famous customers that I have had the privilege to sell to.

[theantiquesman]

Vince Dooley the famous football coach of the Georgia Bulldogs.( that is the American type football- the hand ball way )

1964-1988

In the 1980, 1981 and 1982 seasons the Bulldogs lost none of their games with regular attendances of over 80,000 spectators Vince Dooley became the most famous Coach in the USA

Hall of fame and Coach of the year.

It was about 1979-1980 that Vince and Barbara, his wife first came into my shop.

She was a famous interior designer and became a very good customer.

On one occasion after their return from their first ever two week trip spent in England. Barbara told me that she loved England but her husband after the first week started sulking and disliking and finding fault in the place. I asked the reason. She said because he was not allowed to stop at the motorway service areas or to use the toilet or stop for a bite to eat.

I said who said that he was not allowed to stop.

She said " there was signs up at the enterence that stated NO FOOTBALL COACHES ALLOWED"

Vince had asked why " NO FOOTBALL COACHES ALLOWED " He had been told.

Football coaches are all rowdy and low life people.

Obviously he had taken the meanig of "COACH" wrongly.......... IT'S A BUS VINCE. not a person.

She laughed.

they where lovely people.

[DixieRoy]

Love the "coach" story, as I know and understand NFL stuff.

[theantiquesman]

Dixie
This was the time of Herschel Walker.


Walker began his professional football career with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League (USFL)

WHAT A MISTAKE



Wayne Rooney story reminds me of Herschel Walker

Herschal joined the wrong League as Wayne joined the wrong team.

Herschel Junior Walker (born March 3, 1962) is a former American college and professional football player and a mixed martial artist. He played college football for the University of Georgia, was a three-time All-American, and won the 1982 Heisman Trophy.

Walker played running back for the University of Georgia, where he was a 3-time All-American and winner of the 1982 Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award. He is the only player in NCAA history to finish in the top 3 in Heisman voting every season he played football. He is also the only player in the NCAA to be in the top 10 in rushing yards and have only played 3 years. During his freshman season in 1980, Walker set the NCAA freshman rushing record and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting.
He played a major role in helping Georgia go undefeated that year and win the National Championship with a victory over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. He would go on to win the Heisman in his junior year. In 1999, Walker was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and is considered one of the greatest players in college football history.

[theantiquesman]

I remember the day when quite a well built man came into my shop. His mannerisms where of some one who you would not mess with, eventhough he was not tall he obviously looked a hard man.

In conversation I asked him where he was from and what brought him to my shop. He said he was down here to fight. I said " I HOPE NOT ME " he laughed. I asked him what type of fighting he did and he told me he was a wrestler. My next question was. Are you any good. He said he was the World Champion. I looked at him in the eyes and my Liverpool humor had now taken over. Putting my hand on his bisept I said "You do not look all that tough to me"

His face changed and he said I was the first person ever to say that to him and as I was English he would let me off.

I asked him his name he said he was one of the Anderson Family Ole Anderson.His real name was (Al Rogowski)





over the next 15 minutes he took a lot of interest in a 1930's baseball pin ball machine that I had for sale which he purchased. He became a good customer and a sort of friend and from then on I got very interested in wrestling. He brought some of his mates in one day to see me.







Around 1991, Anderson became a referee, Anderson then went on to take control of WCW.


Alan Robert Rogowski (born September 22, 1942), better known by his ring name of Ole Anderson, is now retired professional wrestler and a promoter. He held numerous NWA World Tag Team Championships with Gene Anderson, His ring name is a play on the poisonous plant, oleander.

The Anderson family is a group of professional wrestlers, a fictitious extended family largely consisting of brothers and cousins. It started in the Minnesota area in the late 1960s with a tag team called The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, consisting of "brothers" Lars Anderson and Gene Anderson (the only actual 'Anderson' of the original group).
Later versions of the Crew included "brother" Ole Anderson and "cousin" Arn Anderson in various combinations with the original two. In total, the four original Andersons won over 11 different tag team championships together across the country. Several modern tag teams have taken names similar to the Minnesota Wrecking Crew as an homage to the group.
In the 1980s, Ole and Arn allied themselves with Ric Flair, a Minnesota native who they claimed was another cousin of the family, and formed the famous wrestling stable The Four Horsemen. The stable was a major influence on professional wrestling in North America, creating the blueprint for future groups such as the New World Order, Triple Threat, and Evolution.
Ole, Gene and Arn ran tryout camps for prospective wrestlers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, "stretching" several future stars, including Al Snow.
Other wrestlers claiming the Anderson heritage popped up on the independent circuit in the 1990s. These include Pat Anderson, Rocky Anderson, Karl Anderson and C.W. Anderson, who has gone on to moderate fame. Gene Anderson had a son, Brad, who began wrestling in 1988. Ole Anderson had a son who wrestles under the name Bryant Anderson.

I also believe he has written a book called Inside Out: how corporate America destroyed professional wrestling.

[theantiquesman]

In the 1970's I had the pleasure of selling to someone who was to become a mogul in the fashion industry.





at that time he bought from me, sporting goods, old cricket bats, polo sticks, sporting prints, rocking horses and of course leather suit cases.

I was in my shop in Atlanta when a man asked me can you get any more of theses, he was pointing to a leather suite case and the year was 1978. I replied how many..............1000 he replied.

I flew over to England to Mike Melody shop in Chester, (he is the fun guy who says it as it really is on the David Dickinson Show) were he appointed one of his employees, she got the job of finding as many leather cases as she could. Pay no more than £10 was the order, in those days £1-£3 was the normal price to pay.

Well that was the first meeting with a relationship that still carries on today the mans name was not Ralph Loren but Ralph Lipschitz.

"Did you always want to be a cowboy?" Oprah asks as she snoops around a Ralph Lauren hand-painted teepee stuff to the brim with all manner of Americana.

"I wanted to be everything, all at once. I wanted to be a baseball player, I wanted to be a basketball player, I wanted to be an actor, I wanted to be a dancer. And I think my whole life has been… actually, I wanted to be Batman!"

When Lauren's dreams of superhero stardom didn't come to fruition, it was on to plan B. "I used to hang up returns in a department store when I was 16 years old," he explains, "I went to my boss and said 'Look, I'd like to design theses ties because I think they could be new', and he said 'The world isn't ready for Ralph Lauren'. And I thought that was a compliment.'

'Then Bill came along and said 'Ralph, would you like to come with me?' and I said I would, I'd like to start my own division. I called it Polo and they gave me a draw in the Empire State building - not an office, but a draw. So I worked on the bottom of the draw and everyone in the office thought 'who's this little kid working out of a draw?'

So I took the samples - I made these wide ties - and delivered them myself in a bomber jacket and jeans and that's how it went."

So there you have it kids, if you dream of being an iconic multi-billionaire fashion mogul and having Oprah over for tea, you don't need to be a superhero, all you need is a good chest of drawers.

I have heard this story before.

The good chest of drawers refers to the hundreds I sold him in the early days to display his shirts. He always said take the shirts out of the packaging and then you will sell them. I was the one who created and supplied the pine look for him.

Ralph Lauren once said in my showroom in Atlanta "Fashion is not necessarily about labels. It’s not about brands. It’s about something else that comes from within you.”

He would have loved to be an antique dealer, he forgot to say that on the Oprah Show.

He would give me Shirts and ties and polo shirts as presents for antiques. Even my children would not miss out. My two daughters would go down to his warehouse in the Design Centre on Peachtree and they would pick out dresses for them selves all with labels NOT FOR RESALE.

Great bloke.

PHOTO TO FOLLOW

[briana5125]

great stories john

a question if i may...

do you think you would have been so succesfull in the antiques trade earning hugh contracts to supply antiques and such if you hadn't taken that step to america.?

none of my business ofcourse but that move into the american market must have set you up for life

[theantiquesman]

great stories john

a question if i may...

do you think you would have been so successful in the antiques trade earning Hugh contracts to supply antiques and such if you hadn't taken that step to America.?

none of my business of-course but that move into the American market must have set you up for life

the American part I look at as the completion of my apprenticeship in the antique trade.

Customers like Macy's department store, Ruby Tueasday restuarant chain and having my own auction house did set me up, but not for life.


I could give you some advice. set up in China and you will make millions

[theantiquesman]

This is the way I remember Johnny Cash

He loved carved furniture from the Victorian period.

He did not like the genuine 17th century Cromwellian oak look but he did love the look-alike.

He always said it looked newer and had less chunks out of it.

His wife June loved the French look and silver.

seven major pieces of antique furniture I sold them + lots of accent pieces ,




Singer-songwriter Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees has purchased Johnny and June Carter Cash's former home in the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tenn.

The 13,880-square-foot home was officially purchased by Balinda LLC, a Florida company wholly owned by Gibb and his wife, Linda. The couple plans to restore the home to its original condition.

"This place will always be the spiritual home for the Cashes," Gibb said in a written statement. "My wife, Linda, and I are determined to preserve it, to honor their memory. We fell in love with it. It's an incredible honor for us. We plan to use the home to write songs because of the musical inspiration."

The house on Old Hickory Lake served as the Cashes' home for 35 years. The primary residence throughout the couple's marriage, the house itself plays a major role in Walk the Line, the film biography starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. June Carter Cash died May 15, 2003, and Johnny Cash died Sept. 12, 2003.

The property, which includes a 4.6-acre lakefront lot, was placed on the market in June 2005 with an asking price of $2.9 million but reportedly sold for $2.3 million. The home was sold by Robert L. and Catherine C. Sullivan, the estate trustees, as part of the directives left by the Cashes.

When the property was listed, real estate agent Tommy Cash, the singer's brother, said it would be sold "as is" and would include seven pieces of antique furniture, I wonder if the 7 pieces of antique furniture are the same 7 pieces as I sold them including the couple's bed. Built in 1968, the house includes seven bedrooms, five full baths and an outdoor swimming pool.

The Bee Gees scored their first hit in the U.S. in 1967 with "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and followed it up with a series of pop favorites, including "To Love Somebody," "I Started a Joke" and "Massachusetts." The trio, which included Gibb's younger brothers Robin and Maurice, became even more popular in the '70s with disco-driven songs from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, including "Stayin' Alive."

Barry Gibb produced Kenny Rogers' 1983 album, Eyes That See in the Dark, that contained Rogers' duet with Dolly Parton on "Islands in the Stream," a song written by the Gibb brothers. The Bee Gees charted one country single, "Rest Your Love on Me," that peaked at No. 39 in 1978.

[theantiquesman]

Alex Murphy OBE




How many times have you been to Wembley.

Well this man has been 9 times, with 3 different clubs as a player and a manager.

Now that is some record.

I first spoke to Alex when he called me on the phone, he wanted to sell his Grandfather.

I was a bit shocked hearing that statement down the phone. I deal in peoples unwanted antiques but not unwanted family members I replied.

He laughed, GRANDFATHER CLOCK - LONG CASE CLOCK

I arranged to meet him in Wigan. It turned out that a friend of his and a friend of mine happened to be the same person. Brian our friend had just died. He was going to the funeral and so was I, so we arranged to meet in a quaint little pub just out side the town centre of Wigan, The Charles Dickens.
I knew the man I was going to meet was Alex Murphy, but did not know he was going to be the famous, Alex Murphy. So when I walked into the pub Alex called me over and I realized this small built man was the giant of Rugby League Football. THE Alex Murphy

We hit it off immediately, He is a great bloke, friendly, full of humor, kind and has a character of being a leader without being big headed. A very trusting man.

We attended the funeral together, said our prayers, passed our condolences to Brian's family and I bought Alex's clock off him.

We have met quite a few times, had lunch in the Vincent Hotel in Southport. Come to think of it, Alex if you are reading this. You owe me a lunch

Alex told me when he received the OBE from the Queen she said "have I seen you play". Alex answered "your Mother has seen me play many times." The Queen then replied "May be I will see you play one day". Alex was in his 60's at the time.

The Clock was made by a Wigan Clock maker.
Geo. Esplin of WIGAN
Mahogany case, swan neck pediment.
oak cross banding. great working condition just been restored and overhauled.
A great looking clock.


Alex J. Murphy OBE (born St. Helens, Lancashire, 22 April 1939) is an English former professional rugby league footballer and coach of the mid to late 20th century. Known as 'Murphy the Mouth' (or "Yapper" by some referees) and regarded as one of the greatest half backs in the history of the British game, he represented Great Britain in 27 Tests and his club career was played at three clubs, St. Helens, Leigh and Warrington. Murphy assumed a player-coach role of the last two clubs and expanded his coaching role toward the end of his playing career to include clubs such as Wigan, Salford and Huddersfield. He later returned to both Warrington and Leigh respectively as a football manager. He was the first player to captain three different clubs to victory in the Challenge Cup final.

[theantiquesman]

Charles Hanson from BBC Antique Road Trip fame purchasing a pair of cracked pots in my Portland Street shop. When we where discoursing the crack pots. I did comment that these where not the only crack pots in the shop.

If Crack Pots did not go to Market.

Crack Pots would not sell.




The reason for the cameras.... we were making an episode for the Antique Road Trip to be aired in September 2013

[theantiquesman]

Football story



CLASS OF '63

As you will know back in 1963 Everton FC won the Football League

It was the first time since the war that a Merseyside team had won anything other than Liverpool winning the 2nd Division championship.

The Everton Former Players Foundation is behind an exciting new project that they are convinced will be of massive interest to Evertonians of all ages. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 League Championship triumph, the EFPF is backing a play that will tell the story of that momentous season. The play will be staged over three days in mid-December at The Dome Theatre in Liverpool’s Central Hall.

Tony Kay, Billy Binghamm and DerekTemple will attend the play and sign autographs.

I attended on the Thursday night, The Opening Night. with what sounded like the whole of the 61,000 that attended back on the day Everton won the league with a 4-1 victory over Fulham. 50 years ago.

During the play the actors reenacted the time Tony Kay signed for a British record fee at Goodison Park. Sir John Moors ( Mr. John at the time) was bullied by the fans as they loved Brian Harris the player that Tony Kay was to replace. .......................

KAY OUT HARRIS IN

some of the placards that the fans carried read'

KAY OUT HARRIS IN

I for one can never remember this event.

back in in 1962 Tony Kay was instantly accepted as one of "US"
eventhough with the hard winter it was many week before he could play.

On the back row sat my two good friends Tony Kay and Billy Bingham.

What a night....... we all really enjoyed ourselves.

I took a great picture of Tony and his beautiful partner




and Billy with his son.



I also asked Tony to sign/ autograph my ticket.


He wrote. " Harris out - KAY IN " ..... Tony Kay.




Tony called into the shop on Friday and we went for a quick lunch.

The Fulham 4-1 victory and Roy Vernon's hat-trick came up in the conversation.
I mentioned to Tony that Everton Play Fulham tomorrow, "what do you think the score will be" I asked.
Tony said a WIN for Everton,
I replied "what about 4-1" Tony laughed and said "could be."

Well at 5-00pm on Saturday I text Tony

"EVERTON WIN 4-1

TONY'S TEXT REPLY is a cracking one liner.


" I SHOULD HAVE PUT A BET ON"

[theantiquesman]

Philip Serrell, auctioneer

from Antique Road Trip fame.

Philip visited my shop in Portland Street and purchase an Advertising coal cart from NCB, National Coal Board.

What nice man, very knowledgeable, We had a good chat and went a walk down the famous Lord Street and had an icecream. That what Southport is all about.

Antique shopping, teas in the Westminster Tea Rooms, walking and eating an icecream.

Why not visit, MY TOWN, look forward to seeing you.



http://www.southport.gb.com/southpor...o-52378488.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFqjGm6Yuho

[theantiquesman]

Jonathan Pratt of Antique Road Trip fame

Now Jonathan did get some bargains of me.

Great bloke, He has not been back.

[theantiquesman]

Now Charles Hanson has been back quit a few times.

Charles is into Lord Nelson stuff.

as you can see by the photograph.

He did have to ask his wife could he buy the Liverpool jug..

I was at one of his auctions in Derby when he was the auctioneer and sold a letter signed by Nelson himself brought £54,000.

It shocked everyone including Tim Wonnacott sitting on the front row.




The Antique Road Trip visited my shop 3 times last year.

and are comming back in April 2014

I wonder if he would buy a car from me.

[theantiquesman]

Christina Trevanion photographed outside my shop while making a TV program

Antique Road Trip.



Such a nice lady.

but I have to say,

you do need money to shop in my shop.

and if you have spent it all,

than all you can do is window shop.

MAY BE NEXT TIME