Hollywood Treasure brings back fond memories

The new reality series Hollywood Treasure will premiere Wednesday on Syfy, hoping to snag the audience from shows like American Pickers and Antiques Roadshow, but with an added bonus: this show will pull in those of us who love TV and film memorabilia as well.

Joe Maddalena is the owner of Profiles in History and one of the most prominent auctioneers of original movie, television, and pop culture memorabilia in the world. Joe knew he had a passion for collecting early on. As a child, growing up in Rhode Island he attended  his first baseball card collection and by 12 he organized Rhode Island’s first baseball card show. This true passion for collecting and auctioneering is evident throughout the series, when he finally convinces the owner of the famed Wicked Witch’s hat from the original Wizard of Oz, to allow him to auction it off for her and provide her with a windfall of money.  This hat sells at auction for $200,000 and the former owner seems pleased with this result.

As a kid I grew up going to my local state fair and marveling at the traveling Hollywood memorabilia, that would come to town. Things like the Batmobile, or Julie Newmar’s Cat Women suit, but with places like Hard Rock Cafe, and even the Smithsonian, some of this has lost it’s exclusive allure. With Hollywood Treasure the item you saw a 100 times on screen, like the witch’s hat, or the Jupiter Space Pod, from Lost in Space, tug at your subconscious, bringing you back to a time when Lost in Space was like watching the science channel.

In one episode a family keeps a piece of Hollywood history in a box in their basement. The kids played with this item, it even survived a few family vacations. It was the famous magic carpet bag from Mary Poppins. Now enter Maddalena, who flies to the family home to see if the bag could be authentic.  The owner claims he wants to sell it so he can pay for grad school. Maddalena is beside himself, knowing that this item will do very well at auction. In the end the item sells for $95,000. Guess the former owner can afford grad school now.

There is always a fascination for all things Hollywood, and this series allows us to not only take a look back at a pop culture memory, but to take an interesting look at those people who collect them and pay dearly to own a piece of that special moment in time when they saw them on screen or on their 13” black and white TV.

Check out a sneak peek of the show below: