*
- Part adventure,
part history lesson,
and part treasure hunt,
Antiques Roadshow marked its 21st season in 2017
and for the first time, Green Bay was selected to be
on the six-city summer tour.
Join us as we take you behind the scenes
to meet television producers, appraisers, and volunteers.
Behind the Scenes
at Antiques Roadshow Green Bay .
[ Antiques Roadshow 'stheme song]
- I'm here at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
In less than 24 hours, the hall will be filled with people
from all across Wisconsin
hoping to learn the story
of a family heirloom or other prized possession.
Right now, the Antiques Roadshow crew is hard at work.
*
- When looking for locations for Antiques Roadshow ,
a main consideration is the size of the venue.
A minimum of 80,000 square feet is required to host,
and in Green Bay, the combination
of the Resch Center and Shopko Hall
more than meet those requirements.
We're here watching the flurry of activity
and also have the chance to meet
a few of the people you don't see on camera
but are very important to the process.
- Hi, you are? - I'm Jill Giles
and I'm a line producer with Antiques Roadshow .
- And what does a line producer do?
- I am one of the three producers
that selects items to go on television on site.
And back in the office,
I'm helping to plan upcoming tours
and working with the production team to hire crews
and get ready for each city.
- We're going to six cities on average a season
and so we try to spread it out on the map.
You know visit a city northeast, and a city in the west,
and somewhere in the Midwest
so there's only so many cities we can get to.
Green Bay has been on our list for a long time.
We've wanted to come for a long time.
And the people of Green Bay have wanted us to come
for a long time.
So I'm glad that it's finally happening
because it's been at least 10 or 15 years in the making.
- How many people and how does it all come together?
Do they all travel around or how does that work?
- We work with 55 crew members
that most of them come from WGBH in Boston
but we pick others up from around the country
and then we'll pick up some local crew to assist
as camera operators and stage managers and grip electrics
to help us assemble our set and keep the gears moving.
We also work with 125 volunteers
that we get from the local public television station
and we have about 70 appraisers in every city
so we're about almost 300.
- You always seem to find good stuff.
- That's the best part about it.
Really, Saturday morning when you walk in
and the set's quiet and there's like
this electricity in the air and
you just don't know what's going to come in that day.
That's my favorite part of the day.
- Antiques Roadshow's focus
is not just on creating
great television episodes for you to watch at home.
They truly care about the attendees' experience
the moment they walk through the doors of the hall.
And volunteers are crucial to that process.
One of those people making sure everything is running smoothly
behind the scenes
is Event Coordinator Jo Sagar,
who deals with all event materials
from tickets, event guides, signage, and more.
- So I look after all the volunteers.
The local station provides us with 125 volunteers.
They come on a Friday afternoon,
they get there training,
and we really couldn't run the event without the volunteers.
And then, they are put into groups
for their training.
And then the next day is the big day.
And they really get the behind the scene experience.
It's a great way to see what happens behind the scenes.
They get to see the appraisers up front
for longer than the average attendee.
They get to go in areas
that people aren't allowed in normally.
- How many people do you expect?
- So for regular ticket holders,
we give out 3,000 pairs of tickets.
And on average,
we'll see between 4,500 or 5,000 I, would think.
- All these people will be here:
what do you hope they walk away with at the end of the day?
- I hope that they come
with a smile on their face
and they leave with a smile on their face
having enjoyed meeting the appraisers,
taking a nugget of information,
whether that be information they didn't know about
or value on their item
and leaving with, you know, a memory from Antiques Roadshow.
- Sounds like you have fun, too.
- Oh we have enormous fun and meeting the volunteers,
for me and my team, is certainly a huge part of the event
because, you know, like their items
they have stories, too.
And, you know, we end up, too,
being lifelong friends with them and they might volunteer
in another city which is always exciting.
- Antiques Roadshow is a 15-time Emmy Award nominee
and the most-watched ongoing series on PBS.
Marsha Bemko is executive producer of the series.
- So for people that may not know,
what does an executive producer do?
- Now I work with a team.
So there are others who are
selecting objects for television,
I have producers out there doing that, three of them.
But I review everything and decide what makes the cut.
Obviously, there's a lot of pre-production
to get ready for any event we're doing
which ultimately generates the programs.
And so I oversee all of that.
But I have an excellent, superb team in place
making that job, for me, the easiest it could be.
- Somebody said "Money is the least important part
of Roadshow process." - It's true.
What's the most important part of the show?
- Story is king!
You're not going to watch a season of Roadshow
and not learn when the Civil War happened.
We want to make sure,
even if it's a little nugget in each appraisal,
you're learning something.
I hope that someone who comes to Roadshow
walks out of here with information
they didn't have when they walked in.
The majority of people who are coming tomorrow
are not going to get stunning financial news.
But if you walk out of here with a nugget,
"Was this really from the north or from the south?"
It helps solve a little puzzle for you.
So, we hope we fill a piece of the puzzle for you.
- After all these years, what still surprises you
when you do Antiques Roadshow ?
- What surprises me is the wealth of material
that's hidden in our attics and basements
that are important to our country's history.
And very often the owners of those treasures
had no idea they had one.
Or if they did, they didn't know how important of treasure.
So I just love that we discover the kinds of things--
and we've been first documenters over and over again--
where if we didn't record it,
the country wouldn't have it.
And that for me is something I'm so proud to have.
- Somebody was just recently
asking me about the experts, going back to them.
They're not paid to be here, is that right?
- There is no more volunteerism
in the realm of public television
than there is in this program.
Our experts-- and we have about 70 in every city
from a group of about 150--
they pay their own way here.
They pay their own hotel nights.
They pay for everything and they work for free.
They donate over a million dollars' worth of services
to public television every season!
So talk about the volunteerism in this show.
Our experts are doing it.
But they love it and it's changed their lives.
So there is a return on investment for them.
You know their names!
*
- On the eve of the appraisal event,
Wisconsin Public Television hosted a reception
at The Automobile Gallery
to celebrate Antiques Roadshow's appearance in Green Bay.
I spoke with two appraisers who would be on hand the next day.
A familiar name and face to loyal Antiques Roadshow viewers
is Kim Farmer.
- I'm from Charlottesville, Virginia
and I am an antiques appraiser and advisor
and have been in the business
for over 40 years.
- And how long have you been appraising
for Antiques Roadshow ? - Since the first year.
- The very first year? - Over 20 years.
- I want to imagine that it's tomorrow.
We're at the event here in Green Bay
and I have something.
And I come to you with a small piece of furniture
and you think it's really wonderful.
And you might want to try and tape it for the program.
What's the process?
- Well the first thing I'm going to ask you is,
"Do you own it?"
- And the answer should be "Yes."
- And, hopefully, the answer should be yes,
because if you don't we can't film it,
because you can't sign away the rights to film it
if you don't own it.
The second thing I'll ask you is
"Have you ever had it appraised?"
I'll want to know for how much and from how long ago.
And then the other thing I would ask you is,
"What do you know about it?"
Can you identify the object?
Do you know anything about it?
- So once you get in front of the cameras, that's really,
you haven't talked to the guest
from the first encounter until then.
- Once I ask you those three questions,
I might say a couple things to you just to get an idea
of how you are and what your personality is like,
but I don't really say anything else to you
until we get in front of a camera.
It's in my opinion,
it's America's only true reality television show.
Because we don't rehearse anything.
When you come in front of the camera,
what you and I are saying to each other
is the first time
that we've actually said those things to each other.
- It's genuine and spontaneous.
- Yeah, that's one of the things that I really like about it
and it's so funny.
You'd think being an appraiser that you would be used to it,
but I watch the shows because I never get to see
what everybody else is filming
so it's fun for me to watch too.
- So you must have been to Wisconsin before
because Antiques Roadshow has been to this state
several times.
- One of my favorite Roadshow s ever was at Madison, Wisconsin.
- Are you hoping or expecting anything particularly special
- I would rather see something that was made here maybe
by somebody with Scandinavian or Germanic descent,
maybe something paint decorated or with a lot of chip carving.
Something really neat and folky about it.
But I've already been surprised.
When we went to the furniture area today earlier,
there is the best modern furniture at the furniture area
we've seen ever since we were doing Roadshow.
- That's good.
A surprise I suppose 'cause you never know
where you are going to see this stuff.
- You don't and it's so funny
because you think that if you go to a certain place
you are going to see particular things.
But you got to remember that we're a very mobile country
and whenever we move we usually take our best things with us,
the things that resonate the most with us, and so,
you never know what's going to be in one town versus the other.
- My name is Betty Krulik and I'm from New York.
- What is your role here at Antiques Roadshow ?
- My area of specialty is paintings.
I'm one of the appraisers,
one of the 8 appraisers on the painting table.
We look at everything from old masters
all the way through to contemporary, western art
but by western, I mean European,
American, South American
- Do you expect to see any regional stuff
here in Green Bay?
- We hope so.
I always think that the most fun part
of doing the Antiques Roadshow in a city
is going to the local institutions,
learning about the local artists,
and hoping to see one on the set.
- What is the most fun part about doing Antiques Roadshow ?
- Oh, gosh.
There is more than one.
The most fun thing
is really just to be able to help people out
and let them know what their object is
and give them some insights into it.
That's the most fun.
The second most fun thing is
that this is like summer camp for appraisers.
We really
just have a ball together.
There's...
social aspects.
We get to see people we haven't seen all year.
In some cases, they're people
that I hadn't seen for 30 years.
And it's just been a blast.
We love being together.
We love learning.
I love travel.
- Has your travel brought you to Wisconsin before?
Have you been with any of the earlier visits to Wisconsin?
- Yes, I was in Madison.
Madison was my first Roadshow .
So, about 9 years ago, I think.
- Did you see nice stuff there?
- I did, but I was scared to death.
- You're more relaxed now.
- You know there is always a tinge of nervousness.
You know, "How are you going to tell your story?"
"How is the guest going to react?
There's always a little bit of nervousness.
Also, it's a very long day so we just hope
that we can make it to the finish line.
*
- At least, it's cooler right now.
- Beautiful!
- On a beautiful summer day,
thousands of people descend on the Resch Center
to begin their Antiques Roadshow journey.
Each ticket holder is allowed to bring
two items to have appraised.
As we found out,
everyone is willing to share their story...
even before they enter the hall.
- My parents won this in a contest
in the early '50s,
way before I was born.
I grew up in Appleton,
and we were boss of the neighborhood in this thing.
It's got more miles on it than you can imagine.
I remember when it was bright and shiny and red.
I'll never get rid of it
'cause it was always my best friend growing up.
- This is a coronet I've had for almost 60 years.
And it was given to my dad,
who went to the same high school with me,
as a token of appreciation.
We had the same band and orchestra directors for years.
And it was probably made in France,
and sold to someone that put their name on it in Chicago.
There was a lot of that in the early 1900s.
So I just--
It's not particularly valuable, but it's an interesting piece.
- We have a sock monkey covered in campaign buttons.
I have 1938 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie book,
I guess.
Mint condition, but I don't even know if it's worth anything.
So, have to find out...
- People with all sorts of great items
are about to make their way to the appraisers
here at Antiques Roadshow ...
I've brought a couple of items of my own
and hope the appraisers can help uncover the stories behind them.
Let's get going.
- We start our process waiting in line.
Antiques Roadshow experts
see approximately 600 people per hour.
Some categories are busier than others
and this varies from event to event.
The best advice is to be relaxed,
enjoy yourself,
and take the opportunity to visit with others around you.
So, that's one thing you brought.
- Yeah. - Okay, and what's the other?
- The other one is this one here.
- How long have you had these?
- I've had this for about 20 years.
- Oh, okay.
And then there's this painting or...
What you hoping to learn today?
- Just get some information on it and a little history on it.
You know, we don't know much about it.
- To see its value and what we need to do next for it.
- To take care of it?
- To take care of it and getting it back to its original state.
- From an 18th century schooner.
- Owned by your...? - Grandfather.
- Have you ever had it appraised before or looked at?
- No, that's why we brought it.
We thought, "Let's see what happens." [laughing]
It's been in the family.
Someone gave it to my parents and then I inherited it.
- It's a wonderful item.
Good luck with it! - Thank you.
- And I hope you learn--
You're gonna learn something about it, I'm sure.
- Yeah. - All right.
- What have you brought today?
- It's a big urn. [laughing]
We've used it as a vase.
My mom and dad had it in their old, old, old House, right?
- Yes.
- When they bought the old house,
which was over 100 years old, it was already in the house.
So people had left it there for them.
And we've just used it--
We had pussy willows in it as kids.
Now, it's moved to the basement.
- So you don't know a lot about it?
- I don't know a lot about it, no.
- Okay, so... - My dad loved it.
And so we thought, in his memory we would give it a shot.
- Tell me about that hat.
- It's a military shake out bell-top.
I Believe Is from the 1830s.
It could possibly be the War of 1812.
Red usually means artillery
and those are usually the educated guys in the Army.
- You know a little bit, but you're hoping to learn more?
- A lot more, yeah.
- Was it a gift? How did you get the item?
- My grandfather was a Western collector.
So about half of it is from his collection.
The other half, I bought at antique stores.
It's got George Washington on both sides.
It was made in New York.
It's probably one of the few cities big enough to make it.
On 5th Avenue, New York.
And there's the clothing company, their paper label.
- Yeah.
- I seen one once before on American Roadshow .
It was a male Eskimo doll.
But this is a female one. - Okay.
- Since 1943, my dad got it.
- Oh, so it came down through the family.
- This one is an Eskimo kayak.
- With the people.
- You have to put it together.
- Well, thank you very much for stopping and talking with us.
I appreciate that.
And good luck with your item. - Yep.
- There's no shortage of unique items in Green Bay.
Our line continues to wind its way
to a group of general appraisers
who point all attendees in the right direction.
- Okay, what did you bring in?
- It's a map of the Midwest or part of the Midwest.
- Okay. - And I bought it because
it includes a little chunk of the Wisconsin Territory.
- So, what we will do--
We have a wonderful prints department
who also handle maps here.
Kind of the fun of maps is how far back in time they go
and, actually, which is a rare area that they're from-- or not.
And maybe the date.
Sometimes you'll find they have a very obscure date.
And then we determine who's the best appraiser for you so
we're kind of the big telephone switchboard of appraisers.
And I think that you'll get the most information
out of the appraisers at the Prints and Posters table.
Okay? - Good.
- Yeah, it's a beautiful piece.
I love the frame, as well. - Good, that's the way it came.
- Have fun! Have a great day!
- After receiving our tickets to the appropriate appraisers,
we meet up with a volunteer who helps guide us to our next step.
- And what is your job today at the event?
- As people come in, we're welcoming them,
escorting them to locations, showing them where we're going,
introducing them to the arena area
and how things are laid out
and helping them find locations.
If they have questions, we answer those questions.
- And do you get to have items appraised yourself?
- We do!
We actually get to have two items appraised.
We bring those in.
We can go at the end of our shift
and get those appraised and looked at.
Not only do we get to volunteer and help out,
but we have fun with the show as well!
- Kind of a buzz in there, isn't there?
- There is. Everybody's having a lot of fun.
We haven't run into anybody that's having a bad time.
Everybody we've talked to has kind of complimented the show,
let us know how much fun they're having,
and they really appreciate the help
and the items that they bring are pretty interesting.
As we're talking to and escorting them,
we get to see what they brought in.
A lot of neat things.
- About 70 appraisers covering over 24 specialties
are present at each event.
I make my way to the Prints and Posters table
and meet with appraiser Laura Ten Eyck.
Each attendee has the opportunity to share their story
with an appraiser.
I bought the 1837 map because the Wisconsin Territory--
established only the year before--
appears in the upper left.
After explaining that I bought the map already framed,
Laura began examining the map.
Because I had never seen the map unframed,
she was trying to determine
if the map was an original or a print of a print.
With close examination,
Laura believed the map to be an original.
However,
she believed the map may have been dry-mounted or wax-mounted
which would make the map very difficult to conserve.
I had purchased the map for $300
and Laura thought that was a fair price.
Though it wasn't worth thousands of dollars, as she said.
- But who cares?
It's big. It's beautiful.
It's got all the information.
- And we like this stuff.
My second item was a pewter tea set
I purchased for around $70.
At the Metalwork and Sculpture table,
I met with appraiser, Kerry Shrives.
She said the tea set was popular in the early 20th century
and the hand-hammered decoration was a nice deco design
but wasn't very practical for using.
That was okay with me
since I bought the set for the way it looks.
So, I think that again gives us the sense that these
were made more for the look than for the function,
everyday use.
I think you got a good deal.
We can do a little checking,
but my sense would be $100 to $150 range.
- Okay.
- Antiques Roadshow is wrapping up its visit to Green Bay,
with thousands of people
making their way through appraisals today.
And while they may not have
brought in that million-dollar item...
they didn't go away empty-handed.
- This wasn't valued as high as I thought, but I don't care
because I love it anyway.
And the whole thing was just really cool,
and I saw all the appraisers that I see on TV all the time.
It was great! Loved it!
- They basically said
it was a really interesting collection.
He was more excited about the sock monkey. [laughs]
And he said, basically,
the whole thing, with the sock monkey, was about $50.
- Well, I know that my dad played it when he was young
in the '40s and '50s in a little jazz band that he had.
I played it a little bit when I was a little younger, too,
but it's pretty much been sitting around
not being played for quite a while.
He told me that it was made in 1921,
which I didn't know
and that it's probably worth $400 or $500,
which is more than I would expect it to.
But it's an unusual instrument.
They don't make soprano saxophones like this anymore.
They make them straight
so the curved ones like this are kind of rare.
- We brought my great, great grandma's rocker.
It's appraised today at about $500,
but it would be worth a lot more if there was still
a sticker on from the maker on the bottom.
At least 10 times more.
So, leave tags on things. - So instead of $500, $5,000.
What he said to do was to make sure
that we put the history behind it and tape it to it
so that it will gather value as we go forward.
- And we found out that
it's worth roughly about $3,000.
It's a great piece of maritime history.
- I brought a painting that my father-in-law bought
because it reminded him
of his childhood home and looking out on the farm.
And I didn't know what it was worth at all.
And, $1,500 to $2,500 at auction.
- We brought Elvis paper, and a neighbor's picture,
and I don't know what things. [both laughing]
- My mother bought this in the '60s for $20.
It's been laying upstairs under a bed.
And they told me that it's worth $3,000 to $5,000 at auction.
- My husband has some Packer memorabilia
that was worth about $1100 from the Lombardi-era.
And we saw producer but
found out he was already taped on the show...
- Two other times. - Two other times.
So he wasn't eligible. -They won't take me again today.
- I had a painting that ended up being worth $20.
[woman chuckles]
The rug wasn't very old,
but it was worth a lot more than we thought.
And our tapestry turned out to be a souvenir from Europe.
So, yeah, it was really interesting.
- I was at the Ice Bowl-- it's almost 50 years ago--
and I have the program.
Not in perfect condition.
Perfect condition would be $400 to $500.
I think it's a hundred and a quarter
because I actually used it and froze with it
and all that stuff.
And then, I was at a silent auction.
And that this is a time when Brett Favre wasn't too popular.
I think he was playing for the Jets or the Vikings.
So I got it at a pretty good price.
Now, it's probably valued at between $350 and $400.
- After a full day of set-up
and an event day with about 5,000 people
walking through the doors to the Resch Center,
Antiques Roadshow Green Bay is wrapping up.
The television crew will leave Green Bay
with enough footage
to put together three hour-long programs,
plus a few extras that you can find online.
And all attendees leave with an experience
that's truly priceless.
- And it was really neat, meeting everybody in line
and hearing all the stories
and seeing so much cool and crazy stuff.
- It's thrilling. It is just thrilling!
- Really, the biggest thing was
just meeting a lot of friendly people
with a lot of interesting things in line.
And then, just the appreciation of what the appraisers
have to face as all of this strange stuff comes before 'em.
So it's a big task and not easy to do I'm sure.
- Great to have it in Green Bay for the first time in 20-odd years.
So, it's pretty special.
A lot of people with a lot of excitement.
Well set up!
- This'll be fun to watch on TV knowing it's in Green Bay.
- It's been wonderful.
- I can't wait another 15 years before they come back.
- Yes. - 'Cause I'll be an antique. [laughing]
- Thank you. Thanks, Antiques Roadshow .
- Have a good weekend, guys!