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“It was uncanny. She said it
in many places — in her diary,
on tapes — she said it a lot.
When I first met Allee in 1992,
when she was 45, she said that
she wanted her house to be a
museum. ‘I want to leave a big
legacy for people to see how
it’s possible to live a happy life.’
She was always saying that.”
The legacy continues
today through the Willis
Wonderland Foundation that
Fenton established two years
ago to educate and advance
songwriters and multimedia
artists in underserved commu-
nities.
And Willis’ Pepto-Bismol
pink mid-century house in
the San Fernando Valley in
California has, indeed, become
a museum.
Designed in 1937 by noted
architect William Kesling,
Willis’ house is filled with one
of the world’s largest collec-
tions of pop-culture memora-
bilia. It’s all-things kitsch, and
audiences will be treated to an
insider’s look at Willis’ collec-
tions as well as clips of some of
Willis’ legendary house parties.
Even Willis’ great friend, the
late Paul Reubens (aka Pee-
wee Herman), affirmed in the
documentary that Willis’ home
was truly the unique, real-life
Pee-wee Herman funhouse.
The 97-minute documenta-
ry, which started production
in 2022, features interviews
with 30 of Willis’ inner cir-
cle, including Detroiters
Lily Tomlin, Paul Feig, Stan
Zimmerman and Willis’ broth-
er and sister, Kent Willis and
Marlen Frost. Jim Budman
served as the archive videog-
rapher.
During COVID, Fenton
contacted Primary Wave Music
Publishing founder and CEO
Lawrence Mestel, who owns
Willis’ music-publishing cata-
log and life story rights, about
jumpstarting the documentary.
“I said to him, “You know,
we’re in COVID, everybody’s
home alone. It’s a great time
to be making a documentary
because it’s very conducive to
going through a lot of archive
footage and editing,” said
Fenton, who then brought on
Alexis Manya Spraic as the
director and editor.
“I gave Alexis big, big
terabytes of disk storage [of
footage and home movies
since 1978] and said, ‘Here
you go,’” Fenton laughs. “
And
Alexis would go through it and
work with Sean Welch whom
Allee had hired as an archivist.
Sean became way more than
an archivist and a do-any-
thing-guy for Allee. He really
knows how to find Allee-filed
stuff. He could jump into
Allee’s mind and be able to
find footage from different
eras that Alexis asked for.
“
And Alexis kept finding
more things to tweak and sub-
stitute with different footage.
She just couldn’t stop making
the documentary better. I
wanted the goal for Alexis to
present the story as if we were
inside Allee’s brain and to
understand how Allee thought.
I wanted it more focused on
Allee and the sort of things she
had overcome. I felt like Alexis
really depicted Allee as Allee
would have liked,” Fenton
added.
MICHIGAN MUSINGS
For any Detroiter, The World
According to Allee Willis is a
veritable walk down memory
lane. Willis is seen throughout
the film sporting Mumford
(where she graduated from in
1965), Roots and Michigan
ABOVE: Allee Willis poses
in front of a mural of herself,
painted by a fan. LEFT:
Executive Producer Prudence
Fenton and Southfield native
Stan Zimmerman on the red
carpet at SXSW Film & TV
Festival March 11, 2024.