Cherry Capri | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Artist, author, singer, chef |
Years active | 2002–present |
Known for | Pasadena Doo Dah Parade |
Website | cherrycapri |
Cherry Capri is an American pop-culture figure, author and performance artist whose work explores Mid Century Modern style, healthy homemaking, and manners. She has been called "a mix between Martha Stewart and Pee Wee Herman." [1] She has also been called "America's Mistress of Modernism, Manners & Mirth." [2]
As a performer, Capri has headlined three Mondo Lounge weekenders [3] [4] [5] and the Mondo Tiki event at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel. [6] She has sung at Tiki Oasis and tiki clubs across the country. [7] In 2005, she was a featured performer in the cult classic movie by Tony Marsico, Camp Burlesque. [8] Capri has made appearances on television talk shows including the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. [9]
In 2006 she was featured on the full-length album Creamy Cocktails & Other Delights with a cover that paid a homage to the album cover of Whipped Cream and Other Delights by Herb Alpert. Her title song from this album was included as the main anthem in the same-sex marriage rights movie, I Want to Get Married. [10]
In 2007, she was approached to star in a MidMod home-improvement lifestyle show called Lotta Living, [11] based on the website of the same name. The series ultimately failed to progress past development stages.
In 2016 she was considered for a children's television show reprising a Fred Rogers-style lead in an updated version of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood .
Over the years, Capri has supported various charitable organizations through performances and appearances, including the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee, Palm Springs Modern Committee and Lightbringer Project. In 2004, she was crowned the queen of the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade. [12] [13] [14]
Capri is also a sculptor and painter and has exhibited in Hollywood, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and San Francisco in group shows and alongside Shag, Mark Ryden, Tim Biskup and other artists of the Southern California Pop Surrealist scene. [15] [16] Capri's artwork brings an appreciation for matchbook artwork, like Andy Warhol provided recognition for packaging (soup cans) in the 1960s. Her work also serves explicitly to excite viewers about the preservation of Mid-Century Modern architecture and signage. Her work was featured in the first seminal Tiki Art Now - Volume One book by Otto von Stroheim, [17] and can be seen in the background of the movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang .
She had a one-woman show, "Come for Sun Swim Fun," at M Modern Gallery, featuring the work of classic Palm Springs establishments such as the Caliente Tropics motel and the now demolished Palm Springs Spa Hotel. Her one-woman show "Sparkles in Quick Sand" in Studio City featured works inspired by-gone iconic Las Vegas hotels such as the Dunes Hotel and Casino and the Sands Hotel.
Her artwork is in the collections of casino magnate Steve Wynn, as well as the late greats, Merv Griffin and Huell Howser. Her sculpture was featured at the SHAG Store for the 2012 Palm Springs Modernism Weekend.
In 2015, Capri released he first retro raw food recipe book, Eat Like Eve – Irresistible Recipes for Nude Food. The interior pages were inspired by the vintage Culinary Arts Academy cookbooks from the 1950s, and include a few recipes from her "Dear Cherry" advice column.
Capri is best known for her critically acclaimed "Dear Cherry" retro Dear Abby-style advice columns, which have appeared in CA-Modern Magazine since 2005, in addition to columns in Tiki Magazine and Bachelor Pad Magazine. Her writing combines historical references with updated healthy living tips and advice for today's world.
Her recent Dear Cherry interstitial radio show for Public Radio Exchange, [2] loosely based on her print columns and co-produced by Mary-Margaret Stratton, Cary Stratton, and Jason Croft aka 'Java', has been picked up as far away as Australia. [18]
Capri is noted for her distinguishing wardrobe, an eccentric style of dress which generally utilizes bright colors and loud patterns and pink polyester pantsuits.[ citation needed ]
Tiki culture is an American-originated art, music, and entertainment movement inspired by Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian cultures, and by Oceanian art. Influential cultures to Tiki culture include Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, the Caribbean Islands, and Hawaii. The name comes from Tiki, the Māori name for the first human, often represented in the form of hei-tiki, a pendant and important taonga. The hei-tiki was often appropriated by Europeans as a commercialised good luck charm, hence the name of Tiki culture. Despite spanning over 10,000 miles and including many different unrelated cultures, religions, and languages, Tiki aesthetic is considered by some to be amalgamated into one "fantasia of trans-Pacific cultures" and "colonial nostalgia". Because of this, and the simplistic view of the Pacific taken by the aesthetic, Tiki culture has often proved controversial.
Googie architecture is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular in the United States from roughly 1945 to the early 1970s.
The Burlesque Hall of Fame (BHOF) is the world's only museum dedicated to the history, preservation, and future of the art of burlesque. Located in the Las Vegas Arts district at 1027 S Main st. #110, BHOF is a tourist destination and non-profit 501 (c)(3) educational organization offering tours of its vast Collection of costumes, memorabilia, props and ephemera from burlesque's heyday through contemporary practice; classes for individuals and groups at all levels including beginner; movie screenings; research access for students and journalists; and a gift shop.
Angelique Pettyjohn was an American actress and burlesque queen. She appeared as the drill thrall Shahna in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion".
Giada Pamela De Laurentiis is an Italian American chef, entrepreneur, writer, and television personality. She was the host of Food Network's program called Giada at Home. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC's program entitled Today. De Laurentiis is the founder of the catering business GDL Foods. She is a winner of the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Host and the Gracie Award for Best Television Host. She was also recognized by the International Hospitality Institute as one of the Global 100 in Hospitality, a list featuring the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Hospitality.
A showgirl is a female performer in a theatrical revue who wears an exotic and revealing costume and in some shows may appear topless. Showgirls are usually dancers, sometimes performing as chorus girls, burlesque dancers or fan dancers, and many are classically trained with skills in ballet. The term showgirl is also sometimes used by strippers and some strip clubs use it as part of their business name.
Josh Agle is an American artist, better known by the nickname Shag.
The Linq is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. It opened as the Flamingo Capri in 1959, on property located directly north of the original Flamingo resort. The Flamingo Capri was a 180-room motel, owned by George E. Goldberg and Flamingo employee Bill Capri.
Babette Bardot is a Swedish actress who appeared in Russ Meyer's films, including Common Law Cabin and Mondo Topless.
Palms Casino Resort is a hotel and casino located near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. It includes 703 rooms and a 94,065 sq ft (8,738.9 m2) casino. It was originally owned by the Maloof family, and was primarily overseen by George Maloof. He purchased the site in 1997, and construction began three years later. The Palms opened on November 15, 2001, with Station Casinos and The Greenspun Corporation as minority owners. It included a casino, restaurants, nightclubs, and a 42-story hotel. The resort catered to local residents and tourists, and also became popular among celebrities and young adults. It has made several television appearances, and was the main setting for the 2002 reality television show The Real World: Las Vegas, which contributed to its fame.
Klondike Hotel and Casino was a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, in the United States. The property began as the Kona Kai Motel in 1962, and was purchased by Ralph Engelstad in 1969. The motel was sold to John Woodrum, who renamed it as the Klondike Inn in 1976. A casino was eventually added, and the Klondike became popular among local residents. In 2005, the Klondike was sold to Royal Palm Las Vegas, which planned to replace it with a casino and condo hotel resort known as Paramount Las Vegas. The Klondike closed in June 2006, and was demolished in March 2008. Royal Palm Las Vegas had difficulty obtaining financing for the Paramount project, and the land was put up for sale later in 2008. A Harley-Davidson dealership opened on the former Klondike property in 2014.
A tiki bar is a themed drinking establishment that serves elaborate cocktails, especially rum-based mixed drinks such as the Mai Tai and Zombie cocktails. Tiki bars are aesthetically defined by their tiki culture décor which is based upon a romanticized conception of tropical cultures, most commonly Polynesian. Some bars also incorporate general nautical themes or retro elements from the early atomic age.
Robin Antin is an American dancer and choreographer. In 1995, she founded the modern burlesque troupe the Pussycat Dolls. By 2005, she diversified into various media including a pop recording group with international hits, a Las Vegas nightclub venue and floor show, various merchandise, and a reality television series. Since then, she has gone on to create other girl groups, including G.R.L., Girlicious and Paradiso Girls.
Palms Place is a 47-story condo hotel in Paradise, Nevada, near the Las Vegas Strip. It is connected to the Palms Casino Resort. The project was announced in March 2005, to capitalize on a condominium boom occurring in Las Vegas at the time. Groundbreaking took place in May 2006, and the tower was topped off in August 2007. Palms Place opened in 2008, during the Great Recession, and some buyers had difficulty completing their unit purchases because of poor economic conditions.
Angie Pontani is a contemporary burlesque dancer, choreographer, producer, and blogger based in Brooklyn, New York. She was crowned Miss Exotic World in 2008.
Ultra-Lounge is a series of compilation CDs released by Capitol Records, featuring music predominantly from the 1950s and 1960s in genres such as exotica, space age pop, mambo, television theme songs, and lounge. Many of the volumes have since been made available for purchase via digital download.
A vedette is the main female artist of a show derived from cabaret and its subcategories of revue, vaudeville, music hall or burlesque. The purpose of the vedette is to entertain and captivate the public. Vedettes are expected to sing, dance and act on stage. Particularly accomplished artistes are considered super vedettes or first vedettes. Vedettes often appear alongside groups of dancers, flashy and revealing costumes, magicians, comedians, jugglers, or even performing animals. Vedettes specializing in burlesque generally do striptease and may also perform nude on stage.
The Atlanta Cabana Motel was a 200-room motor hotel located at the southwest corner of Peachtree Street and 7th Street in Midtown Atlanta. It opened in 1958 and was razed in 2002; the site is now occupied by the 28-floor Spire residential tower. The Cabana was Atlanta's first major new hotel in 30 years as well as a pioneer in the concept of motor hotels, that is, motel-like facilities in cities, as opposed to alongside highways between cities. It was recognized as a prime example of modern motor hotel architecture.
Charles Phoenix is an American pop culture humorist, historian, author and chef whose work explores 1950s and 1960s kitsch and Americana.
Sidney Millward was a British musician who led the comedy band Sid Millward and His Nitwits, performing burlesques of classical music from the 1930s until the 1970s.