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July 31, 2003 - Celebrity News- Up, Up and Away: Profiles in History's Hollywood Auction in Beverly Hills boasts memorabilia that ranges fron Harrison Ford's "Blade Runner" pistol to prize gets like Mel Brooks' hand written lyrics to "Springtime for Hitler" from "The Producers." But Joseph Maddalena, CEO of the auction house, is guessing that the biggest bid-getter will be "by far the George Reeves Superman costume. Its unquestionably the most important TV costume ever. It could bring in a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

"It always surprises me what things sell for," he adds. "A couple of auctions ago, we had a memo that Leonard Nimoy had written to Gene Roddenberry in the second season of 'Star Trek,' saying that he was unhappy with how Mr. Spock was being portrayed, that this is a character that needed to be developed and so on...It brought in $11,000. People underestimate how much the fans love this stuff."

Maddalena makes the point that "It's astonishing there is no major museum of Hollywood history in Los Angeles. There should be. You'd think the show business establishment would want such a shrine to its work, and it would be a huge attraction." Meanwhile, Hollywood treasures are up for grabs at auctions like his.

Qualified internet and phone bidders from around the globe will also be allowed to take part in the event in real time, Maddelena notes.

Earlier this month, a report in The Wall Street Journal had it that "auctions have been falling apart on the Internet," but he begs to differ. "Internet auctions have failed in the area of $20 million items -- but not in the $500-$50,000 zone, and a third of our clients are in that range."