Long Island's Taylor Dayne asks 'Pawn Stars' to evaluate 4 iconic fashion items
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Taylor Dayne meets with Rick Harrison on the Jan. 22 episode of History Channel’s “Pawn Stars.” Credit: The History Channel
Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Famer Taylor Dayne, who has held online auctions for some of her wardrobe and other paraphernalia from her 1980s and '90s chart-topping days, offers four iconic pieces in the season premiere of History Channel’s “Pawn Stars,” Wednesday at 9 p.m.
“Oh, that was a lot of fun,” Dayne, 62, says by phone from Los Angeles, where she is preparing to start rehearsal for a nine-date concert tour that includes The Paramount in Huntington on Feb. 20.
In a segment with series star Rick Harrison, an owner of the upscale pawnshop at the heart of 15-year-old reality TV show about a Las Vegas collectibles emporium, she offers him a quartet of items: a black skirt from the “Tell It to My Heart” music video; a sequined bra from the same-name album’s accompanying tour; an American-flag bra from her “Can’t Fight Fate” tour; and a red-blue-and-green sequined bodysuit with fringe trim she says she wore during her 1989 “With Every Beat of My Heart” video shoot, but which is not visible in the music video's final cut.
The latter three pieces were custom-made for her, she says. The skirt, made of “vinyl pleather,” was a designer piece from the famed, long-gone boutique Nasty Habits in Manhattan’s East Village.
Harrison, as is his wont, severely lowballs her $5,000 for the lot, displayed on a hotel-room table at Las Vegas’ Circa Resort & Casino during the shoot in February 2024. Dayne savvily responds to his offer with a good-natured “You’re out of your mind!” She counters with $25,000 for the skirt alone, and the two quickly reach a much lower figure for just one piece.
“He's truly a very bright, bright individual,” Dayne — born Leslie Wunderman in Manhattan before moving to Long Island at age 2 — says of Harrison. “He was a lot of fun. I was asking him five million questions, and he was a sweetheart. Very, very knowledgeable.”
The pop star — who was raised in Baldwin and Freeport and lived as an adult in Long Beach and Lloyd Harbor before now splitting her time between Los Angeles and Florida — is a self-professed fan of the show. “Hell, yeah!” she says brightly. “I find stuff like that fascinating,” she adds of the historical and pop-culture collectibles seen on the show. “There's nobody who doesn't know ‘Pawn Stars.’ ”
Or her as a pop star, who in her heyday released a string of top-10 singles such as “Tell It to My Heart,” “Don't Rush Me,” “I'll Always Love You” and the No. 1 “Love Will Lead You Back,” and the double-platinum albums “Tell It to My Heart” (1988) and “Can’t Fight Fate” (1989). Dayne has continued to tour successfully for 36 years — including opening for Michael Jackson during the European leg of his “Bad” world tour in 1988.
As for the possibility of any new music — her first since her 2003 album “Performance” — don’t rush her. “No, it’s all about touring,” she says — adding cheekily, “But I never say it's not coming out for sure!”
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