And just how much did he pick it up for? He won't say, but his smile grows wider. Whatever the cost, the suit will be in good company, joining some of Hollywood's most memorable memorabilia, including Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion costume from The Wizard of Oz. In addition to his movie treasures, Comisar has what may be the largest collection of TV artifacts in private hands. In his two-bedroom Beverly Hills apartment, he has Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent turban, the mask Fred Gwynne wore as Herman Munster, batgear from Batman, George Reeves's Superman outfit and a Captain Kirk Star Trek uniform. Then there are the warehouses with more than 6,000 items worth an estimated $5 million-plus. "I stopped being a collector and became a curator long ago," says Comisar, 35, who hopes eventually to open a museum.
The son of an aerospace physicist and a law firm PR director, Comisar was raised in West Los Angeles, a short drive from the 20th Century-Fox studios. A chubby, sedentary child, "I'd go home after school," he says, "grab a Pop-Tart and sit in front of the television." At 12, he was president of the national Gong Show Fan Club; at 17, he dropped out of UCLA to become a comedy writer.
While working for TV shows including The Dating Game, Comisar got into the habit of roaming around studio lots. "I'd wander into the costume department at Universal," he says, "and, damn, wasn't that Herman Munster's jacket? I'd say, 'How about if I give you $500?' "
Comisar realized that the studios were dumping a treasury of priceless collectibles. "Their idea," he says, "is, 'Let's get the stuff outta here—it's flammable; it's taking up space.' "
With a growing hoard of his own, and a newly burgeoning market for TV memorabilia, Comisar quit his writing career in 1992 to become a full-time collector—and an expert with a sharp eye for counterfeits. "If you've handled enough Eva Ga-bor dresses from Green Acres," he says, "you know the kind of materials they used, the way they were labeled."
It's that expertise—he works as a consultant for would-be buyers, advising them on authenticity and price as well as preservation—that gives Comisar the income to continue adding to his collection. "Most experts," says Kathleen Guzman, a former auctioneer at Christie's, "know what a thing is. But James knows how to price it." Comisar, says Guzman, now president of Phillips, the London-based auction house, "is one of the most important people in the field."
And one of the most enthusiastic. Gazing dreamily at the medical bag that Robert Young used on Marcus Welby, M.D., he sighs happily. "Look," he says, "it even has tongue depressors."
Mike Neill
Edmund Newton in Beverly Hills
- Contributors:
- Edmund Newton.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
