🎥 Wes Anderson's Personal Collection | Bulletin #142

This week: monkeying around 🐒

December 03, 2025

Grand Opera House 📍 Wilmington, Delaware, USA 📸 Marjorie Becker

What the heck is a “ghost light”?! In many theaters, a single bulb is left glowing onstage after hours, when the space is empty … or at least empty of humans. On a practical level, it helps anyone entering a dark theater avoid an accidental tumble. But theatrically speaking? Some believe it’s there to appease or ward off ghosts. At the historic Grand Opera House, stagehands always leave a ghost light burning, calling it their “insurance against ghosts.” Perhaps spirits simply want to support live theater. And honestly, they’re welcome to stay, so long as they don’t shout “BOO!” after the curtain call. 🎭

THIS WEEK IN AWA AWESOMENESS

🛍️ The AWA Shop is closing soon
🎥 Get your Wes Anderson fix IRL
🏡 Exploring one of the grandest American estates
🗝️ Keychain up for grabs

HOLIDAY SHOPPING PSA

Make sure to put in your AWA Shop orders ASAP if you want them to arrive before Christmas!

In the U.S.? Order by December 20
Outside the U.S.? Order by December 6 (that’s this Saturday!).

Every order is hand-packed by Amanda (with love, naturally). We did consider recruiting our pups to help—but a lack of opposable thumbs and a fondness for chewing totes and beanies quickly disqualified them. 🐶

WES ANDERSON IN LONDON

The new Wes Anderson: The Archives Exhibition has settled down in Londontown! You can discover the real objects, props, and clothing used in Wes’s iconic films from The Royal Tenenbaums to The Phoenician Scheme. It’s running now until mid-July at the Design Museum in Kensington. More information is here. We hope you enjoy! xx

In Case You Missed It

The New Year is around the corner - and we’re just as shocked as you 🫣 Here are some holiday tidbits to get festive!

🎅 Festive in London
💡 The invention of Christmas tree lights
🎄 Don’t forget the tree
🥤 How Coca-cola turned Santa red

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library 📍 Winterthur, Delaware, USA 📸 Marjorie Becker

AMERICA’S GRANDEST HOMEGROWN ESTATE

What do a world-class art collection, 300 elite dairy cows, and one of America’s most ambitious private gardens have in common? They all belonged to the extraordinary Winterthur Estate an obsession-turned-legacy decades in the making, with far more hiding behind its gates…

Quoin Hotel 📍 Wilmington, Delaware, USA 📸 Marjorie Becker

A HOTEL WITH CHANGE TO SPARE

Once built to guard fortunes, this nationally recognized treasure has been restored to its Victorian grandeur and now invites visitors into its original vault for a very different kind of indulgence.
Somewhere beneath the corner of Market and Sixth, priorities have quietly changed…

77 POUNDS

World Monkey Day is just 10 days away on December 14. And no, not Ape Day (that one doesn’t swing around until next September). Monkeys belong to two big families: the Old World bunch from Africa and Asia, and the New World bunch leaping through South America. They range in size from the mighty mandrill, tipping the scales at up to 77 pounds (35 kg), to the pygmy marmoset, a palm-sized puff weighing only 3-5 ounces. All true facts here, so share freely. We promise we’re not just telling tall tails. 🐵🍌

Win an extra special AWA keychain if you find this week’s Secret Link – a tiny reminder to always key-p Adventuring. Happy searching!