Some 300 items of movie memorabilia from films dating back seven decades will go on the auction block Saturday in southwest Iowa. Auctioneer Scott Martin, of Missouri Valley, says the impressive array of entertainment history includes things like promotional posters, photos and all sorts of artifacts from the film industry.
“It’s the collection of someone who owned theaters and worked in theaters most of his life,” Martin says. “There’s lots of items going back to the 1940s, movie posters, lobby cards, rare record interview discs from famous movie stars.” The items are from the estate of Lee Rasmussen, who owned the Rialto Theater in Missouri Valley for more than 30 years and also managed the Millard Theater in Omaha prior to that.
Martin says the unusual items include a set of four unused tickets from the 1940 blockbuster, “Gone With The Wind.” “There’s an original media kit from Walt Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ that has several 1940 reference dates in it,” Martin says.
“Also, there’s a very, very rare lobby music record from ‘Psycho,’ the Alfred Hitchcock film. It’s a 78 RPM record and they would play that in the lobby or during intermissions.” Items up for bidding include a complete portrait collection of Academy Award Winners from the years 1928 through 1961.
The auction begins at noon on Saturday at Scott Martin Auctions in Missouri Valley. Martin says they’re planning to hold at least two more auctions with equal amounts of memorabilia.