Anchorage’s Last Remaining Blockbuster Gets Some Unexpected Attention

On last Sunday’s ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ program on HBO, Oliver did something quite unexpected that got the attention of Anchorage, the rest of the United States and the land down under.

On the show, Oliver admitted they took advantage of Russell Crowe’s recent divorce auction that took place in the actors homeland of Australia on April 7th, where the actor sold off various iconic artifacts from his films.

Courtesy of Oliver and his show, some of that booty will now be coming to the Debarr Road location of Blockbuster.

According to Oliver, the show purchased a pair of shorts, a robe and a jock strap (acquired for $7,000 alone) from Crowe’s 2005 boxing film 'Cinderella Man.’ The program also got their hands on a hood from Crowe’s portrayal of 'Robin Hood,’ the vest he wore in 'Les Miserables,’ along with Crowe’s and Denzel Washington’s film-studio chairs from the set of 2007’s ‘American Gangster.’

After Oliver showcased all of the memorabilia, rather than keeping it, an unpredicted prompt happened;

"To the manager of the only remaining Blockbuster in Anchorage, Alaska, all of this shit is yours," Oliver said. "Just call us in the next 48 hours, and we'll send it to you.”

The offer sparked the attention of local news organizations and quickly spread to others all over the country, all waiting to see what will happen next.

Once the show encouraged the Blockbuster location to get a hold of them, Store Manager, Kevin Daymunde’s phone started blowing up with calls and texts.

“About midnight on Sunday night, my phone was going crazy!” Daymunde exclaimed. “Then we had people from the general public, people from other states and everywhere sending messages on our Blockbuster Facebook page and all that. I’m thinking, ‘What is going on?’ It was insane.”

The Debarr Blockbuster had no idea that this was going to occur. Because of the offer, the store has become quite popular through phone calls and customers asking about what they will do with the memorabilia and what their response has been.

Daymunde said, “We tweeted, we facebooked them, we found phone numbers and left messages.” All Blockbuster could do after that was play the waiting game.

Curiosity about the memorabilia came from every direction.

During last Monday’s work day alone, supervisor, Gage Lind said, “One of the employees said we got about a hundred calls about it. We’re still getting calls and did a lot of interviews today.”

Even folks in Australia, where Crowe lived most of his life and is highly admired, had been consistently trying to contact the store’s manager to talk.

“They called about a half a dozen times and so I agreed to interview with them. I have a 2:45 online radio interview with a station in Australia today,” Daymunde said last Tuesday.

And then on Monday night it came; ‘Last Week Tonight’ returned Blockbuster’s messages.

As of April 17th, Daymunde said, “One of their representatives got a hold of us about 5:00 last night. We received an email address to use so we emailed them immediately. Our owner has gotten a hold of one of the reps of the show and we’re just waiting for a confirmation. Everything is looking good.”

Of all the items that are supposed to come, the jock strap has clearly gotten the most attention in media headlines from around the country. It is probably due to the outrageous way Oliver presented that particular piece.

In the segment, Oliver proved to the audience that they had already possessed each of these items by first whipping out the actual jock strap Crowe wore inside a glass casing and shouting, "Are you not entertained?,” quoting the film ‘Gladiator’ to much laughs and applause.

But still — it’s a jock strap — furthermore, one used by Russell Crowe.

Store employees are scratching their heads about it.

Supervisor Lind said, “The jock strap? Everybody’s really curious about that. I know we’ve cracked a lot of jokes about it.”

Store Manager Daymunde also mentioned it during our interview saying, “I’m just glad you didn’t ask me about his jock strap, because that’s all I keep on hearing.” he said humorously. “Some guy offered me $20 if he could have a picture of himself with the jock strap on.”

Just $20?

If and when this memorabilia makes it’s way to the Debarr Road Blockbuster, the plan is not to resell it or anything like that. The only profit the store hopes to see is the one Oliver intended for in sending the gifts — to display it, draw more people into the store, and give the surviving Blockbuster store something they would not normally have the opportunity to receive.

Daymunde and Blockbuster are thankful that the show thought of them with their odd, but kind proposal.

Concerning all the attention that been surrounding the whole incident, employees have been overwhelmed by all the hype but understand that it could mean good things for the stores revenue.

Lind said, “It’s definitely going to get business-a-boomin’.”

When it all comes, “We’ll just have to figure out where we’re going to put it and how to display it.” Daymunde said,

Daymunde also noted that “a good customer” of Blockbuster has volunteered to build a display for the coming memorabilia and that the possibility of a Russell Crowe section is an idea as well for regular and interested customers.

Longtime resident of Alaska and Blockbuster member, Andrayah Giroux said she found out about the memorabilia offer from her son living in Chicago.

Giroux said, “I’ve been coming here since the store opened and I’m not one to buy memorabilia like that, but I would come to see it.” She added, “I think having that here at Blockbuster would be iconic and attract people to come into the store.”

Non-members, Guy Bengtson and Norma Jean Hortman who were visiting Anchorage from out of town this past week had even heard about the news and were so intrigued about it that they had to walk into Blockbuster just to say they were at the store where the memorabilia will be shipped and for nostalgic purposes.

“I just couldn’t believe there were still any open.” said Bengston, a Washington resident.

“I think there’s something nice about walking into a Blockbuster and picking up a title maybe with the family or whatever.” Bengston continued. “I’m from the day where I enjoyed going into the store and roaming through because you find other films and say, ‘Oh, I wanted to see this.’ or see ones you forgot about. Then you can pick up some popcorn at the register, order a pizza and get home.”

Sounds like all the ingredients to “make it a Blockbuster night.”

People want Blockbusters to still exists, especially in Alaska due to the many areas where internet service to stream movies or use Netflix is either unavailable, undependable or too expensive to afford.

Thankfully, Supervisor Lind said that the Debarr Road location has a good relationship with the owner of their building and that a three-year lease has recently been signed keeping the store open for business and prepared to bring in some welcomed Russell Crowe movie relics for the city to see.

Robert Foran III’s work can be followed through Foran Brand Journalism on Facebook & foranbrandjournalism.com