Denny’s Adventures in Allee Willis’ “Willis Wonderland” (Part 96 – August 2010)

Submitted by denny February 2nd, 2011
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I like to think I am up on the collecting of certain things like games, toys etc but I had no idea the amount of African American games that exist out here and Allee has the most stunning collection.

Set of christmas cards.

I have no idea what flannel boards are but I am so confused in the marketing of this game as there are NO african american children featured on the cover of the box. What’s wrong here?

I wanna play this! Slang-A-Lang!

Biography quiz game.

I love bingo.

2 Responses to “Denny’s Adventures in Allee Willis’ “Willis Wonderland” (Part 96 – August 2010)”

  1. Allee Willis

    I wrote with James Brown in the mid ’80s. There was no bigger fan of my collection than him. He was especially bowled over by my Afro-American Pop Soul collection and made me promise to keep collecting it as he said that most blacks had no idea that bulk of this stuff ever existed because there was so little money to distribute products. So something manufactured in Detroit may have gotten as far as Cleveland, but never made it farther than that. So we have The Godfather to thank for placing the idea of a museum in my head in the first place. I consider James Brown a Founding Father of AWMOK!

    The Black Fax game is filled with about 1000 cards with five questions each on them. The questions are insanely hard. I tried to play it once at a party where three quarters of my guests were black but after a half an hour of no one being able to answer one question we gave up. Here’s some photos from the party: https://www.alleewillis.com/photos/newyears08/index.html

    I love the Freedom Christmas Cards in the second photo. The printing process is really horrible and a lot of the colors are outside the lines of the people. Some of these photos are also on some of the funeral fans I have. https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2010/09/30/allee-willis’-kitsch-o’-the-day-–-1960’s-church-funeral-fans-wienerschnitzel-and-the-color-purple-to/

    Flannel boards were big in the 1950s and 60s. They were used in schools. They’re like paper dolls with felt on the back of them and stick to a special board so teachers could instruct you on things like family and health. I’m sure there are no African American kids on the cover because all of the cut-outs inside are exactly the same as the Caucasian family, only with the skin shaded darker.

    Slang-A-Lang Is one of the greatest pieces of my black collection. It’s black Bingo. For more details see https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2010/03/02/sound-of-soul-shakes-the-walls-the-allee-willis-museum-of-kitsch/

    Way too many photos in this post and I have to run out the door. Suffice it to say that the Famous Black People picture cards is fairly common but African-American Bingo is more rare. Though it pales in comparison to Slang-A-Lang.