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Joe Elbert
“Pawn Stars” stars Rick Harrison, his father Richardson Harrison, his son Corey Harrison and Corey’s best friend Austin “Chumlee” Russell (wearing the backwards cap).
Published Saturday, April 10, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.
Updated Friday, April 16, 2010 | 5:41 p.m.
After 28 years in the business, Rick Harrison is an expert when it comes to spotting anything fake or stolen. As far as big-ticket items, Rick is the man for the job. Spotting a fake Cartier watch that most people would mistakenly purchase for $30,000 is just one of his many skills. Often acting as the middleman between his father and his son, Rick is the glue that holds this family and business together.
"Pawn Stars": Behind the Scenes
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diggAustin "Chumlee" Russell gives us a behind-the-scenes tour of the wacky collection in the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, where History Channel's hit TV show "Pawn Stars" takes place. While business is booming, Rick and The Old Man tell us why they're better than the competition and how they're dealing with their new-found fame.
The cabs are lined up outside the business at 713 Las Vegas Blvd. South and, at the entrance, the type of velvet ropes you’d see at the entrance of Tao are keeping the curious in line. Inside, a burly security guard barks at the throng, “Keep this line moving, folks!”
Everyone wants to see the Harrisons bicker and dicker with customers, just as they do on TV. They operate Las Vegas’ most famous pawnshop, which found stardom on the History Channel reality series “Pawn Stars.”
But there is another reality, and it plays out in the back: the line of good-condition Harley-Davidsons, stacks of carpenters’ tools and belts in fine shape and even a framed platinum copy of Paul McCartney and Wings’ greatest hits album stored in this cavernous garage. There is simply no room for this stuff out front.
In the back is where Richard “Old Man” Harrison, Rick “The Spotter” Harrison, Corey “Big Hoss” Harrison and Austin “Chumlee” Russell steal away to talk business, decompress and smoke. The floor is strewed with cigarette butts, a slice of the Harrisons’ reality never depicted on the Disney-owned History Channel.
In the back, the guys are talking shop. Pawnshop, naturally.
A security guard, Antwaun Austin, rests his hand on a wooden statue while keeping an eye on tourists coming into the store.
•••
With his father, the irascible Old Man, listening in, Rick Harrison is stressing about the ongoing expansion of the business. Built in 1935, the store is busting out of its original space and needs to be at least doubled in size. Walls are being torn down. Plaster ripped from the surface dirties the concrete floor even further.
“It is expensive to do this,” Harrison says, shaking his head. “It’ll be $400,000, at least.”
Harrison is fairly buried in this process of growing the building with the business, but he’s suddenly distracted. His eyes narrow as he looks toward the area of “the back” opened to the alley behind the store. Someone is walking in, unannounced and uninvited. “What now?” reads the look on Harrison’s crinkled face as he tosses the cigarette and asks this interloper, “How can I help you?”
The man, wearing an aqua-and-orange Miami Dolphins jacket and jeans and lugging a backpack, reaches out to shake Harrison’s hand.
“I just wanted to see the face,” he says.
“OK, gotcha,” Harrison says, and shakes the man’s hand. Then the fan melts away, having successfully infiltrated “the back.”
“This kind of thing happens,” Harrison says, now grinning. “A lot.”
•••
For the History Channel, unearthing the Harrisons and their Gold & Silver Pawn was like uncovering a gold brick under a pile of cinder blocks.
The show, which debuted last summer, has become the network’s highest-rated show ever. In February, it beat all broadcast and cable competition in the demographics category most important to advertisers: men aged 18-34, and finished second only to CBS in men aged 18-49.
No surprise, the Harrisons say.
“We’re really knowledgeable,” Rick Harrison says. “We definitely have a different type of store. There are three generations (with 63 years of experience) who work here. It’s really eclectic. Think about it: We’re ‘American Chopper’ one week, ‘Antiques Roadshow’ the next week, ‘Pimp My Ride’ the next. We’re a little bit of everything.”
Long before reality-TV producers descended on the store, the Harrisons had realized for years they were sitting on a potential gold (and silver) mine. For more than a decade Rick Harrison was referring to the business as “World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn” on the weight of publicity it had garnered.
Even so, Gold & Silver was not exactly an overnight success. Rick Harrison had sought a pawn license for most of the 1980s, and had been maddened by a long-established ordinance that no pawn license would be issued in the city of Las Vegas until its population exceeded 250,000.
“The good-ol’ boys, back in the ’50s, figured we’ve got our pawnshops, we don’t want any competition,” Harrison says, “so they passed a law saying that they would issue one more pawn license when there’s 250,000 people in the city of Las Vegas. This was when there was only 20,000 people in Las Vegas and nobody ever thought it would get to 250,000. But lo and behold, in 1988, I was the first to get a license.”
Today more than 50 pawnshops operate in Las Vegas. But when producers sought an apt location for a reality show about that intriguing yet oft-misunderstood subculture, Gold & Silver stood out.
“They knew a lot about history, a lot about Las Vegas, a lot about the items and told their stories in an interesting way,” Leftfield Pictures owner Brent Montgomery says. “The History Channel guys came out of their seats in the meeting when they saw this. They were like, ‘Wow! A real-life ‘Antiques Roadshow!’ ”
Montgomery also remembers the family’s casual response to the news that the show would be picked up by History Channel.
“The Old Man said, ‘Brent, we’re glad you’re here, but leave it how you left it,’ ” Montgomery says, laughing. “A lot of people would roll out the red carpet. Not these guys.”
Vital for everyone involved in the project was to depict the Harrisons and the pawn business honestly.
“Pawnshops have always been a gray area of business, with strip joints and pool halls,” the Old Man says. “But you have to understand that 17 to 20 percent of people in the United States don’t have an active checking account or any bank affiliation, and this is a place where they can get a loan without that bank affiliation ... We’ve educated the public a lot about what a pawnshop is. We’ve pulled it into Middle America from the gray areas.”
•••
A fair amount of staging happens in the show, no question. A five-person production crew edits down and brushes up the lengthy negotiations between the Harrisons and their customers. When a person brings in a particularly fascinating item — say, a 1750s blunderbuss from an owner who wants to trade the firearm for an engagement ring — the customer might be asked to return so the crew can properly capture the scene.
When the show started, 70 customers in a 24-hour period was considered robust business. Today it’s not uncommon for 1,000 people a day to visit the store. Now it is primarily a tourist attraction that seems to serve more as a stage set than an actual business. Corey Harrison says he spends about half his time, tops, on the pawn business. The rest is managing his personal appearances, finances — the fame thing.
What is real are the personalities depicted in the show. There is no acting going on with these guys. “You usually have to feed lines to your subjects, but not in this case,” Montgomery says. “Rick is terrific.”
Old Man is a 69-year-old Navy veteran who served in Vietnam. A photo of him as a young Navy man hangs in the shop. Unbending in his stoical disposition, he does not suffer fools gladly. You wonder if he suffers anyone gladly.
Rick Harrison is hard-wired to negotiate. Always has been. Even asking his age leads to a pawnshop-style give-and-take: “I’m 35,” he says. Yeah, right. “OK, I’m 45.”
Harrison, who dropped out of ninth grade to take a job as a busboy, has been making deals for cash since he was a teenager.
“I discovered at age 13 that if a spoon had ‘Sterling’ on the back, it was worth money,” he says. “I’d run around a swap meet and find 20 in a day, make 75 to 100 bucks by finding silver spoons ... Yeah, I’ve been doing this my whole life.”
That’s why he’s called “The Spotter.”
There is also a genuine affection, apparent even amid the show’s humor at his expense, between the Harrisons and “Chumlee” Russell, who has known the family since he was 12. Both Corey and Chumlee left school in 10th grade, but passed the GED. Now they are rich and famous.
Indeed, Chumlee is likely the most-requested figure for photos among Pawn Stars fans, and jokes that once a fan swooned over his mere presence.
An inherently private person still wary of public adulation, Corey “Big Hoss” Harrison allows that he was something of a wild child in his younger days. “I grew up in Las Vegas,” Big Hoss, 26, shrugs. He works almost constantly, from 7 a.m. until around 9 p.m.
“I love the Old Man,” Big Hoss says. “But I see him 12 hours a day, seven days a week sometimes. We’re more like best friends, and we’ve been that way for about 20 years. But you sometimes have arguments with your best friend.”
The Gold & Silver Pawn Shop has become more of a tourist attraction. Lines gather outside for a chance to see the merchandise.
•••
An episode in Season 1 effectively depicts the family dynamic, how the personalities mesh and occasionally collide.
A customer, a young man, drives up to the store in a 1962 Lincoln Continental. It’s a venerable car — a 1961 version of this vehicle was the presidential-issued limousine in which President Kennedy was assassinated. It’s the rare piece brought to the store that actually seems to spark genuine interest from the Old Man, who says, “A lot of people consider it a piece of art.”
Rick loves the car, too. It’s the rare piece that has, regretfully, taken him out of his analytical business disposition. He gazes at the car’s flawless, gleaming paint job and listens to its purring engine.
He does not hear, or heed, the words from the Old Man, who tells him, “The interior is a disaster ... it’s going to have to be all redone. You’re talkin’ beaucoup money.”
Rick buys the car anyway. He takes it to a member of the “Pawn Stars” corps of experts, Wally Korhonen of Rusty Nuts Rods and Customs, who is a whiz with automobile restoration.
Korhonen holds the car for weeks. Finally he calls the Harrisons over to his shop, shows them the better-than-new interior and describes the litany of upgrades he and his staff have miraculously performed.
The Old Man shakes his head, attempting to mentally add up the bill. Rick is, for a change, nervous about the outcome.
The cost for the work is $15,000 — $5,500 more than the Harrisons paid to buy the car in the first place, and more than $10,000 above what Rick estimated the cost of refurbishing the interior would cost.
“I knew that interior had to be completely redone,” Old Man says to the camera. But The Spotter asks Korhonen, “What can I get out of this car?”
“You can get in the neighborhood of about $30,000-$35,000, depending on the buyer,” Korhonen says. The total investment stands at $24,500. Luckily, the “Pawn Stars” made out OK.
Finally, father and son are both happy. But this car is not for sale. The Old Man is shown driving it back to the shop, and he looks pretty swift behind the wheel, dressed in his black suit and matching fedora. The story of the Lincoln’s rescued interior is now part of Pawn Stars lore, a yarn certain to be spun for years — in the back of the store, of course.
The full version of this story appears in the current issue of Las Vegas Weekly, a sister publication of the Sun.
Great show, as the pawnbroker will readily tell you when you ask what something is worth, " What anyone is willing to pay"
went there and was surprised it was smaller than it looked on tv - during nascar weekend a line out the door and around the block. was fun anyway
A line to get into a pawn shop....only in Vegas.
I was in the store last May when they were filming and I thought they were making a commercial since it was so scripted. Great show though.
These guys are expanding just the way orange county choppers did.
Way to much $$$ put into it. When show goes black, the pawn shop
spills red and goes out of business. Guaranteed.
By the way, I have a 1909 S-VDB penny in mint condition. How much will you give me for it?
i remember when the kid bought that Chris Craft ,and didn't even know if it ran!!!
These guys do a great job representing Vegas. As a citizen of the Valley, I appreciate their bringing in business.
Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, or one of those other diet places should make a deal with the Pawn Stars. Who cares if Dan Marino loses fifty pounds? Watching Chumlee and the three generations of the Harrisons drop weight would be more compelling advertising.
By the time this business "spills red" and goes out of business, they'll have more money than they'll ever need.
Even the Teutels, Paul jr..his next ten businesses could go bust. Still sitting on a pile of cash and investments
Pawn is a great show. Rick seems very level headed, unlike Paul Sr. Driving cars thru his buildings and crashing them for fun...or to get ratings.
Watch the show and enjoy it, but people sneaking into the back just to see someones face they have seen on TV is ridiculous. Some people are just truly fatheads when it comes to their "celebrity-worshipping".
No doubt the show is interesting, but like most reality shows they drag the drama out too far. If they had a format that went "BOOM!-BOOM!-BOOM!" and just showcased the items like they do on the Antiques Roadshow, I'd be more interested. Not that I mind commercials, but having to make me wait through 2-3 breaks just to see the results of some big-ticket item just annoys me. So I just watch edited YouTube clips.
I've also gotta agree with "United_727". I can't believe that line of people waiting to get in almost every time I drive by the place, even in the rain. That's always worried me too about shopping there. I'm guessing that their prices are increased due to their increased business of shoppers. Anybody know if their prices are on-par for gold and electronics with the other places in town?
In second graph ....Harrison brothers??? Great story nonetheless, really enjoy this show. Not sure I'll wait in line to get in the shop but I might drive by during the week since I'll be in town. The old man is CLASSIC!!!
Comment removed by moderator. Name calling.
shoes, when did they fire you???
Pawn shops are not rip offs, retail stores are a rip off. I have used pawn shops to by the hot electronics for years.
As for how the pawning end goes, that is for lazy people. If people want to get top dollar for their products, get off your but and put it on ebay, craigslist or in the newspaper and sell it. Pawn shops are doing exactly what retail stores are doing, buying a product at less than cost and selling it for whatever anybody is willing to pay for.
It's the only pawn shop in the world with a line waiting to get in. Only a moron would think that pawn shop is going to be "spilling red" anytime soon.
Ya, spilling red, ya. Logic sucks
Actually In-N-Out Burger pays their employees near $10 an hour....because they can.
And the General Managers at each store earn over $100k a year. It's a fact.
"Harrison brothers" reference was fixed. Thanks for pointing THAT out. It was an error. I didn't mean that they were, you know, soul brothers, though they are that.
Comment removed by moderator. Unsubstantiated statement.
Been to the store,met Chumley,met Rick,Corey and the old man wasn't around, I did notice how high thier prices on jewelry was and I guess that's because of the market they create. These guys are really just down to earth people,except for the big security gaurd with the megaphone.
I realize they have to buy low and sell high but I think they do not offer a 'fair' low price and just take advantage of people to no end. And I wouldn't be advertising their lack of education - doesn't do much in the way of encouraging kids to stay in school now does it - next thing you know kids who watch this show will think they can drop out too and 'get rich' as well. That doesn't happen too often in ones lifetime.
JUST FOR ONE DAY, I WOULD LIKE TO BE A STUPID LEMMING LIKE MOST
AND SELL A 1000.00 ITEM FOR $500 TO THEM.
Boomer111-Obviously your wish was granted!
good show
I spent three months last year getting my sick and elderly parents into a nursing home down on S.Cheyenne; I grew up in Vegas[Western71] but have been gone 33 years. When I first saw the so-called downtown experience I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the city's stupidity. Now comes this entertaining show that for the first time in so many years makes me want to visit the downtown area. Its the best thing outta Vegas in a long time; when I next visit Vegas to check up on my mother[my father passed away last September] my sister and I , both coming a thousand miles very much plan to visit the pawn shop. It is probably the best advertising Vegas has gotten in years. Wonder if they'd be interested in my old Pepsi machine, hmmm? they got somebody fixes them up. Oh well, whatever, I love the show.
Hey Chumlee..... need a manager?? Right now, this guy could sell almost anything! GREAT persona.... please don't let the fame and $$$ get to you. All the best to you and YOUR crew!