Trump's Tariff "Rosebud" Is at Academy Museum
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| Paris flashback piano from Casablanca |
A 2019 article in the New York Times traced Donald Trump's costly obsession with tariffs to a 1988 auction of movie memorabilia. Flush with royalties from The Art of the Deal, Trump bid on a piano from Casablanca, losing out to a man named Vance. That was Eric Vance, U.S. representative of C. Itoh & Co., who was said to be bidding for a private Japanese collector. The winning bid was $154,000. At the time, Japan was considered an economic powerhouse, and Trump was considered a savvy businessperson. In interviews Trump began calling for a 15 to 20 percent tariff on Japanese imports, insisting that the island nation was taking advantage of the U.S.
Two pianos were used in the filming of Casablanca, and both are in a current installation at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (through Jan. 4, 2026). The primary Casablanca piano, the one that Sam (Dooley Wilson) used at Rick's Café, is blond wood with vaguely Moroccan decoration. Trump bid on a lesser, dull-green piano that was used only in a Paris flashback.
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| Installation view of Rick's Café piano from Casablanca. Photo: Owen Kolasinski |
Comments
Sing "La Marseillaise" for us, won't you, Donny, please?
--- J. Garcin
I found it interesting that towards the end of the tour she mentioned wondering how Warner Bros was going to survive with so little production activity going on. When a soundstage or backlot is being used, the tour guides point that out. A lot of things they referred to was about shows or movies of over 10-20 years ago.
The AMPAS museum finally being created in LA just a few years ago is symbolically ironic now that the entertainment industry is increasingly choosing to do at least a lot of its front-of-camera work in other parts of the nation and world.
As for the politics of AMPAS's museum, Hollywood/LA (fires and all) and Washington DC, that may be also best symbolized by the apparent flop of the remake of a classic Disney movie.
As an old saying goes, may you live in interesting times.