The Antique Car Museum at Georgia’s Stone Mountain Park was opened in 1963 by Tommy Protsman and his son Bobby to showcase their private collection of antiques and cars. With nearly four decades of experience under its belt, the museum housed forty antique cars and over 4000 interesting antiques. The museum included such rare cars as a 1948 Tucker and a 1928 Martin. Voted by Car Collector Magazine as one of the top ten car museums with fifty cars or less, the museum was a must see destination for all car lovers and antique connoisseurs.

Why was it that way? Because in December 2008 Bobby Protsman had to close the museum and put the entire contents up for auction. The auction is slated for March 21-22, 2009with a public viewing on March 20, 2009.

Bobby starts a 1923 Model T Roadster in the warehouse. There will be no more strolling through this amazing private collection of vintage automobiles and other memorabilia. See antique Chevys, Mustangs, even a Tucker! Reminisce over historic toys, bicycles, and jukeboxes.

Bobby is not almost 72 years old. He plans to use the auction money to travel with his wife, Ruthie. It is hard to believe that he has been operating the museum for over 46 years of his life. One of the cars for auction is a Model T owned by former Governor of Georgia, Lester Maddox, a 1955 Studebaker President Speedster, a 1966 Corvair convertible, a 1932 Packard and a 1982 Corvette.

The auction company handling the sale is Rich Penn; visit http://richpennauctions.com for more details.

There are also antiques for sale such as an antique carousel horses, giraffe, carousel running pig, VMC 33 10¢ Coca-Cola machine with attached “Colored” only and “White” only drinking fountains, a child’s Buick pedal car barbar chair from 1926, mannequins of all shapes and sizes, two antique jukeboxes from 1946 and one from 1952, a Mortier 69 key organ all hand-crafted, carved and painted, more bikes than you can shake a stick at including Harley Davidson and Schwinn.

There was only a small fee to go through the museum, but now that chance is gone. When I was growing up it was a real treat to go into the car museum located on Robert E. Lee Blvd. I’m so glad I had the chance. Now the chance is to own a piece of that history. Sure there are some expensive items but with this economy there are some good buys also. I have my eyes on some of the bargains and already a spot picked out in the garage. If I win something perhaps there can be a few tears of joy among those of sorrow that this place is now lost for my own children.

Saturday mornings in the 1970s everyone wanted it. Witchiepoo constantly tried to steal it, Pufnstuf protected it and little Jimmy owned it – the legendary Freddie the Flute. I haven’t really given Freddie much thought over the years but his recent resurfacing has made me miss him. The original series Freddie the Flute prop used on the set was recently listed for auction and sold for $12,000 to an unnamed bidder. 

H.R. Pufnstuf is a children’s television T.V. series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. There were only seventeen episodes of the show originally broadcast from September 6, 1969 to September 4, 1971. It was so successful that NBC kept it on the Saturday morning schedule for a full three additional seasons through August of 1972, when it was finally canceled. While out by the sea one day, Jimmy, a teenager, and Freddie, his talking flute, were lured to a boat. The boat was sent by Witchiepoo, an evil witch who wanted to capture Freddie. Once Jimmy and Freddie had set sail, Witchiepoo changed the boat into an evil ship. Jimmy and Freddie were rescued by H. R. Pufnstuf, a talking dragon the mayor of Living Island. On Living Island, everything on the island is actually living, including trees, flowers, books and candles (hence the name, Living Island). Throughout the series, Jimmy tried to return home and Witchiepoo continued to try and get Freddie – neither of them ever suceeded.

Sid and Marty Kroft also opened an indoor amusement park in Atlanta’s Omni building but poor attendance and ride malfunctions caused the park to shut down after a short five months. The interior and the real estate was later repurposed for the CNN headquarters. One of the puppeteers that even worked in the Atlanta park was Van Snowden who would go on to live as HR Pufnstuf from the show to the 1972 movie and then appear at amusement parks all over the country. Snowden said in an interview, “I was in that costime from 1972 to 2007, appearing on shows like The Drew Carey Show and My Name is Earl – with several new heads, and several new bodies over time.” Snowden still has several props and scenery from his years as a Kroft puppeteer. “I have some of the Pufnstuf pieces. I had the sign that was outside Pufnstuf’s cave, and one of the clocks from the show.”

For those of us that don’t have $12,000 to spend on the original Freddy the Flute, had you been a big fan of the show in the early 1970s you had the chance to buy a plastic Freddy by sending in boxtops from Kellogg’s and 50¢. Today even plastic Freddy can fetch a few bucks. An unbuilt Freddy, with original parts and the mailing package generally sells for around $600 but you need to have all the pieces in unused condition.