than to see the cloud lifted and see-to-see the pueblo back home, where she belongs, flying the stars and stripes once again. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north for "wa [ rock music plays ] >> a world-record car collection... >> he just kept going. he never stopped. >> i believe his goal was to have one of every car ever made. >> a maverick driven to leave a mark... >> he went to a wrecking-yard auction, bought the whole wrecking yard. >> his family promises to carry out his grand plan. >> i think there was a feeling of dread, relief, excitement, and enthusiasm. >> i love it. feel the hair blowing, the top down. >> but can they fulfill the patriarch's dying wish? >> none of us wanted to be the ones who said we split all the stuff up. you don't want that car oil on your hands. [ woman vocalizing, theme music plays ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

[ country-rock music plays ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm driving outside tacoma, washington, on my way to meet the heirs of a man who started with nothing, built an empire, left his heirs enormous wealth, but also an overwhelming task. >> i'm doug lemay. my father, harold lemay, passed away in 2000 at the age of 81 and left us with a world-record collection that has become a full-time job. >> doug has invited me to the family house, where his father lived for more than two decades and where he now lives and works. hey, doug. >> hi, jamie. glad you could come. >> i'm so happy to be here, but i can't figure one thing out. >> what's that? >> is this a house or a garage? >> well, it's a 5-bedroom house with a 300-car garage. >> 300 cars? >> yeah. >> good thing i have the whole day today. [ mid-tempo music plays ] as doug shows me around, it's

easy to see this isn't just a home, but a reflection of his father's passion for the automobile. i mean, doug, i got to be honest. i've been to car shows that haven't had this many cars. >> dad did it for a long time. >> everywhere you look, there's a collector car. what's your dream ride? a 1930 cadillac 452 convertible? a 1922 austro-daimler? 1961 metropolitan? it's probably here -- somewhere. there are even rooms completely filled with the same model or manufacturer. these are all packards? >> this whole row is packards, yes. >> oh, my god. there's so many of them. am i allowed to touch? >> yeah, have a seat if you'd like. >> oh, my gosh. you don't have to ask me twice. oh, my goodness. look at the steering wheel. i think it has my name written all over. so many do. [ jazz music plays ] harold lemay's fascination with cars started even before he

could reach the pedals. nancy lemay is harold's widow. >> his mother said, from the time he was born, he loved the car. he loved anything with wheels. >> harold is born in 1919 to marie lemay, a single mother struggling to make a living and care for three young children. when harold is just three, marie feels she has no choice but to place harold in the custody of friends who can better take care of him. when the couple comes to pick up harold, they're driving a 1914 baby grand chevy. >> harold was a little apprehensive. he had not met these people before. >> he's only three. >> and he's only three. and as he described, this portly man behind the wheel said, "harold, you need to sit on my lap, and you can drive the car home." >> little harold puts his hands on the wheel of that chevy and is instantly calm, sealing a lifelong love affair with the automobile.

after driving a truck in world war ii, harold returns home and builds up a garbage and scrap-collecting business. it may not be glamorous, but trash proves very profitable. how successful was his business? >> very successful. >> lemay enterprises eventually grows to become the 10th largest private trash-removal company in america, with annual revenues topping $100 million. in 1963, harold marries nancy. a few years later, he has another life-changing moment. >> a friend of his was in the model t club. he thought that that would be just the thing for him to get into. [ up-tempo music plays ] >> once he joins the club, a light bulb goes off -- harold wants to start collecting classic cars. he begins with american models, mostly chevys and fords, everyday cars and trucks. how did he find these cars? >> well, he would find most of them himself.

>> by the 1970s, harold's hobby really revs up, and, as his grandson eric says, so does his wish list and search grid. >> it didn't matter where in the country the car was. he'd say, "you want to go for a drive?" and the next thing you know, you're crossing from oregon into california. >> as his passion grows, harold starts buying nearly any car he comes across. >> grandpa never called himself a car collector. he was a car saver. he saved cars. >> harold couldn't stand to see a car crushed. would just break harold's heart. >> he went to a wrecking-yard auction in idaho, bought the whole wrecking yard. [ bluegrass music plays ] >> by the mid 1990s, harold's collection of cars totals into the thousands. >> he just kept going. he never stopped. >> and you never said to him, "honey, enough already -- we could use that money for a vacation"? >> no, but whenever we did go on vacation, there was always a car somewhere in the route.

>> as harold's fleet expands, he runs out of room in his 300-car garage, so he snatches up over 50 properties to stockpile his collection. >> he'd buy houses so that he could use the garage, you know, and then he'd rent the house and not the garage. >> he even buys this 87-acre former catholic boarding school called marymount. we'll circle back here later. how many conversations did you have with harold about what should happen to the collection when he passed? >> he never though about passing at all. this was not on his agenda. >> but the question is on his heirs' agenda. they're thinking about the huge challenge rumbling toward them once harold's gone. >> you've got to decide, at some point while you're alive, what are you gonna do with the stuff, and that's a very confrontational thing. and you know it's kind of a burden on everybody else, and you got to have a plan.

>> up next, harold makes that plan -- plus the one car he really wants but never gets. >> and now our "strange inheritance" quiz question. what was the first official white house car? was it an 1899 packard for mckinley, a 1909 white steamer for taft, a 1919 pierce-arrow for wilson, or a 1929 cadillac for hoover? the answer when we return.

♪music ♪yea, you can be the greatest ♪you can be the best ♪you can be the king kong ♪bangin on your chest ♪you can beat the world you can beat the war♪ ♪you can talk to god while bangin on his door♪ ♪you can throw your hands up you can beat the clock♪ ♪you can move a mountain you can break rocks♪ ♪you can be a master don't wait for luck♪ ♪dedicate yourself and you can find yourself♪ ♪standin in the hall of fame ♪yea ♪and the world's gonna know your name, yea♪ ♪and you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame♪ ♪you can be a champion ♪be a champion ♪in the walls of the hall of fame♪ ♪be students, be teachers be politicians, be preachers♪ ♪yea, yea ♪be believers, be leaders, be astronauts, be champions♪ ♪standin in the hall of fame

>> so, what was the first official white house car? it's "b," the 1909 white steamer. that year, congress passed legislation on behalf of william howard taft for official white house automobiles. [ rockabilly music plays ] >> for nearly four decades, businessman harold lemay amasses a collection of classic cars in tacoma, washington, that includes at least 3,000 vehicles. even he doesn't know the exact number. but there is one car he misses out on, says his wife nancy. >> he always wished he'd gotten a tucker. >> preston tucker was an american inventor and entrepreneur who designed the tucker sedan in 1948, conceived as the car of the future. >> it was so ahead of its time. it's so sleek. it has awesome lines. >> but sales were doomed after tucker was investigated for

stock fraud, and only 51 cars were made before his chicago company folded. with or without a tucker, lemay's vintage car collection is named world's largest in the 1998 "guinness book of world records." it includes true classics such as a 1910 roadster, 1930 duesenberg, and 1936 auburn. harold, now in his late 70s, starts to worry about what will become of his beloved autos when he's gone. charlie maxwell was friends with harold for over 30 years. what did harold want to happen with the collection? >> well, he really wanted to see his collection preserved. he felt really, really bad when we would go to car auctions and he would see somebody's life collection being dispersed to the four corners of the world. >> easy for harold to feel that way. it isn't he, but his heirs, including son doug and grandson

eric, who will have the enormous burden of housing and maintaining all these cars. did he think about what he had amassed and what his family would face as he got older? >> yeah, he had made the decision -- him and my grandmother -- that they were going to create a museum. >> that's right -- a museum just for harold's cars. the family starts by requesting land from the city of tacoma, but before officials will award the property, they ask harold for an initial donation of at least 300 cars to get the project going. 10% of the collection. was that hard for him? >> i think it almost killed him. [ guffaws ] he had this document that he had to put his signature on, saying that he wasn't going to own this stuff at some point. and i can remember his hands shaking, and he kind of took a deep breath, and he signed it, and he handed me the piece of paper, and then he stormed off back towards home. [ dramatic music plays ] >> on november 4, 2000, after a

massive heart attack, harold dies at the age of 81. his heirs inherit his grand car collection and even grander dream of a museum to house it. >> i think there was a feeling of dread, relief, excitement, and enthusiasm. >> two questions arise. how many cars are there, and what are they worth? the family calls in larry batton, owner of the auto appraisal group in charlottesville, virginia. >> it was a massive operation. the cars were located in 53 different locations. his filing system was a 32-gallon green trash bag 'cause he never had any intention of selling or marketing a vehicle. we worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. >> over the six-month appraisal, the team uncovers countless classic cars only harold knew he had. >> we would open a door that

hadn't been opened in decades. it would be full of cars that had been their for years, covered with cottonwood flower like snow on the inside of a building. and there were bumblebee fords and convertibles, pierce-arrows, and cars that were so unique. >> in all, larry and his team locate, number, and value 2,973 cars, not including the countless rusted, half-wrecked hulks. >> i believe his goal was to have one of every car ever made. >> larry's not allowed to say what the whole collection is worth, but independent estimates peg it at $100 million at the time of harold's death. [ suspenseful music plays ] with the inventory complete, the family tries to realize harold's dream of a car museum, but starts hitting some roadblocks. >> creating a museum, it's like watching sausage get made. [ chuckles ] it's really ugly and hard.

>> and they're not the only ones with car trouble. oh, come on. get me a car that works. that's next. >> here's another quiz question. which classic american sports car came first? is it the chevy corvette, ford thunderbird, or dodge charger? the answer when we return. [ bird caws ] when you think of miami you think of,you know,rich,glamour but 5 miles away from the beach there's people who have

never seen a beach. i was confused why somebody was in this situation especially in america. ♪music:oooh,oooh,oooh so when i started joshua's heart foundation it was a key thing to be able to engage youth in the foundation. to help them participate. ♪music:oooh,oooh,oooh i think passing on the torch and lighting a new flame in another person to do good is probably the point of the bigger missions i have. ♪music:aha,aha,aha so we are each making a bigger difference. ♪music:oooh,oooh,oooh that's it! just giving back and producing love for everybody.

[ bird caws ] >> so, which classic american sports car came first? it's "a," the chevy corvette. from its introduction in 1953, chevy has produced over 1.5 million off them. [ up-tempo music plays ] >> in the early 2000s, harold lemay's family is struggling to honor his dying wish -- the creation of a museum

where his entire 3,000-plus car collection can be on public display. one that will be featured -- the black beauty that sparked harold's classic car obsession -- henry ford's model t. i meet with harold's grandson eric and his friend mike for a driving lesson. step one -- hand-crank the car to start it. i don't know. what do you think? >> i think you're up for it. >> you do? >> all right. let's see if you can do it. >> give it a good crank. >> oh! not quite. >> [ grunts ] aah! ouch. [ laughs ] wait. is this a trick? [ grunts ] oh, come on. get me a car that works. [ engine starts ] >> there it is! >> hey! >> all right. >> there you go. >> right on. the model t is considered the first affordable automobile, but it's not particularly easy to drive. it has three pedals, but the

brake is on the right. what's it doing there? you did clear the streets today? >> [ chuckles ] and the sidewalks. >> as we scoot around, it's easy to see why harold fell in love with this classic. i love it. feel the hair blowing, the top down. there's a big tree. >> there's a tree back there. >> big tree. brake, brake, brake, brake. okay, brake. ooh! that's forward. wait. brake, brake. oh, yeah. that thing on the right. throttle up. >> yep. [ engine turns off ] >> oh, my god. [ applause ] perfect. not a scratch. but a collision is in store for the lemay family as it tries to get its museum into drive. >> it needed a building, it needed fundraising -- all the next steps. >> the family donates 600 cars to the project and $15 million, too, but it's not enough. so they hire a fundraiser who tells them they have to court corporate sponsors for more big

bucks. that will mean, the lemays are told, they will have to sacrifice their control and vision of the museum. the family agrees, but soon find themselves just 2 on a board of around 30. on the one hand, you want to see the legacy and the stories of those cars preserved. on the other hand, you really can't control once it's in a museum's hand. >> exactly. >> the museum adds cars from other collections to attract national attention. then fundraising runs tight. the board tells the family they don't have the budget to preserve all of harold's cars, and many of the ones he donated they say are redundant. they decide on a step that harold lemay would've never ever considered -- sell some of his cars. if you could've controlled that situation, would you have asked them to sell other cars? >> i don't sell many cars. >> in fact, harold had only sold three collector cars in his

lifetime. family members are dismayed. >> none of us wanted to be the ones who said we split all the stuff up. you don't want that car oil on your hands. >> if you really didn't want them, why'd you ask for them? because it made me feel like that's why the reason they wanted them was to sell them. >> the museum auctions off 145 of harold's donated autos. their estimated value -- well into the millions. his 1940 packard convertible victoria sells for 113k, while his 1936 rolls-royce goes for more than 65 grand. the funds do their part to help the museum keep going, but when the sleek-looking building finally opens in 2012, its name's been changed from the harold e. lemay museum to lemay-america's car museum. that reflects the museum's shift in focus from just harold lemay

to cars from other donors, as well. that's discouraging to harold's heirs because his wish was for a museum devoted just to his world-record collection. but the family believes there's still a chance to keep his vision alive. eric, what is this place? would you believe a second museum just minutes down the road from the first? that's next. my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people... ...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images. and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch! build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required. gocentral from godaddy.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> harold lemay's family continues to face the dilemma of how to honor his legacy. a chunk of harold's huge car collection has been sold off, and a museum in tacoma, washington, originally meant to be solely devoted to harold, now has a different mission. [ mid-tempo music plays ] then a solution -- the family decides to refit that school property that harold purchased in the mid 1990s. eric, what is this place?

>> this is the other part of the equation that was our family learning how to save the world's largest car collection. this is marymount. it's an event center, a museum, and -- >> your museum? >> yeah. >> why two? >> we wanted another museum that was more about the lemay family and our tastes in collecting. we may be only six miles apart, but we're very different culturally from each other. >> the lemay family considers marymount the down-to-earth little brother of the sleek, modern tacoma museum. it's the "dirty fingernails" version that celebrates harold's cars and nobody else's. [ rockabilly music plays ] the museum depends on the hard work of harold loyalists. everyone here, from the tour guides to car repairmen, is a volunteer. so, not to take off on a car color, but are you in the black or in the red? >> at some point -- and it's not that far away -- this will be a

self-sustaining business. it looks really like it's gonna be healthy for a long, long time. [ folk music plays ] >> before i leave, there's one last car eric tells me i need to see. >> it's a 1948 tucker. >> tucker? wait a minute. harold wanted a tucker. i thought he never got a tucker? >> he did not buy this. my grandmother bought it after he died. >> really? >> yes, we knew that he wanted one, and so group of our family went to an auction, and grandma bought the tucker that he couldn't have before he passed away. >> unbelievable. so he left, but you knew it was that important to have. >> we knew it was that important. >> what would harold say? >> he'd love it. i think, if grandpa were to look at how hard we've tried to do what he was hoping we'd do, i think he'd be really proud of it. and it took a whole community, it took a lot of volunteers, it took a family that never got off

track with each other. that's his legacy basically. [ mid-tempo music plays ] >> one last harold lemay story. back in the '80s, at a garbage convention in chicago, he caught wind of a car for sale -- a 1914 baby grand chevy, the same model he first tooled around in as a three-year-old that day he said goodbye to his mom. well, harold bought it on the spot, and he loaded it into the back of this fancy garbage truck that he purchased at that trade show. he and nancy hauled that old chevy all the way back here to tacoma. and there it sits to this day. he never let it go. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember, you can't take it with you. do you have a "strange inheritance" story

you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. >> it's one of the largest armies of its kind. >> would you say it was a hobby? or was he obsessed? >> i think that he was obsessed. >> soldiers of fortune -- and a fortune in soldiers. >> do you have any idea what it's worth? >> yes, we know what it's worth. >> can i know what it's worth? >> the man who raised this army was on a mission... >> he was a true historian. he wanted to bring these battles to life. >> but is it a bridge too far for his heirs? >> he left you with a huge responsibility, didn't he? >> it's just too difficult. >> it's kind of interesting that toy soldiers would get their own trust. >> i don't have my own trust, but they got theirs. [ theme music plays ]

♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm in new york on the south fork of long island on my way to the beach community of southampton. a viewer wrote to me about her father, whose childhood hobby became his lifelong obsession. he wanted to share his strange collection with the world after he died. his heirs want to honor his wishes, but is the world even interested? ♪ >> my name is linda munn. in 2011, my father, my father, orson, passed away, leaving the family one of the largest collections of its kind, along with the monumental challenge of carrying on his legacy. >> linda has invited me to her parents' country home. hi, linda. i'm jamie. >> jamie, it is such a pleasure to meet you. >> so great of you to invite me here. you wrote me. you said you had something really strange. >> i have something very special

to show you. >> all right. i'm ready. shall we go in? >> come on in. >> yeah. in here? >> yeah, just walk straight ahead. >> what? linda takes me into her dad's war room... >> it's amazing. >> ...where orson spent countless hours over the years on his unique hobby. the room is filled from floor to ceiling with nothing but toy soldiers. thousands strong, the tiny troops stand frozen in time, their miniature faces stoic with expressions of war. this is a lifetime of work, linda. amazing. there's the charge of the light brigade... the battle of cambrai... napoleon's defeat at waterloo... clashes from the boer war all the way up through world war ii. stare at them long enough, and you can imagine them coming to life.

[ gunfire, men yelling ] toy soldiers become a passion for orson munn when he moves from manhattan to long island as a little boy, says his widow, pat. >> he came out here because he has ill health. the doctors felt that he should be in the country. >> orson's chronic ear ailment often keeps him confined in his room. >> that's when he started playing with soldiers on a tray in his bed. >> were they substitutes for friends? >> i think that they were. >> orson iii says his dad kept building his armies through prep school, princeton, and law school. then orson decides, rather than collecting troops, he'll become one. >> he was in the navy during the second world war, and he actually lied to get in because he was stone deaf in one ear. but he felt it was his obligation. >> after the war, orson returns home, marries pat, starts a family, and launches his career.

>> father said, whatever you do, don't go on wall street, but he did anyway, and he was very, very successful. >> the family lives in new york city but spends weekends here in southampton. it's around this time that orson's toy-soldier recruitment begins to ramp up. >> he bought and traded them constantly. >> we had correspondence -- i say "we" -- it's not we -- he -- from all over the world. >> he would go to europe. he'd stop by a soldier store in london that was his favorite, and he would buy them. >> we stayed in a wonderful little hotel in vienna, and naturally, the back door of the hotel was a soldier shop. >> i think he picked it on purpose. >> [ laughs ] on purpose. >> just as he did when he was a boy, orson plays with his soldiers, painstakingly re-creating the world's most famous battles. >> i think that he could have easily have been a general. he knew more about military

history than anyone i ever met. >> orson hand-paints many of the miniature figures himself, spending hours on end adding even more historical detail to his military dioramas. >> he would come home, read his stack of analyst papers, and then go into his painting room. >> every single braid on the uniform, every button is clearly detailed for you. >> right down to the color of the eyeballs of napoleon. >> it's painstaking work. it's so accurate you can see the pain on the faces of some of the soldiers on their way to the ground. it's just incredible to me. >> he was a true historian -- he wanted to bring these battles to life. >> with sand on some shelves and artificial snow on others, no detail is too small for his handcrafted battle scenes. >> would you say it was a hobby? or was he obsessed? >> i think that he was...

obsessed. >> he even makes home videos of his collection. >> we have the battle of bastogne. the snow is talcum powder and they'd been fighting it out. the 101st airborne was not going to surrender. >> over the years, the battle scenes grow to include the charging scottish highlanders, the british fighting the zulus, and much more. >> the allies fighting the germans outside of berlin, the french foreign legion fighting the english in the desert. i mean, ere are soldiers that >> ors's is eventuly oned. of -- not the -- rgest toy soldr collectionn the country, with over 10,000 figurines. the fate of his beloved troops once he's gone.

he has the will, but can his heirs find the way? >> he left you with a huge responsibility, didn't he? >> it's just too difficult. >> coming up...rolling the dice with their strange and valuable inheritance. >> i'm busting your morale by killing all your flag holders. >> and i'm a guest in your home. >> you're the enemy. >> i do need to blow something up on your side. that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. in 1645, britain adopted its famous redcoat military uniform. what led to the color choice? is it that red uniforms did not show bloodstains? red dye was cheap? or that red made regiments appear larger? the answer when we return. c pla]

>> so... it's b -- the red dye was cheap. there is no basis for the popular myth that red was favored to hide bloodstains. ♪ >> orson munn spent over 80 years collecting more than 10,000 toy soldiers, miniature figures he uses to meticulously re-create some of history's famous battles. >> the next group of figures that i have -- i painted them all myself. >> and as orson reaches his 80s,

the toy-soldier general hatches a plan to create a permanent base for his troops. >> what he would have liked more than anything is a museum in southampton. he gave 19 years of his life as a village trustee here. >> and his collection is well known in toy-soldier circles. but nobody in town seems interested in erecting a museum to display all this. but in the fall of 2010, a curator from several states away does come knocking. a museum did approach your father, but it wasn't in southampton. >> correct. >> orson receives a visit from the frazier history museum in louisville, kentucky, which offers to take the entire collection and put it on display. orson isn't ready to give up his men, but he does agree to a lesser donation -- 2,600 so-called flats -- two-dimensional soldiers he has in formation at his manhattan

apartment. so, why didn't dad turn over the collection to a museum that showed such enthusiasm? >> because we still had hope that we were gonna be able to get a building here in southampton. >> so, in august 2011, when orson passes away at the age of 86, his family inherits not only his toy soldiers, but the tall order of creating a museum to house them. did he specify in his will what he hoped the family would do with the soldiers that meant so much to him? >> what we did is we actually put them in a trust so they could be given away tax free to a museum. >> it's kind of interesting that toy soldiers would get their own trust. >> [ laughs ] yeah. exactly. right. i don't have my own trust, but they got theirs. >> these figures were, in their time, 50 cents for a cavalryman. these figures now sell at $250

and infantry at $100. >> with that kind of appreciation, the 10,000 soldiers orson left behind may be worth a small fortune. >> after all, many are not so much toys as tiny sculptures, delicately handcrafted by talented artists. in 1893, an englishman named william britain revolutionized the production of toy soldiers through the method of hollow casting. after the military men are shaped, they are sent to sculptors and painters. >> build up on the metal base buttons, lapels, epaulets, which were then painted to the exact historical regiment. so, extreme detail. >> tara finley is an antique-toy specialist. the munns call her in to tell them what their strange inheritance is worth. >> i walked into the room on a cold december day, and here

before me was an army of thousands, displayed in very realistic dioramas. it was truly amazing. >> and a daunting task to photograph and appraise every last figure. >> there were 37 dioramas and 59 groupings of lead soldiers. it took a good five days. >> in addition to the soldiers orson painted himself, tara identifies thousands of highly sought-after classics, such as these by premier toy-soldier artist roger berdou, pegged at $500 apiece. so all those little soldiers add up to some big-time value. do you have any idea what it's worth? >> yes, we know what it's worth. >> can i know what it's worth? >> if it were auctioned off in

pieces, it's probably worth about $300,000 or $400,000. >> $400,000. but only if they break up the collection and sell it off to hundreds of younger orsons just starting off the hobby, hunting down their own missing pieces, constructing their own dioramas, fighting their own wars. that's the catch. why didn't he sell it during his lifetime? >> i think that if something gives you that much joy, the last thing that ever crossed his mind would be to sell it. >> but given the high appraisal, surely it crosses his heirs' minds, right? are you absolutely opposed to separating this collection and selling it? that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. napoleon's infamous defeat during his 1812 invasion of russia was due in part to what stroke of bad luck?

the answer when we return.

[ theme music plays ] >> so... it's c -- lice. a raging epidemic of typhus -- spread by lice -- infected the french army. more than 100,000 of napoleon's troops die from the disease. ♪ >> the bottom shelf here, every figure is different, and it was very difficult to get this set. >> orson munn spent his entire life building a toy army of more than 10,000 soldiers. >> i've shown a zulu warrior

wearing a red coat. >> his collection may be worth $400,000, but that never stops him from toying around with what would become their strange inheritance, say his kids, linda and orson iii. >> we used to take the soldiers out and set them up like a real war game. >> a thousand lead soldiers would be lined up on one side against a thousand lead soldiers on the other side. >> i was the only one that ever beat him in a battle. i surprised him with bringing up a cannon to the top of a church and blowing down the main street where he was approaching. >> you're scaring me now. >> [ laughs ] okay, these guys are going to shoot. both barrels. >> today, linda's challenged me to combat on the miniature war gaming battlefield. who's this guy? >> that's your general. and you got another general here. >> we use dice to determine how many steps the soldiers may take... >> [ laughs ] >> i'm supposed to measure.

...and rulers to measure strides. got it. >> i'm busting your morale by killing all your flag holders. >> and i'm a guest in your home. >> [ laughs ] you're the enemy, not a guest. >> we were getting along so swimmingly. i do need to blow something up on your side. no guts, no glory. >> ready, aim, fire! boom! >> oh, my flags. >> sorry. >> let's get double something. all right! then we're gonna take the other three and shoot... >> in the end, though, i'm no match for the daughter of a mini commander in chief. i can't watch. >> [ laughs ] >> linda's father, orson, dreamed of a museum here in southampton, long island, for his troops. it's now up to his heirs to make it real. did he leave funds behind for you to accomplish that? or has that been left to your family's responsibility?

>> it's actually been left to the family to figure out how to do that. >> linda is dismayed to learn how much it will take to open and maintain a permanent display locally -- $10 million. did you try to raise any money? >> oh, yeah, we did. >> how much did you raise, do you think? >> we raised about $5,000 or $6,000. >> this is a pretty moneyed town. if you can't raise the interest and the money in southampton, where can you? >> i think it's not gonna happen, which is a shame. >> so what about donating the collection to an existing museum here in town? the family tries that, too, but none is interested in displaying 10,000 antique toys. have you gotten a no at every turn? >> pretty much. >> is that upsetting? >> it was and is very upsetting. >> so, it seems like southampton has spoken. >> it does seem that way, doesn't it? >> are you at a crossroads right now that maybe nobody is as interested in the collection

as your family is? will orson's heirs complete their mission? that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail, or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people... ...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images. and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch! build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required. gocentral from godaddy.

[ theme music plays ] >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> the heirs of orson munn can't seem to fulfill his dying wish, a permanent local home for his massive toy-soldier collection. >> but some of orson's troops do receive their marching orders. remember those 2,600 flats orson donated to that museum in louisville, kentucky? the frazier uses these men to carefully re-create the battle of borodino -- the bloodiest clash during napoleon's failed invasion of russia in 1812. >> they assembled a team of like-minded individuals to himself, and they created this beautiful diorama. >> the team spends months making

sure every soldier is in place, and in november 2012, the display debuts to the public. >> we went out for the opening, and we couldn't believe it. >> you have the russian soldiers on horseback, you have wounded french that are trying to retreat off the battlefield. i mean, the wolves are attacking wounded soldiers. even showing that kind of level of detail. >> the family is impressed. in fact, they return to southampton even more resolved to find a nearby museum to house their father's collection. >> until i hear from a museum in this southampton village, we're probably not gonna make any moves quickly to disseminate the collection outside of southampton. >> i get it, but i have to say, when i think of the munns' strange inheritance story, from the sickly child enthralled with his first toy soldiers to the young man hooked on a collecting to the wealthy

money manager's escape into his war room, would it really be so tragic to split all this up piece by piece? i'd let history go ahead and repeat itself. a present once again inspires a young boy. another middle-aged guy indulges his hobby. and a lifelong collector finally gets the piece that completes his world war i diorama. there's a collector out there who has the entire setup except that one toy soldier they're missing. why not split it up and help a ton of other toy-soldier collectors get as much pleasure as your dad did? >> i believe that it would be in the best hands kept as a collection. you can read about a battle, but when you actually see it played out, you can see in a much more clear way what happened at that battle. when you see it, you have that

awed feeling, and it's the mass of them that is awesome. >> what happens if it doesn't work out at all? what happens if no museum is interested? would your dad be looking down on you and your sister and say, "i'm disappointed"? >> i don't think so. i think that he would be very pleased. we certainly have tried. and had it been so easy, i'm sure he could have done it. >> so, for now, the soldiers remain frozen in time, and the battle for orson munn's legacy at a stalemate. we mentioned orson painted most soldiers himself, but actually got some help from his granddaughter caroline. every tuesday afternoon during the school year, they would paint until bedtime. caroline remembers being as sloppy as a little girl can be with a brush, yet somehow, the next morning, every soldier looked impeccable. go figure.

i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember, you can't take it with you. [ airplane engine buzzing ] ♪ >> he leads the most famous charge in american history. >> i am standing right on the site of pickett's charge. >> it cost him hundreds of men, but it made him immortal. >> he leaves his descendants with a suitcase full of heirlooms. >> you want to take a look? >> i really would. >> then a fast-talking con man comes to town... >> he dressed well, he was very glib of tongue. >> ...forcing the general's heir into battle over his strange inheritance. >> what was your reaction? >> i was pissed. it began to dawn on me that i had been really truly ripped off. [ woman vocalizing, theme music plays ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] [ folk music plays ]