Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1950’s Academy Award Screen Stars Stamp Album

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This is an amazing movie find, especially for a stamp collecting movie nut (which I’m not but I can appreciate the passion).  Sixty pages of  blank squares, each ascribed with the name of a 1920’s – 50’s star, from Academy Award winners to TV stars, “The Young Set”, International stars, World-Famous Women, Animal stars, Shootin’ stars (Western), Symphony stars, Singing stars, Comedians  and every other category that Hollywood could possibly subdivide itself into.

The Screen Stars Photo Album was made in 1955 by the Harlich Manufacturing Co. of  Chicago and approved by the National Poster Stamp Society with “All Rights to Screen Star Stamps and Stamp Albums fully protected by Hollywood Star Stamps, Inc. in cooperation with the Stars, Studios And Motion Picture Relief Fund, Inc.”.

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Categories: Awards, Crafts, Dance, Famous, Film, Hollywood, Kitsch, Kitsch O' The Day, Memorabilia, Music, TV/Radio

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Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1976 Do-It-Yourself Oscar

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This is a product worthy of an Oscar for Best Kitsch, a fake wood cardboard stand-up “plaque” that looks suspiciously like the piece of  cardboard that comes with any cheap picture frame, stapled on, staples askew, emblazoned with a cheap gold embossed sticker with three imprints, none of which have anything to do with the Academy Awards other than a trophy atopped with a nude female athlete that kinda sorta is in that Oscar trophy pose.

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Categories: Awards, Famous, Forgot to Categorize, Hollywood, Kitsch, Kitsch O' The Day, Toy, bad art

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Allee Willis’ Soul O’ The Day – I Love You, Color Purple People… final cast photo

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Last night was the closing of The First National Tour of my musical, The Color Purple.  I had never written a musical before, hardly ever went to see them.  I’m an all-the-way Pop Culture gal and for me this was a medium from ancient times with way too histrionic sounding songs and singers frozen in time.  I was the least likely person in the world to write a musical but write one I did, with Brenda Russell, Stephen Bray and Marsha Norman. We were nominated for 11 Tony’s.  How we even won one, the brilliant LaChanze for Best Actress, was a miracle in the climate on Broadway. (Don’t get me started on that one…). Beyond being eternally proud of the work, especially the uplifting and joyous effect it had on audiences night after night, the most stunning part of the journey was the family of friends I made through the Broadway run and the ensuing national tour.  Right from the beginning when we started writing Purple in 2001 I always heard that  there’s constant bickering among everyone but we were all really friends.  And I mean everyone, from Alice Walker, the Pulitzer prize winning author of the novel, down through us authors, the cast, director, producers, hair, makeup, wigs, production managers, everyone.  I was always being told by other friends who had written for Broadway that by the end no one would ever talk to each other and that so many writers of so many shows, because the experience takes years and is so intense, never end up  speaking unless they write another show and then it’s just about work. Our case always was and remains different. This is a family that will be together forever, bound by an experience where the piece itself was bigger than any one part. Everyone felt chosen and blessed to be a part of The Color Purple. Fantasia WAS Celie.  Watching that journey of her finding herself through this character was a joy and a privilege. Every cast member, starting with the staggering Felicia P. Fields, Tony nominated for Sofia and the first actor we ever cast in 2003, was not only a triple threat – brilliant singers, actors AND dancers, a rare enough find in one person let alone an entire cast – they were a gift for any artist to have interpret their work.

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Categories: Afro, Art, Awards, Book, Creative process, Creativity, Famous, Kitsch, Kitsch O' The Day, Music, People, Self expression, Songwriting, The Color Purple, empowerment

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THE COLOR PURPLE coming back to LA. Feb. 10-28

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Fantasia as Celie. Fantastic cast, many from the original Broadway production. Five years of my life into the making of this baby. I’m very proud of it. If you’re in LA come to the Pantages.

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Categories: Afro, Art, Awards, Book, Civil Rights, Creativity, Dance, Famous, Hats, Kitsch, Kitsch O' The Day, LPs, Los Angeles, Music, Nature, Self expression, Songwriting, empowerment

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Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – The Allee Willis Museum Of Kitsch and “What Is Kitsch?” YouTube Film Festival coming today!

 

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Categories: Architecture, Art, Awards, Cheesy LPs, Creativity, Gadgets, Games, Kitsch, Kitsch O' The Day, Memorabilia, Party, Technology, bad art

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

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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”.

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Categories: Accessories, Awards, Kitsch, Kitsch O' The Day, Products

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The Price Of Success

I just won SIX W3 Awards. I wasn’t 100% sure what these awards were when I entered two of my videos but as an independent artist whose only distribution outlet is the Internet I felt I should take any and all shots to kick up some dust. Here’s what I won:

“Allee Willis presents Bubbles & Cheesecake – Editing Is Cool” – Gold – Music category
“Allee Willis presents Bubbles & Cheesecake – Editing Is Cool” – Silver – Animation category
“Allee Willis – http://www.alleewillis.com” – Silver – Personal Website category
“Allee Willis presents Bubbles & Cheesecake – It’s A Woman Thang” – Silver – Innovative/Experimental category
“Allee Willis presents Bubbles & Cheesecake – It’s A Woman Thang”– Silver – Music category
“Allee Willis presents Bubbles & Cheesecake – It’s A Woman Thang”– Silver – Animation category

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Categories: Art, Awards, Press, Technology, video

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