Mary Kay Place Odds & Ends

Here are some items that I don't
think fit elsewhere on the
site. It’s mostly just trivial
stuff, but some of the things
are quite fun or interesting
to view.

                                               A Big Chill script
                               autographed by the
                                   principal actors

An It’s Complicated script
autographed by the
principal actors

A simple Mary Kay Place
autograph

The Loretta game piece

from the “MH2” game

Here is a commercially available street sign. I am not entirely sure that the intent was specifically for Ms. Place. Perhaps there are any number of first names proffered, like “JANET PL” or “KAREN PL.”

Mary Kay’s 1977 album cover for Aimin’ to Please was inspired by the work of Gil Elvgren, the famous and prolific artist known for his pin-up girls. His famous painting, Aimin’ to Please, is listed on some resources as 1948, however on the artist's Website:

http://www.gilelvgren.com

it's listed as 1946. Perhaps the painting was completed in 1946 and used or released commercially in 1948.

Below are three images. The left one is a scan of the original painting. The middle is the cover of Mary Kay's album for comparison. The right one is a scan of a commercially available 3-D figurine representation of the painting.

Airbrush artist Joe Heiner did the album illustration. The other names associated with the album's design are:

Gene Gurley - Photographer
Sandra Baker - Costume Design
Tom Steele - Design

I haven’t been able to find any reliable Internet information on these people, but I’d be interested if anyone knows something about them.

I can be contacted at MKPFan@aol.com

Mary Kay was not the only artist to have an album cover inspired by Aimin’ to Please . Italian singer and songwriter Francesco de Gregori used the idea for his 1976 album Bufalo Bill. The spelling of “Bufalo” was intentional.

As a promotional gimmick for radio stations, Columbia Records produces some very cool (or hot) matches using the Aimin’ to Please album artwork.

Columbia also printed Mary Kay Place calendars.

Ms. Place donated her Aimin' to Please costume to the Oklahoma Historical Society in May, 2013.

A year earlier, in 1976, Columbia produced lenticular buttons to promote Tonite! At the Capri Lounge Loretta Haggers

Since we’re on the subject of music, on March 2, 1977, Mary Kay appeared on a John Denver special on ABC. Here are some artifacts associated with that program. Included are a couple of images of the script, some TV Guide ads, and a press photo and press release describing the photo. The photo includes Mary Kay Place, John Denver, Roger Miller, and Glen Campbell.

Here are some MKP contracts for some television appearances. The one on the right was for the “MH2” spin-off program “Fernwood 2-Night.”

In 1997, Mary Kay Place joined the rather luminous cast of 35 actors who performed the audio book Sleeping Beauty. The 1973 Ross MacDonald mystery was originally presented as a production of radio station KCRW. Mary Kay played “Gloria Flaherty,” while Ed Asner, Veronica Cartwright, Bruce Davidson, Christine Ebersole, Stacy Keach, Audra Lindley, Richard Masur, and Christina Pickles performed some of the other major characters in the book. The whole thing runs about seven hours.

In 2000, Ms. Place joined another huge, all-star cast to record a second audio book, The Zebra-Striped Hearse , also by Ross MacDonald. This one runs 8 hours. Once again it was a KCRW production.

Mary Kay has been honored in her native Tulsa, Oklahoma, via a few different ways. The Circle Cinema, Tulsa’s non-profit and independent theater has a Walk of Fame (image on the left). She has also put her imprint into concrete for a now-defunct Peaches record store (middle image). The image on the right is an artist’s rendition of a proposed pop culture museum in Tulsa’s arts district.

The Tulsa Awards for Theatre Excellence has named an award after Ms. Place—the Mary Kay Place Legacy award. Here’s an article about the 2012 recipient from the Tulsa World: Click here.

When Mary Kay was in high school, she was a budding writer. Here’s a sample of her work:

Finally, Mary Kay has inspired some artists to create some interesting art. The image on the left is a sketch based on the Tonite! at the Capri Lounge album cover. The image on the right is just about my favorite “MH2” item. The artist, Jason Mecier, made this pasta art image of Mary Kay Place and Graham Jarvis. Jason has a Website!

Back to The Mary Kay Place Place

@font-face{font-family:yola_heading_font;src:url("resources/bookman-old-style-bold.ttf");}Mary Kay Place Odds & Ends

Mary Kay Place Odds & Ends