I recently obtained scans of historic photos taken at the Lucasfilm Archives at Skywalker Ranch circa 1996/1997, depicting original props, costumes, models, and other assets from the original Star Wars trilogy (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) as well as the Indiana Jones franchise (Raiders of the Lost Ark , Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade). [Read more…]
Producers for National Geographic Channel’s new series, ‘America’s Lost Treasures’, will be visiting Los Angeles in a few weeks for an upcoming episode, and are looking for important artifacts to feature on the show. This will be held at The Autry Museum in mid-February. [Read more…]
Auctioneer Anderson & Garland are holding a “Costume Sale” in Newcastle on Saturday, October 8th, with ability to bid online as well. Material comes from the Bazaar costume hire shops in Sunderland, Darlington, and Newcastle Upon Tyne. While it appears a large number of the 658 lots are not from film or television productions, some such pieces are included in the offerings. [Read more…]
Last week’s episode of Pawn Stars featured a gentleman who brought in a vintage straight jacket that he believed to have been owned by magician Harry Houdini. In the episode, Rick calls in Murray SawChuck to help authenticate the piece, which he ultimately believes he does irrefutably via matching details (stitching, buttons, placement and style thereof) to a very high resolution vintage photo from January 1, 1915. If correct, it marks the pieces as extraordinarily rare and historically important, yet the owner of the piece and Rick cannot come to terms, with the owner at $30,000 and Rick at $25,000. It would seem to be much more valuable than that, by my estimation, and is currently listed for sale on eBay for $149,000. [Read more…]
Earlier this year, a story broke about the discovery that a genuine document produced by Abraham Lincoln had been altered in order to make it more historically significant. While the identification and preservation of historic documents is outside the scope of the same in the entertainment/popular culture memorabilia field, the story is instructive none the less, and highlights the ease with which genuine material can be altered to make it more important and valuable. [Read more…]
Thanks to a reader tip, I thought it would be very worthwhile to point out yesterday’s blog post on the official County of Los Angeles website, which features an excellent “Spotlight Story” about of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and their efforts to collect and preserve important Hollywood artifacts from movies, in particular wardrobe piece. [Read more…]
The second season of the popular “American Pickers” starring Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz begins Monday, December 6th. The reality series, which features the pair in their search across America for “rusty gold”, was the #1 new cable series of 2010. As reported in September (see Mike Wolfe & Frank Fritz of American Pickers Coming to California, Seeking Movie and Hollywood Memorabilia), all new episodes will feature their search expanding to California. [Read more…]
Yesterday I was contacted by the producer of American Pickers, which is currently broadcasting its second season on The History Channel. Mike and Frank will be traveling through California over the next few weeks, and they are interesting in finding people in the state with movie and Hollywood memorabilia collections, as well as the kind of vintage and historic material that they are traditionally seeking. If you yourself have any such material or have leads that may be of interest to the show, please contact me and I will get you in touch with the producer of the show.