Steve McQueen's widow putting three of his motorcycles, other items, up for auction

 

Steve McQueen fans get set for the great sell-off

By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
The Times      May 09, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2171391,00.html

TWENTY-FIVE years after his death, Steve McQueen, the Hollywood actor
who made classic films such as The Great Escape and Bullitt, remains a
screen legend and the epitome of cool with a following of millions of
fans worldwide.

The announcement yesterday that hundreds of his personal effects are
to be sold this autumn will spark feverish bidding by collectors. The
items have never been exhibited, let alone offered for sale, before.

They include three of his motorcycles, recalling one of the most
exciting sequences in cinematic history — the scenes in The Great
Escape where he made his bid for freedom from a prisoner-of-war camp
on a motorcycle, attempting to leap over the barbed wire barrier
between Germany and Switzerland. He performed the stunts himself.

The film made his name. McQueen, who exuded a mesmerising screen
magnetism, went on to become the industry’s highest-paid actor.

He died of lung disease in 1980, at the age of 50, shortly after
marrying his third wife, a model who was half his age.

Barbara McQueen Bruns-vold is now selling his personal belongings
through Bonhams & Butterfields in Los Angeles on November 11. She said
yesterday: “For over 25 years I have held on to the many items that
Steve collected. I know there is a public who would love to own a
piece of his collection.”

There are reminders among the items of McQueen’s painful childhood. An
abandoned child and an inmate of reform school, he never forgave his
mother, even when they were reunited in his teens. The auction will
include a truck bearing the licence plate number MCQ3188, his number
during the time he spent at a reform school in Chino, California.
Other items reflect his love of toys.

He drifted as a sailor and lumberjack, among various odd jobs, before
joining the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and studying acting.

The extensive motoring memorabilia include enamel advertising signs,
petrol pumps and sale brochures — many for Indian motorcycles, a
marque that McQueen adored.

UNDER THE HAMMER

# McQueen’s Indian Power Plus motorcycle, a 1920s racer

# A pair of leather chaps and 14 guns including a Winchester rifle
used in Tom Horn, his penultimate film

# Tin-plate children’s toys, including a motorcycle — his personal
collection used in The Hunter, his last film

# Ornate 1920s petrol pump, which sat in his living room

# A Wurlitzer jukebox

# Belstaff jacket, baseball caps and padded motorcycle sweatshirts,
and his Persol foldaway tinted-blue sunglasses — made famous in The
Thomas Crown Affair

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exciting sequences in cinematic history - the scenes in The Great
Escape where he made his bid for freedom from a prisoner-of-war camp
on a motorcycle, attempting to leap over the barbed wire barrier
between Germany and Switzerland. He performed the stunts himself.





 No, he didn't......

 

He did some of them, but the insurance company for the studios forbade
him from doing the big ones.

Bike Guy Joe wrote:


PC Paul
89 PC800
77 R100RS

Trip pics at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/paul1cart/my_photos

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to
society" - Theodore Roosevelt

 


Paul Elliot wrote:

 He didn't do the "big one" where the bike jumps the fence though.....

 

Uh..isn't that more or less what I said?

Bike Guy Joe wrote:

PC Paul
89 PC800
77 R100RS

Trip pics at: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/paul1cart/my_photos

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to
society" - Theodore Roosevelt