Oct 27 - 10:00 PM - Hollywood Treasure - Let The Bidding Begin
Oct 27 - 10:30 PM - Hollywood Treasure - I'll Get You, My Pretty
New Syfy Series ‘Hollywood Treasure’ Has Practically Perfect Connection to
Disney
Television, movies, living vicariously through others, Disney, rare and unique
finds, whiskers on kittens and cheap and feeble attempts at humor by parodying
Hollywood’s most beloved classic musicals: these are a few of my favorite
things. So needless to say I was thrilled when I learned that Syfy would be
introducing a new series titled ‘Hollywood Treasure’ in which we followed the
path of Hollywood’s treasures from unearthing to ending up on the auction house
block. And when Syfy reached out to me to ask if I would be interested in
reviewing the first two episodes from the 12-episode season, I would have
ordinarily jumped at the chance, but what could Syfy (owned by NBC Universal
incidentally) possibly offer me, someone who focuses on The Walt Disney
Company? Apparently everything (but more on that later).
The series centers on Joe Maddalena, the founder and owner of Profiles in
History, a prominent auction house that focuses on Hollywood memorabilia.
Profiles in History was the company recently responsible for the recent ‘LOST’
auction and exhibit as well as an upcoming auction to commemorate the 25th
anniversary of Back to the Future at Universal Studios (which we’ll give some
more information on at a later date). Essentially Joe and his staff act on
leads and previously established relationships to find the owners of desirable
props and get them to agree to consign the object to be sold at auction. Not
everything always works out in Joe’s favor however and fortunately the show
doesn’t bury the non-successes and instead offers us the opportunity to
experience collectibles we might not have had the chance to see otherwise, or
even know to exist.
It’s in the first episode in fact that a lead comes in the form of one of the
magic carpet bags used by Julie Andrews in the Disney classic Mary Poppins.
According to the bag’s history (which isn’t as detailed in the episode),
current owner Erik Rosen’s grandfather received the carpet bag as the result of
a company raffle held for the film’s ad agency. Stuffed with cash as a bonus,
the original winner wasn’t interested in the bag as much as the cash and gladly
passed the carpet bag off to Rosen’s grandfather who gifted it to his wife.
Although it was well-loved by Erik and his siblings as children, it eventually
ended up packed in a cardboard box in the cellar and there it sat for decades
until the family moved out of the home and the grandchildren decided to see who
could get the most money for it.
Initially Maddalena is impressed by the carpet bag when he examines it and
tells Rosen that he believes the bag could fetch as much as $15,000 at auction
if the bag could be confirmed as authentic screen-used, but when Profiles in
History has trouble substantiating Rosen’s claims, it’s up to the Profiles in
History crew to further investigate into the true origins of the bag and what
they ultimately discover will definitely surprise you.
Even the second episode, whose star is one of the Wicked Witch of the West’s
hat from MGM’s Wizard of Oz, has a touch of Disney in that it was filmed around
the time of the LOST auction and features several of the props from the ABC
series. Maddalena also pays a visit to the Sony Pictures Entertainment archive
as well as offers appraisals to a private Batman memorabilia collector who not
only collects items but built his own functional Batmobile replica solely from
photographic references and a Heath Ledger as the Joker life-size figure that
must be seen to be believed.
I have but one gripe about the series and it’s probably not all that surprising
given the state of reality television nowadays and that is that some of the
dialogue between the crew appears scripted and artificial for the sake of
enhancing the viewing experience. Fortunately however it’s a rare scenario and
the genuine content of the show is compelling enough to forgive it.
The first two episodes of ‘Hollywood Treasure’ premiere back-to-back tonight on
Syfy at 10 pm and 10:30 pm.
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