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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.
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