HOST: Now over to the Big Apple to learn more about these performers' passion for the arts.
GUEST: I'm Rubén Blades, Rubén "Blah-dace," also, they call me in Latin America.
GUEST: I'm Luba Mason, and we are in Chelsea, New York.
HOST: Rubén and Luba are both acclaimed musicians and actors.
GUEST: (singing in Spanish)
GUEST: When lullabies multiply, I'll be dreaming.
HOST: Rubén is a nine-time Grammy winner, a master of salsa and Latin jazz, and has
a long list of film and television roles, including the post-apocalyptic horror drama
"Fear the Walking Dead." And for over 30 years, Luba has been performing on Broadway, most
recently starring in "Girl From the North Country." While devoting their professional
lives to the performing arts, offstage, they enjoy collecting art.
GUEST: What I look for in a piece of art is something that creates an impact on me. It
catches my eye. GUEST: We also look for the hunt, you know,
kind of like the diamond in the rough, or go... You know, you're kind of, like, going
through some paintings. They're just, like, stacked on the floor.
GUEST: Looking for that Monet that somebody forgot.
GUEST: Yeah.
HOST: A long life in show business has inspired Rubén and Luba to acquire art connected to
their careers, some of it very personal. Here to appraise those more special pieces, ROADSHOW
expert Alasdair Nichol.
APPRAISER: If you're on Broadway, I imagine the greatest accolade you can get is winning
a Tony. And next to that, surely, it's being drawn by Al Hirschfeld.
GUEST: Yes. GUEST: Absolutely.
GUEST: I had bought this, I was in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,"
the first revival, with Matthew Broderick. As soon as I saw the drawing in the paper,
I said, "I got to go buy it," and so I did. This is a lithograph.
APPRAISER Right. GUEST: And that's me right there.
APPRAISER: I was going to ask. There you are. GUEST: I'm there.
APPRAISER: Arms raised aloft. GUEST: Hedy LaRue.
GUEST: Hedy LaRue, and I've got, I think, a couple of Ninas in me, because that was
what Hirschfeld was known for, putting his wife's name in the...
APPRAISER: Well, that was his daughter. GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: It was his daughter Nina-- yeah, yeah.
GUEST: Oh, there you go. And then, um, I did Paul Simon's "The Capeman" on Broadway. And
that's where I met this gentleman. APPRAISER: This fellow here?
GUEST: Yes. APPRAISER: So that worked out quite well.
GUEST: Yes, it really did. I bought this maybe about 17 years ago as a gift to Rubén for,
I think it was Christmas, I got it for him. GUEST: I don't remember when it was, but it
surprised the heck out of me, because, um, I thought that Paul would have bought it.
Marc Anthony, I think. Marc would have bought it. Or Ednita or Renoly, I mean, somebody.
I thought that was gone, I mean... GUEST: Well, that's the original. I think
I went to get this cleaned or something. I went to the gallery and I said, "Do you by
any chance have the 'Capeman' Hirschfeld?" And I was shocked that they still had the,
the original. GUEST: It was my only Broadway play that I
ever worked in; a musical or play. "The Capeman," and I'm very proud of that. And I always feel
that it was such a wonderful opportunity. But...
GUEST: And you met me. GUEST: I met you.
APPRAISER: Best of all. GUEST: But also, but also the fact that I
got a Hirschfeld drawing, I thought, like, "My God."
APPRAISER: You're a legend, yeah. GUEST: What an honor.
APPRAISER: I know, absolutely. And this is you here?
GUEST: Yeah. I had a little more hair then. APPRAISER: They're just wonderful things.
I mean, he was such an amazing artist.
GUEST: Yes. APPRAISER: I mean, they called him The Line
King, you know? And you can-- just the line is amazing, the way it flows. And the... They're
so characterful. And it's just, it's great to be immortalized by an artist like Hirschfeld.
So have you ever given any thought to the values? I mean, you bought them, so you've
got some kind of idea. GUEST: I think the lithograph was somewhere
around $1,200, $1,300. Something like that. APPRAISER: Sounds about right, yeah.
GUEST: And the original I really don't quite remember. I think it was somewhere in the
ballpark between like $3,000 and... $3,000 and $5,000?
APPRAISER: You couldn't let something like that get away.
GUEST: No! I had to get it. APPRAISER: If you had the chance, you have
to get it. GUEST: I had to get it. Yes.
APPRAISER: Absolutely, yeah. It seems silly to even talk about values, because these are
not things that you're ever going to part with.
GUEST: No. APPRAISER: Yes, I mean, I guess if I was insuring
that now, it would probably be up somewhere north of $10,000.
GUEST (gasps): Oh, wow. APPRAISER: You know?
GUEST: Really? APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Wow. GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: I would think so, and, you know, and that one...
GUEST: Yeah... APPRAISER: I would think if you were paying
for one now, retail, it might be $2,000 or so. It's an edition of, I think, 100.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: You know, so there's another 99 of them out there.
GUEST: Well, that's interesting. HOST: Rubén's interests include more than
just fine art. An avid comic collector for many years, he has amassed an archive of thousands
of comic books and hundreds of pieces of comic book art. Later, collectibles expert Leila
Dunbar digs into his stash to uncover some of the most coveted comics in the world.
GUEST: I try to be, without success, sparse in my collection.
GUEST: (laughs) GUEST: But...
GUEST: (guffaws)
HOST: Rubén Blades' own personal comic book museum contains a wide variety of artwork,
ranging from original illustrations to comic strips to first-edition comic books. To evaluate
just a fraction of this eclectic archive, Rubén met with collectibles authority Leila
Dunbar.
APPRAISER: This is, like, the room of my sueños, Rubén.
GUEST: (chuckling) APPRAISER: This is unbelievable.
GUEST: Yeah, this is the room where I turn to be ten years old when I get up here.
APPRAISER: (laughing) GUEST: Well, like, this is Raboy, Flash Gordon.
APPRAISER: Mac Raboy, he took over for Alex Raymond, the originator, when Raymond went
into the service. GUEST: That's right.
APPRAISER: Yeah, that's a great piece. I mean, the most sought-after ones are Alex Raymond.
But Mac Raboy is, also, particularly his early ones, from the '40s. And this is probably
somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. GUEST: Oh, wow. And this is a Frazetta, Frank
Frazetta. APPRAISER: Oh, Frank Frazetta. He's the godfather
of fantasy. Although I tell you, looking at this, I think it's more of a nightmare, for
the snake, at least. (both chuckle) But that's spectacular. He's best known for, of course,
his cover work, which can sell into the millions of dollars. Your drawing here probably is
in the range of $25,000 to $35,000. GUEST: Yeah, wow. This is the original artwork
for "Punk" magazine. APPRAISER: Oh, my goodness. "Punk" magazine?
And who is that? GUEST: Lou Reed. They call him the grandfather
of the... Of punk. APPRAISER: (chuckles)
GUEST: Here's a picture of Lou and me. We're working together.
APPRAISER: Wow, that's not CGBG's, right? (laughs)
GUEST: That's, this is where the guy did the interview for, for, for him, actually.
APPRAISER: Right. GUEST: It was there at CBGB's.
APPRAISER: But what year is this? GUEST: This is 1987, but we're at Lou's house
doing music he recorded. We recorded together. APPRAISER: Wow.
GUEST: Love Lou, miss him. APPRAISER: Well, this is great, because this
magazine really brought punk into the mainstream. You know, it wasn't well-known before that.
And I gotta say, the value on this, especially with Lou on the cover and looking a little
bit like Frankenstein here, because he was such a monster in the industry, I think you're
looking at probably somewhere between $20,000 and $25,000.
GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: You know, for that I think we can
take a walk on the wild side. (both laugh)
GUEST: This is "Action" 1 and "Detective" 27. The first appearance of Superman in "Action"
1 and "Detective Comics" is first appearance of Batman. I knew about the, the comics, but
I-- and I was collecting comics, but I wasn't really going for the keys, as they call them.
I was just a completist. I was just completing runs of comics. And then one day, I, I thought,
"You know what? "I really would like to have these books because of their historical significance."
So I got them together about ten or 15 years ago.
APPRAISER: What do you think of when you think of Superman?
GUEST: First of all, he was like an immigrant, a force for good. Like I believe most immigrants
are. APPRAISER: And Batman?
GUEST: Batman is the same, although Batman is darker. In Batman, there's not just the
fight against evil, but also, I think, a, a desire to redeem.
APPRAISER: I think you're absolutely spot-on when you're talking about Superman, because,
let's face it, he changed the world completely in 1938. I mean, he's the first comic book
superhero, and he created, basically, the comic book industry. Superman was created
by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the basement of, of Jerry Siegel's house in Cleveland,
and what I find fascinating, they originally had him as a villain...
GUEST: Hm. APPRAISER: ...in 1933, and they realized after
a while that this wasn't going to work, this comic strip. Heroes have longevity, and we
can see that because both of these superheroes have lasted more than eight decades. This
is "Action Comics" 1. This is the most important comic book in the history of comic books,
because it is the dawn of the Golden Age, with Superman. And it's interesting, because
when Detective Comics issued it in 1938, they printed 200,000 copies, but they didn't know,
because there are actually 11 stories in the "Action Comics" book. It just happened that
Superman is the lead and on the cover. GUEST: Hm.
APPRAISER: And when they sold out of 200,000 copies, it still took them a couple of months
to figure out it was Superman. The creators of Batman are Bob Kane and Bill Finger. All
four of these creators were inspired, interestingly enough, by Douglas Fairbanks and "The Mask
of Zorro." It's in this time period of the 1930s where you've got the rise of Hitler.
These creators were all Jewish immigrants, and the fate of our world was really hanging
in the balance. So why not create these superheroes who are going to give inspiration and hope
to generations of people? What did you pay for these?
GUEST: For this one, at the time, I think I paid about $55,000. This one cost me less.
It was about $40,000 $45,000. APPRAISER: Today, believe it or not, you're
looking at probably about 100 copies of each that exist. These have been restored.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. APPRAISER: If you had a book that was in poor
condition, this would bring it up to a much better, you know, higher level, much more
presentable. Also, it'd raise the value up. GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: But not nearly as much as one that's in original condition. We're looking at "Detective
Comics" today, now, this is graded a 7.0 on a scale of one to 10 in restored condition.
An estimate on this, an auction estimate, is going to be somewhere between $200,000
and $250,000 today. GUEST: Oh, wow. Oh. That's a lot more than
I would've imagined. (chuckles) APPRAISER: And that, that's quite the layaway
plan now. (laughs) GUEST: Well, no, the guy who sold it must
be hitting himself in the, against the wall right now. But then we all did that at some
point. APPRAISER: Well...
GUEST: But this is great to know. APPRAISER: If this was an original...
GUEST: Oh. APPRAISER: Now you're looking $800,000 to
$900,000. GUEST: Hm.
APPRAISER: And "Action" is the same. I mean, this is the second-most important comic. This
is the, the ultimate Holy Grail. Most important of the Golden Age comics. This is graded lower
than "Detective," it's 5.5, but it's a more important comic. So again, you're looking
at an auction estimate probably somewhere, at least $175,000 to $225,000.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. APPRAISER: And again, if this were a 5.5 in
an original condition, you're looking at $800,000 to $900,000.
GUEST: My socks go up and down. APPRAISER: (laughs)
GUEST: Of joy. Thank you, socks. No, but, you know, it's, it's interesting. I mean,
I'm glad I did it. APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: I just, I'm a, like, like... I'm a collector. Like I said, a completist. So it's
really wonderful to know that at least I'm helping protect the books, as well. But at
the same time, they're gonna help me in the future. Not just me, my son. My, my family.
So it's good to know. GUEST: Thank you for making us a part of this.
Uh, we had such a wonderful time. GUEST: Oh, yeah, we're really...
GUEST: We were so excited when we... GUEST: We, we're fans...
GUEST (laughs): Yeah, when we got the word that you guys were coming here, so it's very
exciting. GUEST: Yeah.
GUEST: And it's been fun. GUEST: So thank you very much, everybody who's
watching. Uh, I hope that you had fun with us, as well.