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Mary Padian and Moe Prigoff are regular cast members on “Storage Wars: Texas,” the Lone Star spinoff of the A&E reality show chronicling the odd souls who bid on the contents of abandoned storage units. He’s an antiques dealer, she’s a free-spirited collector, and both run shops in the Design District.
In the episode that aired December 2, the pair of them put down $800 for a storage locker in Garland.
Inside, they discovered a copy of the November 3, 1948 edition of the Chicago Tribune, the one that boldly reported “Dewey Defeats Truman.” If you don’t understand the irony in the headline, go take a remedial U.S. history class.
Tribune reporters were dispatched to destroy evidence of the flub, as the Tribune itself reported today, but they were only partially successful. Quite a few of the 150,000-copy run remain in circulation, a half dozen of which can be found on eBay. More significantly, one of them wound up in the hands of a newly elected Harry Truman. Spotting an opportunity to score points with the “Simpsons”-watching crowd, he held it aloft ala Martin Prince.
Still, they’re rare. The Tribune itself didn’t have an original copy until 2008, when the paper’s new editor bought one for $2,000. At auction, they can go for as much as $4,000, the Tribune reports.
Padian told the paper she’s selling her copy to a collector.