but it absolutely fascinates me. This is going to sound VERY weird to you, because it is... but I do this:
Watching old movies I'll look at anything... a lamp, a framed painting, a chair, a telephone, a doorknob, and I'll wonder "Does that still exist and if so... where?".
Some years ago my wife and I were down in LA, Hollywood area. My wife was a HUGE Jimmy Stewart fan... (me too, for that matter), and she wanted to go see Jimmy's house... something we had done innumerable times in the past. We arrived at the house and it was GONE... or rather, is was in the process of being gone. It had been purchased by someone and they were tearing it down to rebuild.... the demolition crew was at work.
Well, my wife was unconsolable, (I got a little teary eyed myself).... but my wife leaped from the car and headed into the demolition zone. As luck would have it.. the first guy she came across was the foreman of the demolition crew AND a huge Jimmy Stewart fan himself. So he took my wife's hand and led her thru the rubble... "here's what's left of his living room fireplace... here's part of the bedroom door"..... etc etc etc.
BEFORE this trip, and the demolition, my wife had come home with some branches she had stolen from Jimmy's yard and put them on a shelf in our living room... .THIS trip she came home with a Brick from his fireplace, a panel of wood from his bedroom door, and various other items. As I type this they all now reside on a shelf some 20' away from me and in my living room.
I've read a lot about movie relics and it's SHOCKING how many went missing. And I'm talking about VERY famous relics.
Ok, I'm getting 'wordy'.. with this topic I could go on and on.... but one more: All the props built for the movie Ben Hur, (well, not ALL of them but a lot).... are buried on a beach somewhere in southern Ca.... I think near Santa Barbara.
I'm NOT a collector.. but I wish I would have been. - JamesJM
