Mount Vernon had three residents who were selected as volunteers to help at a recent filming of “Antiques Roadshow” during their Urbandale stop Monday, June 10. Tim and Diane Legore and Duane Eash were volunteers for the show, helping behind the scenes.
Tim and Diane had originally tried getting tickets via the raffle process for the show.
“We found out there were roughly 2,000 tickets available that way, and the Urbandale stop had more than 10,000 requests for tickets,” Tim said. “That meant we had a one in five chance of getting picked, and that didn’t happen.”
The Legores also tried to get to get on the show with a few items to be selected via early bird entry, but that also didn’t happen.
They then saw a request for volunteers, and threw their hats into the ring for that. Eash saw the same advertisement and applied to be on the show. He was selected for that early on, and would be one of the 75 volunteers who would assist with the program.
The Legores received another “we’re sorry, you didn’t get in” email, but the Friday before filming was to happen, the couple got an email that some spots had just opened up if they were still interested.
“We spent the afternoon after lunch finishing up the paperwork to make sure we didn’t miss that spot,” Tim said.
The three worked as volunteers on different areas of the show.
Tim’s job was to help get people from the parking lot to the different areas where the items they were showing might be considered.
Tim said that his kismet experience was the first person he was helping to direct to one of the tents was another Mount Vernon resident.
“( ) said ‘you look familiar. Where are you from?’” Tim said, “When I said Mount Vernon they told me they were also from Mount Vernon, and lived in the Cornell College district where a tree had fallen on their home at one point. After we’d been talking about Mount Vernon, I then was able to ask what they had broght and directed to the correct location.
Tim had wanted his volunteer gig to see as many of the items that were being appraised and to get some walking in before a coming trip to Norway.
By the time his watch died just after lunch time, Tim said it had tracked him walking 12 miles on the day. He believes his overall miles walked that day was more than 15.
“I’m not worried about the walking I’m going to be doing in Norway now,” Tim joked.
Diane worked in the books and manuscripts area with appraisers, and was responsible for helping with crowd control and trying to keep things quiet on the floor.
“They had very definitive procedures on how they wanted traffic to flow through that tent, but it became evident early on that wasn’t going to work out the best,” Diane said. “They were very helpful and receptive if we came up with a better way to run traffic through the tent, they’d be happy to do that.”
“I describe it as highly organized but highly flexible,” Eash said.
Eash worked in furniture, folk art, Asian art and tribal art areas as a volunteer.
Both Eash and Diane said that they agreed with the producers who told them “once you volunteer with Antiques Roadshow, you’ll never look at the program the same way again.”
Diane said the most fun part of the volunteer experience was watching appraisers select what was worth filming and making their pitches to a producer to try and see if it would make the show.
“That wasn’t a quick procedure,” Diane said. “Some of those discussions would go on for 45 minutes, and then if it was selected, the appraiser and that item would disappear for upwards of an hour or two to film the segments.”
She said there were times that the discussions between producers and appraisers did get a little heated if the appraiser felt the piece should be featured as a segment and the producer didn’t agree.
But appraisers also spent a lot of time visiting with people who had brought items to be appraised and were polite to everyone.
Eash said one of the pieces he remembered was a piece of pottery a 90-year old man wanted appraised, but was more reticent to being filmed.
“The appraiser was very excited to talk about the piece, because it had a story to tell, but that person didn’t want to appear on camera,” Eash said.
And while “Antiques Roadshow” airs episodes almost weekly, the filming for the show takes part during these large casting calls. Eash said that it’s a two month filming contract, with one week off for the crews, and they make stops in different locations during that period.
Both Eash and Diane said that the appraisers were amazing with the level of detail they could provide on the pieces, and explaining the details that made those pieces something people had unique.
“They were very talkative and great conversationalists, visiting with everybody,” Diane said.
For Tim, one of the biggest challenges was getting people and the item they wanted appraised to the location they needed to go.
“‘Antiques Roadshow’ has very clear procedures on how that is to happen, with us volunteers not able to touch those items,” Tim said. “Mainly, to protect that antique from damage from the show. I remember one of the pieces was bungee corded to the cart, but it was rougher terrain and the person bringing the piece was struggling. As I was watching to see where I could help, I realized the large purse was hindering her ability to push the cart clearly. I volunteered to help by carrying her purse as we walked across the rougher terrain.”
Tim said he ended up carrying a lot of lawn chairs and purses.
“I just know if it would have been a rainy day, that ruddy path would have been a nightmare to traverse,” Tim said.
Diane said that one of the appraisers said the perfect day for them is when a piece comes in very early on in the day and they’re able to get the filming section done early, and then interact with people the rest of the day.
With more than 70 appraisers working, they moved through items fast.
As volunteers, the groups got to have two items appraised each. Diane had a Persian rug appraised, and she said the appraiser was able to tell where it was from down to the city, the price it was worth at that time, and the value it was worth today.
Her second piece was a piece with some family history, the Civil War Union flag that her great-great-grandfather had been wrapped in after being wounded in the war. Her relative had been a Quaker, something the appraisers picked up on.
“Within 15 seconds they told me the flag was not a military issued flag, but one that would have been used in parades,” Diane said. “But they were as surprised as I was when recounting the story that even as a 100-day soldier that my great-great-grandfather as a Quaker should not have been anywhere near that war, due to his strongly held convictions about weapons.”
Tim had a painting appraised of a water lily that was painted in 1942. He didn’t know the artist, and the appraiser was unable to find that as well.
His second piece was a letter he had received from author Arthur C. Clarke pertaining to a question he had asked the author about something he noticed in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
“We had a unit in school where we wrote letters to authors about any book we were interested in,” Tim said. “The first letter I received from Clarke was just the standard form letter everyone gets, but the one I had that pertained to my question from him came shortly later. Because Clarke was a more reclusive author, they encouraged me to frame this and keep my story associated with the piece nearby it.”
Eash’s pieces were a steel print he bought from an estate sale from the 1800s and a sign he had collected when his family had visited Chicago on a family vacation.
“I just remember that dad had driven us to Chicago and hauling a trailer behind us during this vacation, and I cant think of hauling three kids and a trailer in Chicago traffic today,” Eash said. “Lakeshore Drive was closed for the parade we were attending, and I had wanted to get one of the signs from the parade to commemorate the trip.”
Many of the signs had already been picked off earlier, but after the parade there were some near the middle of the street where cops had been stationed so Eash went out to collect one.
“I had to take the pocket knife to cut that sign down from the pole, and after I had shimmied up and done that, we had a few police officers call us over,” Eash said. “I thought for sure I was in trouble, but they wanted to use that sign for a photo to commemorate the day.”
Eash said that appraisers had told him that piece would have been one they would have featured on the day because of the story associated with it.
Three local residents help with “Antiques Roadshow” local stop
Nathan Countryman, Editor
June 20, 2024
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.