Auctioneers Rose sisters bidding to star in network reality show
6/12/2010The Toledo area's most recent reality TV star is 'American Idol' runner-up Crystal Bowersox. This fall, it could have five more.
The show, which does not have a working title, would feature Beth Rose and her daughter, Sara Pentony, of Beth Rose Auction Co. LLC; Beth's sister, Pamela Rose, of Pamela Rose Auction Co. LLC; and two other siblings, Dawn and Karen Rose. Dawn and Karen both work for Pamela's company, while Sara runs her mother's Florida auction house.
"They're separate companies, but we're partners in each other's business and all of us would be working with the show. It's really about the family," Beth Rose said.
The two auction firms are in Monclova Township with Maumee mailing addresses.
At this stage, Beth Rose added, there is no commitment that the show will be made and put on a network schedule. But the prospects are high.
The premise, Beth Rose said, is a cross between PBS' Antiques Roadshow program and the History Channel's Pawn Stars program, which centers around a family of pawnbrokers in Las Vegas. In this case, the Roses' program would center on the family, which is from Whitehouse and Waterville, and wherever and whatever develops with their auction businesses.
"I think the appeal is that we're four women who are very competitive. We're family. We're sisters. And we're all experts in our fields," Pamela Rose said. "Although we all work all the time, we've always worked on very interesting things," she added.
For example, a few years ago, Pamela auctioned off property from Dana Corp.'s Dorr Street headquarters. One of the seemingly mundane items was an ashtray, but it later developed that the item had a storied history with the company and eventually fetched $13,000 at auction.
Beth Rose recently was asked to auction off a large collection of guns. The catch: They were all pre-Civil War firearms, forcing her to educate herself on their worth and history. "I can now tell you all about pre-Civil War firearms," she said.
Karen and Dawn Rose primarily do automotive-related auctions but have been involved in numerous other fields, Beth Rose said.
The Rose sisters have been working on developing a reality show for about a year since answering an advertisement in a trade magazine that was seeking an auction family "with personalities larger than life" and a strong knowledge of the business.
"I said, 'My gosh, that's us!'•" Beth Rose said. The family submitted information and was contacted by several television production companies.
Eventually, they signed an agreement with a production company - which the family declined to name - that has a strong track record of producing reality TV hits.
The Rose sisters said they hope to negotiate a final deal in a week or so with the production firm and that a TV network, which they declined to identify, wants to add the show to its fall lineup.
Pamela Rose said filming for a pilot episode already has occurred.
"I think it's exciting. It's unexplored territory. I've always known that our lives were something like a reality show. For us, every day is different and what we do is unusual," she said.
Beth Rose said that despite the family bond, all of the sisters are very competitive with each other. "It is a 'War of the Roses' at times," she added.
Pamela Rose said the production company expressed a strong interest in the family interplay. "They'd probably want to see Beth and I duke it out, but that isn't the focus," she said.
The focus will be on the numerous odd and unusual items all of the Rose sisters are asked to auction off on a regular basis, the sisters said.
"There's not much we don't auction," Beth Rose said.
"We've done real estate, rare art, business liquidation, heavy machinery, antiques. I've done bachelors and bachelorettes," she said.
"Besides, we're kind of used to being in the spotlight. So this wouldn't be anything different for us."
Contact Jon Chavez at:
jchavez@theblade.com
or 419-724-6128.