"Hollywood Treasure" is My Kind of Treasure

Would you (if you could) pay $2 million for Dorothy's ruby slippers? I don't mean any pair. I mean the pair worn by Judy Garland for the close up shot when Dorothy clicked her heals together three times. What if you owned the Panaflex camera that filmed Star Wars - would you sell it? These are the questions that are asked - and answered - on Hollywood Treasure - a show that is right up my alley.

This series, now in its second season on Syfy, follows Joe Maddalena, owner of Profiles in History, a Hollywood auction house and HUGE movie buff as he and his team crisscross the country in search of new and rare pieces of movie memorabilia.

Their finds are truly remarkable. On a recent episode, they found a one-of-a-kind Yoda rehearsal puppet from the original Star Wars auctioned and sold it at auction for over $22,000. In the same episode they found and curated the (self-driving!) original Bumblebee Camero from the first Transformers movie, Katniss' Mockingjay pin from The Hunger Games and a ccreen-used puzzle box from the Hellraiser movies.

Much of the excitement is seeing the team negotiate for the items and then seeing how much they go for at auction. But the real joy (for me) is to simply see these incredibly rare items and knowing that they are stored and cared for by true movie buffs.

Occasionally, Joe has collectors and even stars share items from their collection. His friend, Sean Astin brought by Samwise Gamgee's knapsack (complete with jangling pots and pans) from The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the helmet he wore in the movie Rudy. Sean's helmet had been sitting in his garage for 20 years and was showing signs of damage. As a favor, Joe restored the helmet and prepared a presentation case for it so Sean could enjoy it for many more years.

One couple Joe visited has the most amazing private Sci-Fi and fantasy movie memorabilia collection (outside of Paul Allen) that I've seen. They owned literally hundreds of items including Christopher Reeve's original Superman costume, Picards captain's chair from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gene Wilder's signature "Willy Wonka" costume, Cylon warrior and Viper flight costumes from the original Battlestar Gallactica. The couple hired Joe to place all the items into auction. It's a collection worth millions and it's all for sale.

So, want to get in on the action, er, auction? This incredible collection goes up for auction in July. You can learn about the upcoming auction here and even sign up to bid online!

As fun as it would be to own even a small piece of some of these beloved films, I'll have to be content seeing them on TV. And thanks to Hollywood Treasure, that is now possible.

New episodes air Tuesdays, 10/9c on Syfy.