Pop Culture: Movie Props and Memorabilia

Hollywood props are fascinating cultural artifacts from the movie and television worlds and they are quickly disappearing. The market for those items is actually so big and so lucrative that I read that the Los Angeles police department has increased the size of their police art theft department in an attempt to reduce the trade that is going on of stolen and fake movie memorabilia.

For years Hollywood props were reused in new projects, taken home by people working on the films and even thrown away. A final blow came in 1970 when MGM was forced by financial difficulties to auction off most of its collection of 350,000 costumes. One auctioneer resold his purchases shortly thereafter for EIGHT TIMES the price that he had paid for them and, ever since that moment in time, prices on genuine movie memorabilia have increased by an amazing 10 percent every year.

Joseph Maddalena, host of the television series, Hollywood Treasure, says that the pieces which are most wanted tend to come from movies that did not do so well at the beginning but which later grew to have a huge influence, including movies like The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane and Blade Runner. The hottest props often had a role in the movie. For instance, Dorothy's ruby red slippers were actually worn by Judy Garland and seen in the film and Michael J. Fox actually rode on the hover board in Back to the Future.

Many famous pieces are simply gone. Those lost pieces include the likes of Marilyn Monroe's famous white dress and the bronze bikini that Carrie Fisher wore when chained to Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi. We do not even know if they still exist.

On this page, find more information about a few pieces of iconic movie memorabilia and some great, collectible movie souvenirs that are available today, like the replica of the Maltese falcon as seen in the movie of the same name.

Technically, I would not have called Roy Rogers' horse a 'prop' since it was once a living creature. However, now that he is stuffed and mounted I suppose he qualifies and it turns out that Trigger was sold at auction in 2010 for $266,500. You can read the auction story on U.S.A. Today. Or, if you think an autographed picture of Trigger is closer to what you might be able to afford, you can visit Amazon's collection of autographed photos of Roy Rogers and Trigger.

In 2010, James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 as seen in Goldfinger sold for $4.1 million. Of course, this was no ordinary Aston Martin and The Daily News called it the only genuine James Bond, 007, car. You can find this picture of James Bond's Aston Martin here on Amazon, as shown in this image.

According to Mail Online, Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from the Star Wars movies A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back sold for more than 130,000 at a movie props auction in 2008. If that lightsaber is too rich for you, you might want to consider one of the Master Replica versions of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber.

On January 25, 2014, an original prop board game for the Jumanji movie sold for $60,800. That's pretty amazing, in my view anyway but not totally unexpected for an item from a movie that has a certain cult status and a strong following from movie (and book) fans and collectors of the 1990s... Does make you wonder where that game will wind up though, doesn't it?

A lifeboat used to rescue Rose in the movie the Titanic was for sale eBay. I don't know if it sold or not but read that there was a reserve on it and that the highest bid was $21,100. That poster on Reddit also said that these lifeboats sold five of them for $25,000 when J. Peterman sold them in the 1990's.

A look just now as I update this page fails to confirm if this piece sold but it does reveal that from time to time props from the film show up. I can see that Kate Winslet's overcoat and heart of the sea pendant, a bench. a framed dinner plate and a lifeboat plaque have been sold. To see what Titanic movie props are available today on eBay, click here.

This video contains approximately 10 minutes of a fascinating reality television series about one man's quest to save movie props and memorabilia for the future.