Detroit collector Tracy Aldrich & her one-of-a-kind collection: monsters, magic, vintage toys, books, art, spookshow memorabilia, and more!

Detroit collector Tracy Aldrich & her one-of-a-kind collection: monsters, magic, vintage toys, books, art, spookshow memorabilia, and more! - stracy20250714 115642

I first met the dazzling Tracy Aldrich during a public showcase of her spook show poster collection at the Ira Township Library. The collection is so rare, parts of it were once photographed by Monsterwax for their Spook Show card series back in 2011 (when it still belonged to Tracy’s friend Ed Shea of New York City.)

As soon as I saw the collection and noticed Tracy wearing an H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society t-shirt, I knew she was a fellow kindred spirit of the weird. She and her husband, the famous Detroit magician and mentalist Ron Aldrich, and I quickly became friends.

She invited me over and her graciousness and hospitality has been phenomenal. I opened the door and my eyeballs popped out of my head like in an old cartoon. Immediate glances took in a miniature iron maiden, an autographed photo of Theda Bara, carnival sideshow trinkets, monster movie posters, lithographed circus blocks, carnival games, hand-lettered signs, and more.

Touring her collection revealed a stunning array artfully displayed in old, tempered glass top jewelry store cabinets and barrister bookcases, with items in every room of the house, covering every available bit of wall space. Fortune telling machines, radio show premium prizes, a carnival sledgehammer, shrunken heads, antique German Halloween decorations, a praxinoscope, Charles Crandall lithographed wooden toys from the mid-1800’s, old occult books and magic props, a wooden rocket ship coin-op ride, and oh so much more.

Tracy’s collection is completely inter-fused with her living space. It is a psychedelic melding and merging of passion, purpose, daily living, and monster-mania. For me, it’s like a dream come true. Touring her collection feels like being miniaturized and waltzing thru some grand diorama that unfolds and expands with each rippling step.

A retired librarian and former museum docent, she has vast encyclopedic knowledge across a wealth of different topics, and a mania for acquiring the rare and unique.

Tracy’s main collection contains various sub-collections and even tertiary collections within those. There are many layers to this collecting onion. It’s like living inside a vintage pop-up book. Her heroic accumulation of rarities has been expertly assembled into a spectacular one-of-a-kind collection.

Let’s hear it from Tracy herself and let her guide us on a thrilling tour of her collection of collections.

Bio and background? Where were you born? Where’d you grow up? Parents point of origin and family heritage?

Detroit collector Tracy Aldrich & her one-of-a-kind collection: monsters, magic, vintage toys, books, art, spookshow memorabilia, and more! - 1000szchhx

“I’m a small-town Michigander, born and raised here. I grew up in the tiny town of Anchorville, along the shores of Lake St. Clair’s Anchor Bay. My mother’s family originally emigrated here to Michigan from Germany and Holland in the 1800s and worked as farmers and cabinet makers. My maternal grandfather was a draftsman, first for GE, and the family lived in Connecticut for a while, following his job, before resettling again here permanently when his work brought them back to Detroit. My father’s family had lived in Michigan for generations and were farmers and skilled tradesmen.

My father Joseph Harnish was an exceptionally cool police chief, first in Ira Township and later in Armada, Michigan. As part of his training for his new troopers, one of his rules was: “you don’t drive past any kid’s lemonade stand without stopping to buy a cup, then make sure you let them try out the patrol car’s lights and siren.” He was also a US Army veteran, a history buff, a youth archery coach, and an amateur puppeteer.

My mother drove a school bus for over 32 years while somehow retaining her sanity. She is a uniquely multitalented individual, with car restoration, upholstery, woodworking, sewing, bird watching, and gardening among her many hobbies. I have inherited none of her talents.

Fun facts: my mother was briefly a nun. My great grandfather’s house, which eventually became our home, had a blind pig in the cellar in the 1920s (Canada is just across the water, rum running was huge in our hometown area). And I had a great aunt, born in 1872, named Appolonia.”

Were your parents collectors?

No, not really, although they both loved history and reading. I think those are both interests that are closely aligned with collecting, and I feel that collecting for the joy of learning more about the past through its artifacts is one of the best reasons to collect. Although neither of my parents were collectors in the sense of accumulating large numbers of things, they both liked to save bits of history, learn about them, and then share them with others. My father, who had been a soldier as well as a police officer, would often make educational displays of historical military items that he would loan to the VFW or other groups, and my mother, who as I said, is a uniquely multi-talented individual, once sated her curiosity about the history of the Ford Motor Company by buying a run-down 1924 Model T, disassembling it in our driveway, restoring and rebuilding it, and then driving it to church every Sunday to give everyone rides after Mass.

I have 3 siblings, but only 1 is a collector: my brother Jody Harnish in Ann Arbor, a fellow librarian who collects letterpress type, old printing presses, and typecasting equipment, and even has his own, absolutely massive, linotype machine, rescued from the remains of the Jackson Typesetting Company. He is actually one of the co-founders of The Printing Stewards, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the history of metal type and its casting and printing traditions, that he started in 2019 with Fritz Swanson from the University of Michigan. They are doing great work right now curating the collection of the late Greg Walters, a huge figure in the world of metal typecasting. Jody also created the Letterpress Lab at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Tracy’s husband Ron Aldrich is a famous Detroit magician

Detroit collector Tracy Aldrich & her one-of-a-kind collection: monsters, magic, vintage toys, books, art, spookshow memorabilia, and more! - tracy50451

Ron and Tracy Aldrich have a May – December romance. Although he is much older than her, they “just clicked instantly,” and have been together for over 25 years, married for almost 10.

Ron’s family came from Wales (on his father’s side) and Quebec (on his mother’s.). His British grandmother Lottie was a tea leaf reader, who read for clients in the parlor of their modest Southwest Detroit home. Ron as a child would listen in, became inspired, and used some of her techniques many years later in his own mentalism act. He started doing card tricks at age seven, and quickly graduated to full basement magic shows for friends and neighbors.

Ron’s “day job” was working at the Detroit News, where he did advertising design and layout, retiring in 1991. He worked at the News for decades, but his real career was as a magical entertainer. “He was a great one,” says Tracy. “He performed very classy, elegant close-up magic and mentalism (mind-reading) in a variety of choice venues and has been called ‘Detroit’s Gentleman Mind Reader.’ He is in the Hall of Fame at the American Museum of Magic (in Marshall, Michigan), and he mentored and taught generations of metro Detroit magicians.”

Tracy said of Ron: “We met 25 years ago and have been together ever since he enticed me at a library event where he was performing, by suggesting a book for me to read. He said, ‘here’s my number: give me a call when you’ve read it and we can talk about it.’ That’s how you pick up librarians!” she laughs, then says, “there is obviously a large age difference between us, but it never mattered…we have been best friends and deeply in love since that first magical night at the library.”

Tracy reported that Ron “has always encouraged and supported me in my collecting endeavors. No matter what ridiculous object I wanted to bring home, or my level of fiscal irresponsibility, he always said yes. Actual phone conversations we have had: ‘You want me to leave my car in the driveway from now on so you can put a coin operated rocket ship ride in our garage? Of course, I’ll go move it right now.’ And: ‘Say that again? You’re at a garage sale, and they have a used elephant saddle for sale? And you want to buy it, but it smells like elephant? Sure, go ahead and get it, I’m sure we can get rid of the smell somehow.’ (We couldn’t. It actually made your eyes water, the smell was so bad. But he never complained.) And, ‘you were on your way to get groceries….but there was a yard sale….with vintage Weebles….still in their original boxes….and so that is why we have no groceries. Completely understandable.’ He was just the best,” says Tracy fondly.

From talking with other collectors, Tracy says “I now realize this was a rare quality: many people’s spouses do not understand or appreciate their collecting hobby, and said collections get funneled or restricted to a basement, attic, or garage, and are a source of conflict in the marriage. Ron enthusiastically embraced my interests and let me spread them through our whole house.

And even more than that, he was interested in my collections; he always wanted to learn about them, whether it was something in his wheelhouse (magic posters) or not (dolls.) My joy was his joy, he would say, but also, he was just a very curious person; he loved learning, about anything and everything. In fact, that was the way he would close out his magic and mentalism shows, with the line, ‘stay curious,’ as he said goodnight to his audience. I think that is a very good guideline to live by…’stay curious.’ And collecting helps us do that.”

Ron has lived a long life, full of fabulous adventures and great stories. Unfortunately, much of this is now locked away behind aphasia and other issues resulting from a fall, brain injury, and stroke in November of 2023. Tracy said, “I wish you could have met him before, you would have really enjoyed his stories of his crazy adventures. In the 1960s he hitchhiked through every state in the US, every province of Canada, and into Mexico! He pulled a near-criminal prank as a child in Detroit involving Limburger cheese! And I’m pretty sure he knew Helen McGowan, the famous Motor City Madam. “

She continued, “He quite literally made new friends every time he went out, and he was brilliant, and wise, and funny, and charming, and absolutely wonderful. He was a memory expert, and a mind reader, and an incredibly talented magician, and a glorious conversationalist. The damage done to his brain, and memory, and speaking ability, is even more horrible because of those things.” Tracy is currently caring for Ron at home, where they began hospice recently.

Ron is featured in the dedication to Todd Karr’s book, Anneman’s Enigma and has effects published in Lint: Pocket Stuff for Close Up Magicians, by John Luka

LINT book by John Luka and Sleightly Out of Order by Patrick G. Redford

Sleightly Out of Order – Patrick G. Redford Presents

Tracy’s Library and Museum Experiences

Tracy said, “I’ve always just really been into museums and libraries, and since I was a child, I knew those were the places at which I wanted to eventually work and make my career. Ira Township Library was my childhood library in the 1970s, and it led to my dream to become a librarian and run a small rural library just like it someday. But I also loved museums, and for awhile I wasn’t sure which route I wanted to go.

My focus in undergrad Anthropology at the University of Michigan was museum education, and I did my Honors thesis (a sort of mini dissertation) as a research project on the children’s tours at the UM Exhibit Museum of Natural History. While there I also I worked at both the Exhibit Museum and the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.

At the Exhibit Museum, when we led Prehistoric Life tours for school children, we would let them hold a coprolite (fossilized poop) but not tell them what it was until they were already holding it. Shrieks would ensue. It was our noisiest tour.

Eventually I settled on libraries as a more practical career choice, to the disappointment of my Anthropology advisor, Dr. Richard Ford, a brilliant academic. Nonetheless, he wrote the recommendation that helped me get into U of M’s library school. After graduation with my Master’s degree, I first worked as a branch head in the Monroe County Library System for two years. I was there

during the infamous “Madonna Sex book” controversy, the first of the modern book banning hysterias, which led to threats of violence against our director. It seemed ridiculous and impossible at the time, but apparently it was only a sign of things to come, given the current book banning efforts underway throughout the country.

Next I was a children’s librarian at the Sterling Heights Public Library for 15 years; and then a Library Director at the Ruth Hughes Memorial District Library (in Imlay City) for 12 years. After Ron’s injury and illness, I left my director job and took a small, part time job back at my childhood library, the Ira Township Library in Fair Haven, part of the St. Clair County system, where I was back to having fun doing children’s library programs and talking to patrons about books at the checkout desk. That’s where I met Ryan, when I did the Spook Show presentation in October of 2024.

It’s nice to have come full circle: my childhood library, where I practically lived in the summers, is what inspired me to become a librarian. It was a tiny library in a tiny town serving as a window onto the larger world. And I was happy and proud to be there for what was the end of my career.

Looking back, I’m especially grateful that I got to be a children’s librarian at the time the Harry Potter books came out. That was (no pun intended) an absolutely magical time to be involved in the world of children’s books. One of my strongest memories from that time, though, didn’t involve children at all, but an elderly man who came to my desk one day during that long lull between a couple of the Harry Potter books. He said to me, ‘I have a terminal illness, and I’m going to die soon. Do you know what’s going to happen to Harry? I can’t stand the thought of never finding out what happens in the story.’
Of course, I didn’t know, none of us did (well, maybe Alan Rickman after that phone call from JK Rowling when he was threatening to quit the series) but I gave him my best guesses. And then I cried. I think of him often still, and of the incredible power that stories can have for people.”

How/when/why did you get into collecting?

“Well, the book collecting just happened organically….I learned to read early, and I was insatiable. I read constantly, everywhere, I couldn’t bear to be without a book, ‘just in case.’ I still feel sort of naked if I go somewhere without a book. And so they just piled up over the years.

I grew up in the 1970s, with the great Leonard Nimoy In Search Of TV show (1976-82) covering mysterious phenomena, and I credit that show for inspiring my love of the spooky, occult, and strange.

The toys and posters and carnival stuff and rides and whatnot….I suppose they started with my teddy bear, strange though that may sound. My first non-book collection was antique teddy bears, and it happened like this: I had a lot of health issues as a kid and spent a lot of time in the hospital. My teddy bear was my constant companion, and no matter what horrible thing had been done to me at the hospital that day, he always made me feel better afterward. Sometimes, after a particularly unpleasant visit, I’d get to purchase a stuffed animal from the hospital gift shop. And wow, that made me feel even better! I began to think, if one teddy bear makes me feel this good, imagine how good it would feel to have 5? or 10? or 20? I assumed the joy and comfort would increase exponentially. (As I read that now, I think, gee, I sound like a 7 year old addict….) I of course didn’t have the money to start collecting expensive antique bears, so instead I read everything I could find about them.

Anyway, that’s how it started, with one well worn and loved teddy bear, which led to learning about the history of the teddy bear through library books, and then the teddy bears needed some antique doll companions, and then the dolls needed dollhouses, and they both needed rocking horses to ride, and the rocking horses led to carousel horses, and the carousel horses led to carnival rides and games, and the carnival stuff led to sideshows, which led to magic, which led to spook shows, which led to Halloween, which led to Christmas and on and on it went!

I once went on a teddy bear collectors tour of England that was just marvelous, led by famous bear collectors and authors, Terry and Doris Michaud. I learned so much from them. The oldest teddy bears dating from the time of Teddy Roosevelt (1906-08) are of course the scarcest. The Laughing Roosevelt Bear with teeth made of milk glass, for example, which was created in honor of Roosevelt and his toothy grin, is one of the scarcest bears. I eventually found one, after years of hunting (and some serious fiscal soul-searching).

I love history, and so my favorite items are often those with intriguing provenance. One of my bears is a common 1930’s-era English bear that belonged to a little girl whose father was an official during the British Raj in India. She wrote everything down that she saw and experienced, in a little sort of diary for the bear. This bear accompanied her on elephant rides through the jungle, tiger hunts, meeting Raj high officials, etc. It’s an incredible feeling to hold him and think about the places he’s been and the things he’s seen.”

Please describe your collection of collections in detail. Can you list the sub-collections and anything else you want people to know?

“Wow, this is a hard question, as there are so many collections within The Collection! This is nowhere near complete, but here is my best effort at a list:

Books

All sorts, but a few big sub-collections: antiquarian books on the paranormal, occult, and cryptozoology; vintage “weird” books on strange subjects; magic books, especially those on seance and spiritualist type acts; miniature books, both antique and handmade modern artisan; old children’s books; and lots of books on antique and vintage toy and holiday collecting. Also a huge collection of vintage WOW magazines, the fabulous kids’ punch-out activity magazine from the 1980s.

Ephemera

Original tickets from stage medium acts (late 1800s – early 1900s) and spook shows (1950s – 60s); original flyers, handbills, window cards, posters, and promotional materials for spook shows, sideshow acts, and monster movies from the 1920s – 60s; antique Halloween and Christmas postcards; antique and vintage Valentines; antique and vintage “tall tale” postcards; antique photographs of children with their toys, 1800s – 1940s; Victorian ‘scrap’ albums of die cut images, including the Krampus.

Weird Old Psychological and I.Q. Testing Kits

Original Rorschach inkblots from the 1940s; the bizarre Szondi test from 1935; Stoelting pictorial completion tests from the late 1900s.

Vintage spook show posters, window cards, standees, tickets, and advertising and related material, including some posters, window cards, and standees that were photographed and used (before I purchased them from a friend) to make the Spook Show trading card sets put out by Monsterwax. Some favorites include an 1884 book of ghost illusions called Spectropia, and a variety of posters: Saxona’s Ghost Show (1935) a very rare framed original, Dr. Dracula’s Living Nightmares (by a magician named Card Mondor, known for the Vampire Verga’s Midnight Bloodbath illusion), Kirma’s Ghost Party at the drive-in (one of the most desirable spook show posters), and my personal favorite poster is Kara Kum’s Regurgitating Horrors.
Vintage magic props, tricks, and posters.
Vintage monster movie posters from really bad movies with really great marketing art directors.

Vintage Carnival, Circus, Magic, and Sideshow Stuff

Games, Hand-Lettered Signs, Souvenirs, Equipment, Ride Parts

Two duck ponds; a monster shooting gallery game; a variety of knockdown punks including one from Boblo Island; an old milk bottle knockdown game with a gaffed bottle – has a lead weight inside it to make it much harder to actually knock down; old cast iron shooting gallery targets; a ball toss game that is much harder than it looks; a antique roulette type wheel; an antique carousel horse in the “stargazer” pose, made by Herschell in the mid to late 1900s; a hand-painted, hand-lettered sideshow banner for a monster-themed carnival wax museum attraction; old hand-lettered signs from various games and concessions – I’m fascinated by the skill and artistry that went into painting these; a giant clown head trash can made by Game Time of Litchfield, Michigan; antique souvenir porcelain figurines of Chang and Eng, the famous Siamese twins; a collection of souvenir rings from carnival/circus giants; a tiny antique miniature book about Tom Thumb and his wife printed to commemorate their wedding in 1863; an antique postcard of famous sideshow performer Lionel the Lion Faced Man; a rare trade card for a female flea circus operator (the operator was female, not sure about the fleas); various old handbills, flyers, and assorted advertising for a variety of sideshow performers; an old elephant saddle and decorated blankets and halters, all of which still smell very strongly of elephant; 3/4 of a small circus ring; a distorting funhouse mirror; and a giant clown head topper to a balloon helium tank.

Fortune Telling, Gumball, and Related Machines

Fortune telling arcade machine – ‘Rajah the Mystic Oracle’ – reads your palm for 25 cents; A fortune telling gumball machine – the color of your gumball predicts what kind of day you’ll have; A vintage ‘Ask Swami’ fortune telling napkin dispenser from an old diner; Vintage gumball machines, their prizes/charms, and their original header cards.

Playground and coin-operated rides, and pedal cars

An old, small, coin-op horsey ride; a big 1950s coin operated rocket ship ride; a 1970s coin-op Slush Puppie ride – a giant Slush Puppie cup that you ride in along with the Slush Puppy mascot; 2 playground spring rides – a duck and a horse – found the duck at a yard sale, best yard sale score ever; a vintage Weinermobile pedal car.

Holidays

Antique and vintage Halloween including postcards from the 1900s; German die-cut decorations from the 1920s and 30s; pulp jack-o-lanterns from the 1920s – 40s; old candy containers; antique and vintage fortune-telling games, and more.
Antique Christmas including antique feather trees; vintage aluminum trees; a huge collection of cotton batting clay faced Santa ornaments from the 1900s-20s; and a rare antique Santa themed board game from the 1890s.
Antique and vintage Valentines a specialty is weird and odd Valentines, with a smattering of ‘vinegar’ Valentines.

Antique & Vintage Toys

Antique teddy bears from the early 1900s – 40s; highlights include ‘Laughing Roosevelt’ bears from 1907, which mimic the then-President’s famous toothy grin; and also tiny bears that adorned campaign buttons and ribbons during his election campaign a few years earlier. The teddy bears were my first collection, and the one that led to everything else, really.
Antique and vintage dolls of all sorts, with a special interest in those made of odd materials (wishbones,old clay pipes, driftwood from Pitcairn Island.) Other notable sub collections include: vintage Barbies and clothes; 1960s Liddle Kiddles; Russian and Polish nesting dolls/matryoshkas; Kimport international dolls, catalogs, and newsletters, especially those from the WWII era; antique Frozen Charlottes; and early American primitive handmade dolls.
Antique German, British, and American dollhouses, miniature room boxes, kitchens, shops; an antique French dollhouse opera theatre; and their furniture and accessories (the dolls need somewhere to live/shop/see a play.)
Antique rocking horses and buggies (the dolls need transportation.)
A comprehensive collection of the toys made by early American toymaker Charles Crandall in the mid to late 1800s (beautiful toys of lithographed paper over wood, including his Acrobats, District School, Masquerade Blocks, Expression Blocks, and several more.)
Antique Punch and Judy items (old German puppets – favorites are of course the ghost and skeleton; a vintage English puppet stage; a Staffordshire children’s tea set from the 1890s; assorted antique books and games.)
Antique and vintage Cracker Jack prizes.
Vintage pranks and novelty joke items, and original vintage Johnson Smith catalogs.
Antique circus themed toys, including a 1920s Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus set of figures and their tent. Includes the scary toy clowns just like the ones that featured in the opening credits of a season of American Horror Story.
An assortment of antique and vintage wind up toys of all sorts
Early American tin pull toys
Old dexterity puzzle games (those handheld ones with the little balls you jiggle into place.)
Vintage and antique board games (of all types, monster games a particular specialty. The 1972 Seance game, with its record player still working, is a particular treasure.)
Vintage monster toys of all sorts Hugo Man of a Thousand Faces; 1960s Addams Family puppets, Thing bank, Uncle Fester’s Mystery Lightbulb, Remco Lurch figure; monster puzzles; monster magazines; the Vincent Price Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit; Mego Planet of the Apes figures; the GI Joe Search for the Abominable Snowman set in its original box; the Bionic Bigfoot figure from the Six Million Dollar Man.) 2 different versions of Mattel’s 1977 fist- firing Shogun Warrior Godzilla, including the scarce 1st model, which was, amazingly, found in someone’s trash.
Vintage space toys highlights include a full set of Archer Space Men in their original store display box, and also their hard to find tin lithographed Space Port; a 1950s Hubley Atomic Disintegrator cap gun; and some cool robots.
Vintage Star Wars toys highlights are the vintage original box Kenner Death Star playset – bought as a grown up to replace my childhood one that was sold at a family yard sale while I was away at college, for which I have not yet forgiven my family; and a Kenner Cantina playset that I did not have as a child, but do now. I do also still have my original childhood Star Wars figures though. They somehow miraculously escaped the yard sale.
The vintage Mego Star Trek figures and the Enterprise playset (I didn’t have these as a child but my cousin Cindy did and I coveted them desperately. I have them now….)
Vintage Wham-O toys highlights include their Magic Window; rare Instant Fish set; King Kong -ish themed Super Sneaky Squirtin’ Sticks in their original store display box; and Air Blaster with its original gorilla target box.
Vintage Colorforms (monster sets again a specialty)
Vintage action figures and their playsets (aside from Star Wars and Mego Star Trek)
- Six Million Dollar Man, also in his astronaut suit; Bionic Woman; Oscar Goldman and his Exploding Briefcase; Bionic Bigfoot.
- Mego Planet of the Apes figures.
- Vintage “big” GI Joe Adventure Team guys with their headquarters, vehicles, and a couple of sets including “Search for the Abominable Snowman”
- 1960s James Bond figures and playsets made by Gilbert (you can actually reenact the horrifying laser cutting torture scene from Goldfinger, in this little playset made for children….it was a different time….)
Vintage playsets and play figures : I’m especially fond of playsets, as they are happy little worlds to escape into.
- Vintage Fisher Price Little People/Play Family playsets from the 1960s and 70s
- Vintage Hasbro Weebles playsets from the 70s : remember, “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down!” The Weebles are plastic egg-shaped characters that come in great playsets like the treehouse, sailing ship, the haunted house. Very delightful. Clearly toy safety standards have changed.
- Vintage Smurfs and their mushroom houses and assorted playset pieces (these are my beloved childhood Smurfs that my dad bought me.)
- Vintage Playskool playsets of the 60s and 70s: Holiday Inn, KFC, McDonalds: very kitschy and cool
- 1960s trolls and their houses and cases
- Vintage Mr. Potato Heads including his friends like Dunkie Donut, the Frooty Tooty and Picnic Pals, and the rare Mr. Potato Head Ride On Car.
- Upsy Downsys, a bizarre and trippy toy line made by Mattel in 1968, possibly while its designers were high
- Busy Bears of Hippity Hollow: from Japan, tiny koala bears who live inside little household appliance homes. Super cute.

Miscellaneous Other Items

Kitschy plastic souvenir travel snowglobes; these are currently packed up, but are a huge and delightful collection.
Antique and vintage candy containers (of glass, papier mache, compostion, etc.)
Vintage metal lunchboxes including Planet of the Apes, Land of the Lost, Star Wars, Grizzly Adams, Six Million Dollar Man, more.
A collection of Easy Bake Ovens from the original 1960s version through the early 90s – so we can see their evolution.”

What are your top 5-10 rarest, scarcest, and/or favorite items in your collection and why?

Rarest of the Rare. Tracy’s Top 10 Rare Items.

“Wow it was really tough to narrow this one down! But I tried:

An antique miniature (dollhouse sized) tin Iron Maiden from Nuremberg, Germany. Circa the 1900s, this would have been a souvenir available to purchase after touring the dungeons and torture chambers in the tourist attractions of this medieval city. They were also sometimes sold in the German pavilions at World’s Fairs. I just find it delightful to imagine the kind of person that would have bought this and brought it home from a European holiday tour over 100 years ago. It’s bizarre and weird and really scarce and hard to find. I added a miniature antique doll to mine to complete the scene.
A first edition of Spectropia from 1864. I love the grotesque lettering on the cover of this edition, which was changed for the later ones. And it’s fun to try out the ghost illusions inside: they still work, 161 years later.
An old spirit photograph that accidentally shows how it was made (by a double exposure as the “spirit” steps out of the frame, but not far enough in this case). I find spirit photography fascinating, and this one is so special because of its flaw that reveals how it was done. It’s also interesting because it was a purchased souvenir of a grisly historical event: the devastating 1889 Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania. The back of the photo has the name of the studio in Johnstown that created this image, along with a date of April 1924, and the notation “Anna and Spirit pichirt (picture).” In the photo, you can see “Anna” in her fabulous 1920s outfit, and the two “spirits” dressed in costumes of the 1880s. Clearly, dark tourism is not a modern phenomenon, as also attested by the iron maiden souvenir above.
Milton Brandley’s Seance board game from 1972. This is now a rarely found and highly sought vintage board game, but it’s precious to me because of the many happy memories I have of playing this game with my little sister and our cousins on rainy afternoons. Upon reflection, I can now see how this game perhaps helped shape me into the weird adult I became.
Bally’s Space Ship coin operated ride from 1952. I always loved coin op rides as a kid, and naturally, I wanted one of my own someday. A fellow space toy collector offered me this and I couldn’t pass it up. It’s unique in that it’s made of wood, not aluminum, steel, or fiberglass. Although it has a lot of wear, I like that about it: it shows how much enjoyment generations of kids got out of it, and visitors to our garage still enjoy seeing it today.
Antique lithographed snake charmer blocks, and a snake charmer pop-up book by McLoughlin. These date circa the 1880s, and are just beautiful, and rare, things. The wooden blocks are really creative: they make an image of a curvaceous snake charmer on one side, a circus alphabet on the other, and a circus scene on the ends.
Kara Kum’s Cannibals of Curitiba poster (aka: the Regurgitating Horrors poster). This is my favorite of all my spook show posters, because of its absolute outrageousness. I like the way it unabashedly, gleefully, set out to shock and disturb people (and it succeeded).
Antique Halloween postcards. It’s probably no surprise that Halloween is my favorite holiday, and these are some of my favorites from my postcard collection. The artwork is just so beautiful, and the images really take you away to another era and season. I can almost smell burning leaves and freshly carved pumpkins when I look at these.
The Ghosts of My Friends and Your Hidden Skeleton antique autograph books. Inspired by the popularity of both autograph books and spiritualism at the turn of the last century, these unusual books were Edwardian parlor games. Dating from 1908 and 1909 respectively, they feature spaces for guests to sign their names with a fountain pen, then, by quickly folding and blotting the page, a ghostly or skeletal inkblot type image formed from the signature. The books are rare and when found, each is one of a kind, thanks to the individuals that signed it and the resulting unique images.
I’ve saved my greatest ever trash finds for this last spot. While most of the items in my collection came from antique shows or online auction sites, I am not averse to a good trash pick, and 2 of the most valuable vintage toys in my collection were actually found that way. I spotted the much-sought, 1977 first version of Mattel’s Shogun Warriors Godzilla while driving past a house that had just been sold, its contents emptied into a trash pile by the roadside. He had one fist raised as if in greeting.

A few years later, a neighbor found a case of vintage Barbie dolls in the trash after our condo association yard sale ended, and inside was a really valuable, solid body, ivory white, 1960 brunette Barbie #3, still in her original swimsuit. She and Godzilla are now fast friends.

Are you still actively collecting? If so, what are you currently collecting? Still chasing any holy grails?

“Not at the rate I used to, but I still pick up things from time to time. Lately I’ve been revisiting Harry Potter, I think because the situation with my husband’s health has led me to a need for escapism, and recently I was collecting the Popco Harry Potter line (set during Order of the Phoenix) that was only released in Britain years ago: hyper realistic, super detailed figures and playsets that were leaps and bounds beyond the toys we had here in America. Just really beautiful toys. I’ve also been collecting the gorgeous, creative, handcrafted potion bottles made by The Wizarding Trunk, and my mom and I just finished making an apothecary cabinet for them, converted from an old clock case. (Like I said earlier, she is multi-talented.)

I don’t get to go out antiquing much like I used to, again, due to my husband’s condition. But during my “long dark nights of the soul”, I sometimes find myself on eBay, feverishly perusing the listings of vintage board games, monster movie posters, Weebles, antique teddy bears, whatever seems to soothe me at the time.

I don’t have many holy grails left, or holes in my collections that I’m looking to fill, so usually I’m just looking to see if there’s something new I didn’t know about, something to learn, something to discover.

It’s the patented Ron Aldrich “stay curious” maxim again!

What I’m really collecting now are moments and experiences, good ones, as they happen, with my husband. Our time is definitely getting short, and the good moments are growing fewer as his condition worsens, so when they happen, I write them down in a special notebook and treasure them more than anything in my collections.”

How and where did you locate most of your items?

“Originally it was at antique shows and shops, toy shows, and antiquarian and other book stores. Then in 1995, eBay happened, and it was world-changing, wasn’t it? A big proportion of my collections were acquired from eBay or Ruby Lane (another online marketplace for antiques) or other online sources, like some specialist vintage toy dealers with their own online stores. A lot of my board games, for example, came from Time Warp Toys, an online vintage toy dealer. I feel like that’s good and bad. Good in that I acquired items I would likely never have found otherwise. But bad in that, with a few exceptions, they were impersonal transactions, void of the often interesting characters, conversations, and events that happen with in-person buying.

A big part of the joy in finding these things is in the finding itself: the long drive you took to the show or the store, filled with anticipation; the excitement you felt when you spotted a rare, long sought item on a table full of junk; the moving conversation you had with the original owner selling their childhood toys on the front lawn of their farmhouse. So I missed that while at the same time, I was thrilled to find so many things I wanted/needed quickly online.

Lately, though, many of the things I’ve gotten have come privately and directly from other collectors I know, usually much older than me, who I’ve met while collecting, and who are now selling their items since their children don’t want them (this seems to be a nearly universal situation with collectors.) That’s been a bittersweet experience: I’m happy to adopt their treasured pieces, but sad to see them giving up their collections before they really seem to have wanted to do so.”

Favorite books, authors, museums, other, etc.?

Favorite books and authors: Children’s Fiction

The ‘gothic mystery’ children’s novels by John Bellairs, especially The House With a Clock in Its Walls (we’ve actually been inside that house! It’s in Marshall, Michigan, the author’s hometown.)
The Animal Family, by poet Randall Jarrell.
The Harry Potter series. (And the fabulous MinaLima editions!)
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.
You Ought to see Herbert’s House, by Steven Kellogg (I think this one inspired my ideas of what a home should be like.)
Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Favorite books and authors: Adult Fiction

Tim Powers’ novels (especially Last Call and Declare.)
From the Realm of Morpheus, by Steven Millhauser.
Virgil Wander, by Leif Enger.

Favorite Books and Auth0rs: Non-Fiction

The fairy tale and folklore studies by scholars Marina Warner (No Go the Bogeyman, Phantasmagoria, From the Beast to the Blonde) and Jack Zipes (The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood).
Kooks, by Donna Kossy, and her zine about weird books, Book Happy.
The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, by Corrine May Botz.
Museology, by Richard Ross.
Monsters of the Sea, by Richard Ellis
1001 Curious Things, by Kate Duncan.
Mail Order Mysteries, by Kirk Demarais and Cheap Laffs, by Mark Newgarden
Ghostmasters, by Mark Walker
Spirit Theater and Strange Ceremonies, by Eugene Burger
Theatre of Fear and Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris, by Mel Gordon
The Monster Show: a Cultural History of Horror, by David J. Skal

Favorite Museums

The original Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills (we had our wedding after-party there!)
The original Exhibit Museum of Natural History at the University of Michigan (back when it was in the old Ruthven Museum building, not the new version)
The British Museum in London (my ‘holy grail’ of museums, which I’ve been fortunate to visit once)

What do you like most about Michigan? What’s kept you here?

“I like the changing of the seasons, and I especially love the fall. If I don’t have to drive anywhere, I like the cozy quiet of winter as well. I loved living in Ann Arbor when I attended U of M, and couldn’t really imagine going anywhere else. It was a wonderful city, walkable, and full of interesting things, places, and people, and although I don’t get to visit as much as I used to, I like knowing it’s not far away.

People are what keep me here: I am very close to my family and can’t imagine moving far from them. Otherwise, I’d probably want to live in Salem, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island….

In terms of eateries, we love the old Schuler’s Restaurant in Marshall, Michigan (hometown of my favorite children’s author, John Bellairs.) Closer to home we practically live at the wonderfully cozy M29 Diner in Anchorville, owned by our friends Chris and Martin. Other favorites are the historic Little Bar in Marine City, as well as the Marine City Fish Company.“

What is your philosophy of collecting? Why is collecting important to you personally and why is collecting important for society?

My philosophy has 4 parts:

To collect what I love without thinking of the items as “investments.”
My ultimate purpose is to learn through these items. I suppose that’s my museum background coming to the forefront. I like the objects for their own sake, as beautiful objects, or pieces of nostalgia, but I use them as sort of a springboard to learning about interesting bits of history and culture.
I also feel I am only a temporary caretaker of these items, and I need to take care of them so they can continue to live on after I’m gone, in the hands of someone else who will hopefully cherish them.
I feel very fortunate to have been able to collect these items and learn from them, and I feel a duty to share the items and that knowledge with others who are interested or have been unable to build their own collections.

All of this I learned from my collecting mentors, Terry and Doris Michaud, uncommonly kind and generous people, who shared their own collections (antique teddy bears) and knowledge with the world. They lived in Alpena and later Midland, Michigan, and ran Carrousel By Michaud, their teddy bear museum and shop in a beautiful Victorian home.

Collecting is important for society, I think, because our cultures have become so transient and disposable, especially in America. We don’t preserve the past very well here. Historic structures are routinely demolished without thinking about it, and now our correspondence is lost to the ‘electronic ether’ instead of being saved in archives and libraries. These objects are a tangible link to history, we can learn a lot from their study, and we need to save as many valuable examples as we can.”

Do you have any advice for young aspiring collectors? What to do and especially what not to do?

“The momentous joy of acquiring can be overpowering. But the real, lasting joy is to be found in sharing your collection, and your knowledge, with others. We are only temporary caretakers of these items. Try to be good stewards and be sure to spend a fair amount of time learning about the things you want to collect, before you buy any. Spend your first dollars on educational books: you’ll save yourself a lot of costly mistakes later. And forget about collecting as an “investment,” that way lies disappointment (with rare exceptions.) Just collect what you love! And come up with a succession plan if you can. Lastly, remember to always ‘stay curious!’”