Where Gumby Meets the King

DEAR HOT SHOPPERS: Would you kill for a Soviet Tank Corps chest pin medal? Hunting for a solar-powered safari hat? Or your very own bowling shoes?

It’s hard to even imagine, but 608 pages have been devoted to such artifacts in “The Whole Pop Catalog” (Avon Books) by the Berkeley Pop Culture Project. The group’s ringleader and editor, Jack Mingo, was inspired by the “Whole Earth Catalog.”

To Mingo, a catalogue should be more than a compendium of great stuff. His recipe includes “history, advice, even the occasional weird side trip” on roller derbies, junk food, Barbie, tractor pulls, Elvis, lunchboxes and other subjects.

“It seemed like a lot of the pop culture books were not taking popular culture as seriously or as whimsically as they could,” he says. “They were either condescending or aimed at collectors.”

“Whole Pop” readers can start with musical gloves endowed with computer chips in their fingertips (pictured). And then move on to the Gumby section where the rubbery green guy is described as “claymation on hallucinogens.” There’s also an account of the Gumby worship that ensued after he traveled to India with his creator, Art Clokey, to meet guru Sai Baba.

“This was a lot of fun, but I got out just in time,” Mingo says of the year spent on the book. “When we did the section on pinball, I went through a two-week phase of constantly sneaking out and playing pinball. A 12-step program luckily pulled me through.”

SHOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE: Artist Don Bachardy, who’s known for his portraits of such diverse souls as Dorothy Parker, Teri Garr, Marlene Dietrich and E.M. Forster, rarely goes shopping.

“I’m certainly not a very adventurous shopper. The older I’ve gotten the less interested I am in shopping. The last thing I bought was at Maxfield’s, a jacket,” reports the Santa Monica painter. “The only time I shop is when I have an event to attend.”

The event that occasioned the new jacket was the recent opening of an exhibition of Bachardy’s “Last Drawings of Christopher Isherwood” at the James Corcoran Gallery. A book by the same name has been published by Faber & Faber.

“At Maxfield, I know they’ll have my size,” says Bachardy, who wears a uncommonly small 35. “There’s some discrimination afoot (in other stores). I can’t find a Size 35 jacket anymore. They tell me they don’t have enough call for them.”

Wondering which catalogues Imelda Marcos took with her to the Philippines? Write to Beth Ann Krier, Hot to Shop, The Times, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053.