franks are among our guests monday. join melissa francis and my on "after the bell" on fox business >> i am hoop. >> i'm baird jones. >> two eccentrics from new york's disco days. >> if you were on baird's list, your social life was assured. >> two oddball art collections. >> all right. >> mel brooks, david bowie, art carney, muhammad ali. >> but the weirdest thing about this story... >> and it's really solid. nothing's going to fall off. >> ...is how the square from the burbs ends up with both. >> i can only imagine this driving around the streets of new york. >> will this two-for-one strange inheritance -- >> i've got $150, can get a $175? once, twice. first piece sold. >> ...ultimately add up? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]

[ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today and i'm in the pocono mountains of pennsylvania on my way to meet an heir with a head-spinning story that will take us back to 1970s manhattan, the era of punk rock, disco and wild parties at studio 54. >> my name is hugh hooper. back in 2008, my brother hoop received a very strange inheritance. when he died three years later, he left one twice as strange to me. >> hugh, hi. i'm jamie. >> how are you doing, jamie? nice to meet you. >> so great to meet you. you know, i don't come out of manhattan for just anything, but i heard your inheritance is way cool. >> it is. it's crazy. but you can keep manhattan. i'll take the country. >> all right. let's see it. >> you wanna see it? go ahead. >> absolutely. hugh's strange inheritance is actually two separate art collections that belonged

to two separate people. here's some of the first, parked on the pathway outside his home. what is this? >> well, this is hoop's cars. they call this the musicmobile. >> christmas albums, paul simon. [ playing notes ] it still works. and this is just a fraction of the far-out fleet he inherited. >> everything you could imagine, trucks, cars, little bmw isettas where you had to get in between the headlights. >> they do need a little bit of repair. >> well, i don't have the heart to touch it. >> that's because the creator of the auto art is his dearly departed brother, steven douglas hooper. >> this is me and my brother. >> steven is born in 1946 and raised in clifton, new jersey.

according to big brother hugh, he's a cutup from an early age. >> my brother was normal until he was about 8, and then he changed. >> uh-oh. what happened? >> he started acting like stan laurel and mugging and dancing around. and he always had this crazy sense of humor. >> the brothers are drawn down two very different paths. hugh joins the army. little steven idolizes pop-art sensation andy warhol and the psychedelic painters of the 1960s. he wants to be part of that scene. >> as he got into high school, he just got totally into art. >> steven takes a few classes at a small art college. big brother hugh gets married and starts a family. >> where did he get the money to pursue a passion and not have to get a real job like the rest of us? >> well, steven had a job. he worked in a book binder. he operated a forklift. >> but when their mother has a serious health setback, the brothers must figure out a plan. >> we decided not to put her

in a nursing home, so my brother gave up his job at the book binder, and i just paid the bills. my brother was like my hero. he took care of my mother. it's my obligation. we're blood of blood. >> in the early 1980s, with their mom in stable health, steven rents a studio in the edgy east village neighborhood of manhattan. and there, in his mid-30s, he begins to shine. hugh's now the guy with the wife and daughter in jersey, running a trucking company. so, it's not his scene, but he loves steven's stories. >> he showed up at a party one night in greenwich village. he was wearing a bright blue tux with black fleur-de-lis. he looked across the room. somebody else had the same tux. it was tiny tim. they became best friends. >> the goofy falsetto-voiced tiny tim is just one of hoop's famous, near famous, or used-to-be-famous acquaintances, and he's driven to achieve fame, too. when he gets his hands on an old

bmw isetta, he covers it in psychedelic fur. the first hoop mobile is born. >> i am hoop, the self-proclaimed king of art. >> my brother loved to introduce us as twins, and then everybody would go, "hmm." we didn't even look like we knew each other. i was military. he was hippie. >> it's not easy to become a well-known artist. you have to do one more outrageous thing after another. >> that means turning more and more cars into zany sculptures. he's the canvertible and the voodoo volkswagen. >> he actually had a van. he cut the front end off of another van. he bolted it on the back of his. he had two front ends. he said, "i don't know if i'm coming or going. it's the time machine." he covered it in clocks, and he drove all over the place. >> around this time, hoop meets a new york preppie name baird jones, who also likes hanging with the glitterati

and who has his own unique artistic vision. you're about to hear about the other half of hugh hooper's strange inheritance. >> this is a picture that james dean drew. this is tony bennett. >> signed "bennett." >> they're all signed. >> signed by muhammad ali, adolf hitler, charles manson, buddy hackett, paul mccartney and more. that's great. >> vincent price. >> after the break... >> but first our "strange inheritance" quiz question. which '70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the solid-gold disco hit "i was made for loving you"? kiss, iron maiden or the ramones? the answer when we return. 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?

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the toothpaste that helps prevent bleeding gums. if you spit blood when you brush or floss you may have gum problems and could be on the journey to much worse. help stop the journey of gum disease. try parodontax toothpaste. ♪ >> so, which '70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the disco gold record "i was made for loving you"? it's a, kiss. the song's cowriter, paul stanley, said he wanted to prove it was easy to make a disco hit. >> so, where were we? oh, right. in the middle of a story about how hugh hooper came into inherit not one but two strange art collections. one was a fleet of car sculptures created by his younger brother, steven, also known

as hoop or the king of art, if you please. the second collection, as you're about to see, was curated apparently at significant cost by a classic new york character named baird jones. >> baird had a standard preppy uniform. khaki pants, baseball hat, and would send out these little invitation cards. >> author marianne macy met baird in the early '80s, when he's known as the columbia university grad student who throws the best parties in town. >> he was from a "social register" family. he had numerous graduate degrees. >> baird starts collecting art created by pop-culture celebrities, like these scribbled drawings by miles davis and jimmy stewart. others are by stars who are also artists, like anthony quinn and david bowie. baird works for clubs

and discos like the famed studio 54, where he's a doorman and party promoter. >> he was extraordinary at getting together really unlikely combinations of people from preppy to downtown grunge. >> the young nightlife impresario rubbed shoulders with hundreds of new york celebs. he leverages those connections to moonlight as a gossip-column tipster. >> besides inviting me to all of his events, he used to provide gossip-column items for me. >> richard johnson is a longtime editor for the ultimate big apple gossip column, the new york post's page six. why did people love him? was it his personality or his connections, his ability to throw a good party? >> i imagine that there's a lot of couples out there now with children, who met at one of baird's party.

>> no one knows when and where baird and hoop meet but by the early '80s, they're best buds. they love andy warhol and discover synergy in merging the psychedelic stars with the disco ball. baird and hoop join forces prompting east village artists at in clubs such as max's kansas city, palladium, and webster hall. >> they were big parties. you know, i mean, they were sort of cheesy. he would say on the invites, "copious hors d'oeuvres." so, they'd be 10 people deep. you'd be lucky if you could get one drink before they closed the open bar. >> some events feature baird's growing celebrity art collection. by baird's counting, he spends over a million dollars to add works by bob dylan, dee dee ramone, vincent price, and buddy hackett. he also snatches up works by simply notorious figures -- john gotti, adolf hitler, charles manson,

and john wayne gacy. his art shows attract even more bold-face names. >> he kept a database, and so he could mail out, you know, 5,000 invitations at a time. if you were on baird's list, you know you're going to run into a 100 people you know. you're bound to see hoop. he sort of had the same crew always there. >> but every great party comes to an end. and in 2007, concern is spreading among baird's closest friends, like marianne macy. >> you know, the 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. lifestyle had to change. he didn't look healthy. people's lifestyles changed, and baird was still out there doing a lot of the same stuff. >> do you want to do it afterwards? >> no, right now is cool. >> i think it was more like work for him later. >> on february 21, 2008, baird jones, life of the party circuit, is found dead in his apartment. he's 53 years old. do you remember when you heard he had passed?

>> i was shocked. i mean, he was way too young to die, and i didn't know that he had ever had any health problems. >> an autopsy reveals it was a heart attack. in his will, baird gives all his property to his good friend hoop, an estate said to be worth $2 million, not including his celebrity art collection. how surprised was he that he had gotten this inheritance? >> he was pretty surprised. he, he didn't expect it, really. >> i think it would just like baird to take care of his buddy, and that's what he did. >> do you want to see a bunch of the celebrity art downstairs? zero mostel. here's a, a jack kevorkian. >> the inheritance doesn't change hoop much. he busies himself with his cars, which are written up in the new york times. he's even interviewed by geraldo and featured in indie films. >> this is my matchbox mobile. i was commissioned by

the toy company mattel. they gave me 500 cars. you can play with it, too. >> but as fate would have it, hoop's wild ride is coming to an end as well. >> tell me what happened. >> he had a rash. he just thought it was psoriasis. and then he got this one rash that didn't disappear, and it continued to get worse. >> the diagnosis -- cancer. >> my artwork gives me inspiration to keep going. i get up, and i look out the window, and i said, "i got to do a little more to that car today." [ barking ] >> hoop keeps up his life as an artist and new york character with help from his older brother. >> i gave him all kinds of nutritional stuff. he had no side effects from the chemo at all right until the very end. >> in september 2011, hoop dies at the age of 64.

>> it's a hole in your life when you lose part of your family. nothing can fill it. >> hoop leaves everything to his big brother, hugh. >> we were opposites but totally bonded. what was mine was his, and what was his was mine. >> and now, what's hugh's are two strange inheritances in one, and as you're about to see, a big dilemma. what to do with it all? >> here's another quiz question for you. these three pictures are from the baird jones celebrity art collection. can you guess which was painted by leonardo dicaprio? "a," "b," or "c"? the answer after the break. ♪

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>> so, which of these pictures from the baird jones collection was painted by leonardo dicaprio? it's "c." for the record, "a" was painted by jonathan winters, and "b" by dinah shore. >> in 2011, hugh hooper comes into his strange inheritance, two bizarre art collections created and curated by a couple of quintessential new york city characters. the first was his eccentric brother, hoop, who produced dozens of wacky sculptures from various automobiles. the second came from hoop's preppy party-planner pal, baird jones -- a large collection of artworks by a vast array of famous and notorious figures. he focuses first on his brother's car sculptures. two things are immediately clear. he has no place for them,

and there's no place to sell them. >> all the fun in these cars had been had because he isn't here. >> so, hugh lets his brother's friends cart away any hoop mobiles they fancy. but, hugh, aren't you a little concerned that you'll lose that connection to him? >> no. no, the connection isn't in things. the connection's in your heart. >> hugh is less emotionally attached to the second weird art collection. the hundreds of celebrity paintings and drawings that he inherited through his brother from baird jones. who's that? >> okay. that's the queen of monaco. >> ooh. >> grace kelly. >> so, there's royalty. >> yes. >> jimmy stewart. >> jimmy stewart. >> yeah. >> harvey. that was the character. >> john gotti, "bikini," nice. you know what he was thinking about. >> that's one of my favorites. >> remember, baird jones spoke about spending a million dollars to acquire all this artwork. hugh decides to auction it all off.

>> this is muhammad ali. >> in the ring. >> in the ring. >> hugh, you're going to sell this? >> yes, i am because who's going to enjoy it? nobody's getting any chance to look at it. that's what art is for, it's for people to appreciate. >> you think it's worth anything? >> i would imagine it is. what, i don't know. >> he's about to find out. let's open up at $1,500. $1,600, $1,700, $1,800. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, srangeinheritance.com.

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before he died and willed it to hugh's brother, hoop. hugh chooses robert rogal of rogallery in long island city to handle the sale. mel brooks, peter falk, jimi hendrix, adolf hitler. >> quite a weird collection but a lot of name-brand material. >> it's the steven hooper, a.k.a. "hoop," celebrity art collection. >> and off we go. internet and phone bidders are standing by. >> opening price on this one is $100. >> it starts quietly with a work entitled "self-portrait with butterfly" by the famous french mime, marcel marceau. >> at $100, $100 and quarter now. got a bid of, go $125. at $125 now, at $125, last call. sold at $100. mel brooks. >> this cartoon scribble by a famous funny man fares

somewhat better. >> $400. peter falk. >> detective columbo beats that easily. >> $600. this john gotti. >> crime pays a little more. >> "bikini on mars," sold for $1,100. we continue. "horror hospital," ink and marker drawing, dee dee ramone. we're at $1,300 right now, looking for $1,400, $1,400. give me $1,500. sold at $1,500. >> and remember that muhammad ali painting called "sting like a bee"? >> $1,500, $1,600, $1,700, >> it packs a bit more punch. >> all done -- $2,800. >> alas, that's the biggest celebrity hit of the night. >> buddy hackett, sold, $250. rudy giuliani, $800. >> at this rate... >> david bowie, sold at $550. jimi hendrix. >> ...baird jones' million-dollar investment in celebrity art... >> sold at $300. henry fonda.

>> ...is looking like a big bust. >> pass it. pass, and we'll pass. moving along. >> this color-pencil doodle by actor ed asner starts with an minimum bid of 400 bucks. >> any bids, $400? and we'll pass. [ buzzer sounds ] >> will matthew broderick do any better? >> any bids at $100? >> $100 only. >> nope. >> and we're passing. [ buzzer sounds ] and we have now "courtyard of the old residency in munich." the artist is adolf hitler. we'll start at $50 and now $75. we're looking for $75 on this. last call, we're at $100. sold at $100 and glad to have it pass me. >> out of the 300 works put up for auction, about a third of them sell. the grand total, 43k. hugh expresses surprise if not disappointment. >> it was some things that didn't sell that really i thought would sell very easily.

but i think it was a good sale, and it also honors my brother, and that's very important to me. >> the unsold items include works by james dean, fred astaire, phyllis diller, and kurt vonnegut, which, come to think of it, is a pretty good start to a invite list for yet another cosmic-art happening baird and hoop are surely planning wherever they are. >> it will be a long time before we see anything like them. they were both really unusual people. together they were fantastic. >> so much that's hip in one generation is totally uncool to the next. old uncle hoop once drove his niece, hugh's daughter, to school in one of his hoop mobiles. the teen was mortified. after that, all hugh had to say to keep her in line was, "watch out, young lady, or uncle hoop will be driving you again tomorrow."

i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> abracadabra! >> oh, my god, it's my card! >> 400 years of magic secrets... >> did he ever tell you how he did any of those tricks? >> as many times as i asked, he'd never tell me. >> ...hidden in these dusty volumes. >> a lot of them were seen as occult books, and people were a little scared of them. >> the collector himself a closed book. >> so your dad is some man of mystery. >> he's a man of many mysteries. >> it's smoke, mirrors, and money. >> lot 250, "a magician among the spirits," by houdini. we will start the bidding at... [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby in chicago

today with a story about magic, but also about something magical that happened between a father and son many years after the father was gone. >> my name is rex conklin jr. my dad died when i was in high school and left me a huge collection of magic books. some were old. others were ancient. many held the secrets that magicians have guarded for centuries. >> i meet rex at the magic lounge, one of chicago's best-known spots for magic lovers. hi, rex. i'm jamie. >> hi, jamie, pleasure to meet you. >> i understand that your inheritance is magic, but it's this? >> it's all about magic. my dad collected books, posters, going all the way back to the 1500s. >> 1500s? that's right out of harry potter. cool! rex's father, rex conklin sr., is born in 1904 on detroit's southwest side. what do you know about your dad's childhood? >> i knew he grew up very poor

in detroit. his father was a conductor on the streetcars and didn't bring a lot of money home. >> for entertainment, in an era before movies were big, little rex is drawn to a type of performance then sweeping the nation -- magic shows. >> as a very young boy, probably about six or seven, he saw a performer named howard thurston perform in detroit, and that's what really ignited his interest in magic. >> step up, girls and boys, and see how easily it is for your eyes to be deceived. >> thurston amazes little rex. billed as the "king of cards," he's seen here doing a show outside the white house. >> howard thurston was the most successful magician from about 1908 to 1936. >> magic historian gabe fajuri. >> he made his reputation as a card manipulator. that's how he started out in vaudeville. >> did he have a signature move? >> actually, yeah -- one called "the rising cards." >> howard thurston's magic still mystifies...

>> we're going to do one of my favorite tricks. >> bill cook, a professional magician, is going to show me that signature trick of thurston's, "the rising cards." >> go through that half, pick out a card that you like, a card that calls to you. >> that would be me. >> queen of hearts. >> yes! >> i like that, okay. this is the easy part. >> okay. >> you picked the queen, and we'll put the cards back inside the box. watch. up. all the way. come on. >> you're talking to the card, and she's moving up. is it still the queen? >> of course it is. >> oh, my god. it's my card! >> all the way. >> what little kid wouldn't be enthralled? as a teen, rex dabbles in magic himself, then gets a job as a streetcar conductor, like his dad. when the great depression hits, he loses it and takes odd jobs to get by. things don't turn around for rex until the early '40s, when he opens his own lead-parts-manufacturing shop in

milwaukee. >> i think he was starting to become somewhat successful, and he had, you know, a little bit of money. >> "a bit of money" for the bachelor to indulge his childhood fascination -- magic. he becomes a card-carrying member of the society of american magicians and makes a name for himself, not as a performer, but as an important collector. by the late 1950s, he's acquired a pretty impressive library of magic books, going back centuries. that's when doris pagliasotti, 21 years his junior, suddenly appears. the couple marry in 1959. >> when they were married, my father was 55, and my mother was 34. >> at their ages, children weren't likely "in the cards," but rex has found the love of his life. >> i don't think he had any plans to start a family at that age, but he was very excited. >> then, presto! doris is pregnant.

in june 1960, rex jr. arrives. but the really big surprise comes 30 minutes later -- his sister, connie. you're twins? >> my mother didn't know she was having twins. >> they had no idea. >> they didn't know. >> do you think that was life-altering for your dad? all of a sudden he's a dad with twins. >> oh, absolutely. >> rex jr. and connie grow up in this house in a suburb of milwaukee. did dad do tricks? >> he did small tricks, card tricks, and things with coins. >> did he ever tell you how he did any of those tricks? >> he would never tell me, as many times as i asked. >> nor does he fill his son in on the hundreds and hundreds of magic books around the house. >> i had built-in bookcases in my bedroom, and they were full of magic books, and then we had a breakfront in our living room where the books were all under lock and key. >> hands off. >> hands off, except when he opened the case and stood with me while i looked at the books. >> son and father never explore the secrets in those

pages. in 1977, rex sr. suffers a stroke and dies. he's 73. rex jr. is just 17. >> i never had the opportunity to know him as an adult, which i really missed. >> but his strange inheritance, that library of magic, will make his father reappear in ways he could never imagine. >> i found out so much from this one letter. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question... >> the answer after the break. this lovely lady has a typical airline credit card. so she only earns double miles on purchases she makes from that airline. what'd you earn double miles on, please? ugh. that's unfortunate. there's a better option. the capital one venture card.

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>> so, which pop singer was granted a patent for a magic trick? it's "b," michael jackson. in 1993, jackson and his co-inventors got a patent for their "lean shoe," which attached to pegs in the stage floor, so performers could lean beyond their center of gravity. >> "the years of our life are 70, or by reason of strength, 80," says the bible. by that measure, rex conklin sr., 73 when he dies, has a pretty fair run. but his 17-year-old son can't see it that way. nor can he see much wonder in his strange inheritance -- shelves upon shelves of books

about magic. it's not until he becomes a father himself and moves the collection to his home that he revisits the dusty, old tomes. is that what drives you? "now that i'm a dad, i want to know more about my own dad"? >> sure, because i wanted to get a better understanding of who he was, for myself, obviously, but also for my children. what's the legacy that i'm going to pass along? >> book by book, rex jr. explores his father's ancient texts, magicians' handbooks, and bizarre diaries of the occult. between the pages, rex finds a copy of a letter his dad wrote to a fellow magic enthusiast. he always knew the great magician howard thurston inspired his dad to dabble in magic. now, from this one letter, he learns that the great magician also started him collecting. >> he talked about how howard thurston gave him his first book. >> so, now you get a little

nugget. >> i did. that was really one of my first clues. >> rex has little clue about the importance of his dad's acquisitions. to understand that, you'd have to be well-versed in the dark arts. >> a lot of them were seen actually as occult books, and people were a little scared of them. ray ricard, a rare-book collector, says rex's inheritance includes some of the oldest magic books in existence. >> some books actually had handwritten prayers that were put in the front of the book that were required to be read before you could actually open the book. >> like "the history of magick," published in 1657... >> the spelling of the word "magic" is m-a-g-i-c-k, which indicates books that are related to the occult, if you will, so superstition, some spiritualism, witchcraft. there's also "hocus pocus in perfection," published in london in 1789... and "the conjurer unmasked" from 1785. but the rarest of them all?

a first edition of reginald scot's "the discoverie of witchcraft," from way back in 1584! >> reginald scot's "discoverie of witchcraft" is considered the first book in english published on magic. he decided that people weren't really witches. they were just clever tricksters and the book itself was issued to try to show people that they were not actually performing weird rituals or killing people. they were simply performing clever conjuring tricks. >> that same letter reveals the book had been in his father's sights for years. >> he wrote that he spent 20 years searching for a good copy of the book. >> what did he pay for it? >> he paid about $1,200 at the time, so in today's dollars, maybe $21,000. it was a substantial amount of money. >> how relevant is the book today? >> it's an important book in the history of the art. some people say that with the tricks that it describes, you could, to this day, make a living as a magician. >> this i have to see to believe. magician bill cook volunteers

to show me a trick straight from the pages of "the discoverie of witchcraft." >> pick a walnut, any walnut. >> the one that speaks to me? >> put it on top of the book. i'll come back to it in a little while. do you have a finger ring or something special i could borrow, a necklace? >> i'm actually wearing a ring of my grandmother's. >> really? can i borrow that? >> are you gonna give it back? >> well, i'll be nice today, and i'll give it back. oh, it's very pretty. >> it's very sweet. >> i need you to hold onto it, underneath the cloth, right there at the top if you would, please. hold it out, a little farther away, and don't let it go until i tell you to. >> okay. >> like now, let go. >> [ gasps ] >> and that's when the ring vanishes. now, i had you pick a walnut earlier. >> yes. >> i brought with a walnut cracker. would you pick up the walnut and put it inside of the, uh... yeah, all the way. >> i hope my ring is in there. >> listen, you can actually hear it break. [ walnut crunches ] >> [ laughs ] >> awesome. that should be enough. take a look inside the walnut. >> i hope you didn't swap the

stone. wow, that really is it. >> yep. >> i got to think about this one. i can't figure it out. that's great, bill. >> that's one of the oldest tricks in recorded magic history. >> so, rex's father basically was acquiring the hogwarts library, book by book. and as rex sifts through it all, a question occurs to him -- why did dad stop? the answer comes at the end of that telling letter that his father wrote to one of his collector friends all those years ago. what did it say? >> he says, "most of these books have become valued and highly treasured friends. however, the time has come in my life when the spiritual call is greater than the material, and my interest in the really great rare and scarce works of magic is waning." >> what year was it written? >> in 1960, shortly after i was born. >> so, what do you interpret that passage to mean, in terms of his life changing?

>> he's probably thinking about, "okay, you know, my children were just born, you know, twin babies. i'm in my mid to late 50s. by the time they're out of school, i'll be an elderly man. so, what's important to me in life right now?" i found out so much from this one letter. >> then he finds this one, written ten years later -- a note from father to son, tucked into the pages of one of the magic books rex jr. will inherit, to be delivered at a time and place of fate's choosing. >> he says, "it's 11:30 at night. you've just finished your third day in fifth grade. i'm so proud of you. you're everything i always wanted in a son. you're my pride and joy of my heart. you're so big and strong, the greatest boy i've ever known. i hope you never change." >> oh, what a passionate, considerate letter you'll have

forever. >> yeah. >> he wasn't in good health at that time, and i think that's why he wrote this note. >> for decades rex jr. just enjoys having his strange inheritance around. he's a marketing consultant in his 50s, living near atlanta, georgia, married, with three daughters, when opportunity knocks. >> a friend of mine told me that there was an upcoming sale at christie's, and it featured some books on the occult. >> rex thinks, "why not?" more than 400 magic books fill his shelves. he takes the oldest -- that 1584 first edition of "the discoverie of witchcraft" -- and puts it on the auction block. what are we talking? >> the world record. >> here's another quiz question for you... the answer when we return. ♪ (music plays throughout) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> so, which famous general was a member of the international brotherhood of magicians? it's "c," desert storm commander norman schwarzkopf jr., who is said to have practiced his magic tricks to relieve stress during the war. >> in june 2015, rex conklin jr. puts his rare, first-edition copy of reginald scot's "the discoverie of witchcraft" up for sale at a christie's auction in new york. why'd you pick that one to sell? did you know it was valuable? >> i definitely knew that it had value, and, you know, i thought it would be fun to have a book in a major auction. >> collector ray ricard is following the sale online and

bidding on the book. >> it was definitely going up in price, second by second. the value went very quickly from the low estimate right up through $30,000 before you knew it, so i dropped out. >> bids continue to climb -- $35,000, then $40,000. $45,000! when the hammer falls... what are we talking? >> it sold for $55,000. [ cash register dings ] >> the sale is a new world record for any copy of the book. it gets rex thinking about the more than 400 remaining items he inherited from his father. >> i've enjoyed having his collection for many years now, but i'm at a similar point right now where, you know, the material is a little less important to me. >> in chicago, he approaches gabe fajuri, president of potter and potter auctions, which specializes in magic sales. gabe tells me rex has plenty of gems left. >> the first one is a book by houdini. it's the second book he wrote, "the unmasking of robert-houdin."

and this one is from houdini's library, so it has his bookplate, a beautiful autographed postcard of houdini inside. it's also inscribed "a friend of houdini for 35 years, howard thurston." >> houdini's such a big name. you have another houdini book. >> mm-hmm. this is the last book he wrote, "magician among the spirits." >> what else? >> a copy of henry dean's "hocus pocus, the whole art of legerdemain." this is a bestseller from the time it appeared in print, first in 1722. >> good condition? >> i mean, if i look this good when i'm this old, yeah, i'll be very happy. this is a book that actually does a trick and... >> okay, i'm ready. >> so, when you flip through, you may see some pictures of some soldiers. >> i do. >> you breathe on the book, and when you flip through it again, you may see some different pictures, perhaps of flowers. >> upside down? >> and when you breathe through it again, most of the pages are blank. >> gabe says no single book will top rex's previous record-breaking sale. but with 400 volumes on the

block, he hopes to "conjure up" an even bigger payday. >> fair warning...sold! what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail, or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. 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. potsch: this new truck now has a cornerstep built right into the bumper. gary: super cool. potsch: the bed is made of high-strength steel, which is less susceptible to punctures than aluminum. jim: aluminum is great for a lot of things, but maybe not the bed of a truck. potsch: and best of all, this new truck is actually- gary: (all laughing) oh my... potsch: the current chevy silverado. gary: i'm speechless. gary: this puts my ford truck to shame. james: i'll tell you, i might be a chevy guy now. (laughing)

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inside the lines. >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> it's december 2016 in chicago, and rex conklin jr. is ready to auction off more than 400 rare magic books from the collection he inherited from his father. >> at $750. $750, we have... >> i feel my dad in this room today, you know. all his prized possessions are around me. it's almost like having him here. >> and now a copy of houdini's "magician among the spirits," including a beautiful photograph of houdini. looking for $1,500. $1,600 right here. looking for $1,700. fair warning at $1,600.

sold! [ cash register dings ] >> remember the other houdini book gabe showed me? the one signed by howard thurston, the legendary performer who sparked rex sr.'s love of magic? it hammers home at $2,600. oh, and "the history of magick" -- with a "k"? >> $2,000. i need $2,600 is next. sold! >> $2,800! >> lot 159 -- henry dean, "the whole art of legerdemain, or hocus pocus in perfection." fair warning at $3,200. sold for $3,200. >> the big numbers keep rolling in. that french "blow book" that gabe demonstrated? it fetches $3,200. >> warning at $850. >> a signed photo of famed magician harry kellar? $3,400. and this book from 1785, "the conjurer unmasked"? $4,200.

it's a steady beat of the hammer, and guess what? $1,500 here, $2,000 there -- it starts adding up. by the end of day, the total is an expectations-beating $105,000. >> overall, i thought it went really well. i'm pleased. it is emotional for me today, to see his things that i've lived with for so many years, but it's another chance to say goodbye and flip a new page. >> but i got to tell you what makes this strange inheritance story so magical for me. i've come across collectors of all sorts of things that were so obsessed, their families wondered if anything else meant as much to them as their stuff. but rex's dad set aside all his "highly treasured friends" the moment his children were born. and the strange inheritance he left his son leaves no doubt what he valued most in life. >> "i know i haven't much longer to live. my final advice to you is never

be afraid to admit your mistakes. never miss mass on sundays. be kind to your mother and sister and your wife when you find the right girl. play life's game straight, be a good boy, and a just man. [ exhales ] love, with the depth of my heart, daddy." he was from, you know, a different generation, but he also had a very big heart. >> did you know he loved you that much? >> i did, yeah. rex jr. has sold most of his father's books and mementos, but he's keeping three rare and valuable howard thurston posters. his plan is to leave one to each of his three daughters, a reminder of how the magic started for their grandfather all those years ago. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance."

and remember -- maybe you can take it with you. >> a ball club older than mighty casey... >> they were recognized as the best team of the 1860s. >> their 155-year-old baseball card... >> we are looking at a very significant piece of baseball history here. >> and she's looking at a very strange inheritance. >> he's my great-great-uncle on my dad's side. >> which one is he? >> now here's the payoff pitch. >> one of the big ones. this was a family heirloom. >> will there be joy in mudville... >> he was looking for a piece of the action, but i didn't know that. >> ...with jamie at the bat? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪