Gun-shape and other novelty cigarette lighters made before 1970, like this Alfred Dunhill tinder pistol example, patented 1897, will not be affected by the pending law in Massachusetts. This lighter sold for $700 plus b.p. at New Orleans Auction Galleries’ Nov. 20, 2005 sale. Image courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com Archive and NOAG.
BOSTON (AP) – Massachusetts has banned cigarette lighters that look like guns, pens, lobster claws and other objects in an effort to cut down on accidental fires started by children.
State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said the lighters are attractive to children because they look like toys.
Officials say children using matches and lighters sparked 158 fires in Massachusetts last year, causing nearly $1 million in damages. Fires set by children killed four people in 2008.
The bill was sponsored by state Rep. Geraldo Alicea. The Charlton Democrat tells The Boston Globe he was urged by fire chiefs in his district to raise the issue.
The law takes effect in November, and includes exemptions for collectible lighters made before 1980.
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Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
In this official White House photo taken on July 4, 1986, former First Lady Nancy Reagan waves from the Statue of Liberty after it was reopened on its 100th birthday.
NEW YORK (AP) – A copper casting of the tip of the Statue of Liberty’s nose is among a collection of iconic items that will be auctioned off next month in New York City. LiveAuctioneers will facilitate the Internet live bidding for the sale.
Guernsey’s auction house President Arlan Ettinger says the casting of Lady Liberty’s nose is one of four that was made during a restoration effort in the 1980s. One of the four was used on the statue, one was destroyed, and another is in a private collection.
He says the piece is about 2 feet (60 centimeters) wide, consisting of the tip and the area around the nostrils. He says it’s “actually quite good-looking.”
The sale also includes a motorcycle from John F. Kennedy’s Dallas motorcade and James Dean’s sunglasses. The auction is scheduled for Sept. 24.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren similar to the one donated to charity. Photo taken in Brussels in 2006.FRIENDSWOOD, Texas (AP) – Tony Buzbee insists he doesn’t feel the faintest pang of remorse about a decision to give away $3.5 million worth of exotic cars. As his driver polished the fast, sexy sheet metal fleet in the circular driveway of his West Spreading Oaks home, Buzbee was at peace.
The rolling displays of wealth and power will go to The Jesse Tree, a faith-based social service agency, of which Buzbee is a longtime board member.
“They’re just cars,” Buzbee said. “How many can you drive around?”
His four children are having a tougher time coming to terms with the extravagant gift of 13 exotic automobiles, including a $525,000 gunmetal gray Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR; a $250,000, canary yellow Spyker C-8; and a $250,000 Ford GT with a top speed of 205 mph.
Anthony Jr., 11, had hoped to drive a $313,000 green Lamborghini Murcielago when he turned 16. Elizabeth, 13, Flower, 9, and Robert, 7, also had admired the gleaming collection.
“There was a lot of disbelief,” Buzbee, 42, said. “They thought I was joking.”
But Buzbee, a developer and tort attorney who made a fortune – and some critics – fighting corporate giants, including BP, a large local employer, said he’s very serious. As tough as it is for his children to understand, the lesson is for them, he said.
“It’s very easy to raise spoiled children when you’re wealthy,” Buzbee said. “I’m not going to raise a spoiled child.”
Buzbee and his wife, Zoe, want to teach their children there’s more to life than possessions and that some people live hand-to-mouth, he said.
“The American dream is to be successful,” said Buzbee, who grew up poor in Atlanta, Texas, one of four children of a butcher and high school cafeteria worker. “I’ve done that beyond any of my expectations. But no responsible citizen should lose sight of the obligation to help others when in a position to do so; that’s what I try, and am trying, to teach my children.”
Buzbee mowed yards and worked at other jobs to make payments on his first car, a used 1974 Jeep CJ5.
He attended Texas A&M University on an ROTC scholarship, graduating in 1990.
After college, he entered the U.S. Marine Corps. As an infantry officer, he served in the Persian Gulf and Somalian conflicts, where he commanded various units.
He later was selected by the Marines to become a special forces officer, commanding an elite recon company in the fabled First Marine Regiment.
After Marine Corps service, he entered law school at the University of Houston. One of his first big wins came in 2001. Buzbee represented offshore drilling workers who alleged their wages had been suppressed by their employers. He won a $75 million judgment against Transocean Ltd. The payout to his firm was $18 million, enabling him to indulge his interest in cars.
Buzbee’s children weren’t alone in being floored by the decision. So was Ted Hanley, executive director of The Jesse Tree, an island-based organization that provides food, clothing, job-training and medical assistance to thousands of county residents.
About 200 elderly residents receive food boxes monthly from the agency.
The organization also uses cash donations to help families ward off evictions or keep their power from being cut off for inability to pay.
Buzbee’s car collection represents the largest single donation to The Jesse Tree in its 15-year history.
After Hurricane Ike struck in September 2008, flooding thousands of houses and buildings and wiping out hundreds of jobs, The Jesse Tree saw a sharp rise in need for its services while its supplies dwindled.
“It’s so overwhelmingly generous,” Hanley said. “What he’s really offering is the opportunity to sustain a local organization battered by the storm and overworked by the immense need of the storm and created by lack of access to medical care.”
Through food banks and donations, The Jesse Tree is able each year to give away about $15 million in vegetables, fruits and other foods, along with medical equipment and other supplies.
One anonymous donor last year gave $325,000, which helped keep the doors open and the organization to respond to the rising need.
But like the people it helps, The Jesse Tree, 2622 Market St. in the island’s downtown, sometimes is forced to live hand-to-mouth.
It also relies too heavily on Hanley, who often is stretched thin with multiple responsibilities. Buzbee wanted to do something that would ensure The Jesse Tree would not end if anything happened to Hanley, whom he calls a hero.
The donation will help The Jesse Tree sustain what previous donors have built, Hanley said. It will mean financial stability and allow the organization to sustain programs, add critical staff positions and increase revenue, including for its chronic conditions management program.
Buzbee has agreed to store and maintain the cars for The Jesse Tree until the organization auctions them.
The Jesse Tree is drawing up plans on how it will best leverage the donation.
It also will use some of the cars for display at events to raise funds and awareness for its programs.
But the donation also has created buzz that Hanley hopes inspires others to make similar donations to The Jesse Tree.
“It has inspired some incredible reactions and responses _ all positive and all that stimulate further interest in supporting and sustaining The Jesse Tree,” Hanley said.
Buzbee said his children already are good and care about others.
When his son asked if the family could keep just one car, perhaps the Lamborghini, Buzbee said “no.”
“It’s a teaching moment for him to realize that there’s more to life than owning a Lamborghini,” Buzbee said. “I told him to think about how many people you could feed by donating it to charity.”
Friendswood resident Tony Buzbee, 42, is giving away his $3.5 million car collection to island-based social services organization The Jesse Tree. His favorite? The Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR with a top speed of 200.
“It’s a true work of art,” Buzbee said. “It is the only one I know of in Texas. Jay Leno owns one, but most are sold overseas, specifically in the Middle East.”
Buzbee, an attorney, hopes his gift will inspire others to give to The Jesse Tree, which helps to provide food, clothes and aid in obtaining prescription medications to thousands of county residents.
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Information from: The Galveston County Daily News, http://www.galvnews.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Jimi Hendrix performs for Dutch television show Hoepla in 1967. Source: Beeld en Geluidwiki – Gallery: Hoepla. Photo by A. Vente. LONDON (AP) – Clothing, mementoes and handwritten lyrics belonging to Jimi Hendrix are going on display at his former London home to mark the 40th anniversary of his death.
The guitarist lived during the late 1960s in an apartment in the Mayfair area of London. He died in the city on Sept. 18, 1970.
Composer George Frideric Handel lived next door in the 18th century, and Hendrix’s former home is now part of the Handel House Museum.
The museum is holding an exhibition devoted to Hendrix’s London years. It gave photographers a preview Monday.
The exhibition opens Aug. 25 and runs to Nov. 7. For 12 days in September visitors will also be able to tour the rooms where Hendrix lived, which are not usually open to the public.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
A giltwood shadowbox frame products a French painted silk and bone fan, which will be sold at Susanin’s Collectibles 87 auction Aug. 31. Image courtesy of Susanin’s Auctions and LiveAuctioneers archive.
PARIS (AP) – Forget Balenciaga’s “Giant City” and the other luxury purses that vie for the title of “It Bag” of the moment. If two young Parisian fashionistas have their way, next season’s must-have accessory might just be a relic resurrected from a bygone age – the folding fan.
Eloise Gilles and Raphaelle de Panafieu left their jobs in fashion and invested their savings to rescue one of Paris’ last remaining fan makers, the long-dormant house of Duvelleroy.
Their first collection – 12 exquisite models concocted by hand from traditional fabrics like silk and feathers and state-of-the-art materials like carbon fiber – is to make its retail debut later this month.
“Fans are not only elegant and feminine but they’re also super practical. Whenever I go out, to parties, to restaurants and especially to clubs, I always have mine,” said Panafieu, a 28-year-old who says folding fans have been her trademark ever since her father brought her one from Asia when she was a kid.
Panafieu’s quirky accessory of choice became her job after she met Gilles a few years ago and the two decided to invest in a fan-making house. They discovered Duvelleroy, among the few remaining survivors of France’s world-famous fan-making industry, and pooled their savings to buy the house from owner Michel Maignan, a retired auctioneer.
Two years ago, the two quit their jobs – Panafieu’s in marketing at a chic Paris women’s clothing label and Gilles’ as a brand consultant for French luxury labels – to throw themselves into resurrecting the house.
Founded in 1827 by Jean-Pierre Duvelleroy, it was long considered among France’s most prestigious fan makers, with a boutique on the tony rue de la Paix and clients including Britain’s Queen Victoria and other European royals. The house was passed down through the Duvelleroy family until World War II, when Maignan’s grandfather bought them out.
The postwar period was the beginning of the end for fan-makers, as women began to busy their hands with cigarettes, and nearly all of the French capital’s fan houses were forced to shutter.
Duvelleroy diversified – branching out into other small accessories and eventually fan repair – and outlived its contemporaries. But it has been largely dormant for decades.
Gilles and Panafieu plunged into the Duvelleroy archive, nearly two centuries worth of fan history, which Maignan had meticulously preserved in an attic.
“It was incredible. There were fans covered in sequins so tiny you couldn’t get a modern needle through them and others made from the feathers of birds that are now extinct,” said Gilles.
Still, the pair wasn’t aiming to replicate the styles that had cemented Duvelleroy’s reputation for excellence in the 19th century.
“We wanted something really contemporary – nothing that would look like a museum piece,” said Gilles. The pair hired stylists to help design their debut collection, which goes on sale in late August at Paris’ upscale Franck and Fils department store.
The result: 12 models that combine just the right dose of romantic, 19th-century elegance with clean-cut contemporary practicality.
In sequin-studded silk mousseline, the “Chiffon” is mounted on frames made of carbon fiber, an ultra-lightweight polymer used in jets and sports cars. The “Coral” combines dramatic red silk with a frame in an early plastic made from milk protein and formaldehyde. The “Bird of the Night,” a concoction of silk mousseline and deep purple ostrich feathers, mounted on a mother-of-pearl frame, is a shrunken variation on the massive feather fans that were all the rage in the 1800s.
Each fan requires at least 20 hours of painstaking labor, and some models, like the “Bird of the Night,” need much more than that. To make the process economically viable, Gilles and Panafieu broke down the production, seeking out specialized artisans throughout France and Italy who each handle a specific task.
A “plisseur,” or pleater – who normally works for Paris haute couture houses – starches and folds the silk just so. An embroiderer bedazzles it with sequins, while another artisan applies designs in gold, silver and copper foil.
Each fan passes through the hands of at least four artisans before winding up in the workshop of a master fan maker in the south of France, who assembles the parts. They say that’s much cheaper than having one person go through each separate step.
But the prices remain high. The line starts at $645 for the simplest model and climbs to $5,783 for the feathery ones.
“It does seem expensive, but when you compare it to other luxury items, like nice handbags of jewelry, it’s in that same range,” Gilles said.
In addition to their own line, she and Panafieu hope to manufacture fans for fashion labels. A collaborative line between Duvelleroy and zany French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac – known for his colorful, kitschy clothes – is coming out in February, Gilles said. They’d also love to work with Chanel, whose celebrity designer Karl Lagerfeld was rarely seen without a folding fan in the 1980s.
“This whole thing is super exciting for us,” said Panafieu. “We put all our money and all our hopes into this project and it’s amazing to see it take off.”
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Online:
http://www.duvelleroy.fr/
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
A print from a portfolio of costume designs by Walter Plunkett for ‘Gone With the Wind’ depicts Scarlett’s famous green gown. Image courtesy of Four Seasons Auction Gallery, Atlanta, and LiveAuctioneers archive. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – It’s time to find out if fans of Gone With the Wind frankly give a damn about the fabulous dresses worn by Vivien Leigh in the multiple Oscar-winning Civil War drama.
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin is trying to raise $30,000 to restore five of Scarlett O’Hara’s now tattered gowns from the 1939 film.
The Ransom Center is planning an exhibit to mark the movie’s 75th anniversary in 2014, but at the moment most of them are too fragile to go on display, according to Jill Morena, the center’s collection assistant for costumes and personal effects.
“There are areas where the fabric has been worn through, fragile seams and other problems,” Morena said. “These dresses have been under a lot of stress.”
The Ransom Center acquired the costumes – including O’Hara’s green curtain dress, green velvet gown, burgundy ball gown, blue velvet night gown and her wedding dress – in the mid-1980s as part of the collection of Gone With the Wind producer David O. Selznick. By then, they had already been through decades of traveling displays in theaters and had been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
“Film costumes weren’t meant to last,” Morena said. “They are only meant to last through the duration of filming. You won’t find them to be as finished as if you bought something off the rack.”
The costumes are among the most famous in Hollywood history and they played a key role in one of the most popular films ever. Gone With the Wind won eight Acadamy Awards.
Yet the green curtain dress – symbolic of O’Hara’s determination to survive – has loose seams and needs structural reinforcement. Others have suffered abrasion and areas where the fabric is nearly worn through.
Leigh wore the curtain dress in three scenes: the jail scene in which Scarlett asks Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, for financial help; as she walks through the streets of Atlanta with Mammy; and when she meets Frank Kennedy.
Talking about his costume designs for the film in William Pratt’s 1977 book Scarlett Fever, designer Walter Plunkett was modest.
“I don’t think it was my best work or even the biggest thing I did,” Plunkett said. “But that picture, of course, will go on forever, and that green dress, because it makes a story point, is probably the most famous costume in the history of motion pictures.”
Donations will be used to restore the dresses and buy protective housing and custom mannequins for the 2014 exhibit, Morena said. The Ransom Center also hopes to send the dresses out on loan.
Donations can be made on the Ransom Center website.
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Online:
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/costumes
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic currently on display at the Mullins Automotive Museum. Courtesy of David Newhardt Photography OXNARD, Calif. (AP) – Must see! Used car, light blue, one of a kind, expect sticker shock!
A 1936 Bugatti that recently sold for more than $30 million went on display Tuesday at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard.
The museum says the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic is one of only three ever made and was first purchased by Lord Victor Rothschild of London.
In 1939, the car was sent back to the Bugatti factory to be supercharged to increase the engine power. It has had multiple owners, including Peter Williamson, who bought the car in 1971 for $59,000 and restored it.
It sold in May in a deal brokered by Gooding & Co. The broker says the unidentified buyer paid a record $30 million to $40 million for the car, which has 668 miles.
The museum estimates the Bugatti will be displayed a couple months.
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Online: http://www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WS-08-03-10 1751EDT
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic currently on display at the Mullins Automotive Museum. Courtesy of David Newhardt Photography 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic currently on display at the Mullins Automotive Museum. Courtesy of David Newhardt Photography 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic currently on display at the Mullins Automotive Museum. Courtesy of David Newhardt Photography
This example of the extremely rare Honus Wagner baseball card, issued by the American Tobacco Co. around 1909, is held in the permanent collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) – A Chesapeake coin shop is displaying what experts say is one of the most famous baseball cards in American history, the Honus Wagner T206.
The 1909 card is one of about 100 still in existence and is being displayed at Dominion Coin this week. Shop owner Ray Ciccone is serving as the agent for the card’s owner, a Baltimore convent that was bequeathed the card as part of a collection previously owned by the brother of one of the convent’s nuns.
Ciccone says the card isn’t in the same pristine condition as one that has fetched more than $2 million. He’ll display the card in his shop until he has to deliver it to a Texas auction house early next week. This one is valued at about $150,000.
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Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Photo by George Biard, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – “Tron,” “Harry Potter,” “The Green Hornet,” and maybe even Brangelina?
This year’s Comic-Con has something for everyone, and might even be graced by Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
No longer strictly the domain of nerds and fanboys, San Diego’s four-day pop-culture festival promises film and TV fodder for fans of all kinds, plus video games, toys, collectibles and costumes galore when it kicks off next week.
“I can’t wait,” says filmmaker Kevin Smith, an annual regular considered royalty at the convention. “Comic-Con for me is _ Muslims like to go to kneel, what is it, three times a day toward Mecca and whatnot. I do the same thing for San Diego and that massive building… It’s a real good source of kind of State of the Union for me, because I dwell in the world of pop culture.”
What began 40 years ago as a humble comic-book fair has grown into a barometer of cool powered by the ardent enthusiasm of more than 100,000 fans – and the Hollywood studios who want a piece of the action.
Among the hot properties this year: TRON: Legacy, Disney’s modern revamp of the ’80s hit; a first look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Seth Rogen’s superhero turn in The Green Hornet and yes, a possible Brangelina appearance.
The couple isn’t officially on the guest list, and studio reps are staying mum about whether they’ll attend, but A-list surprises often happen at Comic-Con, where Johnny Depp and Hugh Jackman previously showed up unannounced.
Pitt voices one of the lead characters in the animated Megamind, and his co-stars Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Jonah Hill are expected at the Dreamworks Animation panel next Thursday to introduce the film.
Jolie stars in Salt, which will be featured at Sony’s panel on the same day.
Other movies looking to build fan buzz at Comic-Con include The Expendables, featuring Sylvester Stallone and a cast of tough guys that includes Dolph Lundgren and Steve Austin; Drive Angry 3D with Nicolas Cage; RED, featuring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich as retired CIA agents; Battle Los Angeles, with Aaron Eckhart saving the city from a vicious attack; the superhero tale Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds; and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, based on a graphic novel and starring Michael Cera.
“Comic-Con is all about these shows connecting with the kids who are going to go back home and tell everyone – get on the computer, send e-mails, put on their Facebook account, tweet about it and build a buzz,” says Todd Gold of the website Fancast.com.
TV shows have a big presence at the Con, too. Stars from popular programs including Dexter, True Blood, The Big Bang Theory, The Vampire Diaries, Family Guy, Community, Fringe, and The Simpsons will answer fan questions during panel presentations.
“Comic-Con used to be offbeat, nerdy,” says Jeanne Wolf of Parade magazine. “Well, now we’ve found out that the Comic-Con buzz gets straight to the audience that watches TV shows. And also we’ve found out that with this computerized age, most of us are geeks and nerds.”
Reaching a passionate audience that will not only talk up their favorite flicks to friends but also buy tickets on opening night is too important an opportunity for studios to miss, says box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com.
“That’s the audience you want to get excited about your movie,” he says. “If they get on board, you get instant credibility.”
Unlike traditional film festivals, aimed at critics and distributors, Comic-Con focuses on fans _ an integral part of ratings and box-office success.
“It’s on the circuit with Show West, Show East and the film festivals,” Dergarabedian says. “Comic-Con is as vital and as valid and important a part of the moviegoing world as any of those other movie-related conventions and festivals. It’s a fully grown, fully realized force to be reckoned with.”
Comic-Con begins next Wednesday, July 21, at the San Diego Convention Center. While San Diego has promised $500,000 in hotel tax revenue to event organizers to keep the colorful convention in the city, its contract with Comic Con International expires in 2012. Los Angeles and Anaheim, California, are among the cities bidding to become the convention’s new hosts beginning in 2013.
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Online: www.comic-con.org
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AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Image courtesy of USPS. WASHINGTON (AP) – The Negro Leagues take the baseball field again on Thursday as the Postal Service honors the organizations that gave black players a chance to show their talents before the major leagues were integrated.
A pair of 44-cent commemorative stamps will be dedicated in ceremonies at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
One stamp shows a close play at home plate, while the other commemorates Andrew “Rube” Foster, founder of the leagues that operated from 1920 to 1960.
Legendary stars who played in the leagues included Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, James “Cool Papa” Bell, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1945.
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Online: http://www.usps.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
