Allee Willis Blog

02Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Alice Apple Savings Bank

02Oct 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Alice Apple Savings Bank

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Made of plastic and 6 inches high, this anthropomorphic apple has sat next to my coffeemaker for years greeting me with a smile and supremely curled eyelashes every morning as I pour a cup. I have a lot of fruit with faces, many freestanding like this happy gal as well as a plethora of plaster ones that hang on the wall. Apples, oranges, pears and red and green peppers seem to be the most popular in the plastic genre, joined by grapes and bananas in the plaster category.

I especially like the full-bodied fruit people made of a continuous string of fruits or vegetables. But multi-purpose Alice, both bank and cheery kitchen accessory, is one of my favorites because she’s so pathetically and kitschily plain. Not much else going on besides the exceptional way the curl of her eyelashes echoes the upturned sweep of her flower and leaf hair.

28Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Ceramic Poodle Pitcher Bank

28Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Ceramic Poodle Pitcher Bank

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Poodle anything almost instantly qualifies as Kitsch. This one is a double K because for years I thought it was a pitcher until I finally went to use it and the canine started hemorrhaging lemonade from its back. I was upset because I’ve never noticed any hairline fractures but upon closer examination I discovered it wasn’t a pitcher at all but, rather, a bank!

I find the heavily detailed ceramic and wobbly head a rather odd choice for a children’s toy and lay odds on it breaking within the first five uses or whenever a silver dollar’s dropped inside, whichever comes first. But with a little putty jammed in the coin slot I still think it would make a lovely pitcher. Since that discovery about 10 years ago it’s just been a lovely nothing, something for my cat Niblet to rub herself against every now and then so I can take these cute pictures of her.

24Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Libby The Lovely Liberated Lady and the Black Power Statuette

24Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Libby The Lovely Liberated Lady and the Black Power Statuette

Popular causes have always been prime breeding ground for Kitsch but none so powerful as the first wave of products that spin out of these Pop Culture phenomenon. Both Libby The Lovely Liberated Lady and the Do-It-Yourself Coloring Kit Black Power Statuette are two such statements from burgeoning Civil Rights movements in the 1960s and ’70s when these folks were expressing themselves freely among the masses for the first time.

Unintentionally Kitsch, the best kind, these qualify as Kitsch treasures for two different reasons. Libby because she took on THE characteristic of the oppressor she was attempting to free herself from and the Black Power Statuette because whoever his product manager was was too cheap to spend the extra pennies to add a little tan color to the resin. Power to the Kitsch people!

01Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Mr. T Bank

01Sep 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Mr. T Bank

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Made of super hard plastic, the coins reverberate when they drop inside Mr. T’s cavernous head making this a better percussion instrument than bank. Which is best given how cheap this 10″ lump o’ Mr. T is made… You literally have to cut a hole in the bottom to get the coins out. Which means, of course, you can never use it as a bank again as there’s no way to re-insert the plastic which is surely jagged, sharp and misshapen after using an ice pick or whatever else it might take to puncture the exceedingly super hard plastic.

Made by Ruby-Spears Enterprises in 1983, this is a relatively rare piece of Mr. T. memorabilia with jewelry and other assorted bling, T-shirts, games, coloring books and A-Team vans far more locatable. I pity the fool among Mr. T collectors who doesn’t own this piece of gorgeous super hard plastic molded to a T perfection.

Made of super hard plastic, the coins reverberate when they drop inside Mr. T’s cavernous head making this a better percussion instrument than bank. Which is best given how cheap this bank is made… You literally have to cut a hole in the bottom to get the coins out. Which means, of course, you can never use it as a bank again as there’s no way to re-insert the plastic which is surely jagged, sharp and misshapen after using an ice pick or whatever else it might take to puncture the exceedingly super hard plastic.

Made by Ruby-Spears Enterprises in 1983, this is a relatively rare piece of Mr. T. memorabilia with jewelry and other assorted bling, T-shirts, games, coloring books and A-Team vans far more locatable.