This kitchen made me absolutely bonkers! What a better way to enjoy pie and lots of it! This is another place (the pink booth) that I did not want to leave. I had a relative that had a red booth in her kitchen and I was obsessed with it! I felt like I was stepping back in time which of course is the point of all this kitchen kitsch! Note the chalk veggies on the wall, the cow, and the celebrity drawings. Damn, even the napkins match!
Every piece of glassware is kitsch, every piece! I could have spent an hour going through this cabinet. I even had my coffee in a “kitsch cup”.
My mouth literally dropped open when I laid eyes upon this kitchen. Please note the pie that I was greeted with, it’s sitting on the counter!
Dina snapping my pic while I had a mouthful of peanut M&M’s.
I’ve always had a fondness for the red kitchen accessories. Note the bakery string holders on this wall.
Amazing collection of S&P shakers. Wish I had gotten a better shot but this gives you a pretty good idea.
I love liverwurst (and this sign) but with Coke? I’ll pass on that combo thank you.
Love this gathering of kitsch and really was digging the vintage “Popeye Spinach” and the fabulous “Chop-O-Matic”.
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Allee Willis
A few scattered notes:
The prints on the wall are original portraits from the walls of The Brown Derby, a very famous Hollywood restaurant made extremely popular because Lucy Ricardo would have lunch there on her trips to Hollywood on I Love Lucy. Also, the cow portrait next to Denny’s knee is made entirely out of stuffed Naugahyde.
The glasses in photo number two are just the tip of the iceberg of my kitsch collection. I have hundreds and hundreds more glasses that I keep in boxes and I rotate what’s in the kitchen every couple of years.
The pie in photo number three on the kitchen counter is a chocolate fudge with banana pie from 4 & 20. Also, the designs on the kitchen floor are hand-carved linoleum and done by a man who had laid tile at Radio City in 1933. He did my floor in 1981. It was a gift from Richard Simmons.
Re Peanut M&Ms in Denny’s mouth in photo four, this comfort food is offered in a number of locations around my house.
Photo number five shows only a few of the hundreds of chef accessories I have in my collection.
I don’t actively collect salt and pepper shakers anymore but put two metal rimmed shelves up in my kitchen to hold my favorite of the ones I had so I wouldn’t have to keep everything in storage.
I bought the liverwurst with Coke sign in photo number seven to use in my Just Say Julie set (https://www.alleewillis.com/art/sets-props/index.htm) but it’s made of cardboard and I decided that it was too frail so it stayed in my kitchen permanently.
I have tons and tons of kitchen memorabilia such as is shown in the last photo. I rotate this stuff pretty often too though this is on a top shelf so sometimes I forget.
denny
Thanks for this commentary! Your kitchen floor history makes me love it even more!
The bloody Brown Derby! That’s amazing. I wasn’t sure and need to stare at them again the next time I have pie and a mouthful of M&M’s!
The Canon Elph will be arriving in August.
Michael Ely
Okay, Allee, I have to ask you the same question people always ask me when they look around at all the collectibles and Kitsch in my house. How do you manage to keep everything dusted and washed and clean? My answer is that I don’t! I mean, I try, but there is no way I can keep everything sparkling clean. Besides a little dirt here and there makes things look like they have a history.
As far as the Brown Derby restaurants, I heard that the Hollywood restuarant (famous from the Lucy show) burned down in a fire in 1987. Is that true? As far as the hat-shaped one on Wilshire Blvd., I once lived near Wilshire and Western in the early 80’s and I myself watched them bulldoze part of it. Think the dome was saved tho and incorporated into a strip mall?
Allee Willis
The house is cleaned every day except on weekends unless I’m entertaining here. I’m pretty much a boarder in an office during the week as a lot of people work here as my recording, animation and web studios are here. I’m also UNBELIEVABLY organized and insist that anything’s that’s used is immediately returned to it’s place. If it gets messy it escalates rapidly so the rule here is that everyone keeps it clean. To give you an idea of my level of organization I had no search function on my computers for 2 years and have 42,000 terabytes of info, the location of which was all stored in my head.
I don’t think The Brown Derby burnt down but the last one closed in 1987. It was on Vine just south of Hollywood Blvd. The dome of the one on Wilshire was saved and is in a strip mall at that location but I never see it when I drive past it so who knows…
MyFunCloset
The contrast… if it wasn’t for Dr Phil on a flat screen & the microwave, it would be a 1955.
Denny, you captured “WW” from a new perspective. Every room has balance in an assemetric way. Once again, great shots!
denny
Thanks Fun Closet, glad you are enjoying the pics. You know, even for me, seeing these pics here is like being there all over again. It has definitely motivated me and given me some very cool ideas for documenting “Willis Wonderland” if I would be allowed to, I want to do it in a more organized fashion and not just “skim” through “Willis Wonderland”. I want to dig!
Nessa
Wow! The original Brown Derby portraits are really amazingly awesome. Of course, the pink booth is great, I think there should always be pink in a kitchen. What is that black & white plasticy thing behind the pink chair that’s seated at the booth?
Allee, amongst your salt n’ peppers, I spy a pair of red & yellow musical notes, I saw them at a flea market a few weeks ago and somebody snatched them out from under me when I turned around to look at something else! Oh well, I was going to give them to somebody anyway, so maybe next time.
Allee Willis
The black & white plasticy thing behind the pink chair is a freestanding ice bucket. I use it to keep cat food in.
The musical notes S&P’s were one of the first things I bought when I had my first big hit. My music artifacts collection went into high gear.
denny
Nessa, focus, and never turn your head when approaching a flea market booth. Quickly scan and grab as I say!
Mooshe
What is that tomato with eyelashes and top hat, and THREE sexy carrot legs?! That’s magnificent!
Allee Willis
I collect plastic fruit people. That’s one of my favorites.
Mooshe
Last year I as in a total fruit person frenzy. But never plastics or ceramics, just cartoons in store windows which looking back is just not enough!
Allee Willis
Definitely not enough!
denny
I will be snapping pics of ALL plastic fruit I come into contact the next time I get to “Willis Wonderland”. He is amazing!