STAR-STUDDED STRANGE: THE CURIOUS WORLD OF CELEBRITY SELF-STORAGE
When Jim Morrison of The Doors said that ‘People Are Strange’ he was really on to something. Possessions reveal a lot about a person – the human race finds all sorts of weird stuff fascinating – stuff we collect, keep – and even forget about – it’s all an eye-opener into what makes people tick.
The world of self-storage can be an absolute eye-opener in itself into the strangeness that abounds out there. From snakes to stolen Lamborghinis; body parts to an actual burglar, a deep dive into stories of self-storage finds will make your toes curl! And one thing crops up time and again – that celebrities have a far deeper relationship with self-storage than you’d think!
We’ve compiled a selection of fascinating celeb-related finds – historic, valuable and just plain weird – that we think you’ll enjoy!
The Unit That Became a Museum
The first superstar on our list is none other than The Bandit himself – actor Burt Reynolds. An extensive curator of his own memorabilia, with a Hollywood career that lasted approximately 60 years, Reynolds kept his vast collection of favourite souvenirs in a large self-storage unit – a very sensible move, you’d have to agree. Unfortunately for him, and some possible not-so-sensible business decisions he filed for bankruptcy in 1996 – it’s a fair guess that this might have led to his defaulting on his storage unit rent in 1999 and the contents were put up for auction.
And what a weird and wonderful haul it was – A horse carriage built by Dolly Parton, the canoe from Deliverance, a bill of sale for Roy Rogers’ horse Trigger and, surely the piéce de resistance – a framed letter from Reynolds’s doctor about his successful 1955 spleen surgery!
A group of Reynold’s devotees clubbed together and bought the lot, using the fascinating artefacts and memorabilia to establish the Burt Reynolds Friends Museum in Florida where, from 2004 to 2012, when it closed, visitors could enjoy the fascinating – and sometimes strange – curated collection of a true Movie and TV legend.
Shaken, Not Stored …
Well, it was stored – but you couldn’t expect us to let that pun pass now, could you?
So who is Wet Nellie, I hear you ask? It’s a what, for starters. And it is, in fact, a white Lotus Esprit S1 Sports car – that also happens to be a submarine.
What’s that now?
Wet Nellie was the behind-the-scenes nickname given to this particular double-jobbing vehicle which is, of course, James Bond’s submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me. Following a post-filming promotional tour, Nellie went into a ten-year prepaid storage stint in Long Island. Once the ten years was up and the rent was unpaid, the whole lot was auctioned off and bought by a man who paid less than $100 for the unknown contents in 1987. Once he figured out what he had on his hands (apparently when a passer-by saw him towing it and informed him), the tool rental shop owner restored, and occasionally exhibited, the submarine/car until he sold it in 2013. For – wait for it – £550,000 to a little known chap by the name of Elon Musk. Anyone else get the feeling we’ll all be driving one in the future?
Up, up and away … and back again!
On January 21st, 2000, an actor filed a theft report with the LAPD. A comic book had been stolen from his collection – not just any comic book of course – titled “Action Comics No. 1”, it was the first Superman comic.
Some years later, a Californian collectibles expert was contacted by a man who had found something in a storage unit that he’d like to sell. It was, of course, a Superman comic. And it couldn’t be sold because it was the subject of a police investigation having been stolen from the home of none other than actor Nicolas Cage eleven years previously. Calling it an ‘act of divine providence’, Cage went on to sell the item for a whopping $2.1 million. We’d call that pretty divine alright!
Storage – the Final Frontier
Auction hunt TV shows are always good fun and you can be sure that the auctioned units will contain something interesting. In 2011, hosts Clinton Jones and Allen Haff of Auction Hunters bid $1500 on a storage unit near Cape Canaveral in Florida only to find inside a NASA countdown clock and a space rocket along with a trove of other space-related memorabilia.
As an aside, it seems that space-related finds aren’t a one off – according to entertainment, design and tech website, supercarblondie.com, as recently as July 2024 a non-celeb auction hunter paid $2,800 for a unit previously owned by an astronaut at auction. The finds ranged from the interesting – a photo of a NASA spaceship and a collection of astronaut patches; to the weird – a toilet; to the wonderful – a gold Rolex watch worth in the region of $20,000.
So there really is gold in them there units!
Sisters Are Storin’ It For Themselves
Following a 2002 house fire at her home, music legend Aretha Franklin rented a storage unit to keep her wardrobe safe. However time moved on and in 2011 the treasure trove of costumes and stage outfits came up for auction. The lucky highest bidder walked away with clothing, shoes and household items including a pink bustier and skirt she wore on stage with Rod Stewart and Dustin Hoffman and even Blues Brothers memorabilia including a tangerine and gold gown and a denim crew jacket. Speaking to the Detroit News at the time, the Queen of Soul described the haul as; “items that I didn’t want anymore and left in a storage locker … many years ago”.
Don’t Stop Till You Find The Stuff
With so many big names using self-storage for their remarkable belongings, it’s no surprise at all that even the Jacksons made use of this infinitely clever way of keeping your belongings safe and neatly packed away. In this instance, it was the paterfamilias – Joe Jackson – whose unit went up for auction in 2010. The good news for the lucky bidder was that the unit contained no less than 273 original songs by the King of Pop – Michael Jackson – including songs by the Jackson 5, solo tracks and duets including one with Tina Turner. And the value of all this? Estimated at over $50 million.
Unfortunately however, none of the songs can be released for all sorts of complicated legal reasons. That’s just too Bad.
We’ll Always Have Paris
Our final celeb storage tale is a cautionary one. Our story starts in 2005 when so-called nepo-baby hotel heiresses Paris and Nicky Hilton moved out of their Beverly Hills home and rented a storage unit to store their extensive selection of belongings. They arranged for a moving company to handle the rent but when they neglected to pay the bills the unit came up for auction and was snapped up for the paltry sum of $2775 by former Storage Wars personality Nabila Haniss. She, in turn, sold the contents on for $10 million.
Forget spleen letters and submarine cars, however – these contents contained tons of extremely personal items including nude photos, racy vids, 18 personal diaries, financial and medical information and lots more – all of which were then displayed on a website called ParisExposed.com.
Needless to say much legal carry on ensued with lawyers for the celeb socialite and heiress calling it ; “one of the most reprehensible invasions of privacy ever committed”, according to Reuters. And while the notorious website no longer exists, we all know that the internet never forgets – all of which leads to one big lesson – make sure the rent is paid, folks!
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