This past week, SyFy aired the third and fourth episodes of the new cable television series “Hollywood Treasure”, featuring Joe Maddalena, Brian Chanes, and the staff of Profiles in History. The reality-based series follows Joe and his efforts to secure important Hollywood memorabilia for his live auction sale events. This continues a series of regular reviews of each episode, following last week’s review of episodes #101 and #102.
Episode 103: “Comic Con-Quest” (Premiere Air Date Wednesday, November 3 at 10/9c)
This episode features a look at San Diego Comic Con from the vantage point of the auction house principals. Interestingly, I actually filmed the crew of the show shooting scenes for this segment of the episode (and I personally pop up in the background a few times taking photos, which were published in July – see “Sneak Peek of SyFy Channel’s “Hollywood Treasure” with Joe Maddalena of Profiles in History at San Diego Comic Con“).
It was great to see Comic Con featured on the show in such a positive light, but the material that was the focal point of that segment – original Jack Kirby artwork from an early issue of Fantastic Four – obviously falls outside of the realm of original props and costumes. But the pioneering work of Kirby and Stan Lee in creating many of Marvel Comics’ most beloved characters and works has obviously had a huge impact on Hollywood in the past decade in particular, with highly successful film franchises for the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, and other movie adaptations of their work (The Hulk, Daredevil, and more, including the upcoming Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers). Joe takes the artwork to writer/creator Stan Lee, but ultimately the owner decides not to consign it to auction.
In talking with various actors from film and television at the convention, Joe and crew spend the most time with Erin Gray from the original Buck Rogers television series. Ultimately, they do visit her house and she lends them her starfighter model gifted to her from the show. The piece was warped due to it having been displayed next to a central air register. Joe and Erin Grey later meet at HMS and talk with CEO Mike Moore and prop designer David Jones who made the original models. Ultimately their assessment is that it wasn’t a hero ship, wasn’t used, and it would be prohibitive to restore.
Later, Joe visits Bruce Lee collector Dan Knoll in Chicago, Illinois and consigns a hat worn by the late actor from The Green Hornet television show, along with some shooting scripts. Like pieces featured in the first two episodes of the series, this was sold in Hollywood Auction 40 this past June. This was featured in one of my video preview interviews with Joe Maddalena in advance of that auction event.
Another piece consigned to the same auction that is featured is a model from The Corpse Bride.
The last person Joe visits is Stephan Lokotch, in an effort to secure additional consignments. As a point of personal disclosure, as a customer I had a very disappointing business transaction with Mr. Lokotch in 2006, in which I was sold a “hero” set of Edward Scissorhands prop hands from the dealer that he claimed were “worn by Johnny Depp”. Ultimately, it was determined by a subsequent buyer, via examination by Stan Winston Studios, that the Scissorhands prop was not authentic. Joe Maddalena brought up this issue in one of my video preview interviews with him back in May, which at that time prompted me to provide some context for his comments in my article featuring that interview (see “Profiles in History ‘Hollywood Auction 40′ Video Preview: Edward Scissorhands, Stan Winston, Investing in Movie Props“).
In any event, it is revealed in this segment of the episode that Mr. Lokotch was the consignor of the prop head from Alien, which sold for $60,000 plus buyer’s premium.
Again, the episode closes with footage showing some of the material featured in the show selling at auction.
Episode 104: “Joe Goes Ape” (Premiere Air Date Wednesday, November 3 at 10:30/9:30c)
The fourth episode continues to build on the same formula – seeking out potential auction material and showing results at the conclusion of the program.
This one opens with Joe declaring a goal of finding “the world’s most valuable movie poster” Joe travels to New York to visit John Davis of Poster Mountain and they discuss ways in which to authenticate original poster material. In September 2009, charges of fraud rocked the poster collecting community, as hobbyists in that field worked to uncover a number of vintage poster forgeries circulating in the marketplace, including one prominent piece consigned to a Profiles in History auction event at the time, authenticated by John Davis (see ““1931″ Dracula One Sheet Poster Determined to be Fake, Pulled from Next Week’s Profiles in History Auction“).
Joe later visits Stephen Fishler, CEO of Metropolis Comics, to see his Frankenstein six sheet poster – described as the only one known to exist. Joe ascribes an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 to the poster. Ultimately, Mr. Fishler elects not to consign the valuable poster to sale at Joe’s auction.
Another piece given focus in the show is the authentication of a “Jaffa head” from Stargate SG-1. Tracy gets the actor who wore the piece in the television series, Christopher Judge, to successfully authenticate the mask.
Joan Knox, daughter of the photographer for King Kong (1933) Ernest A. Bachrach, visits with Joe to consign original photos and material from the production to the auction.
The last piece featured is the model plane from King Kong, consigned by owner Dr. Steve Lazaro of Chico, CA. As with many of the key pieces featured in these initial episodes, this was featured in one of the Original Prop Blog preview video interviews earlier this year. Also from the collection is artwork from the classic film, also sold in the same auction event. The model plane ultimately sold for $190,000 plus premium at auction.
Concluding Thoughts
With these second set of weekly episodes, the formula for the show, at least thus far, has become fixed. It will be interesting to see if the show deviates at all from this format with future episodes. I am curious to see how the series affects the future auctions held by Profiles – if the sale events will be more regular, if there will be more transparency as to consignors prior to auctions, and how the public will relate the broadcast “behind the scenes” aspects of the show with their own inquiry into the potential purchase of material and the pre-sale questions asked of the auction house.
Jason DeBord