Posted on 06/01/2005 9:19:44 AM PDT by Graybeard58
CINCINNATI -- The first man to walk on the moon used to come into Marx's Barber Shop in Lebanon about every month for a trim.
That stopped when Neil Armstrong learned that owner Marx Sizemore picked up some of the former astronaut's hair from the floor of his shop and sold it for $3,000 to a Connecticut collector.
"I didn't deny it or anything," said Sizemore, who recently bought the shop. "I told him I did it."
A letter from Armstrong's lawyer threatens legal action if Sizemore does not return the hair or contribute $3,000 to a charity of Armstrong's choosing. It also asks Sizemore to pay Armstrong's legal expenses.
Sizemore said he sold the hair to an agent for John Reznikoff, a Westport, Conn., collector listed by Guinness World Records as having the largest collection of hair from historical celebrities.
The collection, insured for $1 million, includes hair from Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Napoleon and others.
Sizemore said he didn't initiate the sale -- the agent contacted him twice.
"At first, I told him no, I wasn't interested," Sizemore said. "He called me back; then he contacted me by mail."
Sizemore said the agent offered $3,000 for the hair.
"That's what he hit me with," Sizemore said.
This time, the offer was irresistible.
The price is hardly a record. Guinness gives that honor to clippings from the head of Elvis Presley, sold by Presley's personal barber, Homer "Gill" Gilleland, for $115,120 in an online auction in 2002.
Neil Armstrong is still a "name". At a 30th anniversary event near Houston's NASA (at a nearby park) they held a small celebration mostly for NASA employees old and new.
It took 6 Texas Rangers surrounding him to get him through that crowd (he DID shake hands along the way).
He doesn't like to be a commodity and I don't think he signs many autographs today.
Some other moonwalkers are upset. There is a print that they committed to signing (some who signed it have already passed away) that he still hasn't signed (to my knowledge) even though he pre-approved the artwork.
I want my hair back too.
Tort reform. I am thinking tort reform. The notion that Armstrong has a case makes my split ends ache.
If you set your trash on the curb, anyone who wants it can take it. If you let your locks fall on the floor, the same should apply. Buzz off, Neil.
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