A few off the top of my head, the guitar from the London Calling cover, O.J. Simpson’s Glove and white Bronco, Michael Jackson’s studded glove (google found it for me, the Beatle’s drumset from the Ed Sullivan show, google just found me Napoleon’s hat from Waterloo, the tree with the carving at Roanoke Island (I’m sure it just rotted), Kennedy’s car (found, weird enough it was refurbished and used by future presidents).
Any others you’ve always wondered about?
Not an item, but a person. I was wondering what happened to Mathias Rust, the German Teenager who landed a cessna in red square back in 1987.
Pretty interesting…
Wiki has a bit more on Rust, devilsknew:
While doing his obligatory community service (Zivildienst) in a German hospital in 1989, Rust stabbed a female co-worker who rejected him. The injuries were life-threatening and he was sentenced to four years in prison for attempted murder and was released after having served fifteen months.
April 1994: He returned to Russia and visited points of interest such as the site where he landed in 1987.
1996: He became engaged to a daughter of a rich Indian tea merchant and converted to Hinduism.
2001: He was convicted for stealing a cashmere pullover. He was ordered to pay 10,000 Marks; the sentence was later reduced to 600 Marks.
2003 August: Rust launched an internet site promoting a “think tank” called Orion & Isis which endeavored to “work on issues which contain non-violent solutions to resolve conflicts between government, ethnic or religious institutions.” Applicants needed to be in possession of an administrative position with the connected powers of attorney or in possession of major influence from any other level. After not gaining much publicity, the site disappeared.
2004 July: Living in Berlin married to his second wife Athena.
2005: He was convicted of fraud, had to pay € 1,500 for stolen goods
My friend bought a Ford Bronco that was white with a major blue stripe. Or was half blue ? I forget which.
He bought it from the woman “model” who lived in Florida that OJ Simpson was dating.
This was a few years after OJ’s little interstate cruise.
I always wondered if OJ just ran the old one through Facto Bake before he pawned it off on the love interest…
I’ve always wondered what the band KISS did with their elaborate stage sets from the 70’s, and in particular the lighted logo sign they used from 1976-85. Are they in storage somewhere or were they scrapped? And speaking of signs, I wonder if anyone saved the moon-snorting-coke sign from Studio 54.
That would be interesting to find the London Calling guitar. I wonder if he tossed it into the crowd after smashing it.
A few locations that may or may not be lost: The train station where James Garfield was shot was torn down in 1908 and the space is now occupied by the National Gallery. Is there anything marking the spot where the assassination happened? What about the spot where McKinley was shot?
I would assume that most movie and TV props are in the hands of collectors if they weren’t destroyed. I wonder if someone has Spot from The Munsters.
One item that I’ve actually seen: In a private residence someone has the original front doors of the Brown Derby restaurant.
And my brother works for Lucas Films and he says the carbonite Han Solo from ESB is sitting in the lobby at his workplace.
They never throw anything away. People are dedicated fulltime to preserving the Lucasfilm Archives, so they’re a unique case.
That guy’s shoes. 
Winnipeg Arena (home of the Winnipeg Jets) was adorned with an enormous portrait of Her Majesty the Queen, courtesy of a local sign painter. When the arena was demolished, the portrait was put into storage, and there it sits to this day, mostly because nobody can figure out what to do with a 5 m x 7 m portrait of the Queen.
Some enterprising journalists tracked it down last year. It’s in two pieces (divided horizontally) in a warehouse in the suburbs of Toronto looking for a buyer. (I wonder why they don’t put it in the new arena.)
A few days before his first supersonic flight in the X-1, Chuck Yeager fell off a horse and cracked two ribs. His flight engineer, Jack Ridley, cut a length of broomstick so Chuck could reach across with his opposite hand and latch the door closed. The X-1 is in the Smithsonian; I’ve always wondered what happened to the broomstick.
I’d also like to poke around in Aeolian Hall (29-33 W 42nd St.) in New York City. I’ve been by it on the outside, but never in. It now (according to Wikipedia) houses the SUNY State College of Optometry, but in 1924 it was the site of the premier performance of Rhapsody in Blue. It looks like a typical office building; I have no idea if there is anything remaining of a concert hall inside.
