It sometimes happens that when a celebrity dies, some of their stuff \u2014 whatever their survivors have not been left or absconded with \u2014 might be auctioned off. Objects that famous people have touched are, of course, magic.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Larry King was known for wearing suspenders. This pair is up for auction.<\/p>\n
(Julien\u2019s Auctions)<\/p>\n
Such a moment has come for Larry King, inquiring reporter, man of TV, radio, print and the internet. A mere four years since he died, age 87<\/a>, \u201cThe Larry King Collection\u201d<\/a> will be offered to bidders by Julien\u2019s Auctions, which bills itself as \u201cThe Auction House to the Stars\u201d on Tuesday. This news struck a chord with me; not only was I a fan, but in 2016, in the course of writing a feature<\/a> on him, I had actually visited King\u2019s trophy room in his Beverly Hills home, decorated with plaques and statuettes and photographs with the famous. He called it \u201cmy ego room. When I\u2019m feeling low I come here.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s too much to say we had a connection, but sometimes you develop a proprietary feeling toward people you write about. I loved his wayward, almost naive approach to conversation \u2014 \u201cI ask dumb,\u201d he said \u2014 which could produce interesting results that might elude better prepared interviewers. And he couldn\u2019t stop himself from revealing himself in the course of an interview.<\/p>\n This key to Beverly Hills, where Larry King lived, is among the auction items.<\/p>\n (Julien\u2019s Auctions)<\/p>\n King was much concerned with his eventual nonexistence; he would often ask older guests what they thought happened after death, and finding himself unable to believe in an afterlife, sometimes said he\u2019d like to be frozen until the day that whatever killed him could be undone. (He was also surprised to find himself still alive: \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m 82. When I was a kid, no one was 80. You retired at 65, you died at 67.\u201d) And now it has come to this: His awards and citations, his shirts and suspenders, his shoes and sweaters being sold to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n Julien\u2019s also has a Whitney Houston-themed<\/a> auction scheduled for Monday and, in September, an event built around skateboarder Tony Hawk\u2019s<\/a> history-making \u201c900\u201d at the 1999 X Games; the deck is expected to fetch between $500,000 and $700,000. At a recent auction of \u201cThe David Lynch Collection,\u201d<\/a> the director\u2019s espresso machine sold for $45,500, his director\u2019s chair for $95,000, and an incense holder he made himself in 1974 for $52,000. As part of a \u201cMusic Icons\u201d auction, an empty beer bottle associated with Elvis Presley sold for $780. It came with a letter of authenticity from the daughter of Presley\u2019s \u201cpersonal physician,\u201d the infamous George \u201cDr. Nick\u201d Nichopoulos: \u201cThis Coors beer bottle was one that Elvis Presley drank about half the beer out of it and then set it down. It was after a show in the early \u201970s backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. I the daughter of Dr. Nichopoulos picked it up, finished it.\u201d Elsewhere, a lock of his hair went for $11,700, the better to scrape for DNA.<\/p>\n Larry King\u2019s memorabilia includes some offbeat items like this jelly bean portrait.<\/p>\n (Julien\u2019s Auctions)<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t expect the King auction to fetch similarly high prices, but you can\u2019t measure a man by what people are willing to pay for his suspenders. As anyone familiar with King would expect, there are items associated with his main man Frank Sinatra (letters, collectible plate, cardboard standee) and the Dodgers, whom he loved both in Brooklyn and L.A. But you might also bid on an invitation from Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne to a 2002 party reaffirming their wedding vows; Al Hirschfeld\u2019s much-reproduced King caricature; and a 1930s Underwood Standard Typewriter No. 5 (\u201cworks, needs a new ribbon\u201d), which I am certain is the same one that sat on a coffee table in the trophy room, a gift from then-wife Shawn Southwick (No. 7). \u201cI miss the typewriter,\u201d King told me. \u201cI miss the rotary phone. I still look for phone booths.\u201d <\/p>\n There are cuff links, charge cards, a menorah designed by Salvador Dali, keys to various cities, nesting dolls representing figures from the O.J. Simpson trial \u2014 King moved west to cover it, and stayed \u2014 and a slew of sports memorabilia: jerseys, bobbleheads, signed bats and baseballs, including one from Pete Rose, inscribed, \u201cI\u2019m sorry I bet on baseball.\u201d <\/p>\n I have my own bit of Larry King memorabilia. After that feature ran, he sent me a note, printed in neat letters, thanking me for \u201ccoming by and spending some time with me. How about lunch some time soon?\u201d To my everlasting regret, I didn\u2019t take him up on the invitation. But I still have that card, and it\u2019s not for sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It sometimes happens that when a celebrity dies, some of their stuff \u2014 whatever their survivors have not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[38545,82216,1582,276,82219,6145,3603,16920,25110,82215,21132,2961,82213,19945,224,5337,2089,82218,82214,82217],"class_list":{"0":"post-136795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-auction","9":"tag-bidder","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-charge-card","13":"tag-course","14":"tag-daughter","15":"tag-elvis-presley","16":"tag-famous-people","17":"tag-julien","18":"tag-king","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-larry-king","21":"tag-letter","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-losangeles","24":"tag-man","25":"tag-nichopoulos","26":"tag-suspender","27":"tag-trophy-room"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115009880533580493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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