WEBVTT - Stealing Superman: Episode One – Beads of Sweat 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.959 It's early January two thousand and Stephen Fishler is sitting 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.439 in his office. You probably don't know the name unless 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.560 you've ever been in the market for expensive comic books, 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:26.119 very very expensive comic books. Titles that sell for millions 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.280 of dollars. Comics that once cost ten cents got thrown 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.920 away or left to us, and then go on to 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:37.720 fetch an incredibly high price for their rarity. Fishler was 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.479 and still is among the most well known brokers of 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.160 such books. He's been collecting since he was five years old, 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:49.440 a kid in Brooklyn, after stacks of superheroes. If you 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.040 want a particular title in a particular condition, he can 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.960 probably find it. And that's what Stephen was doing today, 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:01.800 making deals for collectors from his place of business, Metropolis 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:07.160 Collectibles in New York City, overflowing with rare books, first 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:12.480 appearances of Spider Man, Captain America Archie, many looking like 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:14.920 they just came off a news stand, even though they're 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.640 decades old. This is the kind of place that even 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.880 when the comics are sealed in plastic, they give off 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:27.280 that distinctive smell of old, cheap paper. Well maybe not 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:31.560 so cheap anymore, but today isn't going to be a 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.759 normal day for Stephen. It's going to be the beginning 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:39.039 of a situation and obsession really that will take up 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.560 a good deal of his time, something that will one 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.480 day have police instructing him on what to do in 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:52.040 the event of a shootout, that kind of situation. And 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.240 it begins, like many stories do, with a phone call. 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.360 Nick called me very upset and said to me that 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.200 somebody stole some of his comic books and was really 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.600 in a panic. I must have been. I don't know 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.200 that noon my time, and I sort of asked him 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.560 to sort of slow down so I can understand what 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.720 went on, and he gave me, you know, an account 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:21.480 of what went on as best he could. Nick is 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.919 Nicholas Cage, the star of huge movies like Face Off, 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:30.160 Cohn Air and The Rock, an Oscar winner, a man 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:34.040 who ate a live cockroach in Vampire's Kiss because he 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.480 knew it would draw attention. He didn't win the Oscar 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.800 for that one that was leaving Las Vegas. Cage is 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.880 talking quickly in that distinctive twang that makes his sentences 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.760 sound like melodies. He's calling because Stephen is his dealer, 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:56.840 his comic book dealer. Well, it started many, many years ago. 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.240 A friend of mine who was a friend in a 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:04.760 comic collector, Miguel Ferrare currently was on some movie set 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.880 with Nick Cage. This is in the eighties when he 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.560 was not as well known, and they got into a 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:18.720 conversation about comic books. And probably a month later, I'm 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.600 at seeing Nick at a hotel. He was living at 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:26.480 Hotel Rossmore and there he was in his crew cut 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.359 and this is after like Valley Girl, I believe, and 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.680 he had a giant fish tank in his apartment at 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.040 the hotel with a shark in it, and that's where 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.480 I first met him and started dealing with him way 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:45.800 way back. Since then, Cage has bought hundreds of comics 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.400 from Stephen, and now Cage is trying to explain that 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.760 the worst possible thing that could happen to a comic 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:58.200 collector has happened. His most valuable books have turned up missing. 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:04.520 And not just valuable books. The most valuable book, the 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.760 most sought after issue of them all, The Mona Lisa 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:14.000 of Comics, Action Comics number one, the first appearance of 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:19.800 a superhero, the first appearance of the Man of Steel, Superman, 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:25.760 the most well preserved copy available, a comic so rare 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.640 that even a rusty staple or some page flex from 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:34.279 one can sell for hundreds of dollars to collectors desperate 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.680 for even a small dose of its magic. Superman, the 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:45.159 embodiment of morality and virtue stolen. Stephen takes a deep breath. 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.520 He asks one of the world's most famous actors to 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:54.840 tell him exactly what happened. Nick told me that there 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.479 was some sort of party and that they disappeared during 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:03.560 the party. That was it is house, a party, a heist, 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:09.640 a frantic phone call, and as Cage talks, Stephen realizes 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:13.840 it gets worse. Action Number one is missing, and so 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:18.080 is Detective Comics Number twenty seven. That was the first 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:21.760 appearance of Batman. Someone has run off with half the 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:26.279 Justice League from right under the nose of a Hollywood superstar. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.560 And that's about all Stephen can get because Cage, in 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:35.240 his indomitable cage fashion, is too upset to offer too 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.560 many details on what will shape up to be the 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:49.600 most unlikely artist of all time. Oh for I Heart Radio, 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.800 I'm Dani Schwartz. This is Stealing Superman, an I Heart 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:58.520 original podcast now on my long running podcast noble Blood. 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.800 I tell the true stories of historical royals, but occasionally 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.720 I like to cover a different kind of royalty, Hollywood Royalty. 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.560 Last fall we brought you Haileywood, a podcast about Bruce 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.000 Willis buying up a town in Idaho in the es 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.000 and the friends and enemies he made along the way. 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:22.640 This year's tale involves a brazen comic book heist, Nicolas 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:28.240 Cage and y two K. Let's get into it Episode one, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:36.000 Beads of Sweat. We need to turn the pages back 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.960 a little. A few days prior to a house party 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:44.800 at three sixty three Coppa de Laura Road in bel Air, California, 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.320 the residents of Nicolas Coppola, known to most people by 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:58.159 his stage name Nicolas Cage, New Year's Eve was something special, 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:03.599 something peculiar. Remember why two K when people believed that 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.880 computers wouldn't be able to understand the year two thousand 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.320 and that it might cripple our infrastructure. Well, if the 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.720 people in attendance at Cage's house were worried about it, 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.280 they didn't act like it. And if this was the 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:20.240 end of the world, Cage was going to make sure 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:22.720 they had one hell of a good time On their 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:32.600 way out. The scale of a Nicholas Cage party is 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:38.320 hard to fathom. You'd have celebrities, actors, producers, directors, agents. 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.120 Fresh food was laid out on the fade tables made 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:47.720 from solid blocks of ice. Giant nutcrackers standing ten feet 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:52.520 tall flanked the main entrance. Fake snow was blowing out 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:59.760 of machines. Lightning professionals made sure everything looked perfect. At 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.280 one party, someone brought Cage a pony as a gift. 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.400 It would be found wandering around the yard the next morning. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.520 It was as though Cage were always starring in a 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:17.440 party being directed by David Lynch. Yeah, he had amazing parties. 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:22.120 I once got a cigar from Jack Nicholson, who was 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.680 very intoxicated and gave me a cigar to give to 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.800 my father. Yeah. I was there. I was there, and 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.480 we were all there, all the staffs and all the people, 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.160 and I met some really amazing people and I had 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:39.480 a great time. That's Jen Bosworth Ramirez. Jen worked for 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.120 Cage in the two thousand's and no she didn't steal 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.400 the comics I did. Can you imagine? Jen was hired 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.079 by Cage himself, who conducted the job interview with one 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.520 of his ears blown off. Okay, And so then I 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.559 get into this trailer, a small trailer. Wasn't like a 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:00.880 fancy he must have been in the makeup trailer or something. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:02.839 I don't know, but it wasn't like a big honey wagon. 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:05.320 It was like small, and I'm like, oh my god, 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.760 I'm sitting across from this movie star. Also, he doesn't 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.360 look like himself because he literally his ear is blown off. 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.880 He has my resume backs in his hand that they 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.520 had facts to his trailer, to the base camp or something, 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.280 and I'm like, twenty four, I don't know what's happening. 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.200 And then I said, I said, oh my god, your ear. 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.480 I remember being really startled because the prosthetics were so 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.000 good and wind Tucker's that's a John Woolf felt. I 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.160 think anyway, the prosthetics were really good, and I said, 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.600 oh my god, your ear go. Yeah, that's that's not real, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.559 Like that's that's a prosthetic. And I was like, oh, okay, 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.319 it was so awkward. The whole thing was so weird, 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:43.360 so weird. I left. I didn't know if I had 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.280 the jab or not. I had no clue was happening. 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:53.120 Jen worked for Cages production company Saturn Films. Some perks 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:59.640 were parties like this one in Cage's Grand Residents over 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.760 a seven thousand square feet sitting on one acre in 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:08.080 one of the country's most prestigious neighborhoods. Walk inside the 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.000 house and you're created with a different kind of splendor. 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:17.599 A real estate agent and architectural historian named Brett Parsons, 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:22.520 who once toward the house, described the style as frat house, 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:30.079 bordello or quote early American Adams family. Those sound like insults, 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.240 and well maybe they were, But however you felt about it, 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:39.000 it was undoubtedly a reflection of its owner. Originally built 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:43.440 by famed architect Gerard Colcord in nineteen forty, it was 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.320 once owned by Dean Martin and later Tom Jones, who 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.959 sold it to Cage In Cage would make some improvements 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:58.280 or changes. At least purple curtains hung from windows. A 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:03.120 vintage nineteen fifty five jag war car had been painstakingly 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.520 disassembled and put back together in one room until the 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.120 pungent smell of oil overcame visitors and it had to go. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.240 There were even people who swore they saw shrunken heads. 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.840 Oh you know, I never knew that. I never saw 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.080 the shrunken heads I heard about that. That doesn't shock 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.080 me either. I mean he had dinosaur bones. I think 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:31.080 model trains were running above diners. In the breakfast room 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:36.120 and throughout the house were bronze walsconces. Light fixtures, but 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:41.800 not ordinary light fixtures. These were fixtures sculpted out of 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:46.320 a cast made from Nicholas Cage's arm, his muscled appendages 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:50.680 illuminating the home, the bell Air House. If my recollection, 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.400 it's a huge Gothic mansion, meaning there's probably like ten 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.880 bedrooms in there. I mostly hung out in the living area. 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.920 It was like a probably a three story situation. Outside 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.240 it looks like a regular you know, if I recall correctly, 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:08.560 like a brick mansion that you'd see in Valor. But 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.520 inside he had it decorated like super gothic, key and 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.160 dark and ornate at points and not my style, like 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.240 that's not my jam. But it was like a castle. 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.160 That's what I could sort of say. It reminds me 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.680 of a castle. A lot of rooms, a lot of 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.640 twists and turns. It was not an open floor plan. 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.200 Let's just say that, you know what I mean, There's 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:28.920 a pool. But I didn't spend a ton of time there, 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.280 but I do remember being like WHOA, I remember purple droops. 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.720 As guests wandered through the home, they would have noticed 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.520 something else. Lining the walls on the second floor were 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:45.720 comic books. Lots of comic books, the first appearance of 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:50.440 Captain America and Green Lantern and The Justice Society, comics 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:54.560 from the Golden Age of the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties, 0:12:55.200 --> 0:13:00.160 science fiction comics and horror comics. Skeletons peering out at 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:05.160 the reader, and scantily clad women gasping at probing alien marauders. 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.120 Any comic book fan would have taken one look and 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:14.640 seethed with envy. At least a hundred scattered throughout the house, 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.520 one book in each frame. As you can probably imagine, 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.200 Cage didn't just pin the comics to the wall. This 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:27.839 was an ornate display. Each frame was nineteen and a 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.400 half inches long by sixteen and a half inches wide, 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:36.000 Each was made of stained maple. Each had a small 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.400 lock that could only be opened with a key, and 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.840 each was connected to a pressure sensor alarm. If someone 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:45.960 had the key and were to open the frame and 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:50.880 remove the comic inside cages security staff would be immediately notified. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:56.000 You couldn't easily pill for any of these books unless, well, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.920 hang up, We're almost there, but let's finish the tour. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.880 The hub of Cage's collection was in what he called 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:08.760 a smoking lounge. It was originally a secret room used 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:13.480 by Dean Martin, and accessible only if you knew how 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:17.319 to get in from an adjoining bathroom through a panel 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.320 door that pops open. It's kind of a clandestine deal. 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:26.960 A spiral staircase curved up, and it's tight, so tight 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.560 Cage had to bring up the furniture in pieces. This 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.120 secret smoking room was, like other parts of the house, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:41.800 decorated heavily in purple, purple furniture, purple walls, a purple 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:46.440 carpet with gold accents, a spiral staircase leading to the 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:50.720 roof carpeted, and well, you get it. It was in 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:55.640 this small room that Cage went to unwind, a respite 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.800 from fame or even from hosting duties. It's a small, 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.640 intimate room and the walls were lined with his most 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:10.800 valuable comics. Hanging in one wall frame was Detective Comics 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:18.400 Number twenty seven, dated May nine. The cover captures its protagonist. 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.840 In the thick of it, Batman, a strange, masked vigilante 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.680 readers have never seen before, is swooping into frame to 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:30.240 put a criminal in a choke hold. As Batman cuts 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.960 off the hoods corroded artery. He's hanging from a supported 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:38.120 building outside of you. In the lower left corner, two 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:42.920 crooks look on, one is armed. Both seem unsure of 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.160 what to do about the man with violent tendencies dressed 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:50.520 as a bat It's advertising sixty four pages of action. 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.520 Once upon a time, it was ten cents in two thousand. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.440 It's thought to be worth up to a hundred and 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:03.600 fifty thousand dollars. It's actually why Cage went to Fishler 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.760 in the first place. They wanted a Detective twenty seven, 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.800 so that's what the conversation focused on. I had brought 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.000 him a twenty seven to look at, but it had 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.240 too much restoration, that particular copy. But that was the 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:21.000 first meeting his interest in in a detective comics. But 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.560 that was really just a warm up. As desirable a 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:28.600 book as Detective Number twenty seven was and is, it's 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.280 always taken second place in the comic book hierarchy to 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:37.080 its bigger brother, The birth of the superhero genre. The 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:47.080 comic that would change popular culture forever. Action Comics number one, 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:53.240 dated June, but actually released a little earlier. You've probably 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.760 seen the cover. It's part of our cultural iconography by 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.960 this point. They're Superman hefting a call are clear over 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.280 his head. His costume isn't much different from the one 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:09.000 he sports today. Let's refined, sure, but the red cap, boots, 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:19.360 and s insignia are all there Bystanders are fleeing from 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.960 the scene, terrified of this man with super strength. In 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.720 the lower left corner is a man who is positively hysterical. 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.600 His hands are clasped to his face, like the figure 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:35.160 in Edward Monks the screen. He's running away. Maybe he's 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.200 part of the crew inside the car the crooked Superman 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.600 is trying to bring to justice. Maybe he's not involved. 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:46.040 Either way, he's got beads of sweat running down his forehead. 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:51.040 Seeing Superman for the first time has to be stressful. Nowadays, 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.679 people are happy to see him. They wave and clap. 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:59.240 Not this crew. They were scared. Two hundred thousand copies 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:04.120 of this comic book were printed in fewer than one 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.960 hundred copies are believed to still exist, and even fewer 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:12.679 in good condition cages. Copy is considered one of the 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:17.240 most well preserved, With bright colors and an intact cover. 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:22.360 Superman is still a deep red and blue. The pages 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:26.160 inside are a creamy white. On the scale of one 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:30.640 to ten, it's an easy nine. A comic over sixty 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.960 years old to survive, to endure and look this good 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:40.760 is remarkable. Unlike some comics that get restored, this Action 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.919 number one hasn't had any work done. Yeah, this is 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:50.360 now much later, probably around and I'm gonna say nineteen 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.680 or so, and an interest in buying an Action one 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.160 in high grade. I knew a collector who had one, 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.280 and I was able to was sort of a difficult deal, 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.640 but I was able to put the deal together, and 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:06.399 that was the book that Nick ended up with. It 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.720 was just the mechanics of giving me the book, and 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.960 I think the collector was enamored of selling it to Nick. 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.479 And I met with Nick without the collector there, but 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.560 I put Nick on the phone with this collector and 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:21.920 then the deal went through. I think he just kind 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:24.000 of wanted to meet him, just to be honest, But 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:27.240 Nick really did value it was very excited about buying 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:29.359 this book as well. He should, and I thought it 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.359 would be sort of a fun deal to pull off 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.239 selling it to him. Cage It paid one hundred and 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:40.439 fifty thousand dollars for Action Number one. That was a 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.520 record for a comic book sale at the time, but 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.360 three years later it's likely worth more, perhaps as much 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.240 as two hundred thousand dollars. It's the crown jewel of 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:55.199 Cage's collection. It would be the centerpiece of any comic 0:19:55.240 --> 0:20:00.400 book collection today. Right now, copies of both of these 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:04.479 comics are worth two to three million each, if not more. 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.600 They've only appreciated in value, but Cage appreciated them then. 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.720 In two thousand, before comic book movies became the only 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:18.280 thing playing in multiplexes, he grew up reading comics. He 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:22.280 took his stage name Cage, partly after Luke Cage, the 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:27.760 seventies Marvel comic hero with impenetrable skin, a good superhero 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.119 for an actor who didn't always find kindness coming from critics. 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:35.720 But the comics were something else for Nicolas Cage too. 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.200 Like the House itself, they were monuments to Cage's success 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:45.679 from turns as strange characters in Moonstruck and Raising Arizona, 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.240 to winning an Oscar to becoming an action star. Cage 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.600 had navigated Hollywood successfully, and he arrived at a time 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:58.879 when the industry was paying record salaries. After the Academy 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.800 Awards win, cages quote for a movie went from four 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:08.800 million dollars to seven million dollars. Years before, Cage had 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.400 asked the director of a small film he was going 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.560 to make a cameo in Never on Tuesday, if the 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:18.000 man could buy him an Action Comics Number one instead 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:22.160 of paying him. The director couldn't afford to, But now 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.720 Cage could afford to buy his own copy, and so 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.679 he did. He love this book, I mean the actually 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:31.880 one metal lot to him, which brings us to Stephen 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:37.400 Fishler's phone ringing and Nicholas Cage telling him his comics 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:49.800 were no longer there. It was a few days before 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:54.040 Stephen could make it out to California, but he did. Stephen, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.480 of course, wasn't in law enforcement, but he was one 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.919 of the few people in Caged circle who could understand 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:04.320 the enormity of what had happened. Saying it was just 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.840 a comic book theft was like saying a museum heist 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.639 only resulted in some plaster going missing. And I'm pretty 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.879 sure as soon as he realized that they're missing, he 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:17.879 called me. It seemed like you on the spot. He 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:21.920 called me because I was this comic guy, so this 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.320 is about a comic. He wanted, I guess advice, and 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:27.800 that's what I gave him, and I offered to come 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.800 out to help, which is what I did within maybe 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.159 a week or two. According to Stephen, it had taken 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.560 a day or two, perhaps longer for Cage to realize 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.520 the comics were missing. A maid had been in the 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:44.520 smoking room and noticed that three of the frames were empty, 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:50.480 and something else that was curious. Those lockable frames hadn't 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:57.280 been forcibly opened. So my brain went, oh, it's maybe misplaced. 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.600 Maybe they were put somewhere. I went there it was described. 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:05.000 I saw that I had sold Nick these shadow box 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.040 frames that the books were located in, and the Action 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:12.199 one in Detective were in the shadow box frames, and 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:14.760 there are the frames with the label on it Action 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.480 one with nothing in it. So the frames were opened 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:20.400 and taken. But I went through yet too safe there 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.840 and went through the safe and I went, huh, this 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:27.600 may be actually stolen. The comics weren't just loose inside 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:32.199 their frames. They were each in protective, hard plastic sleeves. 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:36.719 It's called a fortress, and it's used by serious collectors 0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:40.919 to make sure comics didn't get bent, ripped, or otherwise damaged. 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.480 Each fortress was held together in two pieces by screws. 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:49.479 If a thief wanted to take the naked books, they 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:51.720 would have needed to spend a little bit of time 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:56.760 unscrewing each fortress, but the fortress sleeves were entirely gone. 0:23:57.080 --> 0:23:59.199 Whoever took them would have had to deal with a 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:02.000 little extra book folk, as opposed to just rolling up 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:04.920 the comics and stuffing them in a pocket, something that 0:24:04.960 --> 0:24:08.760 would have been unspeakable for a rare comic. It could 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.040 also mean the thief or thieves didn't have time to 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:15.600 remove the books from the fortress covers that they needed 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:18.760 to move quickly. It's a little bigger than the book, 0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:21.720 but if you put in your jacket, it's not so big. 0:24:21.760 --> 0:24:23.960 It's not like taking a giant painting and taking it 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:27.679 off the wall. Fisher noticed something else Cajun mentioned in 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:31.320 their conversation. The thief had also made off with a 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:35.040 third comic from a frame It was a copy of 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:40.320 Detective Comics Number one from seven, an even older title 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:44.240 than the Big two. While certainly valuable and worth ten 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:48.879 thousand dollars or so, it wasn't nearly as desirable. No 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:53.320 famous heroes made an appearance in it. The stories inside 0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:57.840 lacked real staying power. You probably haven't heard of Speed 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:02.520 Saunders and the River Patrol or Cosmo the Phantom of Disguise. 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:06.320 Maybe the thief just saw an opportunity to take it. 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:09.680 Maybe he saw a Detective and number one and thought 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:13.439 any issue with that title was prized. But that still 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:16.959 wasn't the biggest news. There was an alarm in the 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:20.359 back of each frame, and I guess the box was open, 0:25:20.760 --> 0:25:23.280 and maybe the alarm was not set for they want 0:25:23.359 --> 0:25:25.760 to be triggered when the box is open, but apparently 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:28.000 that was the idea behind it. I saw there was 0:25:28.040 --> 0:25:31.240 a wire attached to the back of each shadow box, 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:33.760 attached to the wall. A lot of money setting this up, 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:38.359 but unfortunately, somebody was able to open up these frames 0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:41.679 and take the books out. Probably understood these are the 0:25:41.720 --> 0:25:45.600 most valuable books. What Cage liked to do was take 0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:48.840 the books out of their wall frames and rearrange them 0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:53.280 show them off to people, that's what collectors do, and 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:57.800 then he'd leave them unlocked and the alarm disengaged. That's 0:25:57.800 --> 0:26:01.879 sometimes what happens when people installed alarms. They become a 0:26:01.960 --> 0:26:07.119 nuisance and so they're deactivated. That meant that, at least 0:26:07.160 --> 0:26:12.240 in theory, anyone could walk up and grab a piece 0:26:12.359 --> 0:26:17.520 of comic book history and disappear into the throngs of 0:26:17.560 --> 0:26:20.800 a Nick Cage New Year's Eve party. But it would 0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:25.080 have been bold to take the books without some sort 0:26:25.119 --> 0:26:29.720 of knowledge that they were unlocked and disarmed. Yeah, I'm 0:26:29.800 --> 0:26:34.479 not sure what this individual knew or didn't know. I 0:26:34.480 --> 0:26:37.639 think that this individual saw Nick open up the case 0:26:37.760 --> 0:26:40.440 and show the book to somebody, and he probably went 0:26:40.480 --> 0:26:45.600 opened up. It doesn't bring if that's what happened, it's 0:26:45.640 --> 0:26:48.879 not likely they would have been stopped. Not at a 0:26:48.960 --> 0:26:53.359 Cage party and one of those parties, especially, Are you 0:26:53.440 --> 0:26:56.760 kidding me? You have to understand, like everyone's drinking, it's 0:26:56.800 --> 0:27:00.280 a huge party. Everyone's trying to make business deal and 0:27:00.440 --> 0:27:04.159 get to know the famous people. Oh sure, there's so 0:27:04.200 --> 0:27:06.600 much stuff in those houses. You'd have to have security 0:27:06.600 --> 0:27:10.360 guards watching every rook like a museum them all of course, 0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:12.640 and Also, there is this thing of you let people 0:27:12.680 --> 0:27:14.959 into your house you trust. The problem with that is 0:27:15.200 --> 0:27:17.320 you let two other people into your house, you can't 0:27:17.320 --> 0:27:19.720 trust them, all right, So oh, yeah, someone would be 0:27:19.760 --> 0:27:23.359 able to leave. Are you kidding me? But Stephen wasn't 0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:28.800 entirely convinced a crime had been committed, not yet. First 0:27:28.920 --> 0:27:33.880 he diligently searched the enormous house. It was certainly possible 0:27:34.040 --> 0:27:36.640 Cage had taken the books out and set them down 0:27:36.680 --> 0:27:41.160