Hollywood’s hottest giveaway is at The Herald on Thursday

EVERETT — Take home a Hollywood star on Thursday — John Wayne, Liz Taylor and Tom Hanks are up for grabs.

What’s up with that?

Back in June, I wrote a column about a giveaway of vintage celebrity headshots and movie stills rescued from a newsroom purge more than a decade ago. I figured a few readers might be interested in the glossies.

Instead, my inbox exploded with wish lists, heartfelt stories and requests for Farrah Fawcett. Messages came from the East Coast, West Coast and even the North Pole.

The photos are from The Daily Herald’s morgue. In the pre-digital days of the ’70s and ’80s, studios mailed out these prints for TV listings, features, obits and scandals. When the Herald downsized in 2013, I saved a box from certain doom. It’s lived in my garage ever since, a star-studded time capsule waiting to be rehomed.

A pop-up event will be held starting at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Herald’s headquarters, 1800 41st St., in Everett. Park in the visitor lot and head across the skybridge to the big, glassy building. Photos are free, five per person, until gone.

When the original column ran, I thought I’d hear from 20 people — maybe 30. I hit that number before lunch.

At first, I offered to mail readers the stars they wanted.

“No, no — I want to dig through them,” many insisted.

Yikes.

If party planning has taught me anything, it’s that the real challenge isn’t getting people to show up — it’s getting them to leave. Fill a room with 100 vintage movie buffs, and you’re looking at a Hollywood slumber party.

My son proposed a clever alternative: assemble mystery envelopes, five random photos each, like vintage Pokémon packs. Had I listened, I wouldn’t have spent the last month sorting through hundreds of TV hunks and silver screen queens: alive, dearly departed or hovering somewhere in between.

There are multiples of many. Forty-two glossies of John Wayne, for example, and about as many of Patty Duke.

It was starry mayhem: Whoopie Goldberg. Judy Garland. Kirk Douglas. Michael Douglas. Generations of stars.

I tried sorting by last name: Brando, Bogart, Ball, Burnett, Bardot, Blake, Bronson, Brolin, Brenner.

That got me to B.

Next, I tried first names: All the Jameses — Woods, Garner, Dean, Cagney, Arness. The Richards — Gere, Harris, Dreyfuss. Then the Johns — Travolta, Wayne, Depp. (Side note: Johnny Depp is 62. Let that sink in.)

Originally, I planned to host the giveaway in mid-August in a parking lot after The Herald’s move to Hewitt Avenue. I even wrote:

“I’ll be the frazzled woman in a car with black-and-white photos.”

I was already frazzled. My living room had turned into a galaxy of glossies.

“Know what I should do?” I asked my husband during one of my organizing spirals.

Without looking up, he replied, “We’re not holding this at our house.”

How did he know what I was scheming?

Help was needed to sort the stars. I summoned the grandkid squad.

Mimi, 9, took one look and asked, “Who are these people?”

Five minutes later: “Grandma, this is hurting my neck.”

Momo, also 9 and an obsessive organizer, gave it her best shot — while secretly browsing beauty products on Sephora.

I was inspired by readers who reached out:

A man identifying himself as “Santa George” called with a wish list. I didn’t ask if he’d been naughty or nice.

Henry W.M. Koikoinui Jr., of Everett, sent a good-natured email about his conservative friends lamenting that my “fluffy” column in June got more ink that day than Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Turns out, classic Hollywood charm crosses party lines. He signed off: “I digress. I’d love to throw in my hat for your pop-up giveaway.”

Mary Ollenburg likened the giveaway to a lottery. She was interested in Katharine Hepburn, Robin Williams, Elizabeth Montgomery, Western stars or the luck of the draw.

Tyler Chism was easy: “I’ll take whatever you give me. I like surprises.”

Clarissa Lansing reflected on her time as the “default archivist” of 38 family photo albums after her grandmother died.

“Exhausting but meaningful,” she wrote.

I felt that. I was an accidental archivist, knee-deep in Hollywood relics.

Annzolee Olsen grew up hearing stories of her parents mingling with the likes of Gina Lollobrigida and Ann-Margret back in their heyday. Her dad was dazzled. “My mom would say, ‘Oh, there’s that Raquel Welch again,’” she said.

Among her inherited auction treasures: A poker table from a Robert Redford film and an ornate chair from “Houseboat,” the 1958 movie with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren.

She wanted the pics to match. (Done — as you can see in the photo with this story.)

Annzolee is part of the SnoCo Movie Club, which hosts monthly classic film screenings at the Everett Public Library. “There’s an optional discussion afterward,” she said. “It’s heartwarming to see young people interested in cinema from the past.”

Doug Turner’s requests included Dick Van Dyke and Gene Hackman, both from his Illinois hometown, and Farrah Fawcett. “I had her poster on my wall,” he confessed.

Sam Mutt mentioned he once met John Wayne in L.A., his dad served with Hackman, and that he had fond memories of Farrah. “I was a teenage boy… well, you know.”

(Gentlemen, wait until you see the glossy Angie Dickinson pinup.)

Eric Steiner offered to trade vintage Washington Blues Society Bluesletter magazines for the stills. “Google my name and ‘Blues’ and you’ll get more than I want you to know,” he warned.

And then there’s Kim Miller of Darrington.

“I just turned 50 and I’m a fun lady,” she wrote.

Kim is a log company weighmaster who drives a camper van named Ida Willow, owns 35 chickens, collects earrings on vacation, and has a pen pal since third grade who flew in from Australia for her birthday.

“That young John Travolta pic would be fun to have,” she wrote, “and see his smiling face framed in my entryway as I head out the door to work.”

Hey, good idea, Kim. He’s smiling by my door right now. Want a shirtless Arnold Schwarzenegger from his Mr. Universe days instead?

See you Thursday.

Got a story for “What’s Up With That?” Hit me up at reporterbrown@gmail.com or 425-422-7598.