Sondheim Estate Auction

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I am so tempted just so I can say I have something of his, but know it will likely lose value so I'm trying to be prudent here.

Shouldn’t it be “Sondomites” ?

What’s with the shirts?

Where is all the dungeon equipment?

The rebus plates are neat.

I wanted the invitation to the Keith Haring party with the puzzle inside, but I'm sure it'll go for 5 grand.

What an interesting collection. Love all of the puzzles and games.

Dude had taste, too. It's not my style, but it's not trashy like so many go for today.

That says a lot, considering the good stuff is already spoken for.

Have all the books been checked for hidden Polaroids?

How many candlesticks can one person need?

I don't need any, r11...

Wow, this is nice stuff. The prices seem low. How much does this usually go for? What’s the factor?

Is anyone looking at results of the auction, which was today? I'm looking now; items went for WAY over expected prices.

R14, They usually do if the deceased was beloved.

The auction is actually still going on

I was bidding on one item -haven't heard anything yet...

The furniture is a little fussy and not my style but I like his book collection and all the old games.

Hmm. The item I bid on was projected to go for $100-$200. I bid $300. It sold for $4,500! Amazing.

Oh, well. I have my memories, some letters, and even a few gifts from Steve. Those will do.

Having my fingers crossed I’ll get the antique Basque tit clamps.

I’ll cut a bitch if I don’t get the leather riding crop.

Prices went crazy as expected

This seems to be the most expensive item.

I'm not rich enough to buy things at auction, but is there usually such a disparity between the estimated price and the price at which an item is sold? So many of the lots listed seem to have gone for between five and ten times what was originally estimated.

And who's buying all of this stuff? Sondheim queens, or foreign businessmen looking for an investment?

Who cares about that overrated twat?

Sometimes the estimates are intentionally low, R24, to get more interest from suckers (like the people on the thread who thought they would get the West Side Story gold record for $1500). It’s a sales tactic.

For the furniture, I was amused by all the descriptors like scratched, stained, repaired, cracked, etc.

How much of the profits go to the Widower Romley?

R27, Many of Jackie O’s auctioned furniture pieces were scratched or chipped.

Those scratches and chips were hard-earned scars from my fucking whores ok that furniture.

[quote]Many of Jackie O’s auctioned furniture pieces were scratched or chipped.

Which is why Jackie was On Assistance.

I was curious if Sondheim had an identifying bookplate inside his books. I’m nosy like that (and nutty for books.) i would like to have bid on his Dorothy Parker book but I’m poor (it went for $700!)

I have Marian Seldes’ copy of Louise Brooks’ Lulu in Hollywood; it didn’t have an identifying bookplate inside but it has some tiny pencilled notations on some of the pages. It was sold at one of the Broadway Fleas several years ago; someone had a bunch of her books for sale (if I recall correctly it wasn’t too long after she died.) I think I paid five bucks for it!

Coincidentally I have a copy of the book The Players’ Club After 75 Years that I bought at a Connecticut library sale for $2. It has a handsigned Garson Kanin letter inside it on his personal stationery . He wrote it to someone at the Players Club after he (Kanin) was elected its Vice-President. I couldn’t believe my luck finding that inside the book!

I put the books together on my bookshelf (I know, MARY!)

R32, You need to add a copy of this.

R33. I should!

R33 I just checked the prices on THAT, oh NO!

Brilliant to schedule this sale when Merrily is at its peak.

The auction estimates were clearly without the Sondheim provenance. The brown furniture hammer prices were incredibly high, except for a few very large pieces that would be hard to use in any case. Ditto other smaller items. Items with estimates of $200 that went for over $1000.

Not fond of selling his used clothing....that seems just tacky to me.

Estimates that misleading are a fail.

[quote] The auction estimates were clearly without the Sondheim provenance.

4 old thesauruses for $200-300?

How is it that he had an assortment of costume jewelry?

Are people really this starstruck? There are two or three items I would like to have just because they are interesting and not because Sondheim owned them. But some of this is just crap and you can’t ever prove that Sondheim actually owned some of these things.

Some of the more personal items seem creepy, intrusive, and fanboy desperate.

I expected the record to sell for way more, so I'm not a sucker, but even the game stuff (which i honestly was more interested in as game items than as being owned by Sondheim) went for way more than I was expecting.

I wondered about the women’s costume jewelry too; what’s that about?!

I like the silver framed photo of SS and Streisand.; she gifted it to him and engraved it. That’s pretty special.

I also liked the Victorian small cabinet that held CDVs just because it’s beautiful and interesting and different.

If someone was buying because they just wanted something he owned, why not? It’s those who buy just to resell that are truly awful. Probably each book will be resold individually.

Could the jewellery have belonged to his mother? Or maybe they're pieces from costumes from his shows?

Maybe they were mementos from his friendships with Lee Remick, Mary Rodgers, etc.

[quote]How many candlesticks can one person need?

Wait till his pickle caddy collection next sale.

The widow Sondheim is giving a second glance to other remaining pieces in the estate.

Have the shirts been laundered?

I sat near him at the Barrington/Berkshires several years ago and he had food stains on the front of his shirt.

I'm surprised at the merch from his own shows

It’s almost like he sold his work for money! Dirty hands!

I just looked up the rules for selling Tony Awards. If someone wanted to sell their award they would first have to offer to sell it to the Tony Awards production company for $10 (more than the Academy will pay for an Oscar—$1!)

Sondheim had several. Wonder what will happen to them.

Those you keep -Or you put "on loan" to sit in a theatre lobby or museum. With "incentives" of course.

This makes me want to know more about the widow Sondheim and what's going on with his estate more generally.

[quote]Wonder what will happen to them.

Sold to private collectors. William Travilla's 1950 Academy Award for costume design was sold to one for $50,000 by the Estate representative.

According to Joan Crawford’s grandson, the whereabouts of Joan’s Oscar is not known.

His mother, one of the twins, sold it years ago and apparently it has been resold to someone else.

R55 . . .

Maybe they could sell things like that years ago, but these days with the internet, the Academy will catch you and the buyer will have to relinquish ownership.

R57, I believe the Internet was up and running in 2012.

And the buyer of said Oscar would not have to relinquish it.

Oscars before 1950 can be sold at auction or to anyone else. After, they must be first offered to the Academy at a buy back of $1 or $10.

As for being found out, unless the buyer tells, how will they know? Supposedly, there's a full-version of `1954's A Star is Born out there, held by a private collector for decades. Some collectors collect for having it to themselves.

Where is Mr. Romley settling now that the Turtle Bay and CT estate have been sold?

R60 - yeah, you got to wonder what happened to his 'husband'. The 30 something who married a legend at the age of 87. True love?

He probably got a nice little something - hope that kid didn't get the entire estate - married or not.

He's posting average photos on IG, at least for a photographer

His Twitter bio is probably more honest:

[quote]Ski. Sail. Golf. Tennis. Bike. Scuba. Photography. Theatre. Life itself. That's all.

Did they sell the CT house? I thought maybe the widower kept that, and that's where all the good stuff is, the awards and original scores.

R62 - his photography is C- at best. God I hope he didn't get his whole estate. It's soooo Anna Nicole.

It's none of our fucking business. I respect Sondheim enough to let him make his own decisions, and he didn't seem to have any mental decline in his later years. He actually seemed to soften a bit, and that may be why he had a successful relationship.

After his death, wasn’t it revealed that Sondheim had bequeathed a portion of his estate to charities?

r64 Romley was a masseur early on in his 'career', then an "assistant" for a producer. He played the long game well.

And of course now we get the prisspots like r65 who posts here on a gossip website while insisting "it's none of our fucking business"

The hilarious thing about calling prisspots is that you have to be one to do so. It's it's probably why this is the only place where I see that word used. It doesn't work. Eat shit, and take your L.

Lovingly,

R65

...further proving my point

The only point being made here is you're a fucking bully, and that's pretty much all you've got after doing this for all these years. Cunt.

Imagine thinking that the correct reaction to being called a prisspot is to double down on the prissiness.

Now shut up and give me your lunch money. I have a feeling that's going to be a small fortune.

You still don't get what a fucking hypocrite you are, policing the policing right back. That's why the bullying is all you've got.

And you can speak to my staff about the donations I'm making this month for the afflicted. Good day.

Yes the CT estate was sold. As for Romley, if his gentle ministrations made Sondheim happy and extended his life, I say bravo.

R66 I just googled it and yes he set up a trust and bequeathed to his husband, his friends and various charities. Smart. Good for him.

[quote]Could the jewellery have belonged to his mother? Or maybe they're pieces from costumes from his shows?

There was what I assume was a gold belt buckle in the shape of the head of a fox, so yes, I assume the jewellery belonged to Janet Fox (Foxy) Sondheim.

Regardless of charities, I'm sure the Widow Sondheim is set for the foreseeable future.

I'm really jealous,

Well just think what he had to do for that money, that should solve the jealousy issue.

R78, Their relationship appeared platonic in public. I doubt if there was ever much passion behind closed doors.

Sondheim had a definite personal hygiene deficiency and he smoked like a chimney.

His widower earned every cent.

Did he still smoke in his old age?

I thought he quit after he had a heart attack in the 80's.

I wonder how much the four-foot-tall pile of "works in progress" will get.

Unless Michael Feinstein left Liza in a closet and climbed through a window to pick them up with his Grinch sack.

I worked with Sondheim back in 2005, and he had no hygiene issues whatsoever. He often looked rumpled and verging on homelessness, but I assure you he was clean. DL just loves to make memes...

Yes, he quit smoking after the heart attack.

R83. My uncle is 86 and his eyesight isn’t what it was (and he refuses to get cataract surgery) sometimes when I visit him I have to point out his shirt is stained; he hadn’t even noticed it. He himself is clean; I think his eyesight just overlooks some things. I think it’s part of the suckitude of getting older, unfortunately. In any case, Sondheim had a good long life. I wish he would’ve stuck around long enough to see Merrily win Tonys the other night though.

He was looking very, very handsome around Sweeney Todd. But remember his appearance in Broadway The Golden Age where he was interviewed laying down?

Back in 2005 he was hit by a taxi while riding his bike. It left quite a lump for a long time, and it did slow him down a bit.

[quote]Back in 2005 he was hit by a taxi while riding his bike.

Just out of curiosity, when did he make the comment that Patti LuPone wasn’t a star but just a Broadway actress?

Disclaimer: This poster is in no way insinuating that Patti LuPone runs people over with cars. Any inference that Ms. LuPone has a short temper or holds a grudge is not germane to the above statement.

[quote] I wish he would’ve stuck around long enough to see Merrily win Tonys the other night though.

I also wish Hal Prince had stuck around long enough. Wouldn't his face have been stony?

At the same auction house as Sondheim's estate sale (Doyle in Manhattan) they had one called Stage & Screen yesterday. They sold a Tony Award won by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis for Best Musical "Kismet" for the 1953/1954 season. It was estimated at $3,000-$5,000 and sold for $15,360. It's a medallion; I guess that's what they gave back then rather than the current award?

One can IMAGINE how much Sondheim's Tonys would go for....

I bid (and won) on a group of old english jigsaw puzzles which weren't photographed (or described) particularly well. Excited to see what they actually are. (I have an idea). I picked them up because I collect rare and old jigsaw puzzles... the Sondheim provenance was just a bonus (I guess).

Also - the end prices are inflated because they INCLUDE the auction premium and tax. I paid 850 and it came out to 1100 and change with the fees.

One of Sondheim’s items I thought was so great was a Victorian era wood cabinet with different sized glasses in it to make music.

R91 Did you have many bidders against you? (Just curious)

Some of the furniture pieces went for surprisingly low amounts.

Who’s going to tote that brown stuff to your house? Probably costs extra.

R91 it ran up pretty quickly from the 150 starting bid but slowed around 700 I was prepared to bid up to 1000 (plus fees) but got it for 850.

One thing iI thought was super cool was Stephen's very first royalty check. For 74 cents (and the auctioneer commented that it looked like it had never been cashed). It went for $16k (plus fees). Considering inflation I think it was worth about $13 and change in todays dollars at face value. haha

R97 It must've meant the world to him, that first royalty check for something he wrote. It's great it was saved for all these years!

It was from 1914!

[quote]It must've meant the world to him, that first royalty check for something he wrote.

Probably also the first thing Foxy wasn’t able to manipulate.

Your Sondheim encounter was 19 years ago, R83.

Mine was 7 years ago and he was in need of a shower, a shampooing and some clean clothes.

R98 - no silly .... It was a printed check from Broadcast Music Inc., in the amount of 74 cents dated December 12th, 1948 and made out in type "Stephen Sondheim/Care of Cap and Bels (sic)/of Williams College/Williamstown, MASS," signed in ink by two representatives, apparently not cashed by Sondheim as there are no cancel marks.