“Forgotten Hollywood”- Neiman’s Baseball Art Hits Home Run!

Posted on May 18, 2014 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here… marilyn monroe baseball

   A collection of original baseball art created by celebrated sports artist LeRoy Neiman has sold for nearly $500,000 at auction. Heritage Auctions says the top-selling ball depicted artwork of Marilyn Monroe and was signed by Joe DiMaggio, her second husband. What makes it rare is that DiMaggio, who was briefly married to the actress, famously refused to sign anything related to her. It sold for $95,600.

   Among the other highlights was an autographed 1995 work of Mickey Mantle swinging a bat. A baseball illustrating Bobby Thomson’s shot heard round the world sold for $26,680. Thomson’s homer off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers clinched the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants.

   Neiman was the official painter of five separate Olympiads, and one of the contributing artists at Playboy Magazine for many years. LeRoy used colored magic markers for many of the balls, drawing some at games. Altogether, the online sale that ended early Saturday fetched a total of $491,748.

   Leroy Neiman died in 2012.

———————————————————— 490px-Jerry_Vale_1965

   Jerry Vale (right), the beloved crooner known for his high-tenor voice and romantic songs in the 1950s and early 1960s, has died. His rendition of Volare, Innamorata, and Al Di La became classic Italian-American songs. He also appeared in GoodFellas, Casino and the cable series The Sopranos. Vale was a friend of fellow Italian-American crooner Frank Sinatra, and he was an honorary pallbearer at Sinatra’s funeral on May 20th, 1998.

   Jerry Vale was 83.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2014 at 3:39 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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