Antiques dealer trafficks in treasures from yesteryear

Sixty-two-year-old Doug Franck studied history in college. Upon graduation from California State University, Northridge, his work life included nearly everything except his original goal: teaching history.

Now, in his 400-square-foot store within the Sin City Pickers Antiques & Collectibles Mall downtown, he’s teaching history every day.

Franck collects antique telephones, cameras, radios, Victrolas, costumes, photos and books. Nothing newer than the 1960s , he says proudly, “and I have one camera that goes back to 1880.”

He just likes items from the past.

“They were made so well,” he says, “and they all have a story — who invented or designed the device, the materials used, where it was made, the original cost, the function, etc.”

Franck doesn’t mind a bit of wear on his antiques.

“Yes, I clean the items I buy and repair them if necessary, but I don’t replace working parts just because they look a bit worn. When I first started collecting, I thought everything should be museum- quality. But now, if I buy a like-new item, that’s great. If I find a rare piece that looks like it has been used through the years, I’ll buy that as well. Use is part of the story. ”

Franck can talk about his antiques nonstop.

“And sometimes I do,” says the bearded teacher with a wink.

He can also talk about woodworking, cooking, gardening, pets, the movie business, period costumes and swimming pool maintenance.

His work and lifelong collecting have left him no time for marriage and a family, and he’s fine with that, too. Instead, at his home in northwest Las Vegas, he has a menagerie that includes dogs, chickens, parrots and a potbellied pig. He also has a woodworking shop and a garden with 48 fruit and nut trees. His mother, in her 80s, also lives in Las Vegas, and he sees her frequently. A female friend is the tenant in the second floor of his home.

Franck began collecting at age 5 when his Uncle Salvatore gave him several souvenir coins from World War II. Franck still has the coins, but slyly adds that the man who started his lifelong passion “was a Mason who sometimes dabbled in the concrete overcoat business and was absent for a couple years in prison .”

Nonetheless, the coins intrigued young Franck, and he wanted to learn about their origin. His parents had Funk & Wagnalls standard encyclopedia books and the full Encyclopaedia Britannica.

By age 11, Franck had read every word in the Funk & Wagnalls; then from ages 12 to 16, he read every word in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

“I’ve been learning, researching, buying and selling for so long I forget that young people don’t know the history I know,” Franck says. “A 15-year-old boy was visiting the house with his parents and he was looking at my Victor Victrola VV-XI made in 1915. I asked him if he wanted to hear it play. He did.

“I found a record and turned it on. ‘Wow,’ he said, ‘it’s so loud. But where is the wire?’ I told him it was a mechanical device that had no electric cord,” Franck adds. “Then I went on to explain how the whole thing worked. He thought it was really cool.”

Franck has furnished his entire home with antiques. His collections also extend to a storage unit. In addition to the phones, Victrolas and other items, he owns 100,000 78 rpm records, 3,000 LPs and 200 45s. He also has a library of 7,000 books, mostly first editions.

Every piece of his collection is logged on his computer and in a printout. If a customer comes to Sin City Pickers looking for a particular item — or a part for an antique item — and it isn’t among the 10,000 items he has in his store, he can check instantly to see whether he has it at home or in storage.

“And if I don’t have the item, I’ll try to find it,” Franck says. “I love a challenge.”

There are many variables to pricing, but Franck offers a wide range. For instance, Edison cylinder records for an Edison cylinder player made in about 1908 are $15 each (and could be used for decor). A Western Electric 50 AL nickel-plated candlestick phone made around 1920 costs $300. And a Victor Victrola VV 16, built between 1915 and 1920 and originally selling for $400, would now fetch $1,200.

Delta Air Lines retiree Rick Mears of Henderson regularly visits with Franck to purchase and talk phones. Mears’ hobby is collecting phones from the 1920s and ’30s and he notes that Franck’s store has phones in good condition that are hard to find elsewhere.

Mears says he discovered Franck’s store just by visiting local antiques stores. When he’s in the neighborhood, he sometimes stops by Sin City Pickers just to talk with Franck about their mutual interest in phones.

Franck notes, not so shyly, that he has handpicked all the antiques in his store.

“Because most customers who come to Sin City Pickers must pass by my store, I will see wives grabbing their wayward husbands to pull them away from looking at my collection,” he says.

Franck also has rented several of his vintage items for advertising and video shoots.

Among the challenges of Franck’s life has been moving his collections as he has moved. He was raised in California’s San Fernando Valley and lived in the Golden State until 1973, when he followed his folks to Las Vegas.

“ In the early ’70s, Las Vegas was an antiques mecca,” he explains. “All of Main Street was filled with antiques stores and I mean real antiques, not just junk. During that time I worked as a dishwasher and cook at the Stardust. On the side, I fixed up old cars and bought and sold antiques. ”

In 1976, Franck returned to Los Angeles. There he worked as an auto mechanic and also donned some of the 105 costumes he had collected. He was an artist’s model at the Art Center College of Design, an advertising model and even a movie extra. With his Hollywood contacts, he also was hired as an auto mechanic on several independent-movie sets.

Having a mechanical aptitude and knowing that Los Angeles residents needed pool maintenance, Franck went into the pool business. His clients ultimately included movie stars such as Jimmy Stewart, Burt Reynolds, Lucille Ball and former actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan.

In 1988, bored with just the pool business, Franck started Wild West Wood Works, making custom furniture. In 1991, Franck moved to Angel’s Camp in Northern California to work full time in a business that included felling trees, milling the wood and making wood products.

“That business didn’t do well, but I learned a lot,” Franck said.

He returned to Southern California and re-entered the pool business full time but continued to buy and sell phones, radios and other antiques.

In 2009, Franck moved back to Las Vegas to help care for his mother and father. He kept control of the pool service business (it is still going strong) and he lets his licensed staff take care of the day-to-day work while he handles the bookwork and the calls remotely.

“ I’m here now because of my mother — my father died a year ago — and because I love having the outlet for my collections. I still love collecting,” he says, “I make buying trips and I’m on the computer looking for rare items every day. I’m currently expanding my store to include reproduction nonfiring firearms, more pre-1920 projectors and hand-cranked pay phones from 1925 to 1961.

Franck is not required to be in his store every day, but he’s there about five days a week. He loves talking about his collections and talking to other collectors, “people as passionate about the older designs as I am.”

Franck notes that one customer from Salt Lake City told Franck he has a 1,600-square-foot space for his collections, yet lives in a 900-square-foot house.

“I understand a guy like that,” he says.

• • •

Sin City Pickers Antiques & Collectibles Mall, 10 W. Wyoming Ave., is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Call 366-9166 for further details.