Dean and Lennon Doodles Go on Sale

Save what you scribble, especially if you go on to star in "Rebel Without a Cause" or "A Hard Day's Night." Napkins and notes that bear the mark of a pair of '50s and '60s icons are carrying hefty price tags this week.

By Stephen M. Silverman

Originally posted Tuesday June 26, 2001 01:30 PM EDT

Two icons. Two decades. Two auctions. Lots of doodles. First, the stars: James Dean and John Lennon. The eras: The '50s and the '60s. The sales: In New York and in London. Six cocktail napkins featuring the doodles of the "Rebel Without Out a Cause" star, who died in a 1955 car crash at the age of 24, are hitting the auction block Tuesday at Sotheby's in Manhattan. The auction house claims that Dean drew on them at he now-defunct Googie's Coffee Shop on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. They are estimated to go for between $15,000 and $20,000. Also on Tuesday, Fraser's Autographs put up for sale -- at $35,300 -- two pages of doodles and 36 lines of notes, some that mock Queen Elizabeth II, that were made in preparation for a play by John Lennon. The Beatles songwriter was assassinated outside his New York apartment building in 1980. He was 40.