Looking to 1969 as Heritage readies for Oct. 8 Space Auction, or From the Pen of Michael Riley

Oct. 1, 2009

Posted by Noah, written by Michael Riley

(One week from today will be our Oct. 8 Space Exploration Auction here at Heritage, one of my most favorite categories. I have had occasion to write about several of the pieces in this auction, but it is Chief Cataloger and Historian Michael Riley who is truly the expert, and a superb writer to boot. I'm fortunate to be a writer among many good ones in this company, and I hold Michael among the very best. His work on Space auctions is epic, his feel for the material unequaled and his ability to relay its sociological, material and historical context simply superb. Michael has generously consented to let me post his "bidder letter" from the front of the catalog, presented here with minor editing to blog style. It is equal parts an invitation to bid, an explanation of the material and a reflection on the tumultuous, exciting days that surrounded the 1969 moon landing. Well done, Michael, and thanks! - Noah Fleisher)

"Welcome to another amazing collection of space-related collectibles. Once again our astronaut and private collector consignors have come through with important flown and signed memorabilia, items for every level of collecting expertise and budget. From photos and philatelic covers signed by the astronauts to charts, maps, souvenirs, and pieces of spacecraft equipment that actually flew with them on their missions, even to the moon.

Can it really have been 40 years?

While working on this catalog, your writer flashed back many times to that important year of 1969; what a year it was! As a high school student during that period of great change, I was a fan of sports, popular culture, rock music, and the "space race." I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the year that America landed on the moon. What else was going on?

The year started out big for football fans. This was when the major college bowl games were all played on Jan. 1. The Rose Bowl was a classic with Woody Hayes' #1 Ohio State Buckeyes defeating John McKay's #2 USC Trojans, 27-16. USC senior running back O. J. Simpson ran for 171 yards, but for naught.

After that, the underdogs dominated the major sports. In the first AFL-NFL Championship game to actually be called the Super Bowl, the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts met a New York Jets team whose quarterback, Joe Namath, had controversially "guaranteed" a win. He came though on his promise, 16-7. In the NBA championship series, the Lakers, with stars Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West, were expected to rout the aging, fourth-place finishing Boston Celtics. In an exciting series, the Celtics, coached by Bill Russell, won the title, beating the Lakers in game seven, on the road (a first). Fast forward to October: Gil Hodges' New York Mets had finally managed a winning season and found themselves facing Earl Weaver's Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Five games later, the "Miracle Mets" had done what nobody thought they could possibly accomplish.

There were legends that died that year: boxer Rocky Marciano and figure skater Sonja Henie. There were future superstars, though, that were born: Emmitt Smith, Steffi Graf, Brett Favre, and Ken Griffey Jr. to name a few.

It was a tumultuous year in world politics. The United States involvement in the Vietnam War was in its tenth year but had peaked the year before; 1969 actually saw the first U.S. troop withdrawals. North Vietnam president Ho Chi Minh died that year as did U.S. World War II hero and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The patriarch of the Kennedy family, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., also passed on in 1969. It was a year of beginnings too: Richard Nixon was inaugurated as president; Golda Meir became the first female prime minister of Israel; and Warren Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

On a lighter note, the top five movies for the year were certainly a mixed bag: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; The Love Bug; Midnight Cowboy; Easy Rider; and Hello, Dolly! The year saw the release of the last Warner Brothers "Looney Tunes" cartoon as well as the premier of several iconic television programs, The Brady Bunch, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and Sesame Street.

That all-encompassing category of "Pop Culture" had no shortage of 1969 entries. It was a year of "firsts:" the Boeing 747 made its debut; the Stonewall Riots in NYC marked the beginning of the Gay Rights movement in the U.S.; the first ATM was installed in Rockville Centre, New York; retail giant Wal-Mart incorporated; Dave Thomas opened his first Wendy's; the Woodstock Festival was held in upstate New York; and the first message was sent over ARPANET, the early forerunner to today's internet. On a another computer-related note, Linux developer Linus Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland.

It was also a year of sadness and death: the venerable Saturday Evening Post ceased publication after 147 years; the Charles Manson-led "family" committed the Tate/LaBianca murders; "beat" culture icon Jack Kerouac died; and the peace and love that had characterized Woodstock a few months earlier didn't quite carry over to the west coast Altamont festival where a concertgoer was stabbed to death by a Hell's Angel member during the Rolling Stones set. Many call that event the end of the '60s.

Speaking of music, 1969 was one of the most eventful of a generation. The Beatles were the most popular, creative, and successful rock band of the 1960s. This was the year of many milestones for them, not all of a positive nature as their tenure as the "fab four lads from Liverpool" faded away: they gave their last public performance in January on the roof of Apple Records; they recorded (and released) their last album as a group, Abbey Road; Paul McCartney married his "Lovely Linda" Eastman in London; and John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar, later conducting their "Bed-In" for peace in Montreal where they recorded "Give Peace a Chance," the first solo single released by a Beatle.

After seven years away from the top of the charts, Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" hit number one on Billboard, the final time he would do so in his lifetime.

Many people would call 1969 the birth year of the heavy metal genre with the release of Led Zeppelin I. The Rolling Stones hired a young guitar player, Mick Taylor, to replace one of their founding members, Brian Jones, who died a mysterious death in his home swimming pool. The Jackson Five's first album was released, starting a 40 year reign as pop royalty for Michael. A British single about a fictional astronaut, by then-unknown David Bowie, flew up the charts after its release just days before the launch of Apollo 11. Fortunately, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins had a much more successful flight than did Major Tom of "Space Oddity" fame.

That brings us back to why we're here: The year 1969 saw the launch of four Apollo missions. NASA's year was ushered in on a high note, just days after Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders returned from the first-ever manned mission to the moon.

Next on the agenda was to test the major components and activities of a moon-landing mission, but in Earth orbit. From March 3-13, James McDivitt, Dave Scott, and Rusty Schweickart put the Apollo 9 Lunar Module Spider through its paces, proving it worthy for lunar orbit testing. That came along shortly thereafter when Apollo 10 (May 18-26), with Tom Stafford, John Young, and Gene Cernan aboard, was launched to the moon with the task of performing a full "dress rehearsal" of the upcoming landing mission.

The Lunar Module, Snoopy, traveled to within eight or so miles of the lunar surface before rendezvousing and docking with the Command Module, Charlie Brown, for the trip home. The stage was now set to realize the goal President John F. Kennedy had set seven years earlier: landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before the decade was over.

Of course, we all know of the success of the Apollo 11 mission in reaching that important aspiration. Things were now moving with an unheard-of rapidity. Not once, but twice, did America land on the moon that year. November 14, 1969, found the Apollo 12 crew of Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean on their way to the moon for a pinpoint landing just 200 yards from the old unmanned Surveyor 3 probe.

During the three years to follow, another five Apollo missions made attempts, with four succeeding, to land on the moon. The 12 men who actually walked on the lunar surface and the other twelve men who made the long journey are all modern heroes of exploration and technology. They are revered for their hard work, spirit of adventure, and bravery. This auction brings to the average person the honor of owning just a little piece of our own space history. We are honored to be able to bring these historic items to you...

Best regards,
Michael Riley
Chief Cataloguer and Historian

To leave a comment click on the title of this post.

-Posted by Noah Fleisher, written by Michael Riley.

One of only two Rolexes known to have landed on the moon, and Heritage has it...

July 30, 2009

Posted by Noah

You know, I just happen to be in the market for a new watch...

In my humble estimation, it doesn't get a whole lot cooler than this. An Apollo 17 Lunar Module Flown Rolex GMT-Master Chronometer, directly from the personal collection of Mission Command Module Pilot Ron Evans, will be part of our Oct. 8 Signature® Space Exploration Memorabilia Auction. Nobody does Space Exploration memorabilia better than Heritage and - as if you needed proof - the firm has done it again.

"We’ve done a tremendous amount of research on the subject," said Michael Riley, Chief Historian and Senior Cataloger at Heritage, "and we can confidently say that this is the only one of two Rolex watches known to have ever made it to the moon's surface to come up for auction."

There is nothing that can set the modern imagination alight like space travel, and little that inspires more awe in humans than the original Mercury and Apollo astronauts. America's "Right Stuff" pioneered space flight in the 1960s and actually spent time on the surface of the moon, the closest humans have ever come to personally exploring a distant world. As such, anything associated with the nation's space program, especially anything that was actually with the astronauts on the lunar terrain, brings a premium from space collectors.

In the evolving hierarchy of Space Exploration collecting, astronauts' timepieces have proven among the most sought after. It's widely known that the Omega Speedmaster Pro was the only watch approved by NASA for use on the Apollo moon flights, leading to its being called the "Moonwatch." Several astronauts, however, preferred their own timepieces, such as the Evans' present example. It already has significant value simply because it's a Rolex. Factor in its provenance, who it belonged to and where it's been, then it becomes not just a great watch, but one of historical import, as well.

"Many students and collectors of space-flown timepieces are aware that Jack Swigert carried and/or wore a Rolex on the ill-fated Apollo 13 flight, which never landed on the moon," said Riley. "Our research has turned up only one other Rolex, worn by Edgar Mitchell on Apollo 14, that can claim to have landed on the lunar surface."

Dr. Mitchell himself reported that he did indeed wear his Rolex in the lunar module during Apollo 14, but the whereabouts of the Rolex are unknown as of now, so this watch – with its unimpeachable provenance – carries a special distinction. Interestingly, but on another note, Dave Scott actually took his personal Waltham watch with him to the moon on Apollo 15.

This handsome, all-original, 1968-era Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master was Apollo 17 Astronaut Ron Evans' personal watch. He placed it into his Personal Preference Kit (PPK), which was taken to the moon by his crewmates Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard the Lunar Module Challenger while he orbited the moon in the Command Module America. It remained on the moon for approximately 75 hours on what is, up to this day, the last manned lunar landing mission.

After Evans' return to Earth he certified the watch by engraving the pertinent facts, along with his name, along the outside edge of the back of the watch with an electric engraving tool. He wrote: "FLOWN ON APOLLO XVII 6-19 DEC 72 ON MOON 11-17[?] DEC RON EVANS."

Apparently Commander Evans didn't remove the stainless steel band to accomplish this as the "writing" is a bit rough and shaky. The apparent '7' in the 'ON MOON' phrase was certainly intended by him to be a '4' but, being directly below the band's attachment to the watch, and due to the size of the portable engraving machine, the number was not clearly engraved.

There is no doubt – due to photographic evidence, authentication and a letter of certification from Ron Evans' wife, Jan Evans – that this watch belonged to Commander Evans, and that he took it with him on Apollo 17.

Like I said, it doesn't get a whole lot cooler than this...

April 1 Space Auction gets a nice mention in today’s New York Times

March 20, 2009
Posted by Noah

National publicity, even international publicity, is not new to a world-class agency like Heritage. Just in my seven months here I’ve watched – and had the pleasure to be an active participant in – more than a dozen stories that have broken widespread across newswires and related media outlets across the globe. You add to this the extensive category-specific PR we get, then it starts to expand exponentially into much higher numbers.

Today, though, on this glorious Dallas spring Friday – I kid you not when I say it is a gorgeous day here, as good as it gets in Dallas in my humble opinion – we all got a little kick when we saw that our own Michael Riley, Chief Cataloger and Historian, was quoted in the New York Times today in a nice little piece about our April 1 Space Exploration Auction here at Heritage world HQ, which I wrote about just last week. As a major player in the auction world, we’re all usually pretty sanguine about a story hitting big, but the cachet of the Times makes this one just a little sweeter. It is, after all, America’s paper of record for just about everything.

Michael is a good man and an amazing researcher and historian – and he’s just one of the many superb talents in this building that makes it such a pleasure to come to this beautiful place every day – and he deserves to be quoted for this auction, and he deserves whatever attention may come his way today for his contribution. A passing week has not dimmed my observation that the April 1 Space auction is so cool I can hardly contain my excitement.

I wrote to our resident celebrity to ask him if I could get an autograph before he is partying like a rock star with A-list starlets, and he quickly rebuffed my request – all in good humor, I assure you.

“I think I’ll retire while I’m on top,” he wrote.

In all seriousness, though, the NYT article is just the topper for all the hard work that Michael and the rest of the Space and Americana team has done to make not only this auction such a great success, but also to put Heritage squarely on the top of the heap when it comes to this niche of the market. Clearly, even the space exploration of almost 40 years ago still has the same power to capture our imaginations as it did then.

If you have a few minutes and want to spend some quality digital time with an amazingly cool collection of stuff, much of which actually saw the lunar surface, then grab a cup of coffee, kick back and click on this link. It’s time you’ll find well spent, especially as it fires your imagination into the stratosphere.