One of Hollywood’s most legendary homes—where every room bursts with color, music, and an eye-popping collection of American kitsch —is that of the Grammy, Tony, and Emmy-winning Hall of Fame songwriter, the late Allee Willis. The hit songwriter co-wrote Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September“ and “Boogie Wonderland,” as well as, among many many other songs, the theme song to Friends, and the Broadway musical and movie The Color Purple.
In 1937, architect William Kesling built what was rumored to be the MGM party house in North Hollywood, California. The Detroit-born Willis used her first royalty check as the down payment for the funky Art Deco home, which she turned into “the supreme combo of high art and low Kitsch.”
The creative haven, and all that Allee produced out of it, is featured in the acclaimed documentary film, The World According to Allee Willis, from Magnolia Pictures, and is also the basis for a UC Berkeley class called “Kitsch is Cool.”
Multimedia artist Hillary Carlip has transformed the eccentric decor of Allee Willis’s iconic home into a fresh, irreverent take on pop-up design and a tactile 3D work of art — greet the immersive Willis Wonderland: The Legendary House of Atomic Kitsch, a pop-up book.
This part of it is really nice: All proceeds from book sales go towards the Willis Wonderland Foundation, the 501(3)c, which preserves the legacy and creative vision of Allee Willis through opportunities in music education and multimedia artistry, empowering the next generation of artists. Friend of artsmeme (F.O.A.M.) Charles Phoenix provides the foreword! Buy it online here.