You may have seen it in the papers, that this year alone, both first edition copies of Detective Comics (featuring Batman) and Action Comics (featuring Superman) sold at different auctions for over a million pounds each. Film and television memorabilia is big business, in fact, I’d like you to consider it as ‘the new antique business’. Before I introduce you to an antique memorabilia trader, of considerable knowledge, charisma and worth, allow me to give you a brief introduction to the objects of memorabilia - the new antiques - that we shall be discussing.
A regular antique dealer told me rather cynically that people now collect stuff from the telly because the great ages of history are over. Mmm I thought, maybe he’s right. What do I want a nice Queen Anne table for? A talking point? Unlikely. Give me one dipped in carbonite and then I’ll invite the neighbours over. It’s true that you just don’t see antique shops in town anymore. They say its because of the recession – but maybe it’s because ‘Antiques’ are increasingly boring to a digital generation, and the middle classes would rather buy a 3D TV than a Queen Anne table. I’m talking broadly about Antiques with a capital A here, the stuff your parents or your friends parents thought made them seem classy and intelligent.
My dictionary tells me an antique is an object of considerable age, esp. a piece of furniture, or of the decorative arts having a high value. A prop may be described as such. Props of a certain age, or scarcity may be considered antique, and supply for their owners, a similar form of credibility to the classy intelligence your parents thought they were buying into. The object may even promote them to the neighbours. The promotional value of these objects, essentially the ‘prop-erty’ of the studio has not escaped the attention and manipulation of Industry. Earlier this year, in a massive publicity stunt, possibly to soften the up the backlash that always surrounds the changes to Dr Who, the BBC arranged for Bonhams to host an auction of antique Dr Who props from the archive. That’s Bonhams, of Knightsbridge not E bay, like many major studios. At the auction an MK Dalek, some 20 years old sold for over thirty thousand pounds. Daleks in Knightsbridge? A Clash it may seem, but it is music to the ears of Auntie Beeb who knows that you just can’t buy that kind of publicity.
We are told that the BBC needs to raise funds, and who are we, the exorbitant licence fee payers to question that. Even if the new theme song is atrocious and the new Doctor is baby faced awful, after the auction gets reported in all the tabloids, anything with Dr Who on it gets a dollar sign stuck in front of it. Suddenly that Dalek Easter egg that you never ate is worth a few hundred quid. Typically collectors are worse than (fisher) men for exaggeration so values just go up. They become self perpetuating, like a Chinese whisper. This kind of talk also promotes the show. Suddenly Doctor Who adverts pop up everywhere – on the bus, behind you, at work in the supermarket- the show is advertised through word of mouth, because it is connected with the one thing everybody loves, money baby, the big cheese.
The Monster Company sell antique props, but they also sell ‘off sale’ film and television merchandise, both new and second hand – stuff you cannot buy in high street stores - which is commonly referred to as memorabilia. Antiques and action figures have more in common than you think. I’m talking broadly about Memorabilia here, with a capital M. Objects related to TV and film have an aura. Like antiques, they have stories connected to them. Of course these objects have four dimensions like everything else, the have a length, a breadth, a height and they also exist through time, but they also exist in another dimension, that of narrative. They have history even when they are new, as such they may be understood as the new antiques– immediately collectable and immanently increasing in value.
Depending on your own fertile imagination, carful appropriation of these things can enable you to have a more intimate relationship with the primary text. If you put on a Stormtrooper helmet for example, you may feel closer to Star Wars, it may even inspire you to become a Stormtrooper, join a costuming organisation and troop at conventions, in aid of charity. Collecting memorabilia may enable you to express or maintain your own narrative of identity and meet and socialise with like minded people at conventions around the country. Somewhat like the new antiques road show.
Having given you the skinny on the new antique business, without further ado lets step inside the Monster Store, take a look around and meet the proprietor, Mr. David Bidwell. Now If you like sweets - and I know you do - this is a bit like meeting Willy Wonka, only if Wonka was like way cooler and into Metal and had Tom Savini for an older Brother. If you are a collector, it just may be that David Bidwell has a golden ticket for you. That’s right, run home Charlie Bugwriter! Run!
I am researching the ascription of collectable value for chapter two of my thesis, so I have various questions to ask Mr. Bidwell who immediately makes me feel welcome. As the morning progresses, I notice that he is this cool with all customers. He has time for anyone, whether you’re a kid with pocket money to spend or an investor with an open check book. Having said this, he’s a tough looking guy. If the store was under attack from a plague of Zombies, you get the feeling Mr Bidwell is prepared, possibly with a bat under the counter, and a chainsaw in the back. Indeed later on in the conversation it is revealed that he grew up in 70’s Essex, manor of those true horror fans the Krays... so, in the following conversation I will be referring to Mr. Bidwell as David, but if you meet him, I suggest you take a more formal stance.
The word awesome gets bandied about in today’s culture of young people, with their music and plant food and carry on, but take it from me kids, that stepping inside The Monster Store, is an awesome sight. The interior of the store is twice the height of normal shops. On display are objects from everybody’s childhood, and like Alice in Memorabilia-land any one of these objects could take you down the N(arrative) hole. As I’m given a tour, we chat broadly about collecting, the various ways in which objects are valued, and how David turned a hobby into a business. Quite honestly, I have a dozen questions and they all fly out the door, as all these wonderful objects crowd my brain with their stories. The store is huge, and stuffed full of stuff. Shopping for premises along this row of eclectic antique shops David chose the store because its shape was a long empty shell. From a display point of view it was a clever choice. He told me:
Entering this store, I could imagine being a kid again... when I was tiny I remember walking into the (toy) store and they had Star Wars stacked up, I was down there...and the stuff you wanted was on the top shelf...an you couldn’t reach it..,.we have that impact now with adults. That childhood impact...
The store is all about Fantasy Sc-FI and Horror and here you may purchase a variety of collectables, from action figures and T shirts, to props and replicas. Display cases in groups of four line a central walkway which leads into the rear of the store. The front section of the store houses racks of action figures with larger figures, play sets and box sets stacked up high. The cabinets in the front of the store house the rarer items. Dividing the store is an arch with a monster TV Screen, flanked by 1:1 scale Muppets – the proprietor’s contemporary collecting passion. The rear of the store is dedicated to original props, with the cabinets continuing to carry the more exclusive items, such as ‘Uncle Frank’s skull’ from the movie Hellraiser, priced at just under four thousand pounds, some cutlery from The Dark Crystal and some Dollar bills from The Dark Knight.
Davidconsiders himself “a fan first and foremost” and it is through his fandom for Horror movies, which involves meeting celebrities and attending conventions that his business grew. Running a Memorabilia business was ‘an intangible dream’ when David moved to Nottingham from Essex some 9 years ago with a box of Star Wars figures.
I’d worked so many shit jobs, I’d had enough. Nobody would employ me with the skills I had. I was getting 5 an hour data input jobs - I moved to Nottingham with 900 overdraft and shirt off my back and a little cardboard box of star wars figures...
For several years The Monster Company traded exclusively through eBay and had a stand at Collectormania. Before the store was opened, the stock amount was at the David’s house, literally taking it over. It wasn’t easy to turn his love of horror movies and memorabilia into a business, something had to be sacrificed, and this sacrifice was the Star Wars collection, which it turns out was significantly more than a shoe box full. However, this act of faith was to ultimately bring great rewards.
David tells me that ‘the hidden benefits’ of this business bring ‘so much’ to his life, these rock n roll perks include meeting and working with some of his favourite horror movie stars, like Christopher Lee for example, but it also includes ‘owning’ (however temporarily) a prestigious high end item like Uncle Frank’s skull. Posters advertise Peter Mayhew’s (aka Chewbacca) imminent visit. The store has just begun to feature in store signings and has featured recent celebrity appearances by David Prowse (Darth Vader) and renowned FX artist and director Tom Savini, who David considers “a personal friend”.
A few years ago David and Tom rolled around England like the Jack Kerouac and Dean Moriarty of the memorabilia business, spending eleven days over Europe, ‘mad, bad...desirerous of everything’...Tom Savini, man. Fucking Tom Savini. I was impressed. “He liked me” said David, “Which was good... if he don’t like you, you’re gonna know about it.” For those of you unaware Savini is a veteran Vietnam photographer. Retuning home, he ploughed a lot of his experience into his work as a SFX effect artist, and worked out a lot of that negative shit. Thousands didn’t.
David:
Tom is a bit like an elder brother, I love the guy.
First time I met him, I was at Heathrow airport with a sign that said “Sex Machine” on it, we got a few smiles of a few random people early in the morning, we were pointing at men and women going, is that him?...some people are smiling, some are ignoring us...and then I thought, what if Tom shaves his moustache off? I wouldn’t recognise him...anyway, he comes walking through the terminal and immediately “hey, that’s me” I said hi I’m David, d’ya want to get something to eat...and that was it, I spent 11 days with him over Europe. By the end of it we were just really pallid, punching, practical jokes, calling each other a bastard ...
C B: Was that like a signing tour then?
Yeah and everything in between.... we were hanging out with George A Romero - this was 2005 and Land of the Dead was coming out. Tom came over because he’s got a cameo in it. I met Eugene Clark...Pedro Miguel,there was the Hellraiser guys, Ashley Lawrence, Camden Toy, who played a gentlemen in Hush...there was a whole posse.. , the first time I met George A Romero I was at the bar and he offered me a beer ...I said yeah, can I get my mate one...and he bought my mate one because I was cheeky enough to ask for it... I just used to kick back, take it all in.
It easy to get sidetracked by such Rock n Roll antics, having myself served out the grunge years as L7’s guitar tech I sense we have a lot to talk about. There are parallels between the memorabilia business and the rock n roll industry worth noting here – both are big money businesses. There are celebrities, glamour and money involved, but arguably, rock n roll itself is not about money. It’s about the journey, the experience, much like the process of collecting is for some people. Not all Rock n Roll musicians are in it solely for the dollar or the attendant subjective or objective promotional values. There is a rock n roll to collecting memorabilia, whether you are meeting celebrities at cons, or running up to directors on the street, or running a store or even writing a blog – which doesn’t have to cost anything. Perhaps true souvenirs of our experience are free, they cannot be bought, and we make them, compose them like music.
Returning to the topic at hand, I begin in earnest by asking where things come from and just what makes them collectable. The Monster Store stock generally comes from random places. People come to trade and sell, generally David does not have to go out and source memorabilia, unless you are after something specific, in which case he will do his best to find for you. Although David can get the same merchandise that Forbidden Planet sells he chooses not to and rather thinks of him self as the cities antique memorabilia dealer. He tells me Forbidden Planet is not competition and that the two businesses actually compliment each other. FPI even send customers to him if they require an item that is old or not in stock.
One of the challenges of my project is figuring out notions of collectability, which seems to be largely a subjective value. Could it be that nothing is inherently collectable? In the case of a prop like Uncle Franks skull, it’s clear from what has been said the item may be perceived as collectable because it has antique value. But what of the other objects, the rest of the memorabilia, the action figures, box sets and merchandise? Why are those things collectable? I pose the question to David and he highlights two contributory factors that create collectable objects: first, as time moves forward, by a process of carless misuse, objects become gradually scarce; second, fan demand generates collectable objects.
I have been deliberately avoiding theory so far, but one of the scholars that I will be discussing in my thesis, Russell Belk, calls this ‘obsolescence’ he says “after sufficient removal from use, obsolete items may appeal to collectors even more strongly because of their obsolescence” He then suggests that “collecting differs from most form of consumption because it is relatively immune from fashion obsolescence” but I would argue, and I think David would agree, that collectors follow trends too.
David suggests that the frivolity with which we once treated objects contributes to their obselecence which functions to generate collectable status. Obselecence, as a factor of rarity applies to both props and general merchandise with Star Wars figures (always) being a classic point of reference. “Generally speaking, everybody threw them away.” Society seems to be disposing of their old video movies en masse, so I wonder out loud whether perhaps one day these objects will be coveted as antiques. David tells me that outside of pre VRA certification horror videos are only collectable, if it’s a cut that’s not available on DVD or Blu Ray. A contemporary example isNightbreed, but only until a new cut is released. This was the case with the THX versions of Star Warsbefore the contemporary DVD releases. The gap in the market between big screen TVs and rereleasing technically better versions on disc created a demand for a clean THX copy of Star Wars. Whilst the gap existed you could expect to pay ninety pounds for a THX trilogy set.
Movies are made physically collectable by the process of reissue and repackaging. Repackaging movies with extra content effectively sells the movie all over again. Fans themselves have a hand in this process, creating and filling their own cultural demands. David sights the example of his friend and colleague, Paul Davis directed a fan made feature, Beware the Moon: Remembering American Werewolf in London. This featurette was picked up by John Landis, original director of American Werewolf, thanks to Davis approaching Landis outside a London Theatre.
Landis became executive producer on the fan made film and repackaged the film in Blu-Ray format with Beware the Moonas an extra disc. Apparently this is the first time an unknown director has gone straight to BluRay with his first feature. At a recent dinner with Savini and Landis, after Savini’s signing at the Monster Store, David asked how the new disc has sold. Landis told him the new disc had sold so well that Universal are looking again at the Jawsdocumentary which was made many years ago and refused, and also at all these other documentaries fans have made because Paul Davis’ film has sold so well. Universal are now looking to repackage classic films on Blu-Ray both for the new generation and the collectors market, so my advice is get out there and get involved.
There is more to collectability than obselesance and demand, but back in the store, I’m having a coffee, and wondering about how objects are priced. Specifically I want to return to the props. Items are priced accordingly. “When I’m pricing stuff, I juggle all the factors.” says David. “It’s a cliché, but it’s only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, that could be a lot of money. It could be pennies.” David takes into consideration such variables as age, condition, scarcity, history of the item, but perhaps the most important factor is screen time. Generally speaking, the more time a prop clocks up on screen, the more it is worth. Props that feature in movies, such as those carried by heroes throughout the picture, may command the highest prices. Often a prop turns up which is production made, but not screen used. He shows me a piece of Freddy’s arm, made for one of the Nightmare movies, but not seen on screen. If this object were to turn up in DVD extras, or as part of a new cut of the film, or if the prop is directly referenced by an actor, verbally or physically, the market becomes aware of it, and price is adjusted. David takes me to have a closer look at Uncle Franks Skull:
...the regeneration of Frank, when he comes out of the floorboards, he screams as his head falls backwards and his jaw drops...that is the skull. Its twenty two years old, it should be in a museum. It’s a piece of cinema history as far as I am concerned...
What is it made of?
The classic case is still ‘77 ‘78 Star Wars. If people wanted a token of the movie, or if they wanted to take it away, well VHS was just beginning to evolve and not everyone had one - you couldn’t find the movie straight away. It was taking 3, 4, 5 years for movies to come out after cinema release anyway. People demanded some thing tangible to take back. I think that’s the primary role of collection. I think the movie business has got really exciting, the characters and stories they are inventing and how they are portrayed at the cinema and on the screen and in the media - - demand is just increasing.
I’m also finding, more so now with the expansion of our business, that with props or replicas, it’s the prestige of owning a piece of art like the Bugwriter – I’m goin’ crazy for it! I want to see it! It’s a piece of art in itself, what it represents, the exclusivity of it, but there’s so many more angles now. People also buy into collectables for investment. When the crash happened a couple of years ago I know a dealer who has investors, not interested in the stuff, coming to him with an open wallet, saying, I want my money to be safe, gold is an option, but movie collectables is another option to retain monetary value. If I want my money back in a couple of years I won’t we loosing out.
From an investment point of view, people come in from that angle... and that’s your worst business case scenario of non fans entering the market. It is really interesting and (politically) relevant. I’ve got millionaires coming in and saying, ‘invest it, I’ll get 10, 20 percent return so it’s better than the bank over a five year period’.
I wonder, isn’t he tempted just to keep it? I ask if David has a collection at home...
I’ve had pieces through the business that I liked a lot, but then having them...I find this with collectors as well, they move on and they focus on something else, the new fashion or collectable or thing that they like and they are quite happy to part with this, to get that and move on. It’s good for us because were kind of the mediator to pass the product between collectors.
This illustrates that it is the process of collecting which is more important that the assemblage objects themselves. It also subliminally suggests that the collectable object has a life of its own. Fashionable specialisation in collecting may help to define a more manageable task, but in actuality may mean that the collecting process never ends, for example, a series of commercially produced merchandise may be finite, but the collectors imperative may be to collect many series.
The question was do I have a collection? I haven’t really, but I enjoy absolutely everything while its here... I’m not sure how this happened it’s really weird... the one collection I do have is Palisades Muppets! I met a lady at a convention who had a couple of Muppets on her stall I got chatting with her and she was selling her whole collection which was 1 of everything... except two... I bought the whole collection. When we develop the house it’s going to go in a ‘Muppet cabinet’... you know at the start of the Muppets where they all come out of their booths - its like a pigeon hole cabinet - I’m going to get some really nice red velvet curtains, and a Muppet show sign made up, then they’re going to be in every single pigeon hole. There’s 96 different Muppets. Muppets is my thing.
We had an Easter Island tribal shield through here, a talking shield through from Muppet Treasure Island.I have held, touched, and passed on one of these to a friend, which I’m very proud of. One of the puppet makers lives in Nottingham...he hasn’t been in yet...I called him and said ‘I love the Muppets...’ but I think I may have scared him. Bit to fan boy.
If you too are a fan, ‘fan-boy’ may be a term you are familiar with. I included this because I figured it would temper the picture of David the Essex Zombie Slayer that I first presented you with. Fan seems a friendly enough word, but we should remember that it is slang for fan-atic. David is comfortable with self applying this term - and so am I for that matter - but is should be clear to you that neither of us are fanatical boys. Fans are often content to accept this slang, for want of a better term, because they are ‘nuts about stuff’, but in so doing, they complacently accept a self deprecating and derogatory applet, as a descriptor for their creative enthusiasm and culture. Maybe we cannot replace it, but we can deconstruct it, and we should, because it’s an accepted way of ‘othering’ and pathologising collectors into ‘comic book guy’ stereotypes. We have been sold this terminology by the media, and (to a certain extent) the Academy. Who else do these institutions term fanatics? In a culture of terror, maybe we should look again at the etymology of this term and question, who benefits from all this?
Thanks for sticking with me through this interview, trust that they will get punchier and spicier as the blog progresses and I begin to understand this craft a little better. Please note, this is not my academic voice, it’s just me, writing. I made some fairly weighty propositions without theoretical back up, that will need further research if they are to ever be included in my thesis. I suggested souvenirs cannot be purchased and that nothing is collectable, I also highlighted the term ‘fan’ as pathologising and outdated slang. I metaphorically suggested that props maybe understood as antiques and that memorabilia broadly may be thought of as ‘the new antiques’ “immediately collectable and immanently increasing in value.” I also suggested that collecting may be thought of as the new Rock n roll, because it’s about experience and identity, not fame and money, although, hey, that’s always nice too.
I want to thank Mr David Bidwell (and his partner) for talking to me and making me feel welcome and illustrating for me, factors which contribute to making collectable objects, such as issues of obselesence, fan demand, reissue and repackaging and the reasons why some collectors collect, for investment purposes, or to bring a little souvenir of their travels in narrative home with them. I discovered that, practical successes aside, David didn’t turn a hobby into a business because collecting is neither for him - it’s a way of life. There is a sense in which David’s work at the Monster Store is curatorial in essence, and the Monster store is a living mutating museum, for which you should probably be charged admission. David Bidwell may be a fan boy, but he is better described as curator, connoisseur and gore-hound - a postmodern antique dealer of considerable creativity and knowledge - who should be respected as such... unless of course you want to end up in the Muppet cabinet... ;)
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