It was the day he took Muhammad Ali to lunch at his parent’s Canoga Park home in 1992 that he saw the look he had been waiting for in his father’s eyes.
He had dropped out of school years earlier to sell baseball cards for a living, and his parents were disappointed. Like all parents, they wanted their son to go to college and get an education that would lead to a real job and future.
The look now in his father’s eyes said something different. The disappointment was gone, replaced by pride.
Muhammad Ali was eating a sandwich in his kitchen, singing the praises of their 24-year-old son for the job he was doing handling all the merchandising agreements for Ali’s memorabilia.
From that moment on, his father became one of his biggest supporters, Harlan Werner said. What son or daughter doesn’t want to see pride in their parent’s eyes?
Meet the San Fernando Valley kid who built an empire selling dreams for a living. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, Harlan’s got a novel to write. There he is with Ali and Vin Scully — with Sandy Koufax, Joe Namath and Sly Stallone — hanging out like old friends.
They had trusted their most personal and valued memorabilia to this long-haired kid from the Valley who began trading and selling baseball cards at 13, promoting card shows at 15, and opened his own sports card store at the corner of Woodman Avenue and Ventura Boulevard in 1985 when he was 16.
By 24, he was having lunch with Muhammad Ali at his parent’s house.
“I caught a tremendous break at 15 when I met (baseball manager) Sparky Anderson,” Harlan said. “I looked him up in the phone book under ‘G’ (George) Anderson living out in Thousand Oaks, and said I’d love for him to attend one of my card shows. He came and we formed a close friendship.
“Driving back from an event one day he said, ‘Harlan, you’re going to be the guy representing the old ballplayers.’ I said I don’t know any old ballplayers. Sparky said to leave…
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