The Vincent Price Collection, it sounds scary doesn't it? It could be a grade-B monster flick. You can hear the tag line now, "The Vincent Price Collection: His collection needs one last piece... YOU!" But it wasn't a horror movie, which is too bad because it had enough clichés to be one. It had the strange dream that came to life. It had the cast of confused townspeople seeking answers. And, it had Vincent Price.

What was the Vincent Price Collection? It was an experiment started by Sears, Roebuck and Co. to sell fine art to the general public. They hired Vincent Price to assemble the collection because he had a recognizable name and a reputation as an art collector. The actor purchased more than 2,700 works and the first 100 went on sale in October of 1962. To the store's surprise, it worked. People clamored to buy pieces by artists such as Albrecht Durer or Reginald Pollack. Discontinued in 1971, the Vincent Price Collection has been forgotten as an odd art historical footnote. Today the idea of thumbing Sears catalog and seeing a Picasso on page 226 is a disturbing notion. So to help our readers gain an appreciation of the Vincent Price Collection, we dug up an old catalog from 1967. It models some pieces from the collection. Try not to freak out.