Curio: Hollywood's Garage Sale

Alexa here.  The 2012 Hollywood Legends Auction, held recently by Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, made some news because it included the first sale of Whitney Houston's belongings since her passing. I recently perused the catalog and was interested to see many items from Rue McClanahan's estate (Golden Girls caftans!) and artifacts from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's life together (including some patio furniture). There were hundreds of interesting film curios, including costumes, original artwork and odd, lifelike mannequins. Also fascinating was how much many of the items went for.  Why did Debbie Reynolds' Singin' in the Rain Costume fetch $10,000 more than Natalie Wood's Gypsy ensemble? Who knows.  Here is a small selection of the hundreds. You can flip through the catalog here.

Orson Welles self portrait, sold for $8,960.

Eyes Wide Shut mannequins, sold for $1,408.

Cabaret, Cleopatra, Gypsy and more after the jump...

Oil painting portrait of Hedy Lamarr, by actor Reginald Gardner, sold for $5,937.50.

Liza Minnelli Cabaret bowler, sold for $8,320.Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra costume (sold for $10,000), necklace (sold for $4,375) and mannequin (sold for $1,625).

Natalie Wood Gypsy costume, sold for $6,875.

Debbie Reynolds Singin' in the Rain costume, sold for $17,500.

Comments

[Janice]

Alexa thanks. I suspect that the Debbie Reynolds costume got more because it is simply one of the classic films in American cinema, and Gypsy is not. (Look how many times Nathaniel has mentioned it compared to - not once for Gypsy? And with good reason, Singing in the Rain is a "great" film IMO, Gypsy is not.) I dare day that Singing in the Rain, and Debbie Reynolds herself, both have a larger (gay?) following. (Of course I don't know the orientation of whoever bought these.) In part because Reynolds lived longer and had more opportunity to develop that sort of devoted following in her stageshows etc, as one of the last of the classic Hollywood movie stars.

I don't get the life-size wax mannequins at all, what purpose, who made them how they function as memorabilia or what their original purpose was if any. And there were several others in the catalog - Tom Hanks from Saving Private Ryan, Sharon Stone (almost unrecognizable in a large overcoat and lank hair) etc. Are these from a wax museum that closed down? Are the costumes originals to the actors in those films? (I'm guessing not, although the Nicole one looks a good remake if so.)

I did flip through the catalog on their website - it's interesting how much of Rue McClanahan's stuff was being auctioned, looked like a good portion of her estate. What surprised me most were that her passport, drivers license and social security card were there. I don't know why I don't consider clothes too personal (probably because most of my wardrobe is second-hand stuff) but those items seemed a little creepy, for some reason. (Am I nuts?)

[Ingrid]

Call me crazy but I think Rue Mclanahan was gorgeous :-) She created such a memorable "Blanche Deveraux"

fav quote..

"My beauty's always been a curse. I'm sorry, Dorothy, but like the fatal blossom of
the graceful jimson weed, I entice with my fragrance but can provide no succor"

LOL

[Matthew]

Those (life-size!?) Eyes Wide Shut mannequins are too creepy for words.

[Nathaniel R]

Matthew -- LIFE SIZED. it's so so wrong.

[K]

Are they really "life sized" when Tom appears to be only an inch or so shorter than Nicole? ;)

[K]

@Janice - the Rue McClanahan items ARE creepy. Her high school diploma is there - as is Marilyn Monroe's junior high diploma. But the driver's license, SSN card, etc is just begging for identity theft (it's easiest to do with someone that is deceased).

I'm really surprised the Star Wars and Star Trek items didn't fetch more, considering their rabid fan bases.

And is this a typo - Jason Momoa's sword from Conan the Barbarian went for $3,200? The movie barely made more than that at the box office.

[Alexa]

Janice, agreed about Singin' in the Rain vs. Gypsy, but I thought any Natalie Wood merch would fetch something more, you know?

And Ingrid, Rue was beautiful, just spotted her in the old 1971 oddball film They Might Be Giants, worth it for an instant Netflix stream.