Heritage Auctions: Treasures from Planet Hollywood
In conversation with Brian Chanes,
Senior Director, Hollywood and Entertainment, Beverly Hills
by CHAD KENNERK
An original Planet Hollywood neon sign. All images courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Planet Hollywood launched with tremendous fanfare in New York City on 22 October, 1991. An instant success, the movie-themed burger joint boasted an array of production made and screen-used memorabilia on display throughout the restaurant. The New York Times headline the following day read, “Fantasy For the Price of a Burger.” Each Planet Hollywood location served as a mini-museum devoted to the movies and the investors behind the venture included a who’s who of 90s stars, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. The genius marketing strategy presented the opportunity to experience movie magic, from the props and costumes that defined audiences’ favourite films, to the thrill of potentially spotting a celebrity in the flesh.
Each subsequent restaurant opening was a gala event, drawing enormous crowds of people hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrities in attendance. London was opened in 1993 on Coventry Street in Piccadilly with such guests as Johnny Depp, Patrick Swayze and Christopher Reeve. The true test of each location came the following day, when a restaurant opened its doors to the general public. And they came in droves — often waiting hours to enjoy standard fare such as burgers, chicken tenders, and pizza. In November of 1995, ABC aired the star-studded prime time television special Planet Hollywood Comes Home, celebrating the opening of Planet Hollywood’s Beverly Hills location. During the special Oprah Winfrey quipped, “It’s like the Oscars, only better.” At one time, Planet Hollywood had some 100 locations in orbit, from Manhattan to Beverly Hills, Indianapolis to Disneyland Paris. Dreamland destinations for movie lovers, Planet Hollywood became a 90s pop culture icon in and of itself, reportedly pulling in 25% of its revenue from restaurant branded merchandise alone.
Now, more than 30 years after Planet Hollywood’s grand opening, Heritage Auctions hosts a five-day event celebrating film history and 90s nostalgia. From 20-24 March, Heritage will present Treasures from Planet Hollywood, featuring more than 1,600 props and costumes once displayed in Planet Hollywood locations around the globe. “This auction is an extremely exciting, pivotal moment for Planet Hollywood,” says Robert Earl, chairman and co-founder of Planet Hollywood. “We are honoured to collaborate with Heritage on this unique collection that features a selection of memorabilia from our vaults. As the Planet Hollywood brand expands beyond restaurants and embraces innovative and interactive memorabilia experiences, we are excited to present a taste of our collection and look forward to sharing it with film lovers everywhere who will delight in bringing home a piece of Hollywood history.”
Planet Hollywood’s curators spent decades assembling the abundant collection. In an interview with Heritage Auctions, Earl said, “It’s still just touching the tip of the iceberg of the depth of our collection.” He went on to share, “I’m sure some great collections will buy them, and hopefully they will, in turn, display them to many hundreds of thousands of people back in their own environments.” Some of the lots are enormous, like the time-machine phone booth from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, while others are tiny, like the Dante’s Inferno nightclub miniature from Beetlejuice, but all are movie memories that need no introduction to both movie lovers and cinephiles alike. Among the endless historic offerings are the sledgehammer Kathy Bates used in Misery, Daniel Day-Lewis’ musket from The Last of the Mohicans, Bette Midler’s spell book from Hocus Pocus, the FX switchblade from Chinatown, and Neve Campbell’s blood-soaked denim jacket from the finale of Scream.
There are also pieces throughout the auction that are meaningful to the story of Planet Hollywood, such as the ax Jack Nicholson used to in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which was among the first props secured before the New York opening. Also featured is the locomotive used to film the memorable train wreck in The Fugitive, which was produced by Planet Hollywood co-founder Keith Barish. Instrumental in Planet Hollywood’s creation, Barish produced the 1987 film The Running Man, which led to Schwarzenegger’s early involvement. “I’ve never done an auction like this, filled with so many touchstone moments from cinema history,” says Joe Maddalena, Heritage’s executive vice president. “Planet Hollywood is synonymous worldwide with Hollywood’s magic, glamour and glow. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Planet Hollywood since its inception, and Robert Earl is a true visionary. This auction is a testament to his passion for the movies, and I am honoured to bring these to our client-collectors around the world.” Earl added, “We hope these treasures give collectors as much pleasure as they gave us.”
In advance of the March auction event, Film Review chats with Brian Chanes, the senior director of Hollywood and entertainment at Heritage Auctions, about the movie memorabilia bounty hitting the auction block in Treasures from Planet Hollywood.
Film Review (FR): This is a rare opportunity for collectors to own items that have been on display, but off the market for decades, or in some cases have never before come to auction.
Brian Chanes (BC): That’s right, it was basically unobtainium. I remember when Planet Hollywood came out in the early days and thinking we’ll never see some of these items in the private sector again. You could see them, but now they have become available. It’s really quite special. In a way, this is like if Disneyland suddenly were to say, “Ok, we’ve got all the pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean,” and they just had a giant sale of materials. This is a restaurant, but it was kind of like a theme park in a way.
(FR): With Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis among Planet Hollywood’s initial shareholders, each of them are heavily represented in the memorabilia up for sale. What would you say are the most iconic production made or screen used pieces associated with each of them in this auction?
(BC): With Arnold, we have one of the bullet-ridden jackets from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That one was obtained from Carolco, the production company. That is a phenomenal piece; it has velcro and flaps on the back where they could install the squibs for the little charges to look like bullet hits. To me, Arnold is the Terminator. I know he was Conan before that, but for me I think The Terminator is the ultimate of his films. When it comes to Sly, we have things that came from his personal collection, like the Carl Weathers illuminating red, white, and blue top hat and his cape from the living in America sequence in Rocky IV. We have things from Judge Dredd, we have Rocky training gloves, even a couple of his foetal position cryo display figures from Demolition Man. With Bruce Willis, we have several of his Die Hard costumes and props, his funky biohazard suit from 12 Monkeys. The list goes on and on, it’s like Alice going down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.
(FR): Planet Hollywood must have purchased a massive lot of Titanic props and costumes from 20th Century Fox.
(BC): The Hero floating wall panel is a monumental and culturally significant item. First of all, when Cameron wrote Titanic, one of the biggest chunks of the actual Titanic that was ever found at that point was a floating wall panel. When the boat sheared apart like it did in the movie, some of the wall covering floated to the surface. Cameron patterned this piece from that famous piece of debris and wove it into the story. People still say Jack could have lived. This was made out of balsa, because it’s super buoyant, as opposed to oak, but Cameron actually held a scientific study to prove that this plot point was more than just a narrative device. The ship’s wheel from Titanic is also beautifully crafted. Wood, brass, engrained – Cameron spared no expense. Down to the nitty gritty detail, he wanted the best of the best. He wanted it all to be period accurate. Even the dishes and silverware have the stamp from White Star Lines.
(FR): It’s great when collections come to auction that focus on a particular type of item across a wide range of films. Planet Hollywood famously collected and displayed firearms from all different genres of film. The highest estimated gun comes from a galaxy far, far away, Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia screen-used Hero blaster from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
(BC): For the Hero weapons, that one began as a real firearm. It was a soviet made .22 pistol that they put greebles on to make it look sci-fi. Interestingly, they make Hero firearms that fire and they also have stunt versions that are used because they’re lightweight and you don’t have to have a firearms and safety expert [present] when you have something made of fibreglass, rubber, or resin. Any time they can employ a stunt gun, they will, because it’s less costly, frankly. Even the stunt guns were moulded off of this Hero weapon. You can see serial number "P4168T" on the top that’s on all the other stunt versions of the Leia pistol, which offers further authentication for it. It came from Bapty & Co., which is a very famed armourer in the UK.
(FR): Beyond firearms, there are a number of Hero props in the auction. For those that might not know, ‘Hero’ props refer to detailed versions used for important close-ups and often these are the main versions handled by the actor. As you said, stunt versions are often modelled after them as well. We’ve talked about a few, but there are a lot more of them. One of the most unique Hero props in the auction is the Barbasol can from Jurassic Park.
(BC): It’s funny you mention that, because that is arguably my favourite thing in the whole sale. It’s almost like the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, it’s a very powerful plot driving device. The Wicked Witch is trying to get the ruby slippers from Dorothy. She clicks her heels and there’s no place like home. It’s a whole film revolving around the ruby slippers. The chaos theory in the first Jurassic Park, when Ian Malcolm is talking about the possibility of unforeseen things — that there won’t be a way to control it — that’s one of the key things that sets everything off. Dennis Nedry shuts down the power grid and the security gates during the storm, causing all the dinosaurs to get loose. This is a key, key piece. It’s hand-milled aluminium, a very sophisticated looking piece. Even if you pull off the Barbasol outer portion, you look on the inside and that nipple piece at the top of the cryo rig fits perfectly into the top portion of the Barbasol. It’s studio crafted and I can’t speak highly enough of it.
(FR): Film production necessitates multiple copies of props and costumes. Sometimes multiples survive, in other cases they don’t. What are some of the most unique pieces in this sale?
(BC): One thing we’ve already mentioned is the Titanic floating wall panel. I don’t think they made another one. We also have the prototype which isn’t as ornate and is made of solid wood. We have Sankara Stones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, we have an illuminating one and a set of three static solid resin ones. We have an Indiana Jones bullwhip, another one of my favourites, but they made several for different applications. I do like prototypes though and we have three wooden prototype kryta (voodoo) dolls from Temple of Doom, which were made in pre-production as concepts for the kryta doll that the Maharajah uses to torture Indy. That’s really interesting, because each one is a little bit different. Those are unique, because they’re literally hand carved.
(FR): It shows the development and provides a glimpse into the production process.
(BC): Right, it tells a story. That’s what I like about it. The same thing goes for the test pinafore from The Wizard of Oz. There’s a picture of Judy Garland wearing that style test in the earlier days of production of the film, showing the evolution before they land on the silver screen.
(FR): In terms of classic film, there are a number of important pieces, dating all the way back to the 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur through to Marilyn Monroe costumes from Bus Stop and Let's Make Love.
(BC): I also love Moses’ staff. Just a few days ago, I was able to find a production promotional photo, a close-up of Heston in character grabbing this staff. There’s a unique knot in the wood and a lightning bolt shaped fissure or crack in the wood that matches up perfectly. It’s a photo-matched iconic piece of Hollywood history. The Ten Commandments is arguably the greatest Cecil B. DeMille epic. It’s just a phenomenal piece.
(FR): Some items have interesting provenance attached, which gives a further level of authenticity, such as the dress loafers from An American in Paris, which come with a COA signed by Gene Kelly. Another example of that is the A League of Their Own Dottie Hinson baseball uniform obtained directly from Geena Davis.
(BC): Exactly, also the Louise Fletcher Nurse Ratched costume from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That is a total sleeper in this sale. That came straight from her, you can’t get any better than that. Other items that are noteworthy, because they were obtained directly from John Hughes, are the Ferris Bueller's Day Off ‘NRVOUS’ licence plate from the Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. We also have Macaulay Culkin’s knit stocking cap and the toboggan he rides down the stairs in Home Alone. All three of those items came directly from John Hughes himself.
(FR): How did you arrive at estimates for some of these iconic pieces?
(BC): Across the board, we’ve been very democratic. There’s no telling what they’re actually going to sell for, but with so many great things we have an opening bid of $500. There’s going to be something for everyone in this sale. Is there going to be another event like this, with such a spectrum of iconic and culturally relevant films? I urge people to log on to Heritage and look. People are already starting to place bids online. I hope everyone enjoys perusing and participating.
(FR): Plus, it’s really fun to watch the live auction.
(BC): It’s almost like a sporting event. In every one of my sales over a three-decade long career, there are some things where I say, “I cannot believe it sold for that high.” Sometimes 25x or more than we estimated. Also, some things go relatively inexpensively and you think, “Geez, that was a good buy.” A lot of things fall into the category of about where you’d expect, but like a sporting event, you just don’t know. It’s like looking into a crystal ball or trying to handicap a race horse or looking at the next penny stock, you just don’t know until it reaches the auction block.
BRIAN CHANES always had a passion for film, and shortly after relocating to California, he embarked on a 30-year career dealing in entertainment memorabilia and historical autographs working for Joe Maddalena at Profiles in History. During that time period, Brian handled many of the world’s most iconic props, costumes and related memorabilia consigned by private collectors, film studios and institutions spanning the globe. Brian joined the Heritage team in early 2021 and aspires to bring the finest available artifacts to market.
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