Fonzie's Triumph to auction. Again

September 2015

Happy Days | Profiles in History | Bonhams 

Auction maestros Bonhams tried to flog this bike back in November 2011 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles (see Sump November 2011). The estimate was £39,000 - £53,000. But the bike didn't sell.

Now it's back on the board, and the figure of £100,000 is being bandied around. But it's not Bonhams pushing it. Instead, auction house Profiles in History, which specialises in Hollywood memorabilia, reckons it can do what Bonhams couldn't and find a big money buyer. Fonzie's leather jacket is also up for grabs, and the estimate for that is said to be £30,000.

Now, we regularly watched Happy Days, the TV sitcom that made actor Henry Winkler famous in the Fonzie role. And okay, the show was amusing enough. Sometimes. But whoahh! REALITY CHECK ALERT! We're not talking about Marlon Brando's Triumph here. Or James Dean's Triumph. Or even one of our Triumphs. So £100,000 looks about as likely as the second coming.

But okay, in the heat of an auction, people get carried away—and you'd need to be carried away in a straight jacket if you paid that much money for this 1949 Triumph TR5 Trophy scrambler. So okay, there's a Bud Ekins connection (Ekins supplied the bike to the studio). But that still ain't one hundred big ones.

Or is it?

The Trophy will be auctioned either tomorrow, 29th September 2015, or the following day (we've had conflicting information on this point). The famous leather jacket is also going on the block. We'll be watching carefully, so come back and see us in 24 hours or so and see what's gone down, huh?

www.profilesinhistory.com

— Big End

Update: The bike (Lot 1065) didn't sell.