Denny’s Adventures in Allee Willis’ “Willis Wonderland” (Part 124 – August 2010)

Submitted by denny May 6th, 2011
Certifikitsch WinnerClassique d Camembert

At least all you had to do was paint this guy. I was always good at that but when it involved putting something together AND painting, I’m a mess and all over the place…..

Matches celebrating the lives and careers Mahalia Jackson, Jackie Robinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, & Zora Neale Hurston.

These patches are incredible!

Original novel.

Hot Soul 8 tracks.

4 Responses to “Denny’s Adventures in Allee Willis’ “Willis Wonderland” (Part 124 – August 2010)”

  1. Allee Willis

    You know my soul kitsch collection is my pride and joy. I worked with James Brown in the mid-80s and it was the Godfather himself who told me I had to keep collecting this stuff because distribution was very limited in the 60s and 70s, when all of what you see here came out, and even worse in the decades before.

    The Black Power Statuette Do-It-Yourself Coloring Kit is one of my favorite items. It kills me that it’s a black power figure and they couldn’t even have colored the resin tan. Seems blasphemous to start out with a white man.

    The matches in the second photo are a set of eight. I’m too lazy to get up and find them now but they also included Martin Luther King and Paul Robeson. It’s very rare to find these in a set and still in the plastic case, which these are.

    Photo three features some of my favorite soul patches although the two at the top aren’t made of fabric. The Black Is Beautiful one is made of cardboard and was meant to hang from a rearview mirror and the one next to it is a pin.

    Of course, we all know Shaft in photo number four but the novel is really rare.

    I have a lot of eight tracks. Soul music (and poetry) from this period sound best on eight track.

    I made a bunch of very short films on my soul collection. Among them:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4NgMnb9NoI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jm5bFyc8Eo
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0laodRkWGZA

  2. denny

    You should have seen my face when I came across the “do it yourself” statuette. What were they thinking?

    The matches are fabulous. I grew up hearing Mahalia Jackson being played in my house.

    I’m already starting to make a list for my next visit ti Willis Wonderland.