Hollywood auction features Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Avengers, and more
Movie fans can bid on production-used scripts, props, costumes, publicity photos, and press books from some of their favorite movies during the Hanlin’s Hollywood Memorabilia Auction at 11 a.m. CDT on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12, 2020.
Day one of the Hollywood auction features movie ephemera – defined as collectible written or printed memorabilia expected to have short-term usefulness. This includes an extensive collection of rare press books from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, which were promotional tools created by studios to market their films to movie theater owners. One of the earliest is a 1940 press book for a movie based on the Western comic strip Red Ryder called “The Adventures of Red Ryder.” This book is particularly interesting because it’s autographed by William “Billy” Benedict, an American actor best known for playing “Whitey” in The Bowery Boys series. However, one press book from 1955 is expected to get a lot of attention on day one because it includes two classic James Dean movies: “Rebel Without a Cause” and “East of Eden.”
“You don’t find this stuff very often because there was a ton made, but how many were kept?” pointed out Chris Hanlin, co-owner of Hanlin Auction Service with his wife, Candice. “After theaters decided what poster they wanted, they probably didn’t keep the magazine.”
Also available for bidding on day one are publicity photos, scripts, and shooting schedules, including scripts from the 1995-2001 “Star Trek Voyager” series, a 1996 production-used storyboard script and 1997 call sheet from “Alien Resurrection,” and publicity stills from the 1972 classic crime drama “The Godfather” starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton.
Harry Potter fans will be interested in the copy of The Sun from Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002, with a headline announcing the death of Dumbledore – British actor Richard Harris who played the Hogwarts headmaster in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
The Hollywood auction’s second day features incredibly cool production-used props and costumes from several popular film franchises, including original resin stunt wands used in the Harry Potter films by Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort (expected to sell for $3,000 – $6,000) and Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange (expected to sell for $2,000 – $3,000), as well as an original special effects golden snitch used in the first two Harry Potter movies. This snitch was placed on a pole and waved around during filming so the actors would have something to follow on set, but with a little movie magic, it was replaced by a digital snitch for the big screen.
For Star Wars fans, day two includes original hand-drawn designs for the bounty hunter “Sand Man” from “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens” and a Kyber crystal prototype necklace for Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) made for the production of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
Fans of the Avengers will want to check out the original Asgardian helmet used in “Thor: The Dark World” (expected to sell for $1,500 – $2,000) and production-made “STARK 18” and “STARK 19” license plates from Tony Stark’s garage in “Iron Man 2” (expected to sell for $500 – $700 each). But, perhaps the most amazing Avengers prop in the auction is an original screen-matched SHIELD Security File used in “The Avengers,” which, thanks to pre-bids, is already at $1,000.
“The Captain America file folder is absolutely screen-matched to the scene, so I think that one is definitely going to be in the top three [highest bid items] because it involves multiple characters and you can see it very clearly,” Hanlin said. “There’s a file for Agent Carter, there’s one for Tony Stark, there’s one for Tony Stark’s dad, and it has a color photo of them and says ‘Deceased.’ It’s pretty neat.”
As for costumes, the auction features the sweatshirt worn by Peter Parker (Tom Holland) during the science class field trip in “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” a white shirt with bullet holes worn by Logan/X-24 (Hugh Jackman) in “Logan,” and the green birthday party dress worn by Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”
“With movie props and costumes, just the nature that there’s only so many, or one, or one of this bloody version – or whatever it is – there’s a very limited number,” Hanlin added. “That’s why this collecting world is so suited to auctions because how do you price that? Every auction, I’m surprised by the stuff that people just had to have.”
Last, but not least – and with Halloween coming up – horror fans can bid on an original screen-matched costume worn by Annabelle Bee Mullins (Samara Lee) in the supernatural horror film “Annabelle: Creation” or a super creepy production-made head for the animatronic Chucky puppet in the supernatural slasher film “Curse of Chucky.”
The auction is being conducted through iCollector.com online auctions. Click here for a complete auction catalog and information about how to bid.
