Dearly Departed

While it may not be everyone’s taste, I dearly loved the Dearly Departed Museum, so I was honored when owner Scott Michaels asked me to photograph it for posterity before all of its historic contents went into storage. Here is a look at some of the items one could find inside its Hollywood location on Santa Monica Boulevard.

This display of recently acquired items came from the Sharon Tate auction.



Tate is best known for her role in the campy “Valley of the Dolls” and sadly the Manson murders.



Her false eyelashes. NOW we know why they looked so lush!



One of her bras:



Her “let ’em droop” scene in “Dolls” is definitely one of the most memorable of the film.



Jayne Mansfield held a large portion of real estate inside the museum.



Here’s a section of the gate from her Pink Palace mansion which was located in Holmby Hills...before it was demolished in 2002.



Mansfield died tragically in a car accident on the way to New Orleans at the age of 34. The 1966 Buick Electra 225 she was in was also in display here. To see it in person was unbelievable.



These two vintage mugs/steins of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are favorites of mine.



Karen Carpenter’s sink:



The death mask of notorious 1930’s Depression-era gangster John Dillinger:



For fans of Mae West, how about this framed display showing her autograph on a check to Bullock’s Department Store?



Last but not least...her dental bridges:



Want to see More Dearly Departed? Check out their youtube channel.

See more Dearly Departed Museum photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: No Shirley Temple for Shirley

As a child, I loved Shirley Temple the actress AND Shirley Temple the drink! Sure, little boys could order a Roy Rogers and sound a little more manly, but I didn’t give a crap. I ALWAYS requested a Shirley Temple. The origins of this non-alcoholic “cocktail” are unknown, but a variety of stories have circulated. One attributes it to Hollywood’s famous Chasen’s restaurant, which created it for Shirley’s tenth birthday party.



Story #2 credits the Brown Derby restaurant who whipped it up to take care of Shirley’s displeasure that everyone else got to have a special drink at the table except for her.



From getty images comes this shot of Shirley dining with her family at the Derby, May 1940. Looks like a malt to me!



Here’s teenage Shirley with her mom at the Derby in 1945:



Story #3 has The Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu coming up with the drink.



Shirley herself told Scott Simon in an NPR interview in 1986:

"The saccharine sweet, icky drink? Yes, well... those were created in the probably middle 1930s by the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood and I had nothing to do with it. But, all over the world, I am served that. People think it's funny. I hate them. Too sweet!"

THAT’S why I loved them! First, I gobbled up those radioactive red maraschino cherries. Often, there was one hiding in the bottom of the glass under the ice. Second, my straw went right to the bottom of the glass to soak up that thick grenadine syrup. You can buy the drink in a bottle today, but those kinda’ suck; everything is mixed together and they don’t come with the maraschino cherries, either.



The above quote lends credence to the exhibit that is on display at the Dearly Departed Museum on Hollywood Boulevard:



As the display card reads:

At an appearance in October 1998 Shirley’s friend handed her this drink (see glass with umbrella in the pic!). Shirley Temple, “What’s this?” Friend (smiling), “It’s a Shirley Temple.” She moved this glass aside and said, “If you drink that, you’re going to get diabetes.”

This all occurred at the famous Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco:



Wanna’ learn how to make a Shirley Temple and recapture your childhood?



Also on display at the Museum is this funeral wreath from Hollywood Boulevard at the ceremony when Shirley died in 2014.



Want to see more Dearly Departed Stuff? Better hurry, as the museum is closing and its contents are headed to storage later this month. Instead, you can visit their youtube channel.

See more Shirley Temple Black photos at my main website.