These classic TV props and costumes from a legendary collection are heading to auction. Here’s a chance to see them
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Fans of old TV:
Ever thought you’d look spiffy in the Grecian chiton William Shatner wore when he gave Nichelle Nichiols the networks’ first interracial kiss on “Star Trek” 50 years ago?
How about posing behind the clear acrylic Bat Shield Adam West and Burt Ward protected themselves with in the 1960s “Batman” show?
And what if you wanted to sit in Uncle Martin’s very own, “My Favorite Martian” spaceship?
Well, now you can, though you’d probably just want to preserve rather than mess with these and some 400 other precious, genuine items available at the TV Treasures Live Auction.
Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Prop Store in Valencia – and on public view from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily this week at the auction house’s 28014 Harrison Parkway address – this is the first auction of items solely from the legendary, 30-year-old Comisar Collection.
Curator James Comisar has gathered and carefully cared for many thousands of things used in television shows over those decades, with the hope to someday open a museum in his and the industry’s hometown, Los Angeles. But now . . .
“I set out to save TV history, so now I have 10 times more than the Smithsonian in TV artifacts: costumes, props, sets,” explained Glendale resident Comisar, a former comedy writer who now makes his living as a consultant for celebrities, heads of studios, high net worth people and internet billionaires who want to buy pieces of TV history.
“All these pieces come from my collection,” he said of the auction items. “I’ve been nudging Hollywood for 20-plus years, maybe we should have a standalone museum for our rich TV history. It’s been an uphill battle, they’re nearly indifferent about the whole thing. So I thought I’d release some of these pieces back to the fans. They’ve never been indifferent, they’ve treated these pieces like religious objects.”
Brandon Alinger, COO of Britain-based Prop House and head of its American operations, calls Comisar the go-to guy for TV memorabilia. Alinger praised how the collector cares for his items, which are stored in a Valley warehouse and a high-security, climate/humidity/light-controlled one in West L.A. that’s shared by museum and wealthy individuals’ fine art masterpieces.
On a tour of the display of dozens of auction items at the pop culture auctioneer’s 20,000 square foot facility, Alinger lauded a Dean Cain “Lois & Clark” Superman suit’s still vivid colors.
Then there’s Frank Gorshin’s Riddler jacket and vest from the “Batman” show, which between them Comisar and Prop House have typically, rigorously authenticated, going so far as to freeze-framing old episodes it was worn in to match the positions and shapes of the jacket’s hand-painted question marks.
Several other one-off alien costumes designed by “Star Trek’s” William Ware Theiss – which were often thrown together in two days for all of 20 bucks apiece – are available, and still colorful, sparkly and otherwise gorgeous. Also on the block are Laura Palmer’s coffin from the original “Twin Peaks” show and “X Files,” “True Blood,” “Munsters” and “Get Smart” props aplenty. You can get a delicately preserved, pig nose appliance from the classic “Twilight Zone” episode “Eye of the Beholder.” There’s even the odd, desirable off-TV item, like an eight-foot tall Geoffrey the Giraffe walkabout costume for those still mourning the recent Toys “R” Us bankruptcy.
And oodles of other stuff.
“There’s content here at all price points,” Alinger explained. “Some things are very expensive – The Riddler jacket, for example, the estimate is $100,000 to $150,000 and the Bat Shield is $400,000 to $600,000 – but many things in the auction are estimated below $1,000. And some items are sold with no reserve price, which means whatever the bid is, even if it’s $50, that’s what it’s going to sell for. So there’ll be some bargains.”
Rob Klein, a collector, book author and former Disney studio archivist, was at Prop Store to check out the display and plans to come back Saturday – you can bid at the facility in person, online or by phone; go to propstore.com for instructions and view the whole catalog here – to hopefully snag some Starfleet insignia, which were often removed from the ‘60s show’s costumes when they were dry cleaned and, subsequently, lost.
“My collection is basically anything that sort of meant something to me as a kid,” Klein said.
“I’m coming to this auction out of respect for James, because he is the curator worldwide for television.”
Comisar comes from a similar place, although he’s taken his passion to astronomical levels. Yet it remains a personal thing, and he bristles at the suggestion that he’s some kind of genius for investing in a collectors market when everyone else, in Hollywood and beyond, considered this stuff just disposable junk.
“In the beginning, I was thought to be crazy because none of this had any value,” Comisar said, noting that studios only bothered to keep the most generic-looking clothing and prop items for use in other shows and, essentially, tossed the rest. “I was putting pieces in the finest art storage available in America because I grew up with these characters. I was a fat kid, I loved these characters, I loved their costumes. So I was thought of as bat—t crazy for the first 20 years, and now I’m some sort of financial genius that cornered the market. But that was never my driver.”
Although he reckoned the Comisar Collection is more-or-less invaluable now, its owner is certainly cognizant of how the market for TV items has grown.
“The reason why a lot of successful or entertainment people buy in this market is because, on the TV side, for $400,000 or $500,000 you can buy the very best in the marketplace,” Comisar explained. “In any other art market, that’s like the framing cost, it’s nothing. So it’s still a buyers market. On the film side, the top is around $5 or $6 million per piece.
“One thing that’s really changed in the market is that, if you were Steven Spielberg 20 years ago and you wanted to buy something, you had the buying power to get whatever you wanted,” he added. “Nowadays, if you’re Tim Burton or Spielberg, you’re bidding against casino owners in Macao and the royal family in Dubai. So once in a while, when guys who are used to getting whatever they want start bidding, the sky’s the limit on prices.”
That said, making a windfall on Saturday won’t necessarily make Comisar as happy as he could be.
“I’m kind of a spiritual person, so I believe whatever it does will be perfect,” he said. “Whatever drove all those thousands of pieces my way, that same energy is going to make whatever is supposed to happen happen. Part of me wishes that the Bat Shield will sell, but an equal part wishes that it won’t and it’ll come back home to me. It’s a very bittersweet kind of thing.”