“Auction House to the Stars” Julien’s has announced a large sale of items from the estate of the late cult rocker/social provocateur Frank Zappa and his wife Gail, the trustee of his legacy who herself passed away a year ago this week. Besides revealing a surprisingly gaudy decorating sensibility, the auction is typical rock star fare—paintings of and by the deceased musician, gold and platinum records and other sales awards, clothing, jewelry, and other ephemera that for some reason people want to possess. And of course there are some pretty tasty guitars in the offing—including an Acoustic Control Corporation Black Widow, a very rare guitar that made news about a year ago when Jimi Hendrix’s was the object of a lawsuit. But the items that make this auction truly noteworthy in our opinion are the original assemblage sculpture that served as the cover art of Burnt Weeny Sandwich, the set of apparently one-of-a-kind Zappa portrait matryoshka dolls…
 

I kinda REALLY WANT these.

…and the dozen lots (324-335) of Bruce Bickford claymation figures used to make the brain-eatingly lysergic animated sequences in the classic Baby Snakes concert film.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
The untouchably superb resource The Psychotronic Video Guide To Film had this to offer about Baby Snakes:

This part-live feature actually played theatrically. Originally 166 minutes, it was later trimmed to 91 minutes, but is complete on tape. The concert is from Halloween 1977 in New York City and features lots of Zappa guitar work. With Adrien Belew, drummer Terry Boxxio, Roy Estrada, Peter Wolf, and Ron Delsener. If you’re not a Zappa fanatic, the reason to watch Baby Snakes is the excellent clay animation by Bruce Bickford.

The auction is scheduled for November 4th. Should you intend to compete for any of the offered items, we wish you the best of fortunes, though it merits mentioning that the auction has underscored some bitter divisions among Zappa’s kids. If you’re interested in actually seeing Bickford’s animations, we unconditionally recommend the 1987 home video release The Amazing Mr. Bickford. Or you can just watch an example right here.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Zappa meets claymation in the wonderful VHS rarity ‘The Amazing Mr. Bickford’
High-end plush dolls of Frank Zappa, Robert Smith, Kraftwerk, Jim Jarmusch & more, that you NEED!