SOME OF THE YEAR’S HAPPY-MAKING HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDED AN ALIEN THAT MELTED MOVIEGOERS’ HEARTS AND THE WORLD’S FIRST SMILEY AND FROWNY EMOTICONS
Rapid advances in technology were top of mind in 1982, so much so that Time magazine skipped its annual Man of the Year award, instead naming a Machine of the Year: the personal computer. But big things were happening outside of tech, too, like President Ronald Reagan announcing his war on drugs, astronaut Sally Ride becoming the first American woman assigned to a space mission and Late Night with David Letterman debuting on NBC. 1982 was also the year Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a live bat onstage in Des Moines, Iowa, and the year Joe Montana became Super Bowl MVP for the first time. Below, we take a trip through the Heritage Auctions archives for a further look at the innovative year.
TELEVISION
From the moment Cheers premiered on NBC in September 1982 until its final episode aired in May 1993, the bar pictured here was as much a character in the beloved sitcom as Norm, Cliff, Sam and Diane. Following the series’ last call, the bar where everybody knows your name went to a Hollywood museum that allowed bachelor-party attendees to spill their beers all over this one-of-a-kind artifact of television history. Collector James Comisar brought the bar back to life, and in a June 2023 Heritage auction, a new owner picked up the tab on the $675,000 scene-stealer.
SPORTS
This University of North Carolina Tar Heels jersey photo-matched to the 1982-83 season is the very jersey Michael Jordan sports on the cover of The Sporting News issue that proclaimed him the NCAA Player of the Year. It would be the first of many accolades to follow that title-winning season, made possible when Jordan hit that jumper with 17 seconds left to secure his Tar Heels the historic win over Georgetown. That was when a nobody named Mike Jordan became Michael Jordan – the very moment, Jordan later told reporter Craig Sager, “that started my career.” No. 23’s Carolina Blue-and-white jersey from the 1982-83 season sold for $1,380,000 in a May 2021 Heritage auction.
MOVIE POSTERS
Illustrator John Alvin created posters for more than 135 films throughout his career, including Blade Runner, The Goonies, Aladdin, The Princess Bride, Batman Returns, Jurassic Park and The Lion King – just to name a few classics. Using his daughter’s hand as a model and taking inspiration from Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, Alvin created this iconic image for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial upon the movie’s release in 1982. The highest-grossing film of the 1980s, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial went on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Alvin’s original illustration for the movie’s poster realized $394,000 in an October 2016 Heritage auction.
TECHNOLOGY
At precisely 11:44 am EDT on September 19, 1982, a few keystrokes by Scott E. Fahlman would change the way we communicate for decades to come. A colon, then a hyphen, followed by a parenthesis, open or closed. With that, online emoticons were born. Guinness World Records cites Fahlman, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist who typed the smiley and frowny emoticons in a university message board, as the originator of the “first digital emoticon,” which was “created to signify the emotional context of the message and prevent misunderstandings in email communication.” An NFT of the world’s first emoticons sold for $237,500 in a September 2021 Heritage auction.
ILLUSTRATION ART
If there’s anything more 1982 than Patrick Nagel painting Joan Collins, we’re not sure what it is. In addition to this work, which fetched $100,000 in a May 2017 Heritage auction, 1982 saw the celebrated illustrator create the cover art for Duran Duran’s hit album Rio. That was also the year Collins was nominated for her first Golden Globe for her role as the glamorous villain Alexis Carrington in television’s ode to ’80s excess, Dynasty.
MUSIC
Eddie Van Halen played this Kramer “Frankenstrat” guitar during some of his most remarkable years with his namesake band. Until master guitar builder Paul Unkert created the electric guitar for Eddie in 1982, he played his own hand-built “Frankie,” which was his attempt to combine the classic sound of a Gibson guitar with the physical attributes of a Fender guitar. Fans who rocked out at Van Halen’s 1982-83 “Diver Down Tour” might have fond memories of the red-white-and-black beauty, which realized $72,000 in a December 2013 Heritage auction.
MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART
In 1982, Jean-Michel Basquiat was still an artist on the rise. He had yet to be included in the Whitney Biennial, which happened a year later, and he had yet to be featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine, which happened in 1985. But 1982 was the year Basquiat had his first solo exhibitions in the United States, including, most notably, shows at Annina Nosei Gallery in New York and Larry Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles. 1982 was also the year the influential artist started work on this group of pristine screenprints, which realized $137,500 in an April 2022 Heritage auction.