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Bid on a Piece of Gunsmoke History

By Henry C. Parke

How would you like the original Gunsmoke U.S. Marshal Office sign on your wall? How’d you like to own the jail-cell keys? Or a complete James Arness, Matt Dillon costume? Or Dennis Weaver’s Emmy nomination plaque for playing Chester? Or Burt ‘Quint’ Reynolds’s own collection of Gunsmoke books, comics, and pictures?

If you have the top bid, you could win any of them. On Nov. 15, Julien’s Auctions, one of the world’s most important sellers of show-biz memorabilia, will be presenting a Gunsmoke-themed auction featuring 230 lots from the James Arness estate, as well as items from the estates of Dennis Weaver and Burt Reynolds–568 lots in all, covering not only Gunsmoke, but the film and television careers of all three stars.

There are boots and hats, saddles, autographed scripts and signed contracts, guns and mugs: hand painted ceramic mugs from John Wayne to James Arness, from Arness to Weaver, and pewter mugs from Amanda Blake. There are one-of-a-kind items from other classic shows as well. From the title sequence of Rawhide Season 7, there are the busts of Clint Eastwood, Eric Fleming and Paul Brinegar. From Bonanza there are the original watercolors that appeared with the main titles.

Click HERE to visit the auction catalog. Each item has a photograph, brief description, lot number, an estimate of what the auction house guesses the item will sell for, and the current bid if bids have already been placed. Clicking on the adjacent picture will bring you to more details about the item, including provenance: whose estate the item comes from.

There are a few steps to register to bid, but it’s quick. Click HERE to reach the getting started page. Then you’ll need to REGISTER.

Bidding is live right now online. The in-person exhibition begins on Nov. 6, in Los Angeles; the live auction is Nov. 15. The exhibition and live auction will be held at The Hollywood Museum, which was built as the Max Factor building, where the most beautiful women in the movies were made even more beautiful by Factor’s make-up artists.

Up next, I will be speaking about the auction with Janet Arness, James’ widow.

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