Chattanooga: 'Roadshows' grows some very ardent fans

Since attending their first live “Antiques Roadshow” seven years ago, sisters Jan Thomas and Elizabeth Brown of Orlando, Fla., have been hooked.

“Every time we’ve gone, we’ve had a better time than the time before,” Ms. Brown said.

“We’ve turned into kind of groupies,” her sister added, laughing.

Because tickets to the popular PBS reality TV show are distributed by lottery, the sisters have entreated the help of friends and family in their annual quest to score a pair of the highly coveted vouchers, and the chance to have their object evaluated by one of the show’s 75 celebrity appraisers.

Outgoing and curious, the pair said the real appeal is not the possibility of being on television or even meeting the stars of the show, but the people and stories they encounter.

“This is about the most fun you can have that is legal, that’s entertaining and doesn’t cost a lot,” Ms. Thomas said. “It’s not something that’s being done to you, but you’re a participant in the process with other people.”

Unlike the sisters from Orlando, who insist they’re fans not fanatics, some “Roadshow” devotees do take their appreciation to the next level.

“You see them come up and treat the appraisers like they’re rock stars,” said Larry Canale, editor-in-chief of Antiques Roadshow Insider, a newsletter dedicated to the antiques market.

APPRAISAL STARS

Leigh Keno and his identical twin brother, Leslie, are among the show’s most beloved personalities, entertaining audiences as much with their effervescent personalities as with their categorical knowledge of American antique furniture.

Leigh Keno said his fans send him all sorts of stuff, from the unmentionable kind to the handcrafted. He displays selected tokens from his collection on his desk at home, including homemade cards, paintings of antiques and a Goddard foot — resembling the foot a piece of furniture — carved out of plastic.

Mr. Keno said the extra attention feels undeserved — “We’re just used furniture salesmen who happen to be on TV” — and said the show’s popularity surprises him as much today as when it was new.

In its first tour of the country in 1996, the unknown “Roadshow” had a tough time drawing a crowd. Following its launch that winter, the show stopped in Pittsburgh, Pa., where the crowd outside was so big Mr. Keno assumed the people were lined up to see someone famous.

“I remember thinking, ‘It must be a Madonna concert,’” he said, “because there were thousands of people at 7:30 in the morning.”

TICKET LOTTERY

The overwhelming response from fans continued across the country, forcing the show to start ticketing the event via lottery in 2000, limiting the flow to about 7,000 people per city.

About 16,000 people applied for the 3,400 pairs of tickets for the program’s stop in Chattanooga on Saturday, according to Paul Grove, president and CEO of WTCI, the local PBS station.

Stemming the flow of participants has not dampened viewers’ enthusiasm, however.

“I have people who call my husband all summer and ask him questions about “Roadshow,” said Marsha Bemko, executive producer for the program. “What they want is to learn something else about their objects.”

She sympathizes with her husband, but said she can understand the motivation. Even after a decade of working on the program, she said she still gets swept up in the emotions of the moment.

At a stop in Memphis in 2004, Ms. Bemko said she was so enthused by a jacket that once belonged to Elvis Presley that the owner offered to let her try it on. Ms. Bemko is not an Elvis fan herself, “but I’m an Elvis-I-got-to-wear-his-jacket fan,” she said.

SPECIAL MOMENTS

It is moments like these that Sam and Jan Wills of Missionary Ridge are looking forward to as volunteers at Saturday’s “Roadshow” stop in Chattanooga. The avid antique collectors said they’re thrilled to meet new people and to see what treasures Chattanoogans have been hiding.

Mr. Wills, who collects American antique furniture, is excited by the prospects of seeing something new.

“He cannot walk by a desk or a chest without pulling the drawers out,” Mrs. Wills said. “He pulls them all the way out and he’s looking up and under and sideways and behind and knocking on them … and twisting the knobs to see if they’ll twist.”

The Wills said they’re also hoping to learn more about some of their own pieces, including the history of a possible authentic low boy Mr. Wills has and the value of Mrs. Wills’ Chattanooga souvenir paperweight collection.

Meeting fellow antique aficionados like the Wills and sharing their passion is what keeps him coming back, Mr. Keno said. Appraisers get a free lunch, but aren’t paid for their work, nor compensated for their travel expenses, Ms. Bemko said.

“You really come alive because of the enthusiasm,” Mr. Keno said. “You can get four hours of sleep the night before and you don’t mind being on your feet for 15 hours.”

To help keep things running smoothly at the Chattanooga Convention Center, Ms. Thomas and Ms. Brown will be assisting the crew as volunteers. They hope to be assigned the role of official note takers but said they’ll settle for whatever job they get. They’re just happy to have found the back door into their favorite interactive adventure.

“It’s like going to an eclectic museum and you get to see lots of stuff you never would have seen anyplace else,” Ms. Thomas said. “Not only that, but you get to meet the people and hear the story. What more could you ask for?”