This is a rare glimpse inside the kitchen at “Willis Wonderland” when work is in full swing.
Does this woman ever slow down!?
These kitchen chairs blow me away!
Sitting high above the kitchen at “Willis Wonderland”.
This is not in the kitchen but considering it was a day of working when I took this, that it only made sense to plop this pic into this post!
I can’t stand it! I even marvel at the kitchen cabinets because each one has this tiki head as a handle to open them!
Allee Willis
I can’t believe I let you snap a photo of the kitchen in this condition! Then again, I may have told you to take it because the shots of my kitchen you’ve had up in your other posts always look so clean. Here you captured it in a more natural state! I think I was getting ready to head up north and shoot another video with Pomplamoose and those are all the art supplies I was taking with me. The prints on the wall all came out of The Brown Derby are probably some of the most valuable things at Willis Wonderland.
I remember not being happy with my shoe and sock combination that day but now that I look at your second photo I see I did a much better job than I thought I did.
That’s one of my favorite kitchen chairs in your third photo. The tragedy is that as I saw this chair at a secondhand store some guy was walking away with three matching ones. I absolutely hate when people break up sets. I asked if I could pay more and buy them off of him but he said no. If someone is stupid enough to walk away with only three out of four perfect chairs then I don’t expect them to be smart enough to make a profit selling them within a minute of buying them. That’s the kind of person who needed something pink and the style of the chair didn’t even matter or it was a set designer who only needed three and didn’t have enough of an aesthetic to let a real collector buy them.
I have about 100 Gold Stamp books, all mostly all filled, to go along with the hand-painted Gold Stamp sign in the fourth photo
The little sign in the fifth photo is from the 1920’s and is made out of porcelain. I used to keep it on my front door but the porcelain started to chip as the door is a sliding door.
The tiki in the very last photo is one of the handles on my kitchen cabinets. I had 24 of them made. They’re very heavy, like solid brass. I glued the rhinestone eyes on. They were made at Oceanic Arts in Whittier, California. For any lover of kitsch, Hawaiiana, Tiki and the like this place is a must visit. They are the largest suppliers of all of that in the world and have done all the carvings for Disneyland and places like Trader Vic’s since the 1940s. They’re still alive and kicking and your eyeballs will pop out of your head when you walk in if you’ve never been there before. Denny, this should be on your list for your next trip out west.
Douglas Wood
I love the face on the tile floor in front of Allee’s right foot. Where did it come from?
And I’m also intrigued by the couple on the side of the microwave. What exactly are they and do you have a close-up of them?
Allee Willis
My kitchen floor has a lot of atomic designs carved into it. I got the floor as a gift from Richard Simmons when I produced his first exercise album. I found a guy who had laid tile at Radio City in 1933 and he carve the designs in from things I either drew or got out of books.
The couple on the side of the microwave are 1950s classics called Hip Nip and Hot Nip. You can see them better here: https://www.alleewillis.com/blog/2009/07/15/allee-willis-kitsch-o-the-day-hot-nip-and-hip-nip-plastic-flasks/
The other thing that’s really good in the kitchen is right below Hip Nip and hot Nip. That cow is all made out of stuffed Naugahyde.
Douglas Wood
Glad I asked. I think this couple may be one of my favorite things in your kitchen. I’m hoping the elusive garage sale karma will allow me to come across another pair someday.
denny
This was an insane day as you were getting ready to go up north and shoot a video with Pomplamoose. I didn’t want to snap the pics but you said “go ahead”!
That kills me about the kitchen chairs! Breaking up sets is taboo.
Please take me to “Oceanic Arts”!