The guitar that Michael J. Fox played as Marty McFly in Back to the Future has been missing for decades, but hopefully not for long. Gibson Guitars and Universal Home Entertainment have partnered with filmmaker Doc Crotzer (Road House, Glee) to launch Lost to the Future, a search for the Gibson ES-345 Cherry Red guitar.
In the iconic ’80s film, Fox played the guitar during the Enchantment Under the Sea high school dance, performing two songs: “Earth Angel” by the Penguins and “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry, which was a scene-stealing moment in the movie.
The guitar, which was rented as a prop from Norm’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, Calif., has been missing for several decades. Now Gibson and Crotzer are setting out on a “true crime search” to find the instrument, and Crotzer is planning to document the experience.
“Back to the Future made me want to make movies as a kid, and made me want to pick up a guitar,” Crotzer told Billboard. “I’m a guitar player but I’m just a hobbyist; I went on with my (filmmaking) career, but I had always wondered what happened to that guitar. Over the last however many years so many props from the movie have surfaced…but (the guitar) had never surfaced.”
Notably, Gibson’s director of brand experience, Mark Agnesi, previously worked at Norm’s Rare Guitars before joining the guitar manufacturer, and says he has been trying to track the guitar down for a long time.
“I’ve been searching for this thing for 16 years now,” Agnesi explained. “I started searching everywhere. Norm’s has this big warehouse of guitars and occasionally I’d go in and look for certain things, and every time I’m in there I was always looking around for (the Back to the Future guitar), but to no avail.”
The Guitar is thought to have been sold from Norm’s multiple times
The team has their work cut out for them, as the guitar’s trail has been cold for some time. It’s said to have been sold at one point, and then later sold back to Norm’s, but then it’s believed that the guitar was sold again.
“Back then there was no digital record of that stuff; it was all hand-written receipts and stuff,” Agnesi says.”“We know it was returned to Norm’s. At that time in the mid ‘80s there was a Japanese vintage guitar boom; charter buses of Japanese tourists were pulling up and buying everything in sight. So it could be someone has it in Japan. We don’t know. The possibilities of where it could be are endless.”
The guitar’s serial number is unknown, but Agnesi says it does have a unique attribute that would help identify it: the inlay on the guitar’s 12th fret is solid, not split like the others on the neck.
One “Anomaly” Could Help authenticate the guitar if it’s found
“That anomaly is the smoking gun we’re looking for, thank God,” Agnesi says. “That will not be on any other guitar. Either someone custom-ordered it that way or it would be marked a factory second on the back of the head stock. That’s how we’ll know we’ve found the guitar we’re looking for.”
Crotzer adds that the tell is “the most amazing coincidence,” adding, “I personally believe it’s like some higher power giving us the opportunity to find the thing.”
Those with leads about the guitar’s whereabouts are asked to call 1-888-345-1955 or send a message via www.LostToTheFuture.com.
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