Bela Lugosi’s PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE Cane Sells for $10,000

Ed Wood’s 1959 masterwork PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE is nowhere near the worst movie ever made, as anyone who’s seen it might testify. What can be said about it? It defied any traditional movie-making conventions and does it without any shame whatsoever. Wood had to have the cast baptized in order to make this bizarre film, and that’s the least strange thing about it. The original title Grave Robbers from Outer Spacewas later ditched, but Criswell mentions it during the intro nevertheless.

PLAN 9 was promoted as “almost starring Bela Lugosi” because he died before the film could even get finished, and the footage of Lugosi from this film was originally filmed by Wood to be included as a part of his movie THE GHOUL ON THE MOON, which never got made, so Wood just shoehorned those scenes (which just involve Lugosi walking around with a cane by his house and later by a cemetery) in PLAN 9. Wood’s wife’s chiropractor Tom Mason substituted Lugosi (despite looking nothing like him). Now that cane that Lugosi carried in the film has sold at auction, and the price it fetched was more than the entire budget of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE!

It was a simple Faux-bamboo wood cane with carved head and metal tip. The cane belonged to Bela Lugosi during his final years, when Edward D. Wood, Jr. famously befriended the nearly-forgotten horror star and cast him in his films. In the film, Lugosi appears as an elderly widower walking with this cane, and as the Dracula-like “Ghoul Man” that character becomes. This cane eventually wound up in the legendary collection of editor/collector Forrest J. Ackerman, who was acquainted with both Lugosi and Wood. Ignored in his own lifetime, Ed Wood’s films eventually gained a massive cult following. In his 1994 film Ed Wood, director Tim Burton recreated Wood (Johnny Depp) filming those improvised scenes with Lugosi (Martin Landau), who is seen holding a reproduction of this cane.

This week, that cane sold this week for $10,000 at an auction of Hollywood memorabilia presented by Turner Classic Movies (TCM).   The buyer has been identified as Jason Insalaco of Los Angeles, California, who is a renowned collector of rare Ed Wood artifacts and props.

According to the original price projection, the cane was expected to command between $1,000 and $1,500, but dozens of bidders from around the globe participated in the auction to exceed expectations ten-fold at the closing gavel on Monday, November 23, 2015 in New York. Insalaco expressed his enthusiasm for winning the auction: “This treasure will not be stowed in prop purgatory. I look forward to exhibiting this exceptional piece of Hollywood history along with other never-before-seen memorabilia from ‘Plan 9’ and Ed Wood’s personal collection.” Insalaco continued, “The fact that Bela personally used this cane provides unique appeal beyond its movie prop prominence. This item has an emotional and historical resonance for Lugosi, Wood, and cinema enthusiasts from around the world. I am honored to be its new caretaker.”

Jason Insalaco possesses possibly one the largest collections of Ed Wood artifacts, personal items, and memorabilia. Jason is the nephew of the late Paul Marco best known for his role as “Kelton The Cop” in “Plan 9 From Outer Space” and reprised in other Wood films.  Jason is a Realtor, lawyer and owner of Kelton Properties, a full-service real estate brokerage named after the memorable character.  After years of exhaustive search, Jason located and restored Ed Wood’s long lost television pilot titled “Final Curtain.” It debuted it at Slamdance in 2012.