Everybody thinks they got some treasure stashed somewhere - in the attic, down in the baseball or in the closet where old photos and more are lurking. But the truth is all that's old is not necessarily gold. Don't let Antiques Roadshow put dollar signs in your eyes.
Here's what's hot and what's not in the world of collectibles:
Comic Books: Everybody thinks that stash of beat up comics from the 1980's will pay for their retirement or their kid's college education. Sorry to disappoint, but most comics from the mid 1970's on are just not worth much at all. That's because people stopped throwing out comics and started saving them when fans of comic books got organized in the late 1960's. As a result, if you have early comics (from the 1930's thru the 1960's), those may be worth money. Anything after - not so much. And the condition of those books has a definite impact on their value.
Movie Posters: Posters from before 1990 can have value, especially those featuring stars, subjects or genres that have their own fan bases. This would include Star Wars, the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, James Bond, Wizard of Oz, etc. But be careful, many movie posters have been reproduced over the years. Reproductions do not fetch anywhere near the price of the originals!
Bobbleheads: All the rage now, bobble head dolls were not quite as common a few deacdes back - and it's those older bobble heads that command the best prices.
Baseball/Sports Cards: Like comic books, only the older ones have any real value. When the hobby took off in the 1980's, so many companies jumped in and so many collectors bought cases of them, that supply way outstrips demand. But the older ones can still fetch attractive prices, especially in top condition.
Advertising Signs: Believe it or not, metal advertising signs are generally less valuable than cardboard ones. That's because the metal signs are more durable meaning more of them survived. Like movie posters, this is an area where many older signs have been reproduced later. Be careful when buying or selling. The reproducions are obviously worth far less.
Space Program Memorabilia: This has become one of the hottest areas among collectibles. Items from the early space missions are in demand and prices are moving upwards! (To the moon?)
Toys: As with most collectiibles, the older, the better and the better condition, the higher the price. Toys that appeal to other subgroups (such as Disney toys for Disney collectors or those tied in with popular movies or TV shows) are in demand. Toys still in their original packaging (often referred to as "MIB" for "mint in box") command the highest prices. Alas, Beanie Babies are not hot. They were produced in the millions and every little girl and/or their mother saved them, thinking they would be worth a fortune.
Autographs: In general, the more famous the person signing the autograph, the more it should be worth. Obviously, those celebrities who has passed on (and cannot sign any more autographs) tend to be worth more than living (and still signing) celebrities. A word of caution: authenticating autographs is difficult and the field is rife with forgeries. This is an area where "buyer beware" is especially important.
Of course, the old stand-bys such as coins, stamps, historical artifacts and genuine antiques all have their value. It's best t make sure you consult an expert you trust in a given field of collectibles before buying or selling.
Uh, no. No, it doesn't.
His work has been recorded by artists all over the musical map – from Perry Como to the Beatles, from roots rocker Gene Vincent to Neil Diamond, from Nat King Cole to Elvis Costello. Next to Lennon & McCartney, he may be the most successful composer of the latter half of the 20th century. Along the way he penned 73 songs that hit the Top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and earned 6 Grammys, 3 Oscars and 1 Emmy.
He is, of course, Burt Bacharach. Over 1,000 different artists have recorded his compositions. His collaboration with lyricist Hal David, produced a string of hits for 60s pop icons like Dionne Warwick, Gene Pitney and Dusty Springfield. Along the way he also composed the title tune for the schlock teenage sci-fi film that became a cult classic, The Blob, while also building a surprisingly successful career as a live performer, playing his hit compositions on piano while backed by a full orchestra.
While primarily seen as a “pop” composer, Bacharach’s ability to work with rock acts like Vincent, the Drifters, Elvis Costello and others make him an undeniable part of rock history.
Born in Kansas City, but raised in New York City, Bacharach used a fake ID, not to drink, but to sneak into New York’s jazz nightclubs where he soaked up the music Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and others. Trained by his mother to be a classical pianist, Bacharach much preferred the jazz and pop he heard on his nightly sojourns.
Following a stint in the army, Bacharach started the 1950s as arranger and pianist for singer Vic Damone. From there, he served in similar capacity for a variety of other singers until he finally wound up leading the back-up band for Marlene Dietrich in 1956. While touring the world with Dietrich, he also began working as a songwriter, teaming with Hal David in 1957. They sold their first song, “I Cry More,” to the motion picture, Don’t Knock the Rock. The song went nowhere. They finally broke through with a song they wrote for Marty Robbins, “The Story of My Life,” which hit #1 on the Billboard country chart. They next scored a top 10 hit with Perry Como and “Magic Moments” (in the days before rock came to dominate the charts).
As the 60s began, Bacharach’s success as a songwriter led to him taking a more active role in the studio. He was first listed as arranger & conductor on Jerry Butler’s 1962 recording of the Bacharach-David tune “Make It Easy on Yourself.” That same year, Bacharach thought one of the backup singers doing session work showed some potential. Her name was Dionne Warwick. He and David wrote a tune specifically crafted for her, “Don’t Make Me Over.” That recording launched a long and successful collaboration that lasted into the 1980s.
Among the many artists who have found success with Bacharach tunes are the Drifters, the Beatles (a cover of the Shirelles’ “Baby, It’s You”), Tom Jones, Frankie Avalon, Manfred Mann, B.J. Thomas, Bobby Vinton and dozens more.
Elvis Costello had a father who was a cabaret singer in the UK, so Elvis had developed a fondness for Bacharach-David compositions from childhood. He used to sneak one or two into his early sets (particularly “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself”). Ultimately, he became one of Bachrach’s later collaborations, co-writing the album Painted from Memory.
In addition to writing specifically for the movies (two of his most acclaimed movie tunes being “The Look of Love” and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”), his work has also been found lightening up such later films as Austin Powers and My Best Friend’s Wedding.
A composer whose versatility is unmatched, Bacharach passed away in February of 2023 at the age of 94. His music lives on.
Just as we eat foods that can help keep our bodies healthy, there are foods that can improve brain activity.
Here are 5 “smart” things to eat:
- Orange Juice – Helps improve memory
- Split Peas – Helps mental processing speed
- Walnuts – Helps the heart as well as the brain
- Asparagus – Help the brain create new neural pathways
- Shrimp – Helps maintain the brain’s signaling system
The Life & Times of Howdy Doody - Part 5
We all know that childhood can’t last forever (unless your name is Bart Simpson). So too, for our favorite childhood television shows. The last network telecast of The Howdy Doody Show took place on September 24, 1960. The following Saturday on NBC, many of us were entertained by Shari Lewis, Lamb Chop and Charlie Horse.
But whatever happened to Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob? Keep reading and find out.
When Howdy Doody left NBC in 1960, the show simply vanished. Unlike Adventures of Superman, The Lone Ranger and other early kid-vid, the show never went into syndication. Perhaps that was due to the fact that most of the show’s early days existed only as kinescopes.
Kinescope was the way networks preserved copies of their live shows. The name sounds way more high-tech than it actually was. A kinescope was simply a camera hooked to a recording device and pointed at a monitor. That’s it. It recorded the show as it was broadcast live. Kinescoped shows look rough, even back in the day. Remember that early TV screens were slightly rounded, so the kinescopes looked a little distorted and fuzzy.
So Buffalo Bob retired to New Rochelle and bought a liquor store. (We don’t know how we would have reacted had we ever found ourselves in later life purchasing a bottle of whiskey from Buffalo Bob.) He also wound up purchasing a radio station, WQDY, in Calais, Maine. Howdy sat in a glass case in Bob’s home office.
As the 60’s went on, Bob sold the New York liquor store, kept the radio station and became a “snow-bird,” spending six months in Florida and six months in Maine.
Then one day in 1970, he received an invitation from the University of Pennsylvania. Would he be interested in coming to the campus and staging a live Howdy Doody Show? Bob was a little unsure and so, demanded a fee he thought the school would never pay: $1,000. The school’s event organizer assured Bob that would be no problem. The Howdy Doody Revival was about to get underway.
The event was a stunning, wall-to-wall sell-out. Students had to be turned away. Those who did get in, laughed, applauded wildly and sang along as Buffalo Bob ran through many of the numbers that had been used on the show over the years. (Who can forget that timeless classic “Cross the Street with Your Eyes”?) Other schools took note. For the next several years, Bob and Howdy appeared at over 500 colleges all across the United States and even played the Carnegie Hall of rock venues – New York’s Fillmore East – in 1972.
Bob’s shows were generating decent publicity and there was growing demand for new Howdy Doody merchandise.RCA released an album of songs and banter from Bob’s live shows, called (what else?) “It’s Howdy Doody Time!” The craze for 1950’s nostalgia ignited by the release of George Lucas’ American Graffiti spawned the long-running sit-com Happy Days. During its very first season, Buffalo Bob and Howdy Doody showed up in an episode broadcast on February 18, 1975. Richie and little sister Joanie are guests on the set of The Howdy Doody Show, where Ron Howard’s resemblance to the famous puppet was duly noted.
Ultimately, a backer appeared for a new updated Howdy Doody series. The show was produced in Florida in 1976 with most of the original cast returning to their iconic roles. The New Howdy Doody Show was successfully syndicated in all of the country’s major markets. Unfortunately, kids now used to Sesame Street and the Muppets did not warm up to Howdy the way the Baby Boomers had. The show was cancelled after only half a season.
But Howdy did get one final hurrah. In 1987, a two-hour television special titled It's Howdy Doody Time: A 40-Year Celebration was syndicated in every major market in the U.S. Buffalo Bob was joined by Lew Anderson (Clarabell), Bill Lecornec (Chief Thunderthud), Nick Nicholson (Cornelius Cobb) and a full complement of the puppets who brought so much happiness to Baby Boomers’ childhoods. In addition, the show featured guest stars such as Milton Berle, Johnny Carson, John Ritter, Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow.
After that, Bob and Howdy returned to retirement, making occasional personal appearances. Of course, during the show’s run, there was actually more than one Howdy Doody puppet. The back-up puppet (“Double Doody”) today resides in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. A stringless model of Howdy used in publicity photos and sometimes used when Bob was touring (“Photo Doody”) is in the hands of a private collector. The original Howdy remained in Bob’s possession until he passed away in 1998. Then, a wild custody battle broke out. The winner was the Detroit Institute of Arts, who had been named in Bob Smith’s will as the place he wanted the puppet to go.
But you can still see echoes of Howdy in pop culture. In fact, most of the kids raised on Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story movies would be surprised to find out that the lead character of Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) was undoubtedly patterned after Howdy.
If these trips back to Doodyville have got you anxious to learn more or even re-watch some of those classic episodes, we’ll tell you where you satisfy that itch next time.