Toast to the Stars

Marilyn Monroe's dress rests eyes unseen upstairs in Robert Weisfeld's Star Museum.

Pale yellow and grand in appearance, the evening gown screams amid the quiet, 'Marilyn Monroe!' It also indicates the presence of another. More than 50 years ago someone spilled red merlot upon Monroe's gown. Monroe's gone; the stain remains.

"It's on the right side of the bodice and scattered down the side of the dress," Weisfeld said. "It tells me that it was spilled over her shoulder while she was seated."

Perhaps the culprit was Frank Sinatra, but he was a Jack Daniel's man. Maybe it was President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert or, who knows, infamous mobster Sam Giancana. Whatever, food remains where Monroe long left.

And so it goes within the pages of "The Dead Celebrity Cookbook" (Health Communications, Inc., $19.95). Penned by Frank DeCaro, best known from his stint as the movie critic on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," the volume summons favorite recipes from more than 145 long gone celebrities.

"Even though the title is irreverent, it's actually a reverent cookbook," DeCaro said by phone on Friday morning while aboard a bus en route to New York City. "It's very much a love letter to more than 145 people who touched my life."

Dead Celebrity Cookbook

For the Southern connoisseur DeCaro offers Johnny Cash's Pan-fried Okra within the Musical Munchies chapter. Savor seafood? There's Chuck Connors' Clam Chowder, Joan Crawford's Poached Salmon, Johnny Carson's Whitefish and Angel Hair Pasta and so on.

And then there's John Wayne, the Duke, man of men who rode off into many a silver screen sunset high on a horse after guns blazed a path across the west. Yeah, um, his recipe? A casserole.

"That recipe turned up in so many places," DeCaro said. "It is a hoot to see that was his choice."

DeCaro intersperses tidbits of biographical information amid the recipes. It's more than just a cookbook; it's an embrace of pop culture.

"I wanted to make it something that I would buy," DeCaro said. "(Pop culture) honestly, it's the only culture we have. It's your life."
There's Lucille Ball's Chinese-y Thing and Ball's Chopped Chicken Livers and her Sunday Night Goulash and her Tropical Treat and Apple John ... and her Persimmon Cake.

"Lucile Ball was a two-fisted drinking girl, a dirty-mouthed girl, a smoker," Weisfeld said. "She was really something."

That Ball was something is reflected in DeCaro's book. An entire chapter, I Lunch Lucy, exemplifies the famed "I Love Lucy" star's appeal.

"She got her own chapter because any woman who was attacked by a 12-foot long loaf of bread in her own kitchen on television and lived to tell about it earned her own chapter," DeCaro said.

Consider Frank Sinatra. DeCaro's book notes Old Blues Eyes' Barbecued Lamb. The recipe emerges from a small chapter titled A Ring-A-Ding-Ding Rat Pack BBQ.

"To me, it says that he embraced a Palm Springs lifestyle," DeCaro said. "I glow when I think about all that. I just wonder what his pals back in Hoboken (N.J.) think, you know, out on the patio enjoying a barbecued lamb."

West, renowned then and for the ages for her with-a-wink bawdiness, was Lady Gaga nearly a century before Lady Gaga. She bankrolled a career on suggestiveness and her catchphrase "why dontcha come up and see me sometime."
Her recipe in DeCaro's book? Fruit Compote. Ingredients include one large apple, one large banana, one large pear, a couple of almonds — all chopped — with a teaspoon of raisins, a couple of tablespoons of milk and a teaspoon of honey.

That may seem a tad tame for such a provocative personality.

"When I make her recipe, I put honey flavored yogurt in it instead," DeCaro said. "I'll have to say, it's pretty delicious."

Food and Stars

But what can food say about a star? Say it's Alfred Hitchcock's Quiche Lorraine or Rock Hudson's Cannoli?

"I'm hoping that Rock Hudson's cannoli recipe suggests that he embraced a love of the double entendre," DeCaro said. "That was kind of the spirit of the whole book."

Many stars like many Americans maintain considerable appetites for food. Among the more renowned silver screen stars with enormous appetites to match includes Marlon Brando, who isn't in DeCaro's book, and Shelley Winters, who is included.

"Famous appetite," Weisfeld said. "Oh, God, she could remember dinners she had in London, in Rome. A very lusty gal."

She most likely loved high caloric, fatty, perhaps rich and creamy food. But DeCaro chose to feature Winters' Caesar Salad.

"I think she would have done well to eat more of them," DeCaro said.

Naturally, DeCaro couldn't include all of Hollywood's and America's most famous and beloved dead celebrities. There's not enough paper for that. However, given Elvis Presley's late-in-life lust for food -- such as his obsession with fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches -- it may seem odd that he wasn't featured as well.

So, let's imagine that the  recipe for Presley's fried peanut butter and banana sandwich emerged from the pages of DeCaro's book. What does it say about the late king of rock 'n' roll?

"Comfort food," Weisfeld said. "Things that his mother would have fixed in his childhood."

Perhaps Presley's peanut butter and banana sandwich will emerge from within one of several forthcoming follow-ups to DeCaro's "The Dead Celebrity Cookbook." Several more are planned for release later this year.

"Volume two, three, four...10," DeCaro said. "There will be two smaller versions coming out in the fall. There will be a dead celebrity Christmas collection coming at Christmas."

Star Museum

Welcome inside the Star Museum on Main Street America, otherwise to us known as Abingdon.

Mammoth-sized framed pieces seemingly leap from the walls just inside a waiting area. There's hands-on-hips Mae West, dressed as if Hollywood was hers with a big and bold signature to match.

"She was hell on wheels," Weisfeld said of West. "She was the daughter of an Irish prize fighter, Battling Jack. She was tough."

Just inside the door, turn around and look up. Overtop the entrance beams a young Elvis Presley in an enlarged photo taken from the $29 postage stamp that he adorns. Coupled with the piece, Presley's autograph. And yes, it's real.

"That's the only one I have," Weisfeld said. "They had almost become too cost prohibitive."

Now, c'mon in.

When assembling but a percentage of his vast collection for display, if Weisfeld's intentions were to induce vertigo, mission accomplished. The eyes want to dart all over the well-adorned museum.

"I wanted it to be somewhat dizzying," Weisfeld said.

Just to the left and in a case rests perhaps the most gaudy of items in Weisfeld's collection. It's a hat that demands a more ornate word than hat to describe it. It's Mae West's hat, a lilac colored contraption from which sprouts high and wide feathers.

"Ostrich and coq — rooster feathers," Weisfeld said. "I came across that in '95 or '96. It came up on eBay at Christmas time. I thought, 'oh my God!'"

Now it rests in the Star Museum. When apprised of a sampling of its contents, DeCaro seemed intrigued.

"That sounds like a place I need to visit," DeCaro said.

Look for Monroe's merlot-stained gown when Weisfeld debuts an upcoming exhibit that marks 50 years since the blonde bombshell's death.

"I hope to have it up by her birthday, June 1," Weisfeld said.

The exhibit's title, "Waiting for Monroe: Marilyn and Company." The exhibit will include pieces once owned by Monroe and Hollywood blondes who came before her including Jean Harlow, Mae West, Betty Grable and Lana Turner.

"Then you've got to look at a rival like Elizabeth Taylor, though she wasn't blonde, and Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Barbara Nichols, her rivals," Weisfeld said. "Then today, is it Madonna? Is it Lady Gaga?"

Step deeper into the museum. To the right blooms a large homage to Hollywood's fiery and funny redhead of yore, Lucille Ball.

"This is my Lucy shrine," Weisfeld said with a sweeping wave of his right arm.

There's a brilliant red dress that she wore in "I Love Lucy" along with a red and black checked top.

"That's the most famous of her maternity tops from 'I Love Lucy,'" Weisfeld said.

There's a mountain more at the Star Museum.

Gaze upon Mae West's gaudy hat. Consider Elvis Presley's lavish bathrobe and his dime store bed sheet. Think back upon what a life led at first glance of Katherine Hepburn's faux fur, Humphrey Bogart's trench coat or Alfred Hitchcock's tea towels.

Perhaps they, too, at another time and another place were stained by some food item and culprit long since lost to fate and time. That's the Star Museum and DeCaro's cookbook. Each invites the imagination as we reach for the stars.

"I feel like the curator and keeper of all these recipes," DeCaro said. "It's sort of like my little culinary museum."

Tom Netherland is a freelance writer. He may be reached at features@bristolnews.com.


Info
    » What: "The Dead Celebrity Cookbook" (370 pgs., $19.95) by Frank DeCaro
    » Published by: Health Communications, Inc.
    » Web, audio and video: www.deadcelebritycookbook.com

Star Museum
    » Where: 170 E. Main St., Abingdon
    » Hours: Tue.-Sat. after 1 p.m. and by appointment at other times
   » Admission: $10 adults, $5 ages 12 and under
   » Info: (276) 608-7452
   » Web: www.facebook.com (then search Star Museum)