David Lynch's Red Director Chair Stops by Variety's Office Ahead of Live Auction
The auction, called The David Lynch Collection, will be held Wednesday at the Peninsula Beverly Hills as well as at juliensauctions.com.
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In anticipation of that event, the red leather chair commenced a mystery tour around the city to locations that have significance within Lynch's life and filmography, with clues posted on social media to allow fans to guess the locations. The tour started off at the 'Mulholland Drive' location Winkie's Diner on June 12 and continued to the Mulholland Drive street sign, the area of Hollywood and La Brea (where Lynch once held a For Your Consideration protest for Laura Dern) and Bob's Big Boy, the Toluca Lake diner where Lynch often met with stars like Dern and Kyle MacLachlan. The tour stops were also live streamed from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. PT on Julien's Instagram.
The chair, which is personalized with Lynch's name and is estimated at $5,000 to $7,000, is a focal point of the auction, which includes more than 450 objects such as Lynch's musical instruments, furniture, props, home decor and more. Bids can be placed at the in-person event, online, over the phone or through an absentee bid form.
Lynch, the filmmaker behind 'Mulholland Drive,' 'Blue Velvet,' 'Wild at Heart' and 'Twin Peaks,' died Jan. 15.
'Julien's and TCM are honored to represent and offer to the public for the first time this incredible collection of one of the greatest and most revered filmmakers of all time, David Lynch,' Catherine Williamson, managing director of entertainment for Julien's Auctions, previously said in a statement. 'These historical and cherished pieces reflecting David Lynch's singular artistic vision, as well as his passions and pursuits ranging from his director's chair, espresso machine to his guitar, record collections and 'Twin Peaks'-style decor, come directly from the home of the visionary artist whose enigmatic films stirred our most imaginative and collective surreal dreams.'
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Ben Mankiewicz is never someone who I expected to find on the wrong side of film history. The face of Turner Classic Movies since Robert Osborne's death, in addition to being the grandson of 'Citizen Kane' screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the grand-nephew of 'All About Eve' director Joseph L. Mankiewicz,' the Hollywood scion is nothing less than a living emblem of the sanctity and enduring value of 20th century cinema. Delivered in a nasal but welcoming voice that's capable of making 100-year-old masterpieces sound like vital artifacts and spectacular entertainments all at once, the erudite introductions he performs to camera before each program on TCM are a respite from — perhaps even a rebuke to — the solipsistic and unstudied commentary that passes for criticism on TikTok and YouTube. If not for Ben Mankiewicz and the New York Rangers, I would've cancelled my wildly overpriced cable package a long time ago. 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Like the unnatural carcinogens that are pumped into the air we breathe, AI has polluted our environment at the behest of an industry that doesn't care about the damage that it causes to this planet, its resources, or to any of the people who rely on them for their survival. Our kids are exposed to it from a young age (my poor kids have been, at least), our business leaders are sold on it as an inevitability (they'd sell us on anything if it meant they might not have to pay us for anything else), and even some of our artists and scholars are convinced that it might open new avenues for creativity instead of paving over the only viable ones we still have left. These things are happening, they're happening on purpose, and they're happening faster than we can process the collateral damage of such widespread 'disruption.' I suppose that's always been the case to a certain extent. 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