Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Mary Tyler Moore — aka Mary Richards — of course.
Doyle Auctions perked up the day on Thursday with an announcement that “The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore” will go up for auction in June, including three renderings of the Minneapolis statue that celebrates the late actor’s hat-throwing moment from the opening sequence of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
Also included in 348 lots is various memorabilia from the actor’s career, including original artwork, press kits, awards and other ephemera, in addition to jewelry, silver, Americana and other collections from various eras of her life that ultimately were culled from her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, which was also recently sold.
“The sale offers an exciting opportunity to acquire property from the personal collection of one of television’s most influential figures,” the auction house stated.
The auction for Moore’s collection is being handled by Doyle, a New York-based house with branches across the United States, and the items are consigned by Dr. S. Robert Levine, Moore’s widower.
While the sale will take place at Doyle New York on Wednesday, June 4, it will also be open to live bidding online (in addition to other ways to submit bids), plus exhibit previews in both Beverly Hills and New York. Register/view the collection now at doyle.com/auctions.
A ‘Minnesota’ icon
Moore, a native not of Minnesota but of New York, died at the age of 80 in 2017. In addition to her volunteer work fighting Type 1 diabetes and as an animal advocate, the star had many big roles in her acting life, from her role on TV as Laura Petrie in “The Dick Van Dyke Show” to her performance as Beth, a mother frozen by grief, in “Ordinary People,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination.
But, especially here in Minnesota, she is perhaps best known for her role as Mary Richards.
It was in the 1970s when Moore, via “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” broke new ground with her Emmy-winning portrayal as Richards, a 30-year-old single woman who moves to Minneapolis to focus on her career as an associate producer at WJM-TV News.
In this award-winning ensemble show, Richards lives in the cozy, third-floor apartment of a house in the upscale Kenwood neighborhood, a house that has had fans driving by it ever since.
Many years later, in 2002, Moore was back in Minnesota for the unveiling of the bronze statue by Wisconsin sculptor Gwendolyn Gillen depicting the actor’s legendary tam toss at Seventh Street and Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis.
At the time, the Pioneer Press asked Moore if she thought the gesture would become so iconic.
“Not at all,” she said. “I didn’t even know it would make it into the opening. I remember it was a freezing day in February when we shot it.”
The collection
Lot 73, described by Doyle as “Three renderings of the Mary Tyler Moore TV Land statue in Minneapolis,” has an estimated value of $200 to $300.
The description on the auction site includes the background of the renderings:
“Three renderings were sent to Mary Tyler Moore for review of the proposed TV Land sculptural portrait of her in downtown Minneapolis, with a letter from TV Land about the project. Each mounted to boards about 23 1/2 x 16 inches. One with a printed notice over the image.”
TV Land commissioned the sculpture as the cable company broadcast syndicated episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
Other career memorabilia in the auction includes the “M” mounted in Richards’ apartment ($5,000-$8,000); original Al Hirschfeld drawings highlighting Moore’s roles in “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” ($4,000-$6,000 each); an unused ticket to “The Last Show,” the 1977 series finale, along with a photo of the cast’s final curtain call ($400-600).
The “M,” which includes Moore’s fading signature on the back, is particularly recognizable to fans of the show.
“The ‘M’ from Mary Richards’ apartment is simply iconic,” says Peter Costanzo, a senior vice president at Doyle who is readying the career memorabilia for the upcoming auction.”It can be seen in almost every episode, starting in the first episode, and then it’s in one of the last scenes of the last episode. So that is a truly identifiable piece, it’s wonderful to have it in the auction.”
In addition, there are vintage publicity photographs, press kits, sketches, notes, career awards and more, including a signed photo of Moore by Annie Leibovitz as well as an unsigned Polaroid of Moore and Dick Van Dyke dressed as clowns for a famed 1995 photo shoot for “Vanity Fair.”
Beyond her career in show biz, Moore’s collection includes designer bags, artists’ portraits of her, silver pieces, jewelry, vintage toys, and other items from her home and life.
“If you notice, our sale is organized in a very specific way,” Costanzo told the Pioneer Press on the lots. “The sale opens with a large selection of jewelry and handbags and leads into the memorabilia before leading into the wonderful collections of American and Asian antiques and really liveable items.
“Mary Tyler Moore had previously lived in Millbrook, New York, and also in Manhattan,” Costanzo said. “Her Millbrook home was filled with American antiques, many of which are whimsical and lots of fun. And then her Manhattan apartment was more styled for the city. But she came to combine both properties into a large home in Greenwich, Connecticut, which is where material was coming from now.”
The lots provide a glimpse into Moore’s personal style as well as her career.
“These items ran through the lens of Mary Tyler Moore’s creative vision,” said Costanzo. “She selected these pieces, she was very tasteful, she was definitely a collector of these items.”
Fans could possibly bid successfully on some of these items without spending a fortune. They probably wouldn’t cost too much to ship to Minnesota, either, or require much room to display, like Lot 214, a selection of about 40 small dog figurines, with an auction estimate of $200-$300.
“Most items in the sale are small,” Costanzo says. “It should be very easy for fans out there to select a couple of items that they like and not have to worry about making space for them, because most things will fit on a tabletop or shelf.”
Visit Doyle.com for more info.
Jewels and tuna fish
This is not the first auction of Moore’s belongings: A 2023 Sotheby’s auction, “Magnificent Jewels,” included jewels from Moore’s collection, with proceeds benefiting The Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, the organization working to end vision loss and blindness from diabetes; Moore, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in her 30s, suffered from related visual impairment.
While this upcoming auction of her life’s collection also includes valuable jewelry, what Moore treasured most in life couldn’t be measured in the dollar value of jewels.
In footage from her bridal shower shown in the 2023 documentary, “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” Moore recalls a simple but priceless moment: Levine made her a sandwich.
“He got up at 12 or 1 in the morning and made a tuna fish sandwich — not for him and me, but for me,” Moore told her friends, as reported in People magazine. “And it was the most loving thing that anybody had ever done for me before in my life.
“”I’ve been given jewels. I’ve been given a lot of things that we all think are obviously of value,” Moore said in the clip.
But those material gifts, Moore told her friends, couldn’t compare to the gesture of a sandwich made with love and care, “from someone who gave it only to me.”
Originally Published:
