Posted on 07/18/2025 8:17:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin
A prop central to the celebrated opening scene of Citizen Kane - widely regarded as one of the best films ever made - has sold at auction for $14.75m (£11m).
The wooden Rosebud sled, one of at least three known to have survived, was long thought to have been lost until it was given to director Joe Dante in 1984, saving it from destruction.
He went on to use it as a reference for fans (known as an Easter egg) in films he directed, including Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
It is now the second most expensive piece of memorabilia to have ever been sold - a pair of ruby slippers used in The Wizard of Oz sold for $32m (£23.9) in December.
The identity of the sled's buyer was not revealed.
Other Rosebuds made for the film have been sold in the past, including one to legendary director Steven Spielberg, who later donated it to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Watch it while playing the drinking game to the word “Mister”. Good luck!
Citizen Kane I thought was terrible, and GWTW is boring for me. After reading how great “The General” is (silent movie with Buster Keaton) I thought I would give it a try and made my little kids (5 to 8) watch it with me. We all thought it was great! I was surprised that my kids liked it so much.
It even got us on a kick of watching other great silent movies.
The General is awesome. Keaton was one heck of a daredevil.
I felt the same way, and I thought the ending was dumb.
Citizen Kane is a lightly fictionalized biography of William Randolph Hearst. The actress Marion Davies was Hearst’s mistress. Heart’s nickname for Davies’ cl*tor*s was Rosebud. The veiled use of Rosebud in the film infuriated Hearst and was a prime reason why he unsuccessfully attempted to block its distribution.
All Hearst did was call attention to her clit. Lol.
For some last memories can hurt the most.
I have a problem with all the hype of Casablanca. It’s a good movie, but I can’t understand how it’s lauded as so “great”.
It’s a classic. Lots of innovation in cameras, lenses, etc.
Wells was a young genius.
Very topical movie at the time.
On the Internet Movie Database ‘Citizen Kane’ ranks as #107. #1 is The Shawshank Redemption.
Casablanca has the most famous quotes. ‘Round up the usual suspects ‘, ‘I’ m shocked , SHOCKED to find out gambling is going on here! and ‘Here’s looking at you kid’
There are some who doubt that story, saying that Marion Davies had plenty of opportunities to embarrass Hearst and did not.
Of his work that I’ve seen, favorite is the Falstaff one. He understood the role, maybe saw himself as being a kindred soul with Shakespeare’s disreputable knight.
But something about his movies(films?) always seem to have bad sound. A re-mastered for sound “The Chimes at Midnight” would be an cool thing.
It is a rather boring story--a rancher's daughter leaves the ranch and heads for the big city looking for a husband but returns after three or four failed marriages.
If you and your kids liked the Buster Keaton film, if you ever get the chance to see one of his films in a theatre with live piano or organ music (as movies were presented years ago) you should do it. It’s amazing and not to be missed.
Just the other day I was looking up old movie-star home prices and came across the below site. Excerpt from a much longer article on Buster Keaton and his homes. I didn’t realize he was that big of a star back in the day.
https://www.hiltonhyland.com/post/legendary-estates-of-beverly-hills-pamela-drive/
When Buster Keaton showed guests around his grand Spanish-style mansion on a three-and-one-half-acre estate a block behind the Beverly Hills Hotel, he sometimes joked, “I took a lot of pratfalls to build that dump.”
The twenty-room mansion was hardly a dump; it was one of the finest homes of the 1920s film stars....
[His parents] performed a medicine show and vaudeville act of acrobatics, comedy, and music. While playing in Piqua, Kansas, first child Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895. He appeared onstage with his parents the next day.
When the three-year-old took a tremendous tumble down a flight of stairs and got up unharmed, famed magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, a friend and the child’s godfather said, “What a buster your kid took!” (The word buster meant a dangerous fall.)
Agree there are doubters. Don’t believe Davies would’ve been the source for the story. She remained loyal to Hearst from their meeting in 1916 to his death in 1951. It likely came from a source knowledgeable of their relationship.
Don’t say that word, or else...
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