Rob Brooks is a long time customer specializing in vintage Mary Pickford items. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I realized just how large his collection is! The title of this post isn't just to catch your eye, it was a remark made by the President of the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education in Los Angeles about Rob's collection.
Rob's About Us page is a fascinating biography of a collection begun in 1979, back when a collection was amassed slowly. I love that Rob mentions probably only 5% of the current collection was put together between 1979-1999 with the major bulk coming in the most recent decade following his discovery of eBay! And I don't doubt that much of that 95% was easier to put together than the first 5% ... though certainly not easier on his bank account!
Rob Brooks is always looking to add rare Mary Pickford items to his collection, you can contact him through his site if you have something of interest. 80% of this vast Mary Pickford collection has already been donated to the Toronto International Film Festival and is slated to go on display for six months beginning in January 2011. For now we'll all have to settle for the web, that is unless you're nearby and Rob is still giving tours of his home!
What kind of Mary Pickford items make up this massive collection? Well, if you Explore by Type you'll find categories dedicated to Cigarette & Chocolate Cards, Commercial Images, Family Pictures, Film Ads, Heralds, Lobby Cards, Magazine Covers, Glass Slides, Sheet Music, Window Cards, Movie Posters and more. In other words it is all encompassing.
In case you missed the first link here's entry to The Rob Brooks Mary Pickford Collection. Once you arrive, just click on the door to enter.
The images on this page are from my own archive of Mary Pickford images that have passed through here over the years, undoubtedly a few have landed in Rob's collection. You can shop any of my own currently available vintage Mary Pickford cards in collectibles in this special Mary Pickford aisle of the Immortal Ephemera Store.
That is so flipping cool! Ever since I was a teenager I wanted to be the biggest collector of something. And I wanted to open my own museum. (I know, strange desire for a teenager right?). At first, I thought of collecting Louisa May Alcott things, mostly books by her and about her. Alcott had a revival in the late 1990s/early 2000s especially with the discovery of two lost novels (The Inheritance and A Long Fatal Love Chase). I collected but my meager funds and limited space didn’t allow me to do much. I think I bought one thing off eBay, an early edition of Little Men. I gave up the collection eventually though.
Anyways, enough about me. I think it’s fascinating that Rob has been collecting Mary Pickford stuff for so long. Great post!
May I interest you in some vintage movie cards & collectibles, Raquelle 🙂
Seriously though, the internet, and especially the explosion of eBay mentioned by Rob on his site, has been such a blessing to collectors. As someone who was a dealer in the late 80’s and into the 90’s the old limitations of the local market now blow my mind–even if a collector traveled or answered every magazine ad it was just too much trouble for so many cool items to make themselves available. There is a downside to the current explosion of availability (everyone’s a dealer now, many items once rare with some value have been commoditized, collecting less of a challenge/more overwhelming, etc.) but the trade-off is huge. My favorite element of the current market is worldwide availability and how many previously impossible to find and/or undiscovered articles have come my way from around the world, especially South America, Europe, Australia.
Sorry, I veered off there myself. I do think of this site as my own museum–I could never afford to keep everything that’s rolled through here over the past 10 years of dealing in vintage movie goods, but I can archive it all online for future reference. I love the more focused online museums though, such as Rob’s Mary Pickford site and the Lon Chaney site I covered a few weeks back.
PS: I knew there was more to the front door on Rob’s site than just being a front door! Rob has informed me that the image is a postcard of Mary Pickford’s birthplace. He writes “You can just make out the house number beside the door – 211 and the street she was born on is University Avenue hence the url 211university.” Makes total sense, thanks again, Rob!