It was the first day of the estate sale of Dr. Arnold Klein, Botox pioneer and dermatologist to the late Michael Jackson.
Klein's former residence had been stripped and subsequently re-stuffed with his stuff; the skin doctor declared bankruptcy in January 2011, and he's been embroiled in lawsuits and controversy surrounding his spending habits and finances, his medical practice, and, in particular, Michael Jackson's death (Klein prescribed Jackson with the narcotic painkiller Demerol, for one). Munyon & Sons are selling his effects Wednesday through Saturday as agents of the U.S. Trustee Program, the federal agency that oversees bankruptcy cases, Will Munyon said.
The house on Windsor Boulevard is a big brick affair in a neighborhood called Windsor Square, where the median age is 38 and the percentage of widows is among the highest in L.A. County. There are tall palm trees, and a little after 8 a.m. there was already a long line of buyers and browsers outside the house — at least 50; the official start time of the sale was 8, but a bald man named Steve managing the crowd said, "There was already, like, 300 or 400 people here."
At 8:50, everyone started moving toward the door, and I moved with them because I trusted their instincts like I trust vultures to find a corpse. Everyone in line signed a liability waiver, including the young man with the white man's attempt at a high-top fade who had to sign it a second time because his name was initially illegible. A man standing ahead of me in line held an opaque binder with a script. Close to 10, I was waved inside.
Here's what I learned about the dermatologist while browsing through his stuff:
1. Klein had an Earring Magic Ken.
2. Klein had a lot of very sexualized images of women.
There were dozens of line drawings of naked women, many with their legs spread.
3. In addition to explicitly sexualized images of women, he would collect implicitly sexualized images, like these Marilyn Monroe prints.
4. He framed a pair of women's undergarments.
5. He loved all things Versace.
6. He wanted to sit on furniture shaped like body parts.
7. He would also go for tchotchkes shaped like body parts.
8. He owned many tchtochkes in general.
9. He had a grab-bag collection of "ethnic" art.
10. He had many toilet options.
11. He liked movie memorabilia.
12. Michael Jackson once gave him a box set of The Godfather trilogy and signed it.
13. He owned many throw pillows.
Some were monogrammed.
14. He was not averse to the color yellow.
15. He had some level of appreciation for Italian cars.
16. He owned at least three wheelchairs.
17. Part of his ceiling was designed to look like the sky.
18. He and Freddie Mercury may have had an inside joke about mustaches.
19. Klein owned many images of his patient, Michael Jackson.
20. Klein had a hat that belonged to Jackson.
21. The artist John Baldessari signed something to him.
22. Klein owned a cow holding a platter. For parties?
23. He had many TVs.
24. And he had several chandeliers.
25. No one has been watering his cactus.
26. He used to have fish.
27. Also, in case you forgot, naked women.
