posted July 14, 2002 02:46 PM
July 14, 2002
Junk drawer auction
Fans, curious shoppers find little sign of famous astrologer in scraps on sale
Bryan Oller The Gazette
Auctioneer Dale Ely of Dale Ely and Associates in Florence holds up a card with Linda Goodman's signature on it during an auction Saturday of her estate. Goodman, who lived in Cripple Creek until her death in 1995, was an astrologer and author of the books "Sun Signs" and "Love Signs." The card was sold to Barbara Brewer for $22.50.
By Bill McKeown The Gazette
FLORENCE - The furniture and boxes of household goods lined up in an auction shed Saturday didn't look like stuff that belonged to someone who admirers say transcended space and time, who knew the deepest mysteries of the universe.
But the stuff sold anyway.
After all, the plaster and bronze ram's heads, the four pairs of white Minnetonka moccasins, the avocado-green blender and the dented blue teapot belonged to Linda Goodman, the good-hearted but eccentric author/astrologer credited with encapsulating the Age of Aquarius.
The cheap furniture and boxes of household goods - including a roll of toilet paper - had been stored since 1995, when Goodman, a 25-year resident of Cripple Creek, died of complications from diabetes.
At the time of her death, reportedly at 70 although she never confirmed her age, Goodman had sold 30 million copies of her books "Sun Signs" and "Love Signs" in 15 different languages and was credited with popularizing the study of astrology worldwide.
During the height of Goodman's popularity, quintessential 1970s celebrities such as Steve McQueen, Princess Grace and Sonny and Cher sought her counsel. But there was precious little sign of that woman among the boxes and in the drawers of her furniture at Dale Ely and Associates auction barn.
There were some coins in an Almond Roca can labeled "petty cash"; some old pieces of Sweet 'n Low hard candy left in a drawer; a photo album with just a few photos of New York City landmarks and an unidentified hotel, given to Goodman from a man named Rob, who wrote on the fly leaf, "In memory of a hotel like no other ...."
Bryan Oller The Gazette
A copy of Linda Goodman's popular astrology book "Love Signs" was just one of many items up for auction Saturday. Goodman was at times astrologer to the stars, including Steve McQueen and Cher. Her books have sold millions of copies.
The photo album, with a cigarette butt stuck between the pages, may have come from her lover, Robert Brewer, a 26-year-old marine biologist who left her in 1972, according to a 1995 People magazine article.
For years afterward, the magazine wrote, Goodman continued to set a place for him at her dinner table in the rambling turn-of-the-century home she owned on Cripple Creek's Carr Avenue.
Mostly, though, the stuff auctioned Saturday was "junk," as one older woman sniffed while she rummaged through a box.
Woodland Park resident Gail Necker agreed. She has read a few of Goodman's books and thought she'd drive down to the auction out of curiosity.
"I guess I expected to see more stars and moon sculptures, cool stuff like that," she said. "It's typical stuff my grandmother would have in her house. I guess I expected more."
The current owner of Goodman's home, Rick Wood, said the personal effects sold Saturday must have come from a second home Goodman owned in Cripple Creek, one she moved into after declaring bankruptcy in the 1980s.
Wood said her original home was filled with nice antiques, which stayed in the home after he bought it and turned it into the Last Dollar Inn, a bed and breakfast that still has Goodman's bed in the "Linda Goodman Room."
Wood and others said Goodman was generous with the millions of dollars she made from her books, buying jewelry and cars for friends, a generosity that may have led to her financial troubles.
Goodman also struggled with depression over the suicide of her daughter, Sally, in the 1970s. She was one of seven children - three of whom died young - Goodman had with two husbands.
Bryan Oller The Gazette
Potential bidder May Lenc, second from right, of Colorado Springs examines items at the Goodman auction. Some collectibles could be found among the everyday items.
Until her death, Goodman believed Sally's astrological charts indicated she was still alive and the government was covering up her true fate. When the paperback rights for her second book, "Love Signs," sold for a then-record $2.25 million in 1978, Goodman spent more than $400,000 on private detectives to try to find her daughter, according to news reports at the time.
Despite - or maybe because of - those hardships, Goodman struck a chord with many readers, who sensed her humanness in her writings.
Chaeli Boken of Colorado Springs attended the auction and bought two small, nondescript pictures that once hung in Goodman's home, just as a memento.
"A lot of her writing meant a lot to me when I was younger," said Boken, whose mother, Nancy Lee Boken, knew Goodman through her job at the Colorado Springs National Bank.
In fact, both Bokens are listed in the back of "Sun Signs," under important people who had certain astrological signs.
Nancy Lee Boken said Goodman was a generous, charming woman who often told her she was related to Abraham Lincoln. She said Goodman never failed to send autographed books to her and her then-young daughters.
That's the kind of woman Barbara Brewer imagined Goodman to be.
Brewer drove down to the auction from Colorado Springs and paid $22.50 for one of two autographed cards from Goodman bearing the greeting, "Love and Magic!"
Brewer thought maybe the signature was really done by a machine. It hardly mattered. It was something that reminded her of Goodman and what she had meant to her for almost 30 years.
"I believe she had insight into a lot of the universal laws, and she explained them in a way people could understand," Brewer said. "I have used it over the years."
But even the diehard fan was grappling with the disparity between the world-famous author with otherworldly insight and the paltry pickings in the auction barn.
"I'm thinking her family took most of the good stuff," Brewer said.
Still, Brewer was finding cosmic connections where she could: "There's a cookie jar over there that looks just like my cat."
Quote
"I guess I expected to see more stars and moon sculptures, cool stuff like that. It's typical stuff my grandmother would have in her house. I guess I expected more."
Gail Necker, of Woodland Park, on the auction of belongings for the late astrologer and author Linda Goodman
Contact information
Bill McKeown covers general assignments and may be reached at 636-0197 or mckeown@gazette.com
Copyright 2002, The Gazette, a Freedom Communications, Inc. Company. All rights reserved.
------------------
"He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love." Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lindaland
UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! 
posted July 14, 2002 12:42 PM
posted July 14, 2002 12:58 PM
posted July 14, 2002 01:05 PM
I didn't realize you had done that, until after I had posted mine..*sigh*.....mine was on the LINDA GOODMAN FORUM...well at least they know about it...hey, do you know who Barbara Brewer is???? 
)
posted July 14, 2002 08:20 PM
Hehe
posted July 15, 2002 03:13 PM
posted April 19, 2015 08:13 AM
