One of my favorite guilty pleasure reality shows is "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel. The premise of "Pawn Stars" is this, three generations of a family run a successful pawn shop in Las Vegas, normal every day people come into this pawn shop looking to sell various collectible items, the family members and their employee Chumlee (who is the comic relief) determine if these items are authentic and then they let the customers know if the item is authentic or not and what the real value of the item is. This show may seem borning to some but it's actually really interesting what people try and sell and the stories of how they aquired these items and the history behind each item. "Pawn Stars" is sorta like "The Antiques Road Show" for the Vegas set.
Anyhow this past Sunday night, much to my delight the History Channel aired a "Pawn Stars" marathon and on two episodes some really rad Who memorabilia was featured. A woman came into the shop with a silver Walkman issued by Tiffany and Co from 1989 commemorating the walkman's 10th anniversary, her story was that she used to design and tailor men's suits and two of her biggest clients were Keith Moon and John Entwistle, she had befriended both and remained a good friend to Entwistle till his death, Entwistle was presented with this silver walkman during the Who's second farewell tour in '89 and he gave it to her shortly after. The walkman wound up being worth $1200.
In the second episode a guy came in with a framed autographed picture of all four original members of the Who from 1965, he said he joined the Who fan club in 1965 at the age of 11 and that autographed picture was mailed to him shortly after joining the fan club, the autographs were deemed to be authentic and the picture was worth $2000 mainly because it had the signatures of Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
It was so cool to see these items belonging to my all time favorite band and to hear the stories behind them. Maybe my autographed These United States & Giraffes cds will be worth something one day...
All that Who talk made me rewatch for the umpteenth time the Who doc "The Kids Are Alright". I know I've posted this clip on my blog before but this opening clip from "The Kids Are Alright" which is the band's infamous apperance on "The Smothers Brothers Show" is sooo epic!
In case you don't know, what made the Who's apperance on "The Smothers Brothers Show" so infamous was that Keith Moon packed his bass drum with gun powder so when the band smashed their gear at the end of the song the bass drum would explode causing a big scene. Well Moon did cause a scene, the bass drum exploded and one of the cymbols flew back and slashed Keith Moon's arm (if you watch closely you'll see Moon quickly jump off the drum riser really quickly right after holding his arm) and Townshend who was right next to the explosion when it happened often says that this incident was the catalyst for his hearing loss.
Another part of this story was that the other guests on "The Smothers Brothers Show" that night were Mickey Rooney and Bette Davis and Bette Davis was so grossed out by seeing Keith Moon's bloodied arm after he ran bacstage that she passed out in Mickey Rooney's arms.
Anyhow this past Sunday night, much to my delight the History Channel aired a "Pawn Stars" marathon and on two episodes some really rad Who memorabilia was featured. A woman came into the shop with a silver Walkman issued by Tiffany and Co from 1989 commemorating the walkman's 10th anniversary, her story was that she used to design and tailor men's suits and two of her biggest clients were Keith Moon and John Entwistle, she had befriended both and remained a good friend to Entwistle till his death, Entwistle was presented with this silver walkman during the Who's second farewell tour in '89 and he gave it to her shortly after. The walkman wound up being worth $1200.
In the second episode a guy came in with a framed autographed picture of all four original members of the Who from 1965, he said he joined the Who fan club in 1965 at the age of 11 and that autographed picture was mailed to him shortly after joining the fan club, the autographs were deemed to be authentic and the picture was worth $2000 mainly because it had the signatures of Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
It was so cool to see these items belonging to my all time favorite band and to hear the stories behind them. Maybe my autographed These United States & Giraffes cds will be worth something one day...
All that Who talk made me rewatch for the umpteenth time the Who doc "The Kids Are Alright". I know I've posted this clip on my blog before but this opening clip from "The Kids Are Alright" which is the band's infamous apperance on "The Smothers Brothers Show" is sooo epic!
In case you don't know, what made the Who's apperance on "The Smothers Brothers Show" so infamous was that Keith Moon packed his bass drum with gun powder so when the band smashed their gear at the end of the song the bass drum would explode causing a big scene. Well Moon did cause a scene, the bass drum exploded and one of the cymbols flew back and slashed Keith Moon's arm (if you watch closely you'll see Moon quickly jump off the drum riser really quickly right after holding his arm) and Townshend who was right next to the explosion when it happened often says that this incident was the catalyst for his hearing loss.
Another part of this story was that the other guests on "The Smothers Brothers Show" that night were Mickey Rooney and Bette Davis and Bette Davis was so grossed out by seeing Keith Moon's bloodied arm after he ran bacstage that she passed out in Mickey Rooney's arms.
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