Celebrity Golf
China from Louis Prima's
Las Vegas golf course,
“Fairway to the Stars"
Don Rickles' golf clubs
Mr. Show Business shows how it’s done
Sammy’s gold plated Pings
with both Sammy and Jerry on the bag
Barbara Payton
Barbara Payton was one of Hollywood’s many aspiring Marilyn Monroes, along with Mamie van Doren, Jayne Mansfield, Diana Dors, Joi Lansing, Barbara Nichols, and last but not least, Anna Nicole Smith. (Anna’s golf bag recently joined those of Don Rickles, Jerry Lewis, and Sammy Davis Jr. in my collection.) Payton’s fall from stardom was particularly precipitous, chronicled in her salacious memoir, I Am Not Ashamed. Barbara Stanwyck gave it a three word review: “You should be.” To my knowledge she did not play golf. There is no evidence that Anna Nicole Smith actually played golf either, but these are her clubs. I'm sure of it as I bought them in her estate sale at Julien's. Like Barbara Payton before her, Anna Nicole's decline was as seamy as her ascent to stardom was vertiginous.
Barbara Payton demonstrates a golf ball washer
Barbara Payton with Raymond Burr in Bride of the Gorilla
Original artwork for Midori liqueur ad
Flintstones
golf-themed cookie jar
George "Spanky" MacFarland, autographed publicity still from "Divot Diggers”
a 1936 Hal Roach "Our Gang" comedy, with chimpanzee Jiggs on Spanky's bag
Jersey by Tyler the Creator for his brand Golfwang
The Stooges hit the links
Original lobby card with this oft-reproduced image.
Laurel and Hardy ponder an age old question
in this 1926 Hal Roach comedy
The duo's first onscreen appearance together directed by the great Leo McCarey and featuring Edgar "Slow Burn" Kennedy.
Lawrence Welk’s prowess as a golfer is not widely known.
This could have gone in music but I put it in golf. Glen Campbell was quite the golfer.
Chicken in the Rough was one of the earliest franchise restaurants in America, dating back to the thirties. In addition to its cigar chomping rooster, the logo also sported a chick (as in baby chicken) caddy who stated: "I'd gladly be fried for Chicken in the Rough." I won't delve too deeply into the various origin myths around the dish, but its "rough" connection to golf always seemed a bit tenuous and after the fact to me. Why not chicken on the fairway, or in the bunker?
