ON THE ANTIQUES TRAIL

Even with a Tom Jones impersonator and comedian George Carlin entertaining on the Strip, one of the hottest tickets in town last weekend had to be for the taping of "Antiques Roadshow" at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The highest-rated show on PBS affiliate KLVX-TV, Channel 10 drew approximately 4,500 people Saturday, carrying with them dreams of having a gem in their possession worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It doesn't always work out that way, of course. But all of the people holding tickets, which were given out by Channel 10 earlier this year, got their objects looked at by professional appraisers.

"Some shows appeal to youngsters and some to older people, but this one has a broad demographic, rich and poor, young or old," says Channel 10 General Manager Tom Axtell, who watched the day's taping. The station supplied 110 volunteers to help the show run smoothly.

In 2000, the show's first trip to Las Vegas, producers were expecting a lot of Western art and Western-themed objects, but that wasn't the case. "They love coming here because they don't know what to expect," Axtell says.

After going through a "triage" area where each item is placed in a category, such as paintings, folk art, clocks and watches, furniture, jewelry, silver, pottery-porcelain, glass, musical instruments, tribal art, ticket holders continued on to the main staging area where several stations were set up and lighted for the cameras.

People with large furniture items were asked to send photos of their items and the ones selected were trucked into the Convention Center by the show.

"What's been interesting is we have early 19th century to 20th century items," says furniture expert J. Michael Flanigan of Baltimore, one of 80 appraisers on hand. Each appraiser pays their own way to the show's location.

"This is a very informal society, but we see very formal items come in," he says. "We still see fancy high-style pieces. We don't see as much pioneer material."

One of the more interesting pieces was the Murphy bed housed in a cabinet, "a classic example of high-Victorian inventiveness," he says. "We have seen bathtubs in this kind of cabinet. Victorians loved this. They were the original high-tech junkies. You would see gas light fixtures used in mansions, when there were no gas lights in the town. And electric generators before electricity was common."

Flanigan says he enjoys doing the show because "people tell you as much as you tell them. Some items have great stories and some have great visual appeal."

One of the show's hopefuls, Antonia and her mother, Grace, from Las Vegas, brought a porcelain doll made in Germany that Grace's husband carried back to the United States after World War II. "I think it's valuable because it was back in the day and it's from a foreign country," Grace says, the show's policy is to only use first names. "It seems it would appreciate with age. I've had it 45 years."

Grace also wore a watch she thinks may have belonged to Gypsy Rose Lee.

Nearby, Donna from Los Angeles carried a handwritten resolution from the Kentucky State Bar Association honoring Harry B. Mackoy, a lawyer and historical figure in Ohio and Kentucky.

"I bought it for $5.99 at a thrift store in Hawthorne, Calif.," she says. "I have no idea how much it's worth."

Sharon of Saskatchewan, Canada, brought a book, "The Second Chance," and some old automobile manuals that a friend had found in a barn. "She said take these with you," Sharon says. After meeting with an appraiser, Sharon found out that "none were worth a lot," not an uncommon story at the "Roadshow."

But there were the exceptions, such as the $100,000 collection of Civil War autographs and the diamond ring set in platinum that was appraised at $165,000 to $175,000.

Executive producer Marsha Bemko was excited about meeting the grandson of lawman Wyatt Earp, also named Wyatt Earp. "He brought in a fabulous photo album with cabinet cards and tintypes. One was a photo of Josephine Earp, one of Wyatt's wives. There are not many known images of her. There was also a photo of Frank James. I was fascinated. The objects are so rare."

The photo album was appraised at $25,000 to $30,000, according to Bemko.

The show sees about 10,000 objects in each city and pares them down to the 80 or 90 for the three episodes that will air based in Las Vegas.

"People think if it's old it's valuable," Bemko says. "But the extraordinary and rare are just that, extraordinary and rare. It has to be rare and in good condition."

For those viewers with high-definition sets, items will be in even sharper detail next season, thanks to the show's first use of high-definition cameras.

New episodes begin airing in January. No date has been set for the Las Vegas episodes, and it has not been determined whose treasures will be featured.