By Rollo Ross and James Ferry
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Iconic 1960s television series “The Munsters” is at the centre of a new Halloween-inspired auction called Monsters & Friends happening at Heritage Auctions in Beverly Hills.
Props, merchandise and costumes from the cult comedy show about a family of misfit monsters are all up for grabs in a vast collection assembled by Hollywood producer Kevin Burns, who died last year at the age of 65.
“It’s an amazing assemblage. It took decades to put this together,” said Brian Chanes, senior entertainment consignment director at Heritage Auctions, pointing out an electric chair the character of Grandpa used to relax in and a latex prosthetic that built up Herman Munster’s forehead so he would resemble the Frankenstein monster.
There are other horror and sci-fi props up for auction from Freddy Krueger’s mask used in the 1984 “Nightmare on Elm Street” to Ewan McGregor’s lightsaber from “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones”.
The two lots expected to fetch the highest bids are costumes and a ray gun from the first “Star Trek” pilot episode and the original script from the 1931 “Frankenstein” movie.
“In the 30 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen one,” said Chanes, referring to the script. “I do not know what it’s going to sell for. It’s going to be exciting to see what happens because it’s extraordinarily rare.”
Bidders can also get their hands on items like Wilson, the ball companion of Tom Hanks in “Cast Away”, a flightsuit from “Top Gun” bearing the tag of Peter Mitchell Maverick, Tom Cruise’s character in the movie, and Robin Wright’s red Princess Buttercup dress from “The Princess Bride”.
The auction will close in the first week of November.
(Reporting by Jack Ferry and Rollo Ross; Editing by Karishma Singh)
