Elizabethtown Optical & Hearing Aid Center

Jeffrey L. Smith, Owner, Board Certified Hearing In

Laura E. Smith, Secretary

 

Article that ran in the Elizabethtown News Enterprise

Jeff Smith sports the hat worn by Lou Gossett Jr. in the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman” on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at Elizabethtown Optical and Hearing Aid Center. Smith, a hearing instrument specialist and optician, bought the hat and other items at a charity auction.

ELIZABETHTOWN — The 1967 mortgage on Dean Martin’s first Beverly Hills home: $125,000.

A coffee cup saucer used by Willie Mays in 2006: $40,000.

Having the deed to Dino’s house hanging in your business’ lobby: Priceless.

Well, at least for Jeff Smith, a Martin fan who shelled out $250 for the deed framed with the star’s picture. Smith, who owns Elizabethtown Optical and Hearing Aid Center, bought that, the hat Louis Gossett Jr. wore in “An Officer and a Gentleman” and several mementoes from astronaut Buzz Aldrin at a fundraising auction in Minnesota last month.

Smith passed on the coffee saucer.

He did, however, at least try to buy a signed photo of this area’s most famous son — Abraham Lincoln — taken three months before the president’s assassination. It went for $5,000.

“My pockets weren’t that deep,” he said.

Autographs were all the rage that night. Somebody even bid on a tuxedo shirt worn by “Tonight Show” host and event emcee Jay Leno. He took it off backstage, signed it and sold it for about $7,000.

Also at the gala, Mays, a legendary Giants’ slugger, signed his coffee cup saucer with a Sharpie and gave it up for bidding, which began at $100 and climbed to the price of a Lexus.

Money spent at the auction — part of the Starkey Hearing Foundation’s annual gala — goes to a good cause.

“Basically, it helps people around the world who can’t afford hearing aids, especially kids,” Smith said. He plans to go on two mission trips — “working vacations” — next year to fit the free devices.

“We’re proud to be a part of it, because you can help a lot of people,” said Smith, who sells Starkey products.

Not only does he get to help hearing-impaired people, but he also gets an authentic piece of the Rat Pack.

“I’ve always been a huge Dean Martin fan,” he said. “I’ve got practically all of his CDs.”

And he plays them, even though some people look it him “kind of funny,” he said.

Now he has Martin’s deed.

 

As for Gossett’s hat, Smith considers it a “piece of history.” The actor did, after all, win an Oscar for the gunnery sergeant role that called for him to wear it. Smith keeps the $500, apparently suede hat in a transparent case.

Smith wasn’t in the military, but he’s a fan of the movie and Gossett.

While the hat and the Martin deed are displayed, the $350 worth of astronaut memorabilia — including a signed Life magazine cover from 1969 — is not up yet. Some of it could be shortly, though. (Smith has an aerospace connection: His fiancée’s father helped design a lunar landing module, he said.)

While the auction items are displayed at Smith’s Woodland Drive store, you don’t have to want a hearing aid to see them.

“If somebody wants to stop in and take a look at the stuff, sure,” he said.

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