The parlor booth where Tony Soprano sat down with his family in the final scene from “The Sopranos” just sold at auction … and someone shelled out five figures.
Tony’s booth was a tourist attraction for years at Holsten’s ice cream parlor in Broomfield, NJ … but the shop needs a renovation and the parlor booth had to go … to the highest bidder.
Holsten’s put the famous furniture — booth, table, divider and a custom plaque reserving seats for the Sopranos family — on eBay last week with a $3,000 opening bid … and an all-out bidding war ensued.
When the dust settled Monday, the auction closed and the booth had sold for $82,600 … more than enough to cover costs for Holsten’s upcoming renovations for new floors and booths.
Not included for the $82K … the jukebox Tony drops a quarter in to play Journey’s classic tune “Don’t Stop Believin'” as he orders onion rings and waits for his wife, son and daughter to join him in the booth.
The jukebox was added by the film crew … and after the show, Holsten included a plaque reading, “THIS BOOTH RESERVED FOR THE SOPRANO FAMILY.”
Since the finale and it’s open-ended cut to black, Holsten’s has been a destination for ‘Sopranos’ fans making the pilgrimage to Tony’s last known location … but wear and tear over the years forced the ice cream parlor to sell off the piece of TV history.
As Holsten’s explained … “Please understand that we don’t want to do this. But the integrity of the booths are now compromised. They have been repaired many times and this furniture is over 60 years old. Obviously, we do not want to do this, however it has come to a point where they are structurally not safe anymore as a whole and we need to think about the safety of our patrons first.”
The ice cream parlor says it’s getting a much-needed facelift, but things will look the same as they did when the Sopranos came through.
No word who bought the booth … but we seriously doubt they paid with an envelope stuffed with cash.
Founder and owner of Performer.com/Performer Media LLC, a multimedia content creator for a variety of national plus local print & electronic media affiliates.
