Working in a warehouse full of props from the movies of your youth is a truly overwhelming experience. Every day marks a new discovery, a new adventure, and a new encounter with a significant artifact from film history.
Originally, I was only going to write about the axe from The Shining, which is certainly worthy of its own entry under any circumstance, except when you get to hold another axe – an EWOK axe, from another one of my favorite movies — The Return of the Jedi. So, instead of choosing one axe over the other, my only sensible solution was to write about both.
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I already count myself lucky for holding, or even being close to the object that Jack Nicholson swung dozens of times from the classic Stanley Kubrick horror film. After all, it’s probably one of the most iconic props ever and comes from one of the most frightening scenes of all time. It’s a weighty object, not only in terms of its cultural significance, but it weighs a lot too.
Nicholson worked as a volunteer firefighter before he became an actor, and was used to swinging the heavy fire axe, so he tore through close to 60 doors during the extensive shooting of the scene. Seeing that it’s a real axe, it must have been simply terrifying to be Shelley Duvall, screaming on the other side as Jack destroyed one door after another. It’s an amazing piece of cinema history and only one of the thousands of amazing props that we get to encounter and write about at Heritage.
Days later, I got to hold my favorite object – one of the Ewok’s stone axes from The Return of the Jedi. As a kid whose first movie memory was watching Star Wars in the movie theater, to be that close to Star Wars history was incredible – especially as I was able to see that it appeared in the scene where a few Ewoks and Chewbacca take over the Imperial AT-ST attack vehicle.
It’s impossible to fully describe just how honored I feel to be this close to film history, or history in general. Just like Jack’s The Shining axe, it’s a weighty responsibility, especially when you get to hold a piece of history in your hands.
What is the most expensive entertainment and music memorabilia sold?