Prop from famous Ed Wood/Bela Lugosi flick sells for a cool 10K.
The legacy of Ed Wood continues to affect audiences. The notorious “bad” filmmaker, so lovingly essayed in the same-named, impressionistic Tim Burton film, made a series of low-to-no-rent, wildly personal films that masqueraded as genre pictures but more often than not were thinly cloaked kink confessionals that made him a laughing stock in his time, but are celebrated today.
They’re still bad movies. But as Greek filmmaker Ado Kyrou once famously said: “I urge you to look at bad films, they are so often sublime…”
He forgot to add ridiculous.
But we digress…
Wood’s calling card clunker is his fascinating 1959 Sci-Fi horror film PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, the final film of iconic horror actor Bela Lugosi. As is well documented, Lugosi was in the thralls of addiction and Wood shot some footage of Lugosi walking around an LA bungalow, footage he later spliced in to the body of PLAN 9 in order to get Lugosi’s name on the poster as a marketing/financing draw.
In that footage, Lugosi walks out of said bungalow sporting a hat and cane and is killed off-screen by a car. It’s his final screen appearance..
Well, that cane has just sold for a cool 10K at a Hollywood auction presented by Turner Classic Movies. The buyer has been identified as Jason Insalaco of Los Angeles, California, who is a renowned collector of rare Ed Wood artifacts and props.
According to the original price projection, the cane was expected to command between $1,000 and $1,500, but dozens of bidders from around the globe participated in the auction to exceed expectations ten-fold at the closing gavel on Monday, November 23, 2015 in New York.
Insalaco expressed his enthusiasm for winning the auction: This treasure will not be stowed in prop purgatory. I look forward to exhibiting this exceptional piece of Hollywood history along with other never-before-seen memorabilia from ‘Plan 9’ and Ed Woods personal collection.”
Insalaco continued, The fact that Bela personally used this cane provides unique appeal beyond its movie prop prominence. This item has an emotional and historical resonance for Lugosi, Wood, and cinema enthusiasts from around the world. I am honored to be its new caretaker.
Details on the cane and auction can be found HERE.
And for kicks, here’s the PLAN 9 trailer…
