Thousands Of Eager Fans Bring Prized Possessions To Appraisal Fair
by Judy Frank
posted July 19, 2008
) Photo by Wesley Schultz Holli Carroll of Cleveland showing vintage movie posters. Click to enlarge. |
But he came briefly, vividly to life again Saturday when his granddaughter, Holli Carroll, brought a selection of his prized memorabilia to Antiques Roadshow in Chattanooga.
This year, for the first time ever, Chattanooga was selected as one of the six cities the wildly popular PBS show will visit as it crisscrosses the nation, staging a series of huge appraisal fairs.
Ms. Carroll was one of thousands of fans who gathered at the Chattanooga Convention Center early in the morning, eager to learn more about the heirlooms passed down through their families and/or items eagerly collected at yard and estate sales.
One man was pushing an ornate, impressively carved organ he wanted appraised. An excited woman carried a head she bought believing it had belonged to an Egyptian mummy – it didn’t – and a little girl eagerly showed a child-sized chair to nationally renowned furniture appraiser Leigh Keno.
Pam Epstein brought Cissy, the Madame Alexander doll she received as a child, packed along with an assortment of doll clothes into a vintage container.
“I didn’t play with her very much,” Ms. Epstein said hopefully. “She’s in good condition.”
Ms. Carroll, the lifelong Cleveland resident, brought her grandfather’s prized collection of movie posters.
“As a teenager, my grandfather worked at the Princess Theater in Cleveland,” Ms. Carroll explained. “Later on he worked at the drive-in, back when we had one, and at another theater . . . He collected the posters from the movies they showed and brought them home to keep.”
Saturday, she shared his collection – or a sizable a portion of it – with appraisers at the roadshow. To her pleased amazement she was plucked out of the crowd, seated beside a table stacked high with the posters and invited to tell the story.
Before long she was on camera, talking about her grandfather and the treasures he collected, week by week, over a period of decades.
The earliest posters, featuring Charlie Chaplin and other silent film stars, dated from the 1920s when her grandfather’s career in movie theaters was just beginning.
Later ones advertised films made by internationally renowned stars - James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor, for example – and blockbusters such as Star Wars, which came out in 1977.
“I’ve always been a huge Star Wars fan, even when I was just little,” Ms. Carroll said.
During the two decades since she inherited the collection, she said, it has been stored carefully in boxes. But now she’s planning to have a few favorites framed and display them in her family room.
“They’re not for sale,” she said. “Definitely not . . . To me, this is about family . . . I have nieces and nephews I will pass this on to someday.”
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |