'Pawn Stars' guest brings Marlon Brando's jacket — Rick Harrison made him an offer he couldn't refuse
Old baseball cards lying in the attic or coins preserved for decades and even old toys are not emerging as valuable collectors' items. Sports and pop culture memorabilia collection also falls in this category and one collector got his hands on a leather jacket belonging to one of Hollywood's most iconic actors Marlon Brando. He only parted with it when he was made an offer that he couldn't refuse. The seller of the jacket took it to "Pawn Stars" to be evaluated by Rick Harrison, hoping to get a few thousand dollars for it. It was revealed that the jacket belonged to none other than "The Godfather" star Marlon Brando who won an Academy Award for his performance in the movie in 1972.
Brando was known for being a method actor and wore leather jackets while playing some iconic characters throughout his career. Joe explained to Rick that this particular jacket was once owned and worn by the movie stars back in the 1950s. The leather jacket was also pre-authenticated by Joe Franklin's memorabilia collection and was also sold at an auction to a person whom the seller later bought it from, according to The U.S Sun.
The seller brought in the papers to show them to the evaluator who went on to verify their authenticity. "I just couldn't refuse it," he said, referring to the iconic line from the Godfather series. Rick took a close look at the piece and provided some background on Brando's career but quickly asked if Joe had any photographs from the auction to further prove its authenticity, to which he replied that he didn't have any. This prompted Rick to analyze the documentation from the Joe Franklin memorabilia collection. "From the looks of it, this is actual wear, not like today where they purposefully make something beat up," he said while looking at the jacket.
After a lot of analysis, Rick concluded that the leather jacket indeed belonged to Marlon Brando and thus began the negotiation. Joe told him that he wanted to get at least $15,000 for it but Rick felt it was far too high for the item and said that he could offer $8,000. "I know you need to make money yourself — I get that," Joe responded, coming down to a price of $10,000 for the Brando jacket. However, Rick was not willing to give more than $8,000 for the jacket and ultimately agreed to give $8,500 before sealing the deal.
In another fascinating story about a jacket, a woman bought a rather simple-looking coat at an estate sale which she later realised belonged to a celebrated actor. The woman then took the coat to the PBS "Antiques Roadshow" to see if she got lucky. As it turned out, the coat indeed belonged to famous actor Carol O'Connor and according to the appraisal expert of the show, it could fetch up to $15,000 which shook the woman to her core. "You are kidding me!" the shocked owner responded.
