Category: Memorabilia

Disney gives Pooh a makeover for 80th anniversary
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Winnie the Pooh is getting a makeover as the Walt Disney Co presses its second-largest franchise into play for a larger share of the $21 billion preschool market, the company said on Wednesday.
Disney is readying a yearlong marketing push in 2006 to commemorate and capitalize on the 80th anniversary of the publication of “Winnie-the-Pooh” and expand the brand beyond The Forest and infant toys, clothing and furniture.
The tubby yellow bear will appear in brighter colors and Disney will emphasize the active side of Pooh’s adventures as described in A.A. Milne’s 1926 book to appeal to activity loving preschoolers, said Preston Kevin Lewis, global director of the Winnie the Pooh franchise.
“Trust, friendship and happiness — Pooh doesn’t lose any of those things, it just changes how we talk about him,” Lewis said.
Disney is still battling an appeal of a 14-year-old Los Angeles lawsuit by heirs of Milne’s agent, who claim they are owed millions in royalties.
The company won a dismissal of the lawsuit last year but had warned investors that it could be on the hook for “hundreds of millions” of dollars if it eventually loses the case.
In its December report on the U.S. market for infant, toddler and preschool toys, Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, said the sector has outperformed the general toy market.
“The single greatest reason for the overall toy market’s decline has been that kids now have access to many other amusements, especially video and videogames,” the report said. “The good news is that the infant/toddler/preschooler population will trend higher in the long term, unstoppable, forever and ever and ever…”
Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood generated $5.3 billion in retail sales in 2004 — topped only by Mickey Mouse among the Disney stable. Disney gets a portion of those revenues through its licensing agreements.
Martin Brochstein, an analyst for EPM Communications, said the growing preschool market is one of the most competitive and Disney will by competitive only if it convinces retailers to feature the Pooh products prominently.
“Pooh has a wonderful thing going for it in that it is a heritage brand. It’s just a matter of them as marketers making it important enough so that retailers will commit to it,” Brochstein said.
Disney plans to toast the honey-loving bear throughout the year with a Broadway show, a weekly radio show, a new animated television series in 2007 and toys and collectibles.
Major international retailers such as Sears and Toys ‘R Us in the United States, Takashimaya in Japan, Carrefour in France, BVG in Germany as well as corporate partners Coca-Cola and Fuji have also signed on to do promotions with Pooh, Disney said.
“This is the first type of retail promotion that the Walt Disney Co has done across the company with promotions taking place worldwide,” Lewis said.
The festivities start December 24, 2005 — the 80th anniversary of publication of Milne’s first Winnie the Pooh story in the London Evening News. The next year Milne published the first “Winnie the Pooh” book and followed it in 1928 with “The House at Pooh Corner.”
Simon Waters, vice president of infant/toddler/pre-school franchises for Disney Consumer Products said 2- to 5-year-olds generate an average of $1 billion in retail sales across all product categories.
Disney will add the Pooh cartoon to a mix of Disney Channel programs that target preschoolers and spur sales of other consumer products — including Little Einstein and the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

‘Metropolis’ film poster sells for record $690,000
LONDON (Reuters) – A poster for the classic German 1920s film “Metropolis” has been sold for a world record $690,000 to a private collector from the United States, the London gallery which arranged the sale said on Tuesday.
The sale beat the previous record for a movie poster of $453,500, set in 1997 by a poster for the 1932 film “The Mummy,” the Reel Poster Gallery said.
Graphic artist Heinz Schulz-Neudamm designed the sepia-colored poster featuring the futuristic skyline which helped make Fritz Lang’s film famous.
The art deco poster is one of only four known copies in existence. The Museum of Modern Art in New York and Berlin’s Film Museum have one each while another is in a private collection.
The poster was bought by California-based collector Ken Schacter from British businessman Andrew Cohen, chairman of mail order firm Betterware, a spokeswoman for the gallery said.

2004 in Entertainment: Wacky and Tacky
2004 may go down in history as the year of the runaway breast. Yes, there was Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl flash, but don’t forget Tara Reid’s absent-minded red carpet dress-drop or the uproar over a sexy “Desperate Housewives” promo for Monday Night Football. Add in Colin Farrell’s missing manhood from the movie “A Home at the End of the World” and the curtailed puppet sex in “Team America: World Police,” and this was the year of nudity both seen and imagined.
MOST INFAMOUS WARDROBE MALFUNCTION: Janet is disqualified because nobody believes it was an accident. So the prize goes to “American Pie” actress Reid, who ó while entering a recent P. Diddy party ó flashed a big smile for paparazzi while the strap of her black gown hung at her hip, exposing a surgically enhanced left breast complete with black-and-blue scar.
WORST OVERREACTION: ABC flagellated itself over a saucy intro to “Monday Night Football” that featured a suddenly towel-less Nicollette Sheridan leaping into the arms of Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens. Some viewers complained, inducing a mea culpa from everybody but the football. Where’s the outrage over those Herbal Essence shampoo commercials?
WORST UNDERREACTION: Tara Reid’s red-carpet handler, who took about 10 seconds amid the snapping of flashbulbs to realize that Frankenboob had made an appearance. And even after she pulls the dress back on, a dazed Reid doesn’t appear to know it happened.
THE FALAFEL TRUTH: In a lawsuit accusing Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment, a former employee recounted overtly sexual phone calls from “The No-Spin Zone” host in which he says he’d like to scrub her with a loofah in the shower, then later refers to the sponge as a “falafel.” Is it wrong to say you’ll rub fried chickpeas on a bathing underling? We’ll never know ó O’Reilly reached an undisclosed settlement.
BIGGEST LOSER: Whoopi Goldberg, who made a joke using President Bush’s last name as a sexual reference. Her remark, made at a campaign rally for Democratic challenger John Kerry, led the diet drink company Slim Fast to drop her like a few extra pounds.
WORST PRODUCT PLACEMENT: Star Jones’ promo-filled wedding. The sassy co-host of TV’s “The View” plugged companies and products that supplied her, her groom and the guests at her star-studded bash with freebies. As if people weren’t sick enough of hearing about her “fairy tale wedding” already. We await the arrival of her firstborn: Pampers Halliburton Fritos Jones.
MISSING MANHOOD: Wine-swigging, cigarette-puffing bad-boy thespian Colin Farrell lost his ballyhooed full-frontal shot in the drama “A Home at the End of the World,” reportedly because the filmmakers feared it would distract audiences. He later managed to slip a tiny reproductive glimpse into a sex scene from “Alexander.” Perhaps then audiences were too distracted by his bad dye job to notice.
ALL APOLOGIES: Maybe the broadcast networks should run a constant “apology crawl” under every telecast. Although “Saving Private Ryan” aired uncut ó including profanities and gory war violence ó on ABC twice before, when the network tried to show it again on Veterans Day, 66 affiliates covering roughly one-third of the country refused to air it.
MOST WOODEN SEX SCENE: “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker had a surefire scene to steam up the ratings board in “Team America: World Police” ó puppet sex. Their political satire included an extended romp between two marionettes who try out a series of positions straight from the world of “Kinsey.” The ratings board balked at the overt ribaldry, even though the puppets had only hinges and joints where their naughty bits should be.
BEST SLAPDOWN: Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” appeared on CNN’s “Crossfire” and very calmly, very coolly whipped the two co-hosts ó lefty Paul Begala and righty Tucker Carlson ó into jelly without ever raising his voice or flailing his arms. Brutally uncomfortable, Stewart indicted them for bringing little more than PR spin to American voters. Stewart’s best retort (after a pummeled Carlson tells him “Come on, be funny!”): “No. No. I’m not going to be your monkey.”

Stormtrooper Helmet Goes up for Auction
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – Some lucky “Star Wars” fan will get an early Christmas present.
A rare helmet worn by stormtroopers, the film’s armored soldiers loyal to the evil Emperor, will go under the hammer at Christie’s auction house in London on Tuesday, Dec. 14, report British news sources.
The helmet is one of six that were custom made for “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas as a prop for his pitch of the original 1977 film to movie execs.
The armor piece was purchased 12 years ago for $13 (7 pounds UK) at a car boot sale — the equivalent of the American flea market where second-hand items are sold out of the back of a car.
The helmet is expected to fetch a winning bid of approximately $13,300.
Other entertainment-themed items up for sale that day include: the original moon buggy from the 007 film “Diamonds Are Forever,” Charlie Chaplin’s false moustache from “The Great Dictator,” his cane from “Modern Times” and “Ali G’s” rhinestone-studded tracksuit and knuckle-duster ring.

Expert Says ‘Lost’ Beatles Trove Is Fake
LONDON – It sounded too good to be true. Turns out it probably was. A long-sought trove of rare Beatles material that reportedly was found last month by a lucky British tourist remains lost, a leading Beatles expert says.
Last month, The Times newspaper reported that a suitcase bought by Fraser Claughton, 41, at an Australian flea market for about $35 was packed with Beatles memorabilia, including photos, concert programs and unreleased recordings.
But Pete Nash, a memorabilia expert from the British Beatles Fan Club who examined the contents of the suitcase on behalf of a British television channel, said he saw photocopied ticket stubs, laser-scanned pictures from the 1990s ó and no rare reel-to-reel recordings.
“It’s farcical, really,” Nash told The Associated Press.
Neither The Times nor the reporter who wrote the original story wished to comment Wednesday.
Claughton does not have a listed telephone number, and could not be reached for comment. John Read, a friend and pop memorablia dealer who has spoken for him on the issue, did not return calls.
The story of Claughton’s alleged discovery was picked up by media outlets around the world, including the AP.
The Times reported that among the contents of the suitcase was a reel-to-reel tape that included John Lennon and Paul McCartney experimenting with alternative versions of previously unrecorded tracks.
The newspaper quoted an expert with Christie’s auction house as saying the find “sounds very exciting indeed,” but a spokeswoman stressed to the AP that the auction house had not been contacted about evaluating the find and none of its experts had seen it.
The Times had said some experts believed the collection was the lost “Mal Evans archive,” originally belonging to the Beatles’ roadie and sound recordist.
Evans was killed by police in Los Angeles in 1976 after brandishing a fake gun. His belongings were lost during the police investigation and have never been recovered.
Nash said many of the items in the suitcase appeared to be copies, including laser-scanned photos dating from the mid-1990s and ticket stubs for The Beatles’ appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and the premiere of “A Hard Day’s Night” that were reproductions of images from “Lennon Legend,” a book published last year.
“There was nothing to tie it to Mal Evans whatsoever,” Nash said.
He said he asked to see the reel-to-reel tapes but was told “they were locked away in a bank vault.”
“They said the tapes were still housed in their metal canisters,” Nash said. “Audio tape is magnetic. One thing you do not do is store it in metal canisters.”
Nash said he was played some tracks on CD that were “very common (bootleg) tracks that most Beatles collectors would own.”
Geoff Baker, spokesman for The Beatles’ label, Apple Corps, also said he believed the find was a fake.
The Evans archive remains a grail for Beatles collectors. Evans traveled with the band from the early 1960s and amassed a collection that would be worth millions if it turned up, Nash said.
“He used to pick up the rubbish in the studio, including The Beatles’ handwritten notes and lyrics,” Nash said.
In 1998, a notebook compiled by Evans, containing draft lyrics for “Hey Jude” and “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” sold for $185,000 at a London auction.
A year earlier, McCartney obtained an injunction to prevent Evans’ widow from selling a scrap of paper bearing the original lyrics to “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
Evans also completed a book about his time with the band. The manuscript is among the items lost after his death.
“All his personal effects were sent back to the U.K., including his ashes, but none of it arrived,” Nash said. “I think it’s still lost in the mail.”

Album signed for Lennon killer on sale
An infamous piece of Beatles’ memorabilia is up for sale on the Internet, Reuters reports.
The copy of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Double Fantasy” album, signed by the musician for Mark David Chapman hours before Chapman killed Lennon, is up for sale on Momentsintime.com
The album was found hidden outside the entrance of Lennon’s New York home, the Dakota apartment building, shortly after he was shot Dec. 8, 1980. It was used as evidence against Chapman.
The asking price for the “most important piece of historic rock memorabilia ever,” according to the site, is $682,213 Cdn. The album includes Chapman’s forensically enhanced fingerprints, visible on the cover and dust jacket.

Showbiz Auction Eyes $150,000 for Superman Suit
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – When Superman donned his red cape in the 1950s, he ran faster than a speeding bullet and was able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, but not even he could have known that his S-emblazoned outfit might fetch $150,000 at auction.
Los Angeles-based Profiles in History opens the bidding in an auction of Hollywood memorabilia on Thursday with some 360 items for sale from the Superman costume George Reeves wore in the 1950s TV show of the same name to the gloves Arnold Schwarzenegger used in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
While the auction features mostly items from science fiction movies and television shows, one piece up for grabs is Mel Brooks’ first writing screenplay of the 1968 film “The Producers,” an adaptation of which is now a hit stage play. It is expected to fetch between $8,000 and $10,000.
The Superman costume is the auction’s centerpiece because it is one of only two authentic George Reeves Superman suits known to exist, said Profiles’ Chief Executive Joseph Maddalena.
“I can’t think of a more important TV show costume,” said Maddalena, adding he expects the auction to bring in around $1 million in total with the costume going for about $150,000.
Maddalena said collecting show business material has become increasingly popular because it is more affordable than antiques and fine art.
Collecting goes in waves and currently Hollywood’s sci-fi material is hot, he said. Last year, Profiles auctioned Captain Kirk’s Command Chair from the “Star Trek” TV series for $306,000.
Authenticating pieces is made easier by the fact that many people who made or wore them are living. “The industry kind of polices me, and I work within the industry. If the material wasn’t real, they would hang me,” he said.
Or perhaps they would send Superman to do the job.
Bids can be made in person at Profiles in History’s Beverly Hills office or online at eBay live auctions.