(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Coming up next on "Legacy List with Matt Paxton."

- [Wayne] Welcome to my nightmare.

- [Announcer] Matt helps an empty nester rediscover a trove of collectibles from the heyday of Hollywood.

- That's Kirk Douglas.

- [Announcer] From the Silver Screen- - No way!

- [Announcer] To sports, these heirlooms prove that no matter what life throws at you- - Holy cow!

- [Announcer] The show must go on.

(upbeat music) - Moving into a new home is exciting, but decluttering and downsizing can be an emotional journey.

- We need your help.

- I can see.

I see a lot of collections already.

- It's paralyzing.

- [Matt] That's why it's important to start with a legacy list.

It's a list of a few cherished items with high emotional value that help tell your family's story.

- Oh!

- Oh!

- [Matt] My name is Matt Paxton, and I have the best job in the world.

Me and my team of experts help people downsize their homes and move, but we also help them find their legacy list.

- [Man] You made my dream come true.

- I can't believe it.

- This is why we do this.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by, Bekins Van Lines.

At Bekins, our goal is to provide a smooth and simple moving experience.

No matter the size or distance of your move, Bekins is ready to help you get there.

You can find us at bekins.com.

Bekins, this is moving.

FirstLight Home Care, committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at FirstLightHomeCare.com.

(upbeat music) - Today I am in Sterling, Massachusetts.

It's a quaint little town, about an hour outside of Boston.

And we're here to meet with Wayne, who needs help decluttering his house which is filled mostly with memorabilia from the golden age of comedy.

And I can assure you that this clean-out will be no joke.

(upbeat music) (Matt knocking) - Wayne!

- Hey Matt, finally get to meet you.

- Good to meet you, man.

- Thanks for coming.

- Happy to be here, man.

- So this is my home.

I had a film distribution company.

After being in the entertainment industry for 25 years, I wanted to slow down, so I opened up a restaurant, then I got married, and we bought this place.

I had a very large house, and I had a home in Las Vegas.

- Okay.

- Well, where are we gonna put all this stuff?

There's a lot of memorabilia with my family being in the entertainment industry.

My uncles produced films.

Milton Berle, he was my godfather.

- Who's the most interesting person you ever met?

- Well, let's step over here, and I'll show you a few.

- All right.

- These are some of the people that I've had the pleasure- - [Matt] Holy cow.

- To meet.

Jerry Stiller.

- [Matt] Good Lord.

- [Wayne] Tony Randall.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- [Wayne] Lauren Bacall and Christopher Plummer.

- Holy cow.

- And surely you know Leslie Nielsen.

- [Matt] Surely you can't be serious.

Oh my God!

- I was presenting Leslie with a home entertainment award that evening in Boston.

- I mean, this epitomizes the time you were in entertainment.

- Yes.

- So walk me through this.

What's the goal with this space?

See my problem is I can't just have like an estate sale because a lot of my stuff that I have is very valuable.

- Yeah.

- So I need the right people to come in and help me get rid of it, and then go through all the boxes so we can throw out all the junk.

- Okay.

So we've got some stuff we gotta sort through.

- [Wayne] Correct.

- Some of it needs to be sold in the, by the proper people in the proper way.

And then we just need to get rid of some stuff too.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

Upstairs, this is super, super clean.

Where is the clutter in this house?

- Let's go downstairs.

- Okay.

(guitar music) - [Wayne] Welcome to my nightmare.

- Not horrible.

- Not horrible, but- - But it's a lot of stuff.

- Yeah.

My uncle, when he passed in 93, I became sort of the curator of all of his memorabilia from all his years in Hollywood yesteryear.

I was very close with this uncle, and I think that he would be happy if it went to somebody that could enjoy it and appreciate it.

Eventually, I'd like to make this into some sort of bar area.

- Okay, so this- - Entertain friends.

- So we don't want this to be storage forever.

- No, absolutely not.

- Wayne's my kind of guy.

He has a big personality.

It's genuine and it's fun, and I'm excited to do this job.

So we got our marching orders here, we're gonna start cleaning out today.

Tell me what your legacy list is, what items are we looking for?

Well, there was a guy by the name of Jack White who owned Club 18 in New York City, and he wrote my uncle a letter saying, "I have this kid that works for me.

He's coming out to California, maybe there's something you could do for him, his name is Jackie Gleason."

So one of the legacy items is a book, it's a biography on Jackie Gleason.

And it references that letter.

- That Letter.

- Jackie gambled all the time, and he was always running outta money.

- Yeah.

- So my uncle would meet him and he would put a quarter in his hand, a dime to get on the bus to the studio, a dime to get back, and a nickel for a cup of coffee.

It's all documented in that book.

It's called "The Golden Ham."

- [Matt] That's awesome.

- Another legacy item is an album that my uncle collected with all original photos.

Young Mickey Rooney and Kirk Douglas and Abbott Costello.

- Good Lord.

Not only did he live it, he also documented it.

- He also documented it.

(jazz music) I have a Bible that was given to me in my Bar Mitzvah by Joan River's parents.

- God.

- My Aunt Betty and my Uncle Meyer, and it's inscribed from them, and I would love to find that.

Another item is a baseball bat that was given to my uncle by Bucky Dent.

Yankee fans would appreciate that.

He wrote an actual paragraph on the bat, and he talks about the hated LA Dodgers.

(orchestral music) - These connections to entertainment and to his family are just so deep with Wayne.

I mean, this is real history.

We're gonna take a little longer than we normally do because it's all about the stories.

- Right.

- 'Cause the one thing you need is space- - [Wayne] I need space.

- [Matt] To entertain people and tell more stories.

(somber music) I have so much stuff and so little time.

I need really good eyes on these boxes before the move managers get here, so that's why I've called Jamie.

(guitar music) - Oh wow.

- Hey, hey.

How are ya?

- You wouldn't expect walking through the house like it seems all put together, like where's the stuff?

- Oh, it's super clean upstairs.

Good news is on the downsizing, the majority of it's gone.

- [Jamie] So we think everything's here, though.

- [Matt] He doesn't know.

- Okay.

- Wait, what are these rocks doing here?

- Is it like a speaker?

- It's a speaker.

This is one of those rooms that I don't even know where to start.

- I mean- - Holy cow!

- [Jamie] Ooh, maybe don't pull from the bottom.

- He put all those boxes in that basement four years ago, and it's time to reclaim that space and live in it.

- Things still in the packaging haven't been used.

- Yeah, a lot of stuff that hasn't been used, a lot of school stuff.

- Old clothes, at least they're in good shape and they can be donated.

(Matt laughing) - [Jamie] Is it good or bad?

- This is from Wayne's report card.

"Extremely poor attention span.

Wayne has shown improvement in his work.

He's still very restless and has a short attention span."

This is crazy, like how much has life changed, right?

Like back then they're like, shame on Wayne.

And he's getting negative marks for that.

- And he is been successful.

- Very successful, my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

- What is it?

- [Matt] Look at that, pick that up.

- I can't.

- I think we've already found a legacy list item.

Holy cow!

- Can't even lift the box.

- Look at this.

- Russell Earl Bucky Dent.

I mean, he gets big hit was against the Red Sox.

- [Jamie] Okay.

- In the playoffs in 78.

And this is signed in the year that he did that.

- [Jamie] That is very cool.

- [Matt] And it does say on here, the hated LA Dodgers.

- [Jamie] That's very cool.

- Cool.

Legacy list item number one.

- Lots of soccer stuff.

- Yeah, Wayne's wife is a soccer coach.

- Makes sense.

All right, judging by this, this might be some stuff.

- Yeah, let me see, let me see the top here, yeah.

- That's good.

- [Matt] I know he definitely wants to go through some of the clothes.

- Oh.

- [Matt] What do you got?

Boom!

- This looks, this is beautiful.

- It's beautiful.

And he is looking for a prayer book.

- Yes.

Let's see.

This is a gift in honor of his bar mitzvah.

And it's from, it says, "Good luck and God bless you, Doctor and Mrs.

Molinsky."

- That is Joan Rivers' parents.

- No way.

- That is another legacy list.

- [Jamie] Legacy list.

This is beautiful.

Just a bunch of clothes over here.

- Yeah, anything cool?

- Like this?

- [Matt] Look at that, there you go.

- All of these buttons are like Hard Rock, Orlando, Hollywood, Boston, Dallas.

Right, well, this is definitely something that he probably still wants to keep.

- Well look at this, dude.

- Happy birthday, Wayne from Roger Rabbit- - Via Richard Williams.

This is a guy that created Roger Rabbit.

It was right next to "The Golden Ham."

- [Jamie] "The Golden Ham."

- The ghost writer's letter is on the back of this book.

Here is the manuscript, it's a little bit bulky, but then so are you.

Here, and he's talking about his uncle here, just talking about how they were friends and how he really did the right stuff.

For someone like Wayne, what's so cool is it's in a book.

- [Jamie] Yeah.

- That makes it real.

For Wayne how much pride is it for him to know that not only what his uncle told him was accurate, but Jackie Gleason remembered it so much that he put it in the book, I would be so proud.

And I get why that is one of his legacy list items.

(upbeat music) - That's cute.

- [Matt] You got anything cool over there?

- I think it's all his stepdaughter's stuff from when she was younger.

- Think I found something, Jamie.

- [Jamie] What you got?

- Oh my gosh.

I think it's the photo album.

- Oh, it looks like a photo album.

- [Matt] Wow, look at that.

Who is this?

- That's his uncle, Maurie Suess, Betsy Drake, and James Kern.

- James Kern, nice, okay.

- [Jamie] Paul-Dana Andrews, Myron Newman, Huntz Hall, and Maurie.

- [Matt] Right but- - I love that he labeled everything.

- He Labeled everything, it was very nice.

- [Jamie] This is "The Jackie Robinson Story."

- This is from the movie that he produced.

- [Jamie] Yep.

- Look at, that's Maurie and Jackie Robinson.

- [Jamie] Yep.

- That's super cool, man.

Thank God he labeled all these things.

And now, as they get passed down to Wayne's kids, they're gonna know who they're.

- [Jamie] Yep.

Kirk Douglas.

Were you talking about him earlier?

- [Wayne] That's Kirk Douglas, holy cow!

- [Jamie] Good find.

- [Matt] All right, great job.

Another legacy list found.

(jazz music) - [Announcer] Hooray for Hollywood.

The city known around the world as Tinseltown has been turning out movie magic for over a hundred years.

The first short film shot entirely in Hollywood was made way back in 1910.

Its title?

"An Old California."

Why was California the perfect place for movie making?

The weather was great and the local mountains, deserts, and beaches provided easy access to a variety of locations.

It wasn't long before silent movie stars like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford became household names, but it was the big studios that had all the power.

They controlled all aspects of production and distribution and signed performers to multi-year contracts.

Studios managed every aspect of an actor's career, even their love life.

Hollywood's golden age was full of glitz and glamour, it was big business too.

Studios raked in money even when times were tough.

Tens of millions of Americans went to the movies each week during the depression.

Movies were an escape from the realities of life, even if it was only for a couple of hours.

Over the years, Hollywood has continued to churn out movies that captivate audiences around the world.

Despite new challenges, the movie business is still going strong.

Last year, the domestic box office totaled in the billions.

And that's without counting the popcorn.

(guitar music) - Jamie, and I worked up an appetite, so we're gonna take a break and go check out Wayne's Diner.

(guitar music) - [Wayne] We love it.

Been here a long time.

- [Matt] Yeah, how long have you had this place?

- [Wayne] 15 years.

- [Jamie] Wow.

- Lot of history here.

- All right, it's surrounded by a lot of- - [Wayne] More memorabilia.

- [Matt] Yeah.

What's it mean to you to have all your uncle stuff around you?

- Oh, it's just comforting, miss the guy, I was very close with him and he was a very, very exciting guy, very principled guy, very well respected.

My customers are excited when they come in and they see all this, and they ask questions about your family and what you've done in the industry.

And it's just an exhilarating feeling, - And then you get to tell the stories all over again.

- Oh man that's the whole point, it's the storytelling.

- [Wayne] Exactly.

- [Jamie] Yeah.

- I wanted my customers to get a flavor of what I've been through, and they love coming here to see it, and they bring people in to see it.

It's almost like a little museum.

- [Jamie] Yeah like a museum.

- And I have more stuff that I got, just don't have enough wall space to put it all.

- You need another restaurant.

- I need another restaurant.

- [Matt] Yeah, yeah.

What do you want people to know about entertainment?

- That it's a very hard field to get into, but if you like this type of industry and you have the perseverance to stay with it, you could accomplish anything that you want to.

I just love it because it's just exhilarating.

It makes your blood flow, but there's a lot of disappointments.

Very few people make it in the industry.

That's the sad part because there's a lot of talented people out there.

- Wayne's had this huge career, he's rubbed shoulders with all these big names.

And now to find him here in this quaint little town, running a diner was really like seeing his second act.

- If you had not gotten entertainment, what do you think you would've done?

- Probably be a plumber.

(all laughing) - [Announcer] Having a career in show business has never been easy.

Just ask the ancient Greeks.

Way back in 425 BC, Aristophanes, the father of comedy, suggested that writing jokes was the hardest profession of all.

Throughout the Middle Ages, performers put on plays that offered relief from the drudgery of futile life.

Royal Courts employed professional fools who had the coveted privilege of mocking monarchs without fear of punishment.

The fool's most extraordinary role, however, was their occasional use in battle.

Fools would tell jokes and mock the enemy to raise their own army's spirits.

It was Shakespeare who pinned the immortal line, "All the world is stage."

And for some entertainers that stage could be dangerous.

"An actor demoralized by tomatoes," read the 1883 headline after a performer unsuccessfully tried to show off his somersault.

It was the first recorded incident of a disgruntled audience pelting an actor with tomatoes.

Today, entertainers have to deal with a different kind of rotten tomatoes.

They take the stage in a world where one review can be seen by millions and either launch a career or end one.

(guitar music) - So this was for the "Addams Family Values" movie when it came out.

- Wayne has so much stuff that could lend inspiration to the next generation, who really wants to be in this industry.

So finding a good home for that is key.

It's time to get Wayne in the basement to start making some decisions.

How long do you think it's been since you've looked in some of these boxes?

- Years.

- And so if you haven't seen it in years, what's the likelihood of the things in the boxes being something that you want to keep?

- There's a likelihood (both laughing) that there are a number of things I'd like to keep, but it's mixed in with stuff that just has no value to me.

- Yeah.

We've got the move manager here, Nancy.

- [Wayne] Fantastic.

- She's gonna help keep us on track.

- Okay.

- [Wayne] Good.

- [Jamie] What is this?

- This, it is an animation cell that was given to me by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera from Hanna-Barbera Studios.

And it has all of the characters from Hanna-Barbera that'll probably go in my office as well.

- Okay.

- Wow, I haven't seen that in a long time.

There's a whole set of, I believe, 12, Warner Brothers, MGM, RKO studios.

The president of RKO gave it to me as a gift.

- Okay.

- The entire collection.

This collection I wanna sell as one unit 'cause it's, I believe, more valuable as a whole set.

- Well, that's easy.

At least you're decisive.

I think we know enough to get started and creating the piles for the you to review.

- Right, exactly.

- [Jamie] Yeah.

- Exactly.

- My advice is really just to take it step by step.

It's a process, and it's okay if it takes a little bit of time.

The most important thing is that you're working towards that end goal.

- All this stuff in this box can go.

- Okay, we're going.

♪ So long goodbye I'm out here - Donate it.

- Unless- - Donate it.

♪ I'm going so it's time to get in here ♪ - [Jamie] Okay, this is all going.

♪ My time is up I'll my leave and so farewell ♪ ♪ It's been good staying with you ♪ - This is like embarrassing who has this much clothes?

(jazz music) All of this stuff is going.

Donate.

(jazz music) ♪ I'll see you again ♪ My the time is up so I'ma out of here ♪ (crickets chirping) (piano music) - The space downstairs has been cleared, how does that feel?

- It's amazing.

I just can't believe it's the same place.

Oh my God, do I feel better now.

- What made you just make those decisions?

- I was at a breaking point.

By accident, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and then one thing happened after another.

I had lost 60 pounds.

- Oh my God.

- I was a corpse practically, but I rallied and I'm back a hundred percent.

- So when you wrote me, you were going through that.

- Yes, I was.

- [Matt] I mean, that just blows my mind, man.

- Material things do not mean as much as your health.

And that's what made it so easy to go through those boxes and decide I want it or I don't want it.

- Very cool.

All right, let's go through the legacy list.

- Okay.

- I'm gonna pull a couple things out.

- Okay.

- Our very, very first legacy list item was- - Ah, I can't believe you found it.

- "The Golden Ham."

- I haven't seen that in years, oh my God.

Things like, this is what I wanna preserve to give to my grandkids, and let them know who their great uncle was.

- I mean, I've heard a lot of cool stories.

We've gone through a lot of his stuff, a lot of his memorabilia.

But man, this backs it up.

(bright music) Second legacy list item.

Tell me about this bat.

Tell me about how your uncle was related to it.

- This was a bat that Bucky Dent gave to my uncle.

They normally, you know, just sign their bats.

He wrote a full paragraph.

- [Matt] Paragraph.

- He talks about the game in 1978 at Fenway Park.

It was the playoffs against the Red Sox, and if you see how he signed it, he signed it Earl Russell Bucky Dent, usually he would just sign Bucky Dent.

- I didn't even know his name until I saw this.

- [Wayne] Is that right?

- I just knew it as Bucky Dent.

- [Wayne] Yeah.

- Yeah.

Wayne the next legacy list item I thought was incredible.

Your uncle's photo album.

- [Wayne] There's my uncle and Dennis O'Keefe.

This is from the set of "The Jackie Robinson Story."

Jackie in a Montreal uniform.

- Yeah, and look at that we got pictures of your uncle and Jackie Robinson.

- Oh wow, that's unbelievable.

Oh wow!

Jane Powell, he dated Jane Powell and discovered her as well.

This is great stuff.

- I just love that this is all a part of your story.

And then you and I got to go and we hung out at your diner, and it got me thinking, for you, it's about the people in the pictures- - Correct.

- And the names.

Because your uncle gave you those stories.

- That's right.

- But for everyone else, your magic is the telling the story.

- Oh, that's.

- [Matt] You're amazing at it, man.

- I appreciate that.

- Dude, we gotta switch the stuff out in the diner once a year.

- Yeah, now that I know where stuff is- - [Matt] You can access it too.

- I can access this.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- I could do that now.

- But like I can see you in there holding court telling stories to all your regulars, you know, and that's an enjoyment for them.

That's part of their experience with that diner.

And I wanna see that stuff switched out so that you can continue- - Right.

- [Matt] What you do so well.

The next legacy list item is absolutely beautiful.

- Oh my God.

This is a prayer book given to me for my bar mitzvah.

- [Matt] Yeah, there's an inscription.

- It's an inscription to me, a full page from Aunt Betty and Uncle Meyer.

And Uncle Meyer was an OB-GYN, and he delivered my father.

That's amazing.

I mean, this is so special to me, and this is another thing that I could pass down to my grandkids to keep this going, - But what I like about it, it's about you.

This is our first legacy list item that's actually about you.

(somber music) This was not a legacy list item, do you know what this is?

- I have no idea.

- This is a report card.

- Oh no!

- [Matt] This is your report card.

- [Wayne] Oh, no.

- Read me the comments.

- "Very restless, doesn't concentrate, math, very poor work habits, extremely poor attention span.

Wayne has shown some improvement in his work, he's still very restless and has a short attention span."

- What grade were you in this?

- I think I was fifth grade.

The problem is they didn't know what Attention Deficit Disorder was then.

- Yeah.

- They called me, you were just hyper, you were restless, you had a short attention span.

But I showed them.

- Exactly.

You reminded me of another famous report card.

Now I'm gonna read it.

- Okay.

- And then gonna tell you who it is.

Says, "He has too many of the wrong ambitions and his energy is too often misplaced.

He's certainly on the road to failure if this goes on."

You wanna guess whose report card this is?

- Yours?

- No, John Lennon's.

- No way!

- You had an incredible career, man.

- Right.

- Kids that are thinking about getting in entertainment, what advice would you give them now?

- That it's a very hard business, but if you want something bad enough and you are willing to work for it, and you want to persevere, you could do anything you wanna do.

- Buddy, this is probably my favorite thing.

You did show them.

(somber music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Legacy List" is provided by, Wheaton World Wide Moving.

Wheaton's number one goal is to help you, your loved ones, and your belongings get to your new home quickly and safely.

You can find us at wheatonworldwide.com.

Wheaton World Wide Moving, we move your life.

FirstLight Home Care committed to providing safe and compassionate home services for you and your family.

FirstLight believes personal relationships and engagement are as important as mobility, bathing, and personal hygiene.

Details at FirstLightHomeCare.com.

(jazz music) - [Wayne] One of the people that I admire a lot was Muhammad Ali.

I was once in his limousine.

There was a station wagon on the side of the road that had flat tire.

There was a woman and she had kids in the car.

Ali had his driver stop and not have the driver go out.

He got out of the car, change this woman's tire by himself.

He put a thousand dollars in her hand, and you don't hear about those things.

We do hear about them when you tell the story, and that's your magic.

(jazz music) Visit MyLegacyList.com to learn more about the tips, tools, and professionals to help make your own big life move easier.

Learn more about this episode or submit your story to be featured on the show at MyLegacyList.com.

(piano music) (upbeat music)