The only documentation on the hat was Franklin's say-so. Let's backtrack a bit. A few months earlier Franklin had auctioned what he claimed was Larry's violin. The violin auction was suspicious to me because I was present in the late 1980's when Larry's granddaughter sold Larry's violin to a collector named Richard Cohen (Richard still has that violin). Here are the comments I posted (in 2001) at the time the Franklin violin was being auctioned:
As promised, here are my long-winded thoughts about the violin that Joe
Franklin is selling. First off, it's possible that this violin COULD have
belonged to Larry. He COULD have had more than 1 violin, in addition to the
one that Richard Cohen bought from Larry's granddaughter. But the only
evidence of authenticity presented by Mr. Franklin is Mr. Franklin's say-so.
No independent corroboration is presented. No photo of Larry with Franklin
and the violin, no letter from Larry to Franklin about the violin etc.There
is no corroborating evidence that Larry and Franklin were good friends or
even that they knew each other. Again, no photos of them together, no
letters to Franklin from Larry. Franklin's show did not air on the West
coast to my knowledge, and Larry made only infrequent trips to the East
coast so there's no natural connection on the surface.
Plus there are many unanswered questions. Here are some of them. Why would Larry give this priceless heirloom to Joe Franklin instead of to his
brother, sister, daughter or grandchildren?
The violin is missing 2 strings, which is the way Larry supposedly
presented it to Franklin. Since it wasn't playable, why did Larry have it
with him on his trip from LA to NY? He couldn't practice on it so did he
bring it along with the specific intent of giving it to Joe Franklin?
According to Franklin, Larry was in NY at the time on a publicity tour to
promote the film "Mad Mad World". Why would the Stooges have done a
publicity tour for that film? Their appearance in the film lasts only a
nano-second. And this was a big budget film with plenty of other publicity
and plenty of other higher profile stars to make appearances.
According to Franklin, Larry scratched his initials "LF" and the year
"20" into the violin. In 1920 Larry was only 18 years old and didn't have
much money. It's quite possible that his violin was the most valuable
possession he had. Why would he have marred the instrument by scratching his
initials and date into it?
Why is this piece being sold on Ebay and not thru Sotheby's or Christies?
Ebay has a lot of "nickle-and-dimers" who up the current high bid by a
dollar or two. Sotheby's and Christies clientele are used to spending
hundreds of thousands and/or millions of dollars on jewelery, artwork, etc.
Even after paying their higher commissions, items fetch much more there than
on Ebay. Perhaps it's because those auction houses check into or are not
convinced about the authenticity of the piece?
Why was it a private bid auction where identities are kept secret?
According to Franklin it's because the high-profile people likely to bid on
it want to preserve their anonymity. But on Ebay most everyone has a fake
bidder ID anyway which protects anonymity, so that doesnt quite add up.
Plus the private bid feature makes it easier for shill bids. The bidding
pattern in fact did seem quite unusual. Not only were there an unusually
high number of bids, but instead of the usual pattern (little action during
the week followed by a big flurry and run-up at the end), this item had a
lot of run-up during the week and no flurry at the end. For those of you who
frequent Ebay, doesn't this seem a bit unusual?
Larry's sister Lyla Budnick has never heard about this violin before nor about Larry's deep friendship withJoe Franklin. Also, the self-serving braggadocio contained in the Ebay description(Franklin claims he was the first to coin the term "memorabilia",that he interviewed over 300,000 guests etc) really reduce his credibility in my opinion.
Anyway, lots of questions and not many answers.
That's what I wrote at the time. Again, this is merely my opinion. SInce that time, Brent (Beastooge) discovered a quote from Franklin's book "Up Late with Joe Franklin" (1995).On page 62, when asked about the Three Stooges, Franklin says "I never met them, no...." . After the violin sale took place, it turns out that Franklin also had Moe's derby ( it was supposedly Moe's derby, Pils, not Curly's) Now you can imagine, after my skepticism about the violin, that I would be a bit skeptical about the hat. Again, the only documentation is Franklin's say-so. I can't prove the violin wasn't Larry's. I can't prove the hat wasn't Moe's. Maybe they are legit, we'll never know for sure. But based on the above I have legitimate reasons for being a tad skeptical.
