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HERE’S SELLIN TO you, kid. The piano used as the prop for the key flashback scene between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca” will go on sale next month.
Sotheby’s says the auction in New York should raise between $800,000 and $1.2 million for the 58-key piano on which the movie’s character Sam plays “As Time Goes By” for Rick and Ilsa.
“Here’s lookin’ at you, kid,” Bogart’s Rick tells Bergman’s Ilsa as the three drink champagne at La Belle Aurore in Paris, while loudspeakers outside announce the approach of the invading German army.
The 14 December sale will mark the 70th anniversary of “Casablanca,” ranked by the American Film Institute as the most romantic and quotable movie of all time. The Warner Bros movie won three Oscars in 1943 for Best Picture, Best Writing (Screenplay) and Best Director.
The piano was sold by Sotheby’s in 1988 to a Japanese collector.
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Hate to be petty but the actual line in the film is ‘Play it, Sam’. The headline of the is article is one of the most widely misquoted lines in film history!!!
how much did the Japanese collector pay for the piano?
$155,000.00 in 1988…quiet the investment although the thing was actually hollow and didn’t play.
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