By Raymond Palma

Auction Ideas And Plans​

While working at WLIW Channel 21 in their auction department, I initiated an idea for a celebrity auction. The following is my idea for the auction as well a partial list of all the celebrity items I was able to collect by using my own resource books from my home. The full celebrity list is available upon request.

WLIW CELEBRITY AUCTION

Several years ago I attended a fund-raiser for the town of Sayville. The town of Sayville had been vandalized by arson with several different fires within a short period of time. Although the arsonist was caught, the town was left devastated by the fires destruction. A local lawyer, Edward Vaczy, whose son was born and breed in Sayville, contacted his son to help out. His son was Rich Vaczy, producer of The Golden Girls. Rich donated a walk-on part to The Golden Girls to the highest bidder as part of Sayville’s Fund-Raising Campaign to restore itself. The walk-on part generated $50,000. Amazing!

This gave me the idea for an all Celebrity Auction for WLIW.

PHASE I: WALK-ON PARTS ON TV: We contact various shows, sitcoms, dramas, soap operas, etc. and get them to donate a small walk-on part on their shows.

WALK ON PARTS IN FILM:  We contact films in current or soon to be productions and get them to donate a walk-on part in a scene of their film. 

WALK-ON PARTS IN THEATER: We contact various theater companies and get them to donate a walk-on part in a scene in one of their productions.

CO-HOSTING IN RADIO: We contact radio stations and have them commit to having a co-host on a weekend day when it wouldn’t interrupt regular hosts.

COMMERCIALS ON TV: We contact advertisers who regularly advertise on TV and get them to donate a walk-on part in one of their commercials.

COMMERCIALS ON RADIO: We contact advertisers who regularly advertise on radio and get them to donate a bit part in one of

their commercials.

CELEBRITY DINNER: We contact celebrities and get them to donate their time to taking a person or groups out to dinner.

PHASE II: We contact celebrities of the various shows and get some of them to help auction-off the walk-on

parts.

PHASE III: Working closely with the publicity and marketing department, we contact all talent agencies,

professional acting organizations, etc. to get the word out about our Celebrity Auction. This will
not be a televised auction but rather a silent one.