My Big Adventure to Paul Reubens’s "Big Auction"

A series of murmurs and gasps went up on a late October afternoon at an auction of some of the late Paul Reubens’s things. It wasn’t because of the heated back and forth between bidders on a Pee-wee’s Big Adventure replica bike, which Reubens rode at a 2011 awards show and ultimately fetched $19,200, making it the auction’s most expensive item. Instead it was because Reubens’s longtime assistant Allison Berry mumbled, "That was in Paul’s living room," when auctioneer Kody Frederick began to solicit bids on a relatively standard Atomic Era sofa to a crowd of 25 or so people at the Groundlings theater in Los Angeles. (Hundreds more were bidding on the auction online across the world.)

It’s a fact that was noted in the listing for what Julien’s Auctions called a "vintage multicolored upholstered sofa," but it caused a buzz all the same. (The item’s presale estimate was between $400 and $600 but it ultimately ended up going for $7,680 including buyer’s premium.) The same can be said for other objects from Reubens’s home and garden, like a Brown-Saltman magazine coffee table sold for $4,480 or a cascading outdoor fountain that went for $6,400. One online buyer spent $3,520 on the four wrought-iron address numbers once screwed to a wall outside Reubens’s semifamous three-bedroom, midcentury home in Los Feliz while another paid $2,240 for two relatively small and crudely cast concrete animal sculptures that previously sat in Reubens’s yard.

For fans of Reubens, it seems nothing was too much to pay for the chance to own something beloved by the actor/comedian, who died in 2023 after a private, years-long cancer battle. Several audience members came in Pee-wee Herman costumes, paying tribute to Reubens’s most famous and long-running persona. Others drifted in hours after the auction started, clutching newly obtained bidder numbers but often choosing to mostly watch the sale roll on in person.

The 438-item auction spanned items from Reubens’s life and career. There were books autographed by his famous friends and costumes from his movies, bits of claymation from the "Penny" cartoons on Pee-wee’s Playhouse and a klatch of kitschy salt and pepper shakers. It seemed to represent the man as much as his work; part memorabilia sale, part personal estate auction. Much of what was featured in the auction wasn’t actually on-site, save for a few items significant to Reubens’s time at the Groundlings, where he first launched the Pee-wee character, and a signature Pee-wee Herman suit from the 2016 movie Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, but that didn’t stop fans from oohing and aahing over each item that hit the block. (In a tribute to the secret words from Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Frederick also asked in-person attendees to "scream real loud" every time they heard the word "sold," a charming gimmick that only lasted for the first 10 or so items.)