Sunday, June 06, 1999
'Melrose' fans bid, buy big
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Wherein the long arm of Melrose Place — long arm in Armanileather, no less — reaches Cincinnati.
Specifically, reaches the Hyde Park home of producer Tom Lawson and bartender Mike Miller via an online auction (www.amazon.com) that sold Melrose memorabilia after the last show was aired May 24.
Lawson and Miller bought, and bought big.
“We know the show's no good, but we watch. Used to be for laughs, but then Monday evolved into don't miss Melrose night,” Lawson said.
“Then we heard about the auction and, well, what could we do but bid?”
Which they did:
• $1,500 was their opening bid on Kyle McBride's (a k a, actor Rob Estes) black leather jacket, which they finally paid $4,550 for.
• $500 on what Lawson describes as an “awful oil painting of Sydney (Laura Leighton) that's campy fun.”
• $500 on Sydney's hand props — credit cards, desk calendar, things like that.
• $500 on a multicolored velour purse because “I remembered the episode. It was especially awful.”
They got everything they bid on but nothing's here yet. “I got an e-mail saying be patient,” Lawson says. “And this is cool — the painting is hanging in Hollyood's Planet Hollywood; it's coming from there.”
The bill came to more than six thousand. “I told Mike, "I can't believe we're doing this. We could have bought a car. None of it's worth that much money, but it's fun.
“Only problem now is Mike's taking a ribbing from his customers. They think they're tipping too much.”
READING LIST: And this from the national mag front, something picked up while killing time (my editors go to a lot of meetings) ...
• What's this in the May issue of the oh-so-prestigious North American Review, a bi-monthly full of cutting-edge short stories?
It's University of Dayton lit prof Tony Macklin and his American Pastime, a satire about commercialization in baseball. Set in Veterans Stadium (Philly), it's about how the boys of summer have become the boys of plunder.
Though it's fiction, the first line is for real: “It started in Philadelphia. June 8th.”
No year, and no clue what started, but Macklin assures it's a major date in baseball history. He even offers $50 to the first three who know: Write him at American Pastime, P.O. Box 179, Dayton OH 45409-0179.
• That's our own Chris Payne as well, with a two-page illustration in a May Entertainment Weekly over a story titled “Everything Old Blows!”
• And our own Dean Fearing, executive chef at Dallas' Mansion on Turtle Creek but formerly of the Maisonette, in the May Cowboys & Indians. He's featured in a “Thrill of the Grill” story, which is mostly a profile but also features what he likes to serve at a cookout: Lobster nachos, chipotle braised mushroom enchilada, grilled corn with chili-basil butter.
Puh-leeeeze.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE