As people walked around with some of their most prized possessions at Red Butte Garden and Arboretum in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, hoping to be part of the “Antiques Roadshow” magic, Marsha Bemko pulled a white chair into the shade and sat down.
It was late in the afternoon and the executive producer of the longrunning PBS show had been at the outdoor amphitheater for several hours, hearing the treasured stories behind the things people chose to bring.
Throughout the day — which started early in the morning and would go until the last item was appraised — a lot of people learned that their items were more valuable sentimentally than they were monetarily.
But some found the sweet spot.
Bemko leaned forward in her chair with excitement as she talked about a woman who earlier in the day brought in a comic strip that “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz gifted her in the 1990s. A friend of Schulz’s daughter, the lady had received the personalized comic strip as a kind of pick-me-up from Schulz when her family was going through a hard time.
The comic strip ended up being appraised at several thousand dollars.
“Isn’t that amazing?” Bemko said with a big smile. “And it all came from this place of sweetness, people caring about each other.”
Bemko has a gentle demeanor, and she exuded warmth as she talked about how “Antiques Roadshow” has reached a milestone 30th season, and how it has managed to not just survive but thrive in a digital age that has the potential to render a show like it obsolete.
But as the show’s executive producer for just over two decades, Bemko can also be firm. One of her biggest responsibilities is hearing pitches from appraisers and deciding what gets filmed. She frequently has to make tough calls.
On Tuesday at Red Butte Garden, up to 4,000 people — selected from a lottery of around 9,000 — ended up coming through to have their items appraised by experts from across the country.
Each guest was allowed to bring two items. Out of these thousands of artifacts, only around 140 were filmed.
About 120 will make it into one of three Salt Lake episodes that will air next year.
“I can’t take everything that I see,” Bemko said, looking out at the lines of people getting their items appraised. “But I see some things I just can’t resist.”
‘You never know what people are going to bring in’
This month’s visit is the fourth time Salt Lake City has been a part of “Antiques Roadshow.”
The show filmed here in 2016, 2006 and 1999, Bemko said.
When selecting the cities for any given season, the executive producer said the show won’t go to a place it has visited within the past five years. It was time for a return to Salt Lake City, and the venue — and weather — could not be beat, Bemko said.
“I couldn’t have dreamt this up to be more perfect,” she said, expressing gratitude for the 70-something degree weather and waving her arms around at the roses in bloom.
Several members of the “Antiques Roadshow” crew expressed gratitude for the good weather — if it had been raining, or was too hot, it likely would’ve dampened the experience for many, they said.
Stanley Bystrowski, who has been with “Antiques Roadshow” for three years, called Red Butte Garden one of the most beautiful venues the show has visited.
Bystrowski, who has been in the auction industry for 32 years and works for Swann Auction Galleries in New York, is the starting point for the “Antiques Roadshow” experience.
As a front desk ambassador, he stands with several general antique specialists in a large tent, assessing all of the odds and ends people have pulled out from the safes and closets of their homes.
He sorts through the items and then stamps a label on a sheet of paper that tells a person which of the 23 booths sprawled across Red Butte Garden to visit. The booths cover a wide range of categories, including books and manuscripts; pottery and porcelain; collectibles; musical instruments; and Asian art.
One of the most surprising things Bystrowski encountered on Tuesday was “a very large shoe” that once belonged to a tall man from the early 1900s — “It looked like a Shaquille O’Neal shoe, but it was even larger,” he said.
Once they have a stamped paper, “Antiques Roadshow” guests then make their way to their designated booths.
At the books and manuscripts booth sat Ken Sanders — owner of Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City — who happens to be the only appraiser on the show who is local to Utah.
Next to Sanders was Kenneth Gloss, the proprietor of Brattle Book Shop in Boston. Gloss has been affiliated with “Antiques Roadshow” for about 25 years, but Tuesday at Red Butte Garden happened to mark a career first for him.
“This is the first show I’ve ever had where we had a specific line for LDS and Mormon books,” he said with a laugh. “Ken is the one who really knows those books.”
Gloss did get the chance to appraise a third edition of The Book of Mormon — though you’ll have to watch the show to get the details of the appraisal, he said.
Even after more than two decades on the show, Gloss said he still gets surprised from time to time.
“You never know what people are going to bring in,“ he said. ”You never know what to expect.”
In fact, just a half hour earlier, Gloss handled what he believes is one of the most unique artifacts he’s ever appraised.
“It was just so off the wall,” he said.
A letter from Ronald Reagan ... about shoes
When Annemarie of Riverton showed up to Gloss’ table with a personal, handwritten letter from former president Ronald Reagan, he was a little taken aback in part due to the subject of the letter: shoes.
“It’s the first time I have to admit that I’ve done anything about a president’s shoes,” he said with a laugh.
And the story behind the letter didn’t disappoint, either.
In the 1980s, while attending podiatry school in Philadelphia, Annemarie often studied at a museum on the sixth floor that had a wide variety of shoes on display, including a pair that once belonged to Nancy Reagan (“Antiques Roadshow” provided access to guests getting appraisals under the condition that no last names be used).
Annemarie said she admired how then-president Ronald Reagan always had his wife by his side and thought that it would be fitting for a pair of his own shoes to join Nancy’s at the museum.
“I decided her shoes looked pretty lonely without his,” she said.
So she wrote a letter to the president.
She knew it was a long shot, but she figured writing a letter was better than not doing anything at all. She forgot about it until around six months later, when she got a phone call from her husband.
“You’ll never guess who you got a letter from,” he said.
To Annemarie’s even greater delight, along with the letter, the former president sent a pair of his custom-made shoes to accompany his wife’s at the museum.
Gloss ended up valuing the letter at over $1,500, but that doesn’t change much for Annemarie, who plans to hold it close and maybe donate it to the museum one day.
The stories and history behind an object — coupled with the genuine reactions from both the appraisers and the guests — is a compelling package that continues to draw people to “Antiques Roadshow” after 30 seasons, Bemko said.
“They appreciate that family history. They appreciate the insights that this country’s top experts are giving you,“ the executive producer said. ”You can’t look some of this stuff up.”
So even today, as more and more people turn to the internet to ask their questions, a show like “Antiques Roadshow” could never be antiquated, Bemko said.
“It’s kind of like a doctor. You can look up your symptoms, you can do all kinds of things — and maybe even AI one day will be able to help you — but right now, if you have something, you need to see the doctor,“ she said. ”Same thing here. ... The internet will never take away the human need for somebody to diagnose what you own."
An appearance from Mr. Peanut
When Melissa of Eagle Mountain, Utah, bought a Mr. Peanut costume for $100 at an antique store in Oregon, she couldn’t find much about it online other than the fact that it was a marketing mascot of sorts, used at parades and county fairs to attract customers to Planters peanut vendors.
The costume, which likely dates back to the 1950s or ‘60s, wasn’t in the best shape and needed some restoration. Melissa could only refer the person who fixed it up to one photo she had found online.
Now, Mr. Peanut has become a Halloween staple in Melissa’s home. As the “Antiques Roadshow” crew filmed her appraisal, performed by collectibles expert Laura Woolley, Melissa put on the costume.
Holding the cane in her left hand, she struck a Mr. Peanut pose with the ease of someone who has clearly done this many times before. And on camera, it caught Woolley off guard.
“I’ve seen them, but I hadn’t actually seen it in person on someone, and the minute she struck the pose with the cane, it just cracked me up,” said Woolley, who has been with the show for 15 years. “And frankly, now that I’ve seen it on, I think it really works.”
Woolley said this kind of costume, when it comes up for auction, typically sells for between $500 and $1,500. Melissa, who had no idea of its value, said that information doesn’t change anything. Mr. Peanut will always be her Halloween guest, and she’ll probably pass it on to her kids.
“We’ve got grandbabies now, so they’ll probably think this is really fun,” she said.
The fact and fantasy of ‘Antiques Roadshow’
After 25 years with “Antiques Roadshow” — 21 of those as executive producer — Bemko is still in awe of the stories she uncovers.
The Charles Schulz comic strip, Ronald Reagan letter and Mr. Peanut costume — all discovered within just a few hours — are only a small sampling of the sentimental, valuable and quirky stuff that makes it onto the set of “Antiques Roadshow.”
In Bemko’s eyes, the best, most powerful part of “Antiques Roadshow” is its unique ability to be grounded in history and facts, while simultaneously inspiring what she called a “fantasy” for viewers at home.
“You won’t watch a season of ‘Roadshow’ without learning something about our country and about the world,” she said. “Understanding what you own is critical to so much. We learn by watching others’ experiences.”
“Antiques Roadshow” is rooted in history, but it also moves forward as viewers begin to think about the items stored away in their own homes, and imagine themselves on the show.
And then, sometimes, they may say a phrase that causes Bemko to light up.
“Maybe I could find something like that.”
