"strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. [ singing continues ] ♪ >> they hound everyone in show biz. >> look! it's ingrid bergman! janet leigh. there's natalie wood. >> ...and get their autograph... >> audrey hepburn. steve mcqueen. ronald reagan. >> ronald reagan? is that angelina jolie? >> ...thousands of them! >> it really became an obsession and a drug. >> an obsession that fathered this man's strange inheritance. >> i basically got hundreds and hundreds of boxes. >> this is truly unbelievable. what was your reaction when you saw the magnitude of what he had? >> i was blown away. >> but does the heir really know what he's signing up for? >> $4,250. now $4,500. on the phone.

make it $4,500. last call. >> yep! >> $4,500. now $4,750. >> it's what makes an auction so exciting. >> yep! >> and it is sold! [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm outside seattle, washington, headed to meet a man whose star-struck family left him a massive inheritance. next came a scramble to turn celebrity ink into cold, hard cash. >> my name is david kuflik. my father and aunt were both rabid autograph hounds. their hobby took over their lives, now it's taking over mine. >> david asks me to meet him here at his home office. this is where he says he's been curating his family autograph collection. what do you have? >> i have lots of autographs over here. some samples i've got --

alfred hitchcock, robin williams, johnny depp -- the list just goes on and on. >> the collection is a who's who of stars from yesteryear through today. liz taylor... to cameron diaz. cary grant... to george clooney. grace kelly... to sandra bullock -- all acquired by david's father, harvey, and his aunt rhoda. is this all of it? >> oh, this is just the tip of the iceberg. ♪ >> the story of these signature-seeking siblings begins in brooklyn, new york, in 1938 when rhoda kuflik is born. little brother harvey arrives three years later. as the children of hardworking immigrants, they're often left to entertain themselves. luckily, it's the golden age of the silver screen. >> they spent a lot of their free time going to movie

theaters. [ film reel clicking ] >> and shooting their own home movies. hey, that's sophia loren... and tony curtis! in the 1950s, you can spot as many stars here as in hollywood. so rhoda starts a new hobby -- autograph collecting. >> this right here is the autograph book that started everything. >> perry como to start it off? "1953, april 6." >> we have a jackie robinson... henry fonda... lucy and desi. >> amazing. both of them. what a gem! soon enough, rhoda's dragging along her kid brother, harvey, on her autograph hunts. how do you think they found out where all these celebrities were? >> they'd go to all different kinds of events, restaurants where celebrities maybe went to, the theater district. >> the wild celebrity goose chase sends the kids all over

town. did rhoda ask her parents' permission? >> both my grandfather and grandmother worked very long hours, and i'm not really sure that they even knew the extent of what was going on. >> they were latchkey kids? >> yes, it's fair to say they were latchkey kids. >> but soon celebrity ink isn't enough. they want signed photos of the stars. rhoda buys an inexpensive camera to snap celeb shots herself. >> not only did she take the pictures, but then she went out after the fact, found them a second time, and went and got them signed. >> there's paul newman grabbing a smoke. and jimmy stewart hopping into a cab. and rhoda herself with marilyn monroe. rhoda kept some pretty good company. >> she sure did. >> but by the early '60s, that lack of parental supervision has repercussions on young harvey. >> my father got involved in drugs at an early age. i think he was a heroin addict

at 16, 17 years old. he ended up in sing sing prison at the age of 18 years old. >> after a year behind bars, harvey moves away, leaving his celebrity-pursuing sister to prowl new york alone. he gets married, has a son, david, and dedicates his life to helping other drug addicts. when he ends up working at a v.a. clinic in los angeles, harvey relapses into his oldest habit -- autograph hunting. >> he worked in the westwood area, and he would see stars when he was going to lunch, getting coffee. >> teresa priem is herself an autograph hound who worked the circuit with harvey. she tells me sometimes harvey spends all night outside a restaurant trying to spot an elusive star. other times he's crashing up to five hollywood functions in the same night. >> if it was a good event, harvey would probably get 30, 40, 50 autographs in

one night. >> there he is with robert duvall... goldie hawn... charlton heston... and so many more. ♪ in the late 1970s, harvey begins dragging his 9-year-old son, david, along on autograph hunts. >> the star will always go to the child before he'll sign for other people. >> did you love it or hate it? >> i loved autograph collecting when i was a child. by the time maybe i became a teenager, though, it's not what i really wanted to be doing. i think i retired at the age of 13. >> but harvey's not ready to hang up his sharpie. over the next two decades, he gathers thousands more signed celebrity photos. ♪ >> he was a pure collector. he did it for the love. hardest-working guy in hollywood as far as i'm concerned. ♪ >> hardest working right till the end, which comes in 2002

when harvey kuflik dies from liver disease at 61. his only child, david, inherits all he had -- all this. were you prepared for that? >> i was not quite prepared for it. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. who sent autograph seekers stock letters that read "i'm afraid i'm much too important to write notes to people like you"? the answer after the break. today, we're out here with some big news about type 2 diabetes. you have type 2 diabetes, right? yes. so let me ask you this... how does diabetes affect your heart? it doesn't, does it? actually, it does. type 2 diabetes can make you twice as likely to die from a cardiovascular event,

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>> so, who wrote autograph seekers, "i'm afraid i'm much too important to write notes to people like you"? it's john cleese, the funnyman who became a star with monty python and has been a fixture in hollywood comedies ever since. >> david kuflik is a blood relative of two inveterate autograph hounds -- his father, harvey, and his aunt rhoda. but david doesn't inherit the gene, so he's not quite sure what to do with the enormous autograph collection his dad left behind in 2002. it contains a who's who of stars from the golden age through today. >> he had everybody...

...absolutely everybody. ♪ >> david, a microsoft program manager, is just too busy to deal with hundreds of boxes of signed photos. >> i was working a full-time job. we had two kids that were just born. it was too much. and that's why my father's collection sat in storage. i really didn't have any plans to do anything with them. >> and he doesn't do anything with them for a decade. then, in 2012, aunt rhoda passes away and leaves david her lifelong collection. he's going to need a bigger storage locker. two years later, david's employer deals him a setback and an opportunity. >> for right or wrong, i was part of a massive layoff, and i'd always planned that if i'd ever left this company, i'd take a year off just to dry out, become human again, decompress,

and then i would go over this collection. >> that's because david figures there have to be quite a few valuable items in his strange inheritance. so he starts cataloging what's in those hundreds of boxes. he treats the monumental chore as his new full-time job. >> the discovery process was so much fun because each box, i didn't know what i was gonna find. >> like his father, david becomes enthralled by the signed celebrity photos. >> i would be up all night long. i'd sleep in the morning, i'd get back up. we got john lennon right there. it was a very obsessive thing for a while. >> the collection is more extensive than david ever imagined. he estimates he has around 80,000 autographs. that's right -- 80,000

signatures of hollywood icons. and there's not just one of each celebrity -- the collection contains lots of multiples. >> he's got 30 of this person, 20 of that person. these are cool -- cast photos. here's one from the movie "the breakfast club," featuring the brat pack of the 1980s... and another of the original "star trek" cast. now, have i seen everything? >> oh, not even close. >> while the autographs make great dinner conversation, there are still bills to pay, and by 2016, david's been out of work for two years. his wife, suzie, gets a little nervous. >> i don't like to think about how much money we paid in storage over the years. so in an ideal world, someone would come and buy the whole collection. >> what do you think your collection is worth? >> that's a good question. >> what's your price?

>> it would definitely be, uh, seven figures without a doubt. >> but there's a catch. you really can have too much of a good thing. what happens when you try to sell five or six of each of these people? >> there's not enough demand for the supply. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. who often includes this simple self-portrait with his autograph? former "tonight show" host jay leno? former presidential candidate john kerry? or mark zuckerberg, ceo of facebook? the answer after the break. potsch: you each drive a ford pickup, right? (in unison) russ, leland, gary: yes. gary: i have a ford f-150. michael: i've always been a ford guy. potsch: then i have a real treat for you today. michael: awesome. potsch: i'm going to show you a next generation pickup. michael: let's do this.

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>> so which celebrity often includes this simple

self-portrait with his autograph? it's, "a," jay leno, who's known as one of the friendliest signers in hollywood. >> david kuflik has spent the last two years cataloging and archiving his strange inheritance -- an autograph collection that includes 80,000 signatures of hollywood stars. you got barbra streisand, sigourney weaver, lucy, suzanne somers. >> yeah. >> david, this is truly unbelievable. now the pressure is on to capitalize on his celebrity autographs. so david calls rr auction in new hampshire. what was your reaction when you saw the magnitude of what he had? >> i was blown away. >> ceo bob eaton can't wait to handle the account. >> is there any collection like this out there? >> size-wise, no. some people have 30,000 or 40,000 autographs, but they

don't have signed photographs. >> bob calls in bill white, a handwriting expert with 30 years' experience to make sure all the "i's" are dotted and "t's" crossed. today bill teaches me how to spot a forgery of ronald reagan. >> there are two ways to get somebody's autograph. you either meet them in person or you write to them in the mail. when you wrote to ronald reagan in the '40s, you would get a membership card with his signature on it, and very often a whole handwritten note on the back. >> did ronald reagan write, "dear ruth: golly! it was a swell gesture on your part sending in the dues"? >> sure sounds like he wrote it, doesn't it? >> golly, yes. ronald reagan? >> ronald reagan's mother. >> what? >> reagan's mother, nelle, was hired by the studio to answer her son's fan mail, and she tried to sound like him, and she tried to write like him, but all these people that wrote to reagan in the '40s who thought they were carrying on

a correspondence, they were talking to his mom. >> talk about trust, but verify. so how can you tell if the reagan signatures in david's collection are the real deal? >> these are perfect examples of reagan's signature. the angle from the top of the "l" to the "d," there's an angle like that every time. and the thing that i always look for in "reagan" is the "e." his "e" tends to be straight up. it doesn't lean to the right, ever. it's either straight up or it leans 45 degrees back. >> i see it -- here and here. >> you always look at the "e." >> time to put the whole shooting match on the auction block? well, not so fast. what happens when you try to sell five or six of each of these people? >> there's not enough demand for the supply. strategy is extremely important. >> so bob and david come up with a 5-year plan to slowly sell off the collection. they select 160 photos to be offered at an initial auction --

a mix of golden age stars and modern ones. >> the idea is to use that kind of as a test balloon to really figure out what we think will get the highest value and what future auctions may show for us. >> included in the batch -- steve mcqueen, julia roberts, and this marilyn monroe portrait taken by david's aunt rhoda. >> so, here's the classic of the classics. gorgeous photograph, beautiful smile, and so that should sell for $2,000 to $3,000. >> beautiful. but which hollywood legend can draw the biggest box office? >> and $220 bid. now $250. >> find out next. >> last call -- $250? >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. liberty mutual stood with us when a fire destroyed the living room. we were able to replace everything in it.

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>> now back to "strange inheritance."

♪ >> in september 2016, in cambridge, massachusetts, 160 signed celebrity photos from david kuflik's massive collection hit the auction block. >> these are the very first autographs i've ever sold out of this collection. i'm a bit nervous. this is really the start of a journey. here we go. this is it. let's see. >> whenever you put fresh material like the kuflik collection into the marketplace for the first time, you never know what's gonna happen. something that i might think would go for $5,000 might go for $500, but then something that we thought would go for $200 or $300 will go for $5,000. it's what makes an auction so exciting. >> up first... >> grace kelly. >> ...a vintage grace kelly candid signed in blue ink. >> let's see what happens. >> and $220 bid. now $250. and $220 bid. now $250. $250. it's $220 bid. >> david's baffled.

>> $250? >> $250. last call. this is sold -- $220. >> that's only 20 bucks more than the minimum. >> liz taylor signed original candid photograph. $250 bid... >> liz taylor doesn't fair much better. >> sold $225. >> i was hoping it was gonna get higher. the candid photos that rhoda took over the years didn't quite get what i thought it deserved. >> a discouraging sign. david figured the stars of yesteryear would draw the biggest bucks. >> and $332.50. sold to the internet! >> but to everyone's surprise, the contemporary celebrities not only hold their own, but in many cases outperform the golden agers. big sales include that "breakfast club" cast signature for $2,500... and the late rapper tupac shakur's autograph -- $3,300.

>> i was not expecting that. a lot of the more modern stuff sold very well, and that was a great test balloon to tell me that we can do a lot more of that. >> but don't count out the classics just yet. ronald reagan and his wife, nancy davis, bring in $1,500. this audrey hepburn goes for $2,400. the duke adds 3 grand more... while marilyn monroe gets ready for her close-up. >> marilyn monroe signed original candid photograph. >> remember, rhoda took that picture. >> we have an absentee bid of $3,500. looking for $3,750. >> $3,750. >> $4,000. now $4,250. looking for $4,250. make it $4,500. last call at $4,500. and it is sold -- $4,250. [ cash register dings ] ♪

>> not bad, but not the best. >> make it $5,500. >> that honor goes to "magnificent seven" star steve mcqueen, who ropes in a pretty magnificent $6,600. >> i expected it to do well. i didn't think it would do that well. and i've got more, by the way. [ applause ] >> the sale brings david's total up to nearly 75 grand. and remember. he still has around 80,000 autographs to sell. >> this collection is gonna see a whole lot of money. it's hard to add it all up, but when you start getting $5,000, $6,000, $3,000, $4,000, it's an immense and exciting collection. >> you sure five years is gonna be enough? >> it could take longer, but the plan is five years. i have lots of things that are rare, high demand. they'll kind of sell themselves. >> two latchkey kids with a passion for hollywood turn a hobby into a lifelong pursuit.

and now their heir has transformed their celebrity obsession into a serious business. >> i can't even express the gratitude i have to my aunt and my father for leaving me this collection for myself and my family. team kuflik! it's unbelievable. it is a blessing in every way. >> david says one autograph eluded both his father and aunt for decades -- comedian benny hill, whose british tv show was a hit in the '80s. one night harvey spotted hill outside the famous l.a. restaurant spago and scored this signature. hill mentioned he was off to new york, so harvey quickly called his sister, rhoda, who was still living there. she found out benny's hotel and captured a second hill. the autograph hounds once again tracked down their man. i'm jamie colby.

thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> a regular old dad... >> all he said was, "who's gonna buy something from bill wagner?" >> turned art scene heavyweight. >> he went from very clean-cut to start wearing brighter-colored shirts, and then his hair grew long. >> how important a name is he? >> there are no comparables. >> he leaves behind a puzzle. >> oh, the sun is shining. or it's an egg. are you sure these go together? >> it's always a mystery. >> this is all your dad's? >> it's a very small portion of the art that he produced. >> how do you handle an 8-ton inheritance? >> every single day, i've thought, "what am i going to do with it?" [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]