Category: Memorabilia

Kurt Cobain’s Sweater From Final Photoshoot Sells for $75,000 at Auction

A sweater worn by Kurt Cobain during the singer’s last photoshoot with Nirvana sold for $75,000 at auction Saturday.

The cardigan, which Cobain donned at a pre-In Utero photo session in the summer of 1993, more than doubled its pre-auction estimate of between $10,000 and $20,000, Julien’s Auctions said.

Pictures of Cobain wearing the sweater, captured by photographer Jesse Frohman, featured in the photobook Kurt Cobain: The Last Session.

“The shoot was meant to take place in Central Park in New York City, but due to Cobain being sick just hours before, the shoot was relocated to the basement of the hotel where the band was staying,” Julien’s Auctions noted of the item. “Cobain showed up three hours late to the shoot and immediately asked for a bucket due to his nausea.”

unclear if that acquaintance was the sweater’s seller or if it changed hands since then.

In 2015, Cobain’s green cardigan from Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance sold for $137,000 at auction.

Nirvana’s handwritten setlist from an April 1990 concert in Washington, D.C., which Cobain wrote with black marker on a paper plate, sold for $23,000, more than 10 times its pre-auction estimate of $2,000. “Cobain had eaten some pizza before the show and proceeded to write the set list on the plate he had been eating his pizza on,” the auction house said of the item.

Other notable items from Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons event Saturday included a black acoustic guitar used by Prince onstage and in promotional materials (winning bid $89,000), a black jacket that Michael Jackson wore to Nelson Mandela’s birthday party in 1996 ($76,000) and Bob Dylan’s handwritten and autographed lyrics to “Blowin’ in the Wind” ($70,000).

However, the original Universal Audio console used in Studio #2 of Bill Putnam’s Western Recorders Studios in Hollywood, California – used to record artists like the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Crosby, Stills & Nash and more – earned the auction’s highest bid with $370,000.

1947 best-picture Oscar sells for nearly $500K at auction

LOS ANGELES — One Academy Award trophy sold for nearly $500,000 and the second for well over $200,000 in a rare auction of Oscars that ended Friday in Los Angeles.

A best-picture Oscar for “Gentleman’s Agreement,” the 1947 film starring Gregory Peck that took on anti-Semitism, sold for $492,000. A best picture statuette for 1935’s “Mutiny on the Bounty” fetched $240,000.

Both were outpaced by an archive of papers on the origin and development of “The Wizard of Oz” that brought in $1.2 million.

Auction house Profiles in History announced the results after four days of bidding on Hollywood memorabilia that brought in more than $8 million in total.

Other items sold include a TIE fighter helmet from the original “Star Wars” that went for $240,000, a Phaser pistol from the original “Star Trek” TV series that fetched $192,000, a hover board Marty McFly rode in “Back to the Future II” that sold for $102,000, and a golden ticket from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” that brought in $48,000.

The “Mutiny on the Bounty” Oscar price came close to auction-house projections, but the “Gentleman’s Agreement” statuette brought in more than twice what was expected, for reasons that are not clear. The buyers of both Oscars and “The Wizard of Oz” document chose to remain anonymous.

Auctions of Oscar statuettes are very uncommon because winners from 1951 onward have had to agree that they or their heirs must offer it back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for $1 before selling it elsewhere. The academy has said it firmly believes Oscars should be won, not bought.

Neither of the Oscars sold this week approached the record of $1.5 million paid by Michael Jackson to acquire David O. Selznick’s “Gone With the Wind” Oscar in 1999.

Steve McQueen’s iconic ‘Bullitt’ Mustang found in scrapyard

The iconic Mustang GT Steve Mcqueen drove in 1968 movie Bullitt has been found in a Baja, California scrapyard.

The car went missing shortly after filming wrapped and McQueen spent years unsuccessfully trying to track it down.

It was recently discovered in a scrapyard and restored by body shop owner Ralph Garcia, Jr.

The makeover king tells the Los Angeles Times he initially had no idea the car he would be working on was McQueen’s Bullitt motor when he first heard about the discovery, and then an associate in Mexico told him he had checked the vehicle’s identification numbers (VIN) and discovered it was a real prize.

“My partner Googled the VIN and that’s how he found out it was the Bullitt car,” Ralph tells the publication. “He said, ‘You can’t touch it!’”

Top car historian Ken Gross has told the Times the Mustang could be worth US$1 million at auction.

“This is certainly on the list of top 10 list of most desirable missing cars,” Gross said.

‘A Christmas Story’ House and Museum Nabs Ralphie Parker’s Red Ryder BB Gun

A Christmas Story House and Museum has acquired the holy grail of “A Christmas Story” memorabilia — an original, custom-made Red Ryder BB gun used in the film.

The “official Red Ryder carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time” that Ralphie Parker pines over and eventually receives will become a permanent addition to the museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

“This has been the holy grail for us—the actual BB gun used by Ralphie in the movie,” said Brian Jones, founder and owner of the A Christmas Story House & Museum. “We have had a commemorative replica on display, along with many original props, costumes and memorabilia from the film, but this is an item we’ve hoped to find for a long time.”

The museum learned that production asset manager Gary Meck was selling the vintage rifle on a film collectibles website. They immediately snatched it for the $10,000 asking price. Six custom guns were made by Daisy for “A Christmas Story”; one went to Peter Billingsley (who played Ralphie), one to the film archives, and the others to Meck and production team members.

“This original Red Ryder BB gun from the movie is a great addition to our collection,” said Jones. “We are excited that fans will now be able to see the real thing for the first time.”

Bronze ambition: Robocop to join Rocky, Fonzie
Statues of prominent figures have long been used to inspire civic pride and, taking a cue from Rocky in Philly, the city of Detroit is poised to get its own movie-inspired ambassador.
In less than a week, an online group has raised $50,000 US to commission a bronze monument to the superhuman cyborg Robocop — a response to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s call for city improvement suggestions.
“Robocop has a real chance of becoming this kind of avatar for goodness and newness and collective action in Detroit,” said Jerry Paffendorf, one of the organizers of the campaign.
One of the best known movie statues is likely Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa, who stands — arms proudly raised — near the famed steps of Philadelphia’s Museum of Art seen in the Rocky films. The bronze was Stallone’s gift to Philadelphia after he finished shooting the franchise’s third installment.
Other performers similarly immortalized include Henry “Arthur Fonzarelli” Winkler in Milwaukee and martial arts legend Bruce Lee, memorialized with statues on the Hong Kong waterfront and another in Mostar, Bosnia.
Even the former Governator is getting his due, with a larger-than-life monument to Arnold Schwarzenegger set for display outside his childhood home in Thal, Austria.
Toronto has a large bust of early Hollywood actress, studio founder and “America’s Sweetheart” Mary Pickford installed in front of the Hospital for Sick Children, which is located on the site of her childhood home. There’s also a bronze of Al Waxman, aka the King of Kensington, installed in the downtown neighbourhood’s Bellevue Square Park.
It’s fun to think of other pop culture figures who could be honoured in bronze: say Bob & Doug McKenzie in Hamilton, Ont., CÈline Dion in Montreal’s Charlemagne suburb or perhaps illusionist Doug Henning in Winnipeg.

Farrah Fawcett’s red swimsuit goes to Smithsonian
WASHINGTON ñ The red swimsuit that helped make “Charlie’s Angels” actress Farrah Fawcett a 1970s icon became part of the Smithsonian’s collection Wednesday on what would have been her 64th birthday.
Fawcett’s longtime companion Ryan O’Neal presented the swimsuit and other items to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington. O’Neal said Fawcett, who died in 2009 after battling anal cancer for several years, always intended to give the suit to the museum.
“They asked her years ago for the bathing suit,” he said. “So it was always in her plan.”
Fawcett wore the bathing suit for a photo shoot shortly before her debut on Charlie’s Angels in 1976. The resulting poster sold millions of copies and became the best selling poster of all time, according to Smithsonian curator Dwight Bowers. Bowers compared the poster to World War II pinups of Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth, saying it became a symbol of the 1970s era.
Though fans know the bathing suit as red, it is actually a burnt orange color, possibly due to fading. Before it was donated to the museum, Fawcett framed it herself, and it was stored at a Los Angeles warehouse, O’Neal said.
Nels Van Patten, Fawcett’s friend and tennis coach who was with her during the bathing suit shoot, said Wednesday she did her own hair and makeup for the pictures and didn’t have a mirror. She also squeezed a lemon in her hair to get natural highlights, he said.
Also donated to the Smithsonian were Fawcett’s book of scripts for the first season of “Charlie’s Angels,” a 1977 Farrah Fawcett doll and a “Farrah’s Glamour Center” styling kit for creating her signature hairdo. The items will be part of the museum’s popular culture history collection and will go on display this summer.
Fawcett’s friends and family at the museum Wednesday for the donation included Fawcett’s son with O’Neal, Redmond O’Neal, and O’Neal’s daughter, Tatum O’Neal.
O’Neal, who became choked up during the ceremony, said later he feels Fawcett’s presence every day.
“I’m still having trouble with losing her,” he said.
She was born Feb. 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

John Lennon coin issued by UK Royal Mint
LONDON ñ Most British coins bear the likeness of Queen Elizabeth II ó but now she’s been joined by John Lennon, honored Friday with a commemorative coin struck by the Royal Mint.
It was a triumph for Beatle fans, who used e-mail voting and social networks to buttress support for Lennon in a public poll to determine whose face should be on the special coin.
Lennon _whose songwriting credits include “Imagine” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” ó came out far ahead of author Jane Austen and several other figures in the balloting.
“It’s entirely fitting that John Lennon has been chosen by the public in what would have been his 70th year,” said Dave Knight, director of Commemorative Coin at the Royal Mint. “The massive proportion of the vote he received shows clearly just how much his untimely death still resonates with the nation. He ranks alongside, and even ahead of, some of the greatest names in history.”
The former Beatle will join William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale among British luminaries whose images have graced special coins.
The issuing of the silver commemorative coin marks one more step in the British establishment’s posthumous embrace of Lennon, whose political stance and open drug use brought him into conflict with authorities in the late 1960s before he moved to New York, where he was murdered in 1980.
The airport at Lennon’s home town of Liverpool has been named after Lennon, and there is a statue of him in the city center.
The limited edition coin shows Lennon with long hair and sideburns and his trademark round glasses. It will have a face value of 5 pounds ($8) but will be sold for 44.99 pounds. Only 5,000 will be offered for sale.
The Royal Mint also plans to produce a single coin in 24 karat gold that will be given to Lennon’s estate.

UK makes Abbey Road Studios a historic building
LONDON ñ The Beatles’ Abbey Road Studios were officially declared a historic building Tuesday, a move that will help preserve the cultural landmark that is a magnet for fans worldwide.
The crosswalk outside the iconic north London studios draws tourists with cameras daily, and the facilities have also hosted Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck and Radiohead and are still popular with orchestras.
But their cash-strapped owner EMI Group Ltd. says the studios have been losing money for years and has only recently shelved plans to sell them. While EMI now says it’s looking for money to help revitalize the studios, news that it was seeking to offload Abbey Road sparked dismay among music fans.
Former Beatle Paul McCartney said he hoped it could be preserved, while English Heritage ó the body that oversees buildings of historic interest ó appealed to the government to name it a historic building.
English Heritage spokeswoman Helen Bowman said government’s move “has probably been sped up” by recent speculation over the studios’ future.
In a statement, English Heritage Chief Executive Simon Thurley said the Georgian building housing the studios “acts as a modern day monument to the history of recorded sound and music.”
“Some of the most defining sounds of the 20th century were created within the walls of the Abbey Road Studios,” he said. “It contains, quite simply, the most famous recording studios in the world.”

Michael Jackson concert merchandise for sale
LOS ANGELES ñ Michael Jackson’s comeback concerts will never happen, but you can still get the T-shirt.
Merchandise from Jackson’s “This Is It” tour, which was scheduled to begin Monday in London, will be available online and at retailers across the United States.
Jackson helped design the concert T-shirts and other show souvenirs, said Peter LoFrumento, a spokesman for the merchandising company, Bravado.
“Michael was very adamant about not just doing T-shirts and posters and key chains,” he said. “He wanted to do something special and make it really innovative and different, things that were functional and fun and that his fans would like.”
Among the items for sale: T-shirts commemorating the first and second nights of the concerts at London’s O2 arena, belt buckles, caps, sunglasses and mugs. A varsity jacket modeled after the one Jackson wore in the “Thriller” video will also be available.
Jackson died June 25 in Los Angeles while preparing for the 50-date concert tour.

Fan restores ‘Christmas Story’ house
CLEVELAND (AP) ó Ralphie Parker and Brian Jones know what it’s like to want something.
For Ralphie, the object of desire was an official Red Ryder, carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. (Go ahead, say it, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”) For Jones, the gotta-have-it item was Ralphie’s house ó the one in A Christmas Story, the quirky film that’s found a niche alongside holiday classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.
Jones has restored the three-story, wood-frame house to its appearance in the movie and will open it for tours beginning Saturday. His hope is that it will become a tourist stop alongside the city’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other destinations.
He’s unsure whether he’ll make enough money to cover his $500,000 investment, but as sure as a kid’s tongue will stick to a frozen flag pole, he’s committed to the project.
“I just want people to come and enjoy it as I have,” said Jones, a 30-year-old former Navy lieutenant.
A Christmas Story wasn’t a big hit when released in 1983 but repeat TV airings and, in recent years, a 24-hour run on TBS starting Christmas Eve have made its story of boy’s quest to get a BB gun for Christmas as infectious as the bespectacled Ralphie’s eager grin.
“It just kind of sets the mood. In the Jones household, it’s on all day once the marathon comes on,” said Jones, who’s married with an 8-month-old daughter.
Jones first saw the movie in the late 1980s and he and his parents became fans.
When the San Diego resident’s dream of a becoming a Navy pilot like his father was denied because of his eyesight, his parents sent him a package to lift his spirits. Marked “FRAGILE” on the outside, it contained a leg lamp his parents built to look just like the one received by Ralphie’s father, who proudly displayed it in the living room window, boasting, “It’s a major award!”
Jones’ mom noted that he could probably make a business out of selling them. In 2003, he started doing just that.
“I tooled together 500 lamps in my 1,000-square-foot condo in San Diego and sold them all in the first year,” Jones said.
And he’s still making and selling them ó $129.99 for the 45-inch model, $159.99 for the 53-inch “deluxe full size” leg lamp.
When the house from the film was put up for sale on eBay in December 2004, it seemed like destiny to Jones.
“I said, ‘Ooh, I gotta have that.'”
The auction price got up to $115,000. Jones, who shares Ralphie’s unflinching enthusiasm, less than 20/20 eyesight and ability to speak at a breakneck pace, said he’d pay $150,000 if the owner stopped the bidding.
“It was mine. I sent him a deposit and flew out two days after Christmas just to make sure it wasn’t a falling-down shack,” Jones said.
He put in new windows and replaced the 111-year-old house’s gray aluminum siding with mustard yellow painted wood and green trim that perfectly matches Ralphie’s house.
Although only a couple interior shots were filmed there, Jones has recreated the ’40s feel of Ralphie’s home with a brown-and-white tile kitchen floor, a wide cast-iron sink in the kitchen, a claw-foot bathtub and, of course, a leg lamp in the window.
He also bought the house across the street ó Ralphie runs past it in the film’s opening scene ó to serve as a museum and gift shop. Several original items from the film are on display, including the infamous snowsuit (“I can’t put my arms down!”) worn by Ralphie’s brother, Randy.
The house is located in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, just a few minutes from downtown where the exterior department store shots were filmed at the former Higbee’s.
The cooperation of the department store is what brought the filmmakers to Cleveland for the film based on author Jean Shepherd’s stories of his upbringing in Hammond, Ind.
The house is well known in the neighborhood and neighbors like Marlene Childers have watched the house change owners and go through ups and downs over the years. She’s excited about Jones’ tribute ó even if it means more cars and traffic.
“I love that story,” she said.
Jones knows the feeling. And he says stepping onto Ralphie’s old street makes him feel like he’s in the movie.
Standing in front of the house holding a replica Red Ryder rifle, he discusses his future plans ó which could include a nearby bed and breakfast ó when, seemingly on a director’s cue, a motorist passes, stops his car, rolls down the window and shouts, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”