American Pickers Frank Fritz Bobblehead | Shows American Pickers | History

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American Pickers looking for Georgia locations!

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Bloopers from the UK trailer

Behind the scenes with American Pickers

It's an oppressively humid late-May afternoon in downtown Nashville, Tenn. In roughly 48 hours, a History channel production crew will shut down several city blocks to film a lavish new American Pickers promotional spot, and today the commercial's director and choreographer are putting Mike Wolfe and a handful of extras through the paces of a dress rehearsal.

That's right, choreographer. The tongue-in-cheek spot, which cleverly updates Dr Pepper's long-running "I'm a pepper" campaign to "I'm a picker," features Wolfe and co-host Frank Fritz pirouetting their way through the city streets--pied pipers of picking trailed by dozens of dancing acolytes.

Neighborhood merchants and their patrons begin spilling out onto the sidewalk. "I love your show!" squeals one woman. "I just did my first pick--a 1918 Singer sewing machine!" Wolfe gives her a high-five. A dreadlocked skater dude sidles over from his perch outside a tattoo parlor, asking, "Hey, man, can I get a picture with you?" Wolfe obliges before turning back to the production crew.

Wolfe surveys the scene around him, a broad grin on his face. "We've come a long way, huh, dude?" he says, bumping fists with History channel writer/producer Matt Neary, who has worked on American Pickers since its premiere.

The discussion returns to the commercial shoot. Wolfe gets confirmation that the crew has hired the Nashville-area hair and makeup technicians he requested. "I'm a businessman in this community now," he tells them. "It's really important to touch base with the locals."

About 90 minutes in, the rehearsal winds down. Despite the heat, the choreographer's demands and the fan frenzy, Wolfe is unflappable. "Are you having fun?" cracks a crew member.

Wolfe replies, with mock incredulity: "How can you not have fun doing this?

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220181

The Business of History - American Pickers

Eclectic consumer tastes, innovative interior designers, progressive urban developers and a legion of treasure hunters are fueling new interest in the antiques and artifacts of a bygone America. Shaped by tastemakers across TV and the web, the contemporary collectibles business extends from the dust and rust of the flea market circuit to the rarefied air of the auction house, running the gamut from lowbrow culture to high art. Discover the wheelers and dealers reclaiming the past to forge one of today's most compelling entrepreneurial opportunities.

Americana Idol
Everything old is new again on American Pickers, the TV show that's rejuvenating consumer interest in the antiques and collectibles market. Now creator and star Mike Wolfe is leveraging a multigenerational passion for the past to build the multimedia empire of the future.

Mike Wolfe is in his element. The star and creator of History channel's hit showAmerican Pickers weaves his way through the vintage motorcycles, folk art and random oddities that line the floor of his new storefront in Nashville, Tenn.'s Marathon Village, a sprawling small-business complex that a century earlier housed the short-lived Marathon Motor Works auto factory.

When construction is complete, the 3,000-square-foot site will serve as the Music City outpost of Antique Archaeology, the collectibles retail shop Wolfe founded in LeClaire, Iowa, more than a decade ago. For now, though, it's a work in progress, to put it charitably--with the scorching summer months closing in fast, the space still has no air conditioning (no electricity whatsoever, for that matter), the front window is shattered and the walls are in dire need of a contractor's attention.

Wolfe could not care less. "Look at these beams, man," he raves as he tours the room. "Look at these poles--they're like masts off a ship. Look at the brick. You just can't re-create this kind of space."

Wolfe lives for this stuff. Each week on American Pickers, he and his co-host, childhood pal Frank Fritz, travel the country's highways and byways in dogged pursuit of hidden gems and one-of-a-kind artifacts languishing in small-town attics, basements, barns and junkyards. But the genteel, fragile heirlooms and curios that once dominated the antiques market are not Wolfe's forte. He loves rust, dust, dirt and grime almost as much as the Curtiss V-twin motors, Airstream trailers and circus sideshow banners that lurk underneath.

And he's not alone: Launched in January 2010, American Pickers attracts more than 5.7 million viewers each week, less than 1.5 million off the pace set by sibling series Pawn Stars, History channel's flagship show and basic prime time cable's highest-rated original series.

With the American Pickers cult flourishing, Wolfe's passions are going mainstream. Collectors are clamoring for the Americana curiosities and oddities that make up the bulk of what he and Fritz pick each week, and their mud-caked, sunbaked aesthetic is shaping interior design trends as well.

"I've always bought what I liked, and I've made a living off of my eye and my gut and what I think is cool," Wolfe says. "On Monday nights, I have an hour-long commercial on what I think is hot. Imagine being in business and having that opportunity. Whatever we're finding, people are like, ‘Wow, that's cool. I love it. I want to buy one of those.'"

Wolfe is parlaying that opportunity into an empire, balancing his production responsibilities (every two weeks on the road filming, every other two weeks off) with a host of projects that promise to further cement his stature as the new face of the business of old stuff. Foremost among Wolfe's ambitions: Kid Pickers, a series of educational books on collecting with a corresponding social media website designed to connect children with others who share their interests. There's also an official American Pickers Guide to Picking, scheduled for publication in September, and even Music to Pick By, a CD assembled by Wolfe and legendary Nashville record producer Brian Ahern complete with three new songs composed and recorded by Wolfe and country singer/songwriter Dale Watson.

"I'm a businessman, so I'm gonna make hay while the sun's shining," Wolfe says. "I've been self-employed for 23 years. That's an accomplishment in itself. You gotta be out there hustling. If you're not, you're not gonna make it."

Labors of Love
American Pickers, Pawn Stars and the myriad copycats spawned in their wake--American Restoration, Storage Wars and Auction Hunters among them--have made unlikely celebrities out of the small-business owners who make their living buying and selling the collectibles at the center of each series, blurring the line between PBS's venerable Antiques Roadshow (the granddaddy of the genre) and more blue-collar, mainstream TV fare. But what sets American Pickers apart is that it focuses less on the monetary value of the items Wolfe and Fritz uncover and more on the larger-than-life collectors they meet in a day's work.

"The people we pick are the real stars of the show," Wolfe says. "Audiences remember [fan-favorite collectors] Hobo Jack and the Mole Man. They remember the people, not what I bought from them. Frank and I are just telling their stories. It's a business, yes, but it's always been an honor that people open their homes and their hearts to us."

Community Effort
Although American Pickers ranks among the most popular and talked-about shows on TV, Wolfe understands the viewing public is notoriously fickle. "Everything has an expiration date," he says. "I'm a realist. Do I think I'm Pickin' Jesus? No. That's ridiculous."

So Wolfe is busy building the foundation of his post-American Pickers life and career, looking to his own past to set the future in motion. His Kid Pickers social networking platform (which, unlike the History channel-owned American Pickers brand, is Wolfe's and Wolfe's alone) is designed to offer today's children something the young Wolfe himself craved but never had: a means to connect with other kids who share a passion for picking and collecting. Children, it turns out, make up a sizable chunk of the American Pickersaudience.

"We have so many people who tell us that our show is the only one they watch as a family, and that's such an honor," Wolfe says. "Sometimes kids come in to Antique Archaeology and bring their collections with them. Their parents can't believe how much they know about this stuff. Every kid is born a picker, and we're gonna teach them how to pick and what to pick. Kid Pickers is going to be my legacy."

In the meantime, Wolfe still has a business to run. Expanding Antique Archaeology to Nashville further strengthens his ties to the local design and decorator community, which constitutes a vital component of his client base.

"They rely on guys like me to find these amazing statement pieces," he says. "I'm not the guy who can finish a room, but I'm into space and color, and when I look at something, I can see past it not having an antiquity value."

Setting up shop in Nashville also brings Wolfe into close contact with the city's vibrant creative culture. Already, he has commissioned Hatch Show Print (a letterpress print shop first opened in 1879) to produce a limited-edition poster commemorating Antique Archaeology's opening.

Wolfe is giving back to Nashville as well. With the city putting the finishing touches on an $8.7 million effort to restore the historic Franklin Theatre, a 74-year-old cinema house that reopened in June, Wolfe stepped in to complete work on its green room, unearthing vintage 1940s fixtures that evoke the building's glory days.

The Franklin faced imminent demolition before local residents mounted a grass-roots campaign to bring it back to life. Now it lives on, allowing elder Nashvillians to relive their memories of the venue--and giving future generations the opportunity to create memories of their own. Maintaining the ties that bind yesterday, today and tomorrow is what drives Wolfe above all else.

"My job is putting things in their rightful place. If I don't buy something, it's going to rot, so I have to rescue it," he says. "One time I sold a green, wooden toolbox to a woman. She told me, ‘When I was a little girl, I used to go out to my grandfather's shed. I would stand on a green toolbox just like this one, climb up on his workbench and spend hours with him.' For me, those kinds of emotional connections are what this is all about."

Pickers film segments in South Dakota

Some of South Dakota’s finest hidden gems are set to be unveiled on a popular antiquing show.
The television show “American Pickers” recently filmed at the Pioneer Auto Show in Murdo and the nearby 1880s Town.


A crew of 12 from the television show, which airs Monday nights on the History Channel, spent 12 hours picking and filming in Murdo on Aug. 11.


“It was quite exhausting,” said Dave Geisler, owner of the Pioneer Auto Show in Murdo. “But it was a really good experience. They were very professional — it was a lot of fun.”


“American Pickers” features Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz and Danielle Colby Cushman, three self-described “pickers” who are on a mission to recycle America. They dig through piles of what many people consider junk, looking for forgotten treasures to restore.


Fritz was not at the filming in Murdo; he was headed to Sturgis for the annual bike rally. Fritz did make a stop in Mitchell earlier that week, though, to pick up some parts for his bike at Sabers Specialties.
Geisler said that Colby Cushman took on the role of Fritz, while she and Wolfe picked their way through the 42 buildings at the Auto Show.


And they found a variety of treasures.


Some of the items purchased by the crew were a small race car, ladies jewelry, a Mickey Mouse mannequin and old toys.


Geisler had been in contact with producers from the show for several years. He knew they would make a stop in Murdo, he just didn’t know when.


The show sent scouts to look around Murdo, and, Geisler said, “they said this is definitely someplace we’ll want to look.”


When the crew of 12 did show up for filming, Geisler said they acted like they had just discovered the museum.


Typically, the pickers film on homeowners’ land, digging through basements, barns and junk yards. So stopping at the antique museum in Murdo was a different scene for the crew, Geisler said.


“We do probably have the largest private collection in America,” he added.


The Pioneer Auto Show opened in 1954 by A.J. Geisler, David’s father


The facility began specializing in antique and vintage cars, but has grown to include a large variety of antiques from old music boxes, bicycles, toys and jewelry.


In the end, it’s a picker’s dream.
The American Pickers stop for filming will be a big boost to the Pioneer Auto Show, as well as the rest of Murdo, Geisler said.


“It will be a wonderful thing for Murdo if it got national coverage,” he said. “It’s tourism season and it’s been down somewhat.”


The town had taken a hit this summer with hail and wind, Geisler said, damaging the museum’s facilities and knocking down billboards advertising the town’s attractions along Interstate 90.


An air date has not yet been set, but Geisler expects Murdo’s segment will be on in March or April 2012.

Mike is moving to Nashville

Mike Wolfe, co-star of American Pickers, recently moved to Nashville and opened an Antique Archaeology store. / Kristin Barlowe

Of all the locations for the choosing, reality star Mike Wolfe picked close to his heart when he made Nashville the location of his second Antique Archaeology store.

The co-star of History Channel’s American Pickers series is quick to say that whether he’s picking antiques or locations, he only picks what he loves. If that’s the case, this picker is having a love affair with all of Middle Tennessee.

As creator and co-star of the popular show, Wolfe offers a fascinating look at what pickers — the folks who scour the countryside for antiques — will go through to find vintage gold. While Wolfe logs some serious drive time all over the country scouting for treasures, he says his recent move to Nashville has, in many ways, brought him full circle.

“Nashville, to be honest with you, is key to why I even got this show,” Wolfe said. “In my small town, in my community, when I told people my idea for the show, they would laugh. Or they didn't understand.”

The draw of Lower Broadway

Though Wolfe is quick to say he will still maintain a presence in the tiny town of LeClaire, Iowa, where the initial season’s episodes were filmed, Nashville had him at hello.

“I was riding my motorcycle on the Natchez Trace and I cut through Nashville. Like everybody else, I ended up on Lower Broad, and I was like, ‘Man, this is so cool,’ ” Wolfe said.

Wolfe, an avid motorcyclist, then rode his bike to Leiper’s Fork and “ended up at Marty Hunt’s store, Leiper’s Fork Antiques, and I was blown away by the way the shop was put together.”

Wolfe credits Hunt, a woman he describes as “one of the modern-day founders of Leiper’s Fork,” as being one of the many Middle Tennesseans who championed him and his dream of a television show.

“I was naive. I had this idea for a show. I was like, you just call up the History Channel and tell them the idea,” he said. And that wasn’t the case. “I had to write a treatment, start pushing the idea to production companies, then edit the whole thing.”

Wolfe bought a video camera and starting filming the road trips that he and American Pickers co-star Frank Fritz took, logging hundreds of hours of video.

Hunt, who worked in the antique business for more than 20 years, remembers seeing the early video and being impressed with Wolfe’s commentary. What could have been simply an account of two men looking for junk was elevated by Wolfe’s personality.

“Mike can talk to a doorknob. He treats every person he meets with such enthusiasm and courtesy. And he is so passionate about antiques, restoration, people. It comes across,” Hunt said.

So Wolfe kept coming back to Nashville: He sold at the Nashville Flea Market and picked items for local antique dealers — “this community just gets my style, my stuff” — and he previewed his video to local antique dealers, art directors and music-industry folks and kept fine-tuning his ideas.

Highest ratings for History Channel

Wolfe spent almost four years honing the pitch. The show first aired in 2010 to the highest ratings the History Channel had ever scored.

American Pickers and his first American Archaeology store became so successful that Wolfe decided to put an addition on the shop.

“We started getting bids back on the shop in Iowa and it was around $200,000. For a town of 3,000, it didn’t make sense,” Wolfe explained. “We needed a bigger market.”

Wolfe said that since the “whole essence of the show was planted here in Nashville,” he looked here immediately for space.

His Nashville store, at 1300 Clinton St. in Marathon Village, is part showroom, part playground, with 2,000 square feet of space. It’s much bigger than his first shop, and Wolfe said people will be able to walk in and buy things they saw him pick on the show.

“This is my chance to take all the stuff we find and put it in here so people can say, ‘I get it.’ In Iowa, I don’t have the space or the market. People are not going to get it,” Wolfe said.

And Wolfe isn’t limiting his Nashville love affair to strictly selling vintage goods. The upcoming season of American Pickers will feature the saga of the start-up of the new store and his struggle to gather enough to keep both stores full.

In addition to nurturing the show, Wolfe also has an upcomingchildren’s book series, The Kid Picker, which will encourage children to learn the art of picking, and he’s trying his hand at songwriting, collaborating on an album called Music To Pick By. He credits Nashville with sparking what appears to be unlimited creativity.

“Nashville is this melting pot of creativity. If you can dream it, you can make it,” he said.