Constable: Long, strange trip for Grateful Dead relics

A ticket for the sold-out Grateful Dead reunion concert this July in Chicago lists online for a couple of grand. But how much would someone pay for Jerry Garcia's old file cabinet?

We'll find out at next month's massive Grateful Dead Family Jubilee Auction at Donley Auction Services in Union.

"First and foremost, it's an art auction," Randy Donley says of the iconic band's vast assortment of posters, clothing, photographs, postcards, paintings, backstage passes, furniture and album covers. "But it's a really interesting, eclectic collection of stuff."

Open to invited guests in person and everyone else online, the auction on April 11 and 12 includes such one-of-a-kind items as:

• The kitchen table from the Grateful Dead's office in San Rafael, California, "where the band gathered around to drink coffee and consider the day."

• A handwritten draft on three-ring binder paper of the song "He's Gone."

• An old wood file cabinet that still features a skull-and-crossbones sticker warning, "Is there life after death? Trespass here and find out."

• A 1962 photograph signed by all the members of the group then known as "The Hart Valley Drifters" in which a baby-faced, clean-shaven Jerry Garcia lists his roles as "banjo" and "voice."

• The Colt .25 pistol licensed to Jerome Garcia and used when he and the band "used to go out to a ranch and target shoot."

• The stovetop from Garcia's house.

• The 1956 Chevy Bel Air the band used to "tool around San Francisco."

• The black T-shirt Garcia wore in his last concert.

Garcia died of a heart problem at age 53 in 1995 while in a drug-rehabilitation center, but the Grateful Dead's office in an old rented Victorian house in San Rafael remained open for another decade. Many of the items featured in the Donley auction come from employees and friends of Garcia and fellow band members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann.

"Jerry would sit at that table," Dennis McNally, the band's publicist for two decades, says of the kitchen table in the auction. "Half of the decisions the Grateful Dead made were at that table."

The brilliantly colored "Leaping Tiger" oil painting Rick Griffin created for a 1990 European tour is framed in the same quilted maple wood used to make one of Garcia's guitars. Many of Griffin's works will share the auction stage with skeleton-inspired works by Stanley Mouse, including a hand-painted guitar.

"So much of this stuff is one-of-a-kind," says Susan Hagerty, Donley's auction manager.

"Most of these things have never been offered before," adds Lisa Purze, a longtime friend of Garcia who is selling several items in the auction.

Not one of the devoted Deadheads who followed the band on tour, Donley appreciates the Grateful Dead for other reasons.

"For me, being a businessman, I think they are geniuses," Donley says. "They weren't successful by accident. They were geniuses at marketing and promotion. I'm so impressed."

Much of that business paperwork, including the trademark granted for the name "Grateful Dead," will be part of the auction. While many items are expected to fetch well into six figures, fans who can't afford tickets to the concert should be able to buy programs, tickets or other items originally owned by the band for less than a couple hundred bucks, Donley figures.

Like the Grateful Dead's career path, the road to this auction has been a long, strange trip. Donley booked the auction more than year ago.

"When I flew out to California to pick up this merchandise, nobody knew there was any concert in Chicago," says Donley, who personally picked up items and drove them back in a truck. Now, the concert is bringing unexpected interest in all things related to the band.

"The entire history of the Grateful Dead is about synchronicity," McNally says. "Jerry used to say, 'That's everyday life for us.'"

The Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary "Fare thee Well" concerts during the July Fourth weekend at Soldier Field sold more than 200,000 tickets as soon as they became available. Obstructed view tickets on one popular site now are listed at $1,499 and higher, with some prime seats being offered for more than $100,000.

"Jerry Garcia always said the Grateful Dead were like licorice," McNally says. "Not everybody likes licorice, but the ones who do really like licorice."

For more information or to see all the items in the auction, visit the donleyauctions.com and gratefuldead. auction websites.