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Calling all Smokey and the Bandit fans: the unsung prop costar/hero of the film is up for grabs. That’s right. Bandit’s CB radio and scanner can be yours at a starting bid of just $250.
All right, full disclosure: no one can confirm whether the radio/scanner combo was actually used in the film or if it’s simply the same make and model of the production props. However, Burt Reynolds, who starred as Bandit, did own the pieces being auctioned. The topside of the scanner also bears his signature.
The Pace CB-166 23-channel CB radio with a corded plug-in walkie-talkie (serial number 05618060) and Pace 10-4U police scanner (serial number 3301483) are valued between $1,000 and $2,000. Neither have been tested for functionality, though, and are being sold as is. Both are being auctioned together as Lot #352 of the “Gunsmoke & Western Legends Auction.”
As the name suggests, the items for sale are specific to the Gunsmoke TV series and other items related to the show’s actors, including Reynolds, James Arness, and Dennis Weaver. Julien’s Auctions, which specializes in memorabilia of the rich and famous, is hosting the auction on November 15.
Released in 1977, Smokey and the Bandit was a low-budget production that turned out to be a big-time Hollywood hit. The film had a production budget of $4.3 million but went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Smokey’s $127 million earnings were second only to another small film named Star Wars, which grossed $197 million against its $11 million budget.
The CB radio was an integral part of the film about Pontiac Trans Am-led bootlegging team hustling 400 cases of Coors between Texas and Georgia, which was legitimately illegal at the time. Yup, liquor laws were wild back then. Bandit used the radio/scanner with frequency to keep tabs on the pursuing Sheriff “Smokey” Justice and, of course, threw out a “catch me if you can” taunt every once in a while. And the lucky winner can do the same, hollering “What’s your 20?” into the ether when traveling east bound and down. Or west bound and up. Wherever. At least crossing state lines with a bunch of Coors isn’t illegal anymore.
