Antiques Roadshow

APPRAISER

Nowadays, it's all about who wants to marry a multi-millionaire. But back in 1953, it was merely How to Marry a Millionaire. And these photos you brought us take us right to the premiere with Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe. Who took them?

GUEST

My father photographed these. He was a student in California and had a bet with a friend that he could get a picture of Marilyn Monroe, and he won.

APPRAISER

So he snuck in?

GUEST

Actually, he had a friend who got him a ticket, but it wasn't a press pass. It was a regular ticket to get in. But he took his camera. He made a number of photographs. In fact, in some of them, you can actually see the press photographers in the background.

APPRAISER

That's right, I see them. That's amazing.

GUEST

In an interesting turn of events, he was able to get in and get these photographs.

APPRAISER

Well, setting the scene a little bit, in 1953, Marilyn Monroe made herself into a box office star. She had a long ascendancy. It wasn't until Niagara with Joseph Cotten that she actually became a breakout star, but in 1953, she had two top ten box office hits, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Jane Russell and then, of course, How to Marry a Millionaire with Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable. And she kind of perfected light comedy and what they now call a dumb blonde role. But in many ways this was the zenith of her career. She was just about to marry Joe DiMaggio, and it was a wonderful time for her, as you can see from these fabulous photos. They're professional looking quality.

GUEST

Well, he was a student learning to be a professional photographer.

APPRAISER

Well, he's done a good job. Now, let me ask you, have you ever had these appraised?

GUEST

I did send them off to two houses and got a card back from one saying, "We'll get back to you," never heard from them.

APPRAISER

Okay.

GUEST

And got a letter back from Sotheby's just on the photographs themselves, but not on the negatives, and that's what we keep asking about because I have the original negatives for the ten photographs that he took.

APPRAISER

And that's very unusual. We're going to look at a couple of different things here. All together your dad took ten photographs. So we look at one, obviously, who's in the photographs and the fact that you say they've never been published.

GUEST

Correct.

APPRAISER

And if that's true, and the quality of them, that makes them more valuable than a lot of sort of home movie type photos that get taken. The negatives are also very valuable, because you're looking at whether you sell them with the copyright or without the copyright. And the third thing that you're looking at is the fact of timing. For instance, if you go back to the mid-'80s, Marilyn was very hot when Madonna made her video, kind of playing off of Marilyn's "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend." Then, of course, there was a blockbuster sale of her estate last fall. My feeling is that if you sell these without the copyright, the ten photos themselves, very conservatively, I would put them at $6,000 to $8,000 for the grouping. Now, if you're selling them with the copyright and someone gets an exclusive and wants them for an archives, you just don't know what they could do. I'm not a copyright lawyer. I've never had to deal with it, but they could be much, much more. It really depends at the timing and what the open market will bring.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

But they're fantastic photos. Your dad did a wonderful job in shooting them.