Hollywood Treasure – “I’ll Get You My Pretty” Episode Recap and Review

This episode starts with another roundtable discussion with the Profiles in History crew. We learn about a guy bought a chest of costumes from a Hollywood studio for $50 and one of the items might be a pretty valuable costume that Bela Lugosi wore in White Zombie. We also learn that the owner of the iconic Wicked Witch of West hat might be ready to sell her piece of Hollywood history.

Sue Palmer owns the original witch’s hat from the Wizard of Oz. Brian has heard through the grape vine that other auction houses were trying to get Sue to sell the hat through their auction houses, so Joe hops on a plane to Toledo, Ohio to talk to Sue in person, hoping that a personal appearance will help convince her that Profiles in History is her best option. Sue is very attached to the hat, so Joe uses his “kid gloves” to soften her up, and eventually convinces her it is time to sell and his company is the one to do the selling.

Much like the first episode, I am amazed that these Hollywood relics are just sitting in someone’s house and not in a museum somewhere.

Brian and his co-worker, Jon, visit the Profiles in History warehouse to retrieve the Bela Lugosi costume. The warehouse is a place that I would absolutely lose my mind. It is filled to to the rafters with boxes of memorabilia. There is a ton of LOST items from Profiles in History’s “upcoming” auction (I wrote about this in May), including the blue VW van that Hurley and Sawyer take for a spin. Just give me one day in that warehouse, and my life would be complete. One day!

Another one of the Profiles crew, Tracy, goes to a shop in Hollywood to try and find some clothing props that might be a good addition to the auction. The shop is called “It’s a Wrap” and is apparently a thrift store for the Hollywood studios. She finds this really cool-looking warrior outfit, but no one knows what movie or TVshow it was used in, so she leaves it behind. That fact that a store like this even exists just blows my mind. Here in DC, we don’t have shops like that. I need to move to Hollywood.

Joe goes to Sony studios, trying to get Sony to consign some items for an upcoming auction. Sony’s Colin Greene shows Joe some incredible items, including the original Barbara Eden I Dream of Jeannie outfit. He’s not willing to part with any of the outfits but Joe convinces him to give his company a chance to auction an original model of a space ship used in the filming of one of my favorite sci-fi flicks, Starship Troopers.

The Profiles staff call in Marc Wanamaker,a motion picture historian, to authenticate the Bela Lugosi costume, and he indeed confirms it is legitimate. The costume has been altered, but it is the costume Lugosi wore in the White Zombie.

Joe and Brian visit Dawn Wells at her house to see some items she saved from her days portraying every boy’s favorite, Mary Anne, on Gilligan’s island. She shows them some of her dresses and other clothes, including a pair of shorts. Apparently, she was the first woman to wear shorts on television, which caused quite a sensation in its day. Joe decides that it will be best to wait to auction the items until the new movie comes out next year in order to get the maximum amount possible.

The show ends with the auction, where we see familiar faces from the first episode, since I believe it’s the same auction. We are introduced this time to Ron Magid, a big collector of horror memorabilia. Ron is there for the Bela Lugosi coat and vest, but the bidding ends at $100,000, which is too high for his wallet. I liked that Ron actually had the sense to stop bidding and recognized the fact that his wife might not let him sleep in the house if he spent $100k on half of a suit.

The Starship Troopers model sells for $35,000, well above its estimated $3,000-5,000. I think Sony might let Joe have another item or two in the future after that nice surprise.

The marquee item of the auction was the Wicked Witch of the West hat which sold for $200k. Sue Palmer is very pleased. I would be too!

Another great episode, and I am officially hooked. Anyone else catch the show? What did you think?