collector of the real thing mad. But this poodle is a stellar example of the lengths to which style, convenience and innovation were earmarks of 1950s Atomic design.

2 feet long, 22 inches tall and 14 inches wide, it and its mate – yes, I found TWO of them! – sit on either side of my fluffy-pink-covered-in-plastic-as-any-great-50’s-couch-would-be couch and are endless conversation pieces for those exposed to the pets for the first time.

Today’s reading materials feature a Bat and Bar Mitzvah resources catalog and a “TVs Greatest Hits” book that includes the Friends theme song that I co-wrote and which partially funded the buying of these two precious pooches.

Made of spun spaghetti metal, this poodle is one of the most popular pets I’ve ever owned. I almost didn’t buy it because poodles, like flamingos, harlequins and other icons of the 1950s, are over-popularized, repro’s belched out at an alarming rate in wrong colors and materials, enough to drive any collector of the real thing mad. But this poodle – I actually own a pair of them – is a stellar example of the lengths to which style, convenience and innovation were earmarks of 1950s Atomic design. 2 feet long, 22 inches tall and 14 inches wide it and its mate – yes, i found TWO of them! – sit on either side of my fluffy-pink-covered-in-plastic-as-any-great-50’s-couch-would-be couch and are endless conversations pieces for those exposed to the pets for the first time.

Today’s reading materials feature a Bat and Bar Mitzvah resources catalog and a “TVs Greatest Hits” book that includes the Friends theme song that I co-wrote and which partially funded the buying of these two precious pooches.

30Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Mr. Peanut Cup

30Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Mr. Peanut Cup

mr-pnut-cupB_9865

The way that pink colored plastic glowed PINK in the 1950’s, baked in super saturated, makes this Mr. Peanut cup my favorite over the red, blue, mint green, beige and yellow ones I also own. Not that this is the rarest piece of Mr. Peanut memorabilia but it always reminds me of weekends as a kid when I was allowed to change the water it held during the week to Kool-Aid or double shot Bosco spiked milk. I’m going to toast my youth now.

28Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Head Nut Desk Accessory

28Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Head Nut Desk Accessory

head-nut-paula_3124

These kind of joke desk accessories, along with their companion sculptures of young kissing boys and girls, wide eyed pups and inspirational sayings such as ‘Do It’ carved into rubber like Stonehenge, were all the rage in the late 1960’s. One of the biggest manufacturers of them was “Paula”. One of the rarest Paula’s was this “Head Nut”. This one is dated 1968 and stamped W79. It’s sat on my desk and reminded me of my status for at least 20 years. I’ve always liked that the only color is the little red tongue, the rest of the beige motif reminding me how drained I feel when I overwork – a situation that’s now gone on for months – and how much I’m looking forward to the weekend when I don’t have to be the “Head Nut”.

24Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Spirograph Set

24Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Spirograph Set

Spirograph-box

This is the real deal, vintage 1967 original Spirograph by Kenner No. 401. Although the resulting art was too precise and anal looking for me – zillions of geometric combinations looking like they’re made from little spiders’ legs – I recognize the Spirograph as an icon in Pop Culture. Just like those string art paintings of owls, ships and such that I passionately collect but never felt drawn to create.

Made by locking gears and rotating plastic wheels inside other plastic wheels and tracing with a pen as they move, the rules of this are too rigid for me. Hell, I can’t even paint inside the lines so something demanding precision and this much repetition definitely falls outside my scope. I was always the free form type. But I love that Spirographs make non-artists feel like artists, proud enough to hang their creations on their walls and refrigerators. I’ve always looked at art – any form of it – as something social and a crash course in self expression. So if a series of little curves, technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids, turn most people on who am I to argue?

1960’s Spirograph commercial:

1970’s Spiromania commercial:

This is the real deal, vintage 1967 original Spirograph by Kenner No. 401. Although the resulting art was too precise and anal looking for me – zillions of geometric combinations looking like they’re made from little spiders’ legs – I recognize the Spirograph as an icon in Pop Culture. Just like those string art paintings – owls, ships and such – that I passionately collect but never felt drawn to create.

Created by locking gears and rotating plastic wheels inside other plastic wheels and tracing with a pen as they move, the rules of this are too rigid for me. Hell, I can’t even paint within the lines so something demanding precision and this much repetition definitely falls outside my scope. I was always the free form. But I love that Spirographs make non-artists feel like artists, proud enough to hang their creations on their walls and refrigerators. I’ve always looked at art – any form of it – as something social and a crash course in self expression. So if a series of little curves, technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids, turn most people on who am I to argue?

21Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Mom And Babies Doggie Ashtray

21Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Mom And Babies Doggie Ashtray

ashtray-dog-family_3114

Though mostly a craze associated with the 1950’s and 60’s, animal families as ashtrays and sculptures will never go out of style. This one has four pups following their boxer-ish mom around the rim of an Atomic shaped ashtray with a 70’s style crazed paint job. Not only are they cute but the puppies, earless mounds of clay that the artist apparently rushed through compared to the detail he/she gave to mom, provide excellent crevices in which to rest cigarettes and other smokables, keeping them ash free until crushed out in the doggie’s playground.

20Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Cocktail Wienies Bubble Gum

20Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Cocktail Wienies Bubble Gum

bubblegum-cocktail-wienies_4864

If only these puppies remotely tasted like the foodstuff they attempt to mimic I’d be a real happy camper. But, alas, they taste more like sour lemonade than the preferred juicy wienie. The good news is the hard meat shafts sound fantastic when they shake in the can so these wienies have joined the other percussion instruments in my recording studio awaiting the right song to howl through. Guess I’ll just have to pop a bacon gumball to get that hit of meat I need right now.

19Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1960’s Artist Beard and Mustache Disguise

19Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1960’s Artist Beard and Mustache Disguise

Artist-beard-mustache_9737

I can’t imagine that many people working at Bayshore Industries, the company responsible for this follilicular fun for the face, knew many actual artists to pattern their work after. Not only is it a mix of stereotypical arty types – 1950’s bearded beatnik above the neck and 1960’s flower power below – it appears the designers had little regard for what artists have to say as they forgot to leave a hole for the mouth.

18Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Dr. Martin Luther King Matches

18Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Dr. Martin Luther King Matches

MLK-matches-V

I have tons of MLK memorabilia – busts, rugs, pens, cufflinks, ashtrays – but this book of matches is one of my favorites. Comes in a matching set with Jackie Robinson, Mahalia Jackson, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Bill Pickett.

17Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Touch O’ Soul Pantyhose

17Aug 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Touch O’ Soul Pantyhose

Touch-o-Soul-pantyhose_3094

Yes, the name and graphic are fantastic but couldn’t they have spent a little more time thinking about their target customer before they named the shade “Off Black”?! I’m pretty sure what shade the marketing guy at the Standard Hoisery Co. of Brandon, Miss. was… Not to mention that ‘pantyhose’ is one word.