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Brando Hair Auction Yanked
Always dreamed of owning a piece of Marlon Brando's hair? Well, you can forget about making an offer they can't refuse.
The Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas has called off an auction of strands of hair purportedly belonging to the late Oscar winner after learning they could be inauthentic.
Suspicions about the hair's origins arose after Brando's longtime personal assistant disavowed any knowledge of the strands, Doug Norwine, Heritage's director of music and entertainment memorabilia, told E! Online Wednesday.
Heritage acquired the hair from a consignor who claimed to have acquired the strands from Alice Marchak, Brando's confidant for close to 50 years, up until his death in 2004 at age 80.
However, Marchak told the Los Angeles Times this week that collecting clippings of her former boss' locks was never a part of her job description.
"I never had any hair of Marlon's," she said Monday. "I never took any hair of Marlon's from his hair brush or anything. When he had a haircut at the house, [the maid] wrapped it up and threw it away."
Norwine said that the auction was canceled soon after Marchak raised her doubts.
"The only ethical thing to do was to take that hair out of the auction," he told E! Online.
"Integrity is our biggest value. If there's one iota of doubt, I want to pull it."
The now defunct auction comprised three envelopes of hair—one envelope containing two strands, one containing four strands and one containing "several" strands, according to Heritage.
The latter two envelopes were due to be sold via online-only bidding, in an auction that was scheduled to end Thursday.
Heritage had placed a pre-auction estimate of $175 on the envelopes, but Norwine said he did not believe any bids had been placed before the auction was canceled.
The third envelope was due to be sold to the highest bidder at a live floor and online session on Apr. 21. Heritage had placed a pre-auction price tag of $250 on the item.
Though Norwine said the hair could technically go back up for sale if its provenance was established, he said that Marchak's comments were damning enough that he doubted the auction would ever go forward.
While Heritage's Americana department has in the past sold locks of hair belonging to former presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, among other notables, Norwine said his experience with the supposed Brando hair marked the first time he had been called upon to sell celebrity tresses.
As it turns out, however, stockpiling old hair for later use is far from uncommon.
The act of saving hair to be passed down from generation to generation is rooted in tradition, Norwine explained.
"It was common family practice throughout history when people would pass down locks of hair of loved ones in the older days," he said.
The Brando family, it seems, did not partake in the practice.
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