Some of the biggest names of 20th-Century Hollywood are up for grabs at a major movie memorabilia sale at the end of this month.
Prop Store’s Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction: Los Angeles Spring 2025 sale on March 26 to 28 has around 1,000 lots and they include items familiar to generations of movie goers.
From 1940 are a simple pair of black boots. Their magic lies in their appearance on the feet of Charlie Chaplin in his masterpiece, The Great Dictator.
Chaplin saw the boots as a vital part of his Little Tramp character, who was played as a Jewish barber in The Great Dictator. Image courtesy of Prop Store.
In character as a Jewish barber (a version of Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” everyman persona) Chaplin wore the boots throughout the movie, a fierce satire on the rise of Nazi and Fascist dictatorships in Europe.
The boots were an integral part of the Little Tramp character and the shoes may have been used in many Chaplin films. They have been photomatched to scenes in The Great Dictator.
They carry an estimate of $125,000 to $250,000.
One of the coolest looks of its time, and yours for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Image courtesy of Prop Store.
In 1978 no man on earth was cooler than John Travolta’s Danny Zuko in Grease.
The jacket he wore as a T-Bird gang member during the performance of Greased LIghtnin’ in the rock ‘n’ roll themed musical.
The costumes for 50s-set Grease were designed by Albert Wolsky. The T-Bird gang wore decorated leather jackets throughout the movie, but this type, not in leather, was only used during a dream sequence performance of one of the film’s best known songs.
Travolta may also have worn this jacket to the film’s premier, and it is to be sold with a $200,000 top estimate.
In 1983 a new generation of superhero films was still novel. The Superman films, with Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel kicked off a cycle that’s still with us today.
Can you tell the difference? A slightly darker costume signalled all was not well with Superman after a Kryptonite attack in 1983’s Superman III. Image courtesy of Prop Store.
In Superman III Reeve’s hero is dosed with Kryptonite and coerced into an “evil” version of his super persona, who gets drunk and brawls with Clark Kent, his alter ego.
He was differentiated from his usual good self with a slightly darker costume.
It is this five-piece ensemble that is being sold this March.
You’ll need up to $400,000 to put it on for yourself.
An iconic image of an iconic character, with the weapon most associated with him. Image courtesy of Prop Store.
Expected to top the sale is an iconic weapon from the original series of Star Wars films.
A cross-bow like weapon called a bowcaster was carried by much-loved wookiee character Chewbacca through Star Wars: A New Hops, the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
A truly iconic item intimately associated with one of the most popular characters in the series – surely the most collectible modern film property – it’s no surprise that Prop Store tip the bowcaster for a potential $500,000 sale.
