The Michelle Pfeiffer GiftDay Story

Michelle Pfeiffer was about to turn 50. She was in Paris at the time filming a movie, and the movie’s producer had no idea what birthday gift to get her. He had heard about GiftDay through one of his colleagues, so he emailed us from Paris to ask if we could find something special for her. We replied that we’d find something immediately and headed to the Internet.

Michelle Pfeiffer was born April 29, 1958. We did some quick research on Pfeiffer and discovered that during several interviews she stated one of the reasons she had gotten into acting was because of fellow actress Anne Bancroft. Pfeiffer called Bancroft her “inspiration”. I thought the Bancroft name might lead to a relevant and meaningful gift for the producer so I began my search on eBay for Bancroft memorabilia.

Within minutes, a search on eBay turned up pay-dirt: a Playbill theater magazine from April 29, 1958. The magazine featured Bancroft on the cover (with Henry Fonda). The two were at the Booth Theater on Broadway in New York performing the play, “Two for the Seesaw”. When I saw the magazine had no bidders at $3, I couldn’t reach the “submit bud” button on the website fast enough.

But the magazine itself was only the beginning of this story... I emailed the eBay magazine seller after the auction ended, and I let him know that Pfeiffer was going to be the recipient of the item. I asked him if he could offer me any additional information that would be useful to include in the gift’s provenance (the document that evidences a GiftDay item’s date relevance and authenticity).

The man emailed me back that he was selling off items that belonged to his late wife. (He explained that she had recently passed away.) He wrote that for as long as he knew his wife, her favorite actress had always been Anne Bancroft. He wrote that he remembered that his wife had travelled from their home in Virginia to New York with a girlfriend specifically to see Bancroft in the play on the night of April 29, 1958. The email seemed too good to be true and I pressed the man to look through his wife’s Bancroft memorabilia collection to see if he could find anything else pertinent or interesting. I gave him my address and he promised to send me any items he could find.

A few days later I received the package from the eBay seller. Included was the Playbill magazine, a letter and yellowing articles. The articles put goosebumps on my arms. They were all ripped from newspapers of the day and covered the “Two for the Seesaw” play and Anne Bancroft. One article, especially faded and yellow was from the New York Times. The article featured a photo of Bancroft from the performance. In his letter, the gentleman whose wife had just passed away that he wanted Pfeiffer to have the articles and memorabilia from the play. He believed his wife would have wanted that because she would have wanted to share her appreciation of Bancroft with another fan of Bancroft.

Needless to say, Pfeiffer was touched by the gift and passed along a message to us through her public relations firm. The producer, too, emailed us to tell us how remarkable the gift was.

GiftDay endeavors to find meaning in gifts - so that they can be used to tell the gift recipient that they are unique and special and that they have been thought about, considered and fussed over. Because everyone likes to be treated like a movie star on their birthday. Even movie stars.