Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
A celebrity’s trash is a pawnbroker’s treasure
Living in Beverly Hills but need a loan? Dina takes Oscars
HOLLYWOOD’S awards season is a celebration not just of movies, but the absurdly glamorous image of those who make them – the actors, directors and producers draped in designer clothes and jewels, triumphantly raising a trophy in an iconic image of success.
That’s why Yossi Dina’s office in Beverly Hills comes as something of a surprise. The 62- year- old Israeli- born “pawnbroker to the stars” sits behind a broad glass-topped desk cluttered with gold-toned knick-knacks – which on closer inspection turn out to be an assortment of Hollywood’s top prizes.
The 1977 Golden Globe for best drama, mounted on a marble base, sits behind three Grammy awards, a stack of papers and a takeaway coffee cup. Nearby, an Emmy trophy stands guard over a snarl of antique watches. “They look very beautiful on TV,” Dina shrugged.
Pawn shops like Dina’s give cash loans in exchange for collateral. If the borrower pays back the loan, plus interest, the collateral is returned. If the loan isn’t paid back, the pawnbroker keeps the property and usually resells it.
There are about 10 000 pawn shops in the US, lending an average of $150 (R1 941) at a time.
Quick cash, however, is not the kind of business you expect in Beverly Hills, one of the wealthiest communities in the US and home to entertainment icons including Taylor Swift, Rod Stewart and Sylvester Stallone.
But like the torrential rain outside that gives the lie to the image of ever-sunny California, Dina’s pawn shop is a window into the real lifestyles of the rich and famous – and the baubles they hock when times get tough. “Everyone needs money,” he said. “Even in Hollywood.”
There’s a diamond-studded lightning-bolt pendant in the shop window, next to a photo of Elvis wearing one a lot like it. A gold pen case, inscribed “To Sylvester from Elton 1990,” is displayed in a low-lit vitrine, along with a cheque signed by Marilyn Monroe.
Dina gave a loan against a life-sized motorised plastic alligator worth $10 000 that he said appeared in the 1994 Jim Carrey film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Three guitars and a jumble of leopard-spotted stage costumes take up his office sofa, the object of a “trade” he said he is arranging with a rock star’s son.
In a city where fame is the ultimate currency, a celebrity’s trash can be treasure.
Wealthy fans, collectors and museums pay vast sums for objects that, without a celebrity name tag, might end up in the rubbish bin. An auction of Whitney Houston’s cast-offs, including an expired passport and a pair of sneakers given to the singer by Michael Jordan, raised more than half-a-million dollars for her heirs last year.
High- profile auctions of entertainer keepsakes are held regularly just down the street from Dina’s store.
But pawning, or even selling privately, he points out, is faster and quieter. “There’s no shame... You want the money, you come in the back door and you have it.”
In addition to the loan business, Dina buys and sells valuables outright, and he is discreet about how he acquired some of the shop’s more noteworthy stock.
But he said both sellers and borrowers are less likely to be Hollywood icons themselves than their family and friends.
Who buys them is trickier. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who award the Oscars, prohibits winners from selling trophies awarded after 1950, and has taken legal action against rare instances of grey-market sales.
The Television Academy stopped the sale of an Emmy in the Whitney Houston auction for the same reason.
No matter, said Dina – business is business. “If somebody will come in with an Oscar and he needs a loan, I will give him a loan.” – dpa