After 14 years as the administrator for the Clark County Museum System, Mark Hall-Patton has retired.
Over the years he’s found stardom, most notable for his reoccurring role on the hit reality TV show, “Pawn Star.”
“When they asked me to do it, I thought, ‘Sure, this is going to be a one-shot. Nobody is ever going to watch this show,’ because who is going to watch a show about a pawn shop in Vegas?”
Hall-Patton admits now that he is a better historian than a prognosticator.
The show is a huge hit and is now seen in 152 countries.
Hall-Patton said it changed his life. He didn’t know it was going to until a few months after the show started airing. That was the first time he had someone run across a gas station parking lot to ask him if he was the Mark Patton-Hall from “Pawn Stars.”
“That is when we realized this might be having an effect on our lives,” he said.
That was also the first time, but not the last time that he was asked why he doesn’t give a price for the items he authenticates.
Hall-Patton told the producers of the show when they asked him to be part of it that he would do it, but he would not give prices for the items even though other experts on the show do.
“I will not do that, and I would not do that because I did not want people to think that you go to a museum and you can ask a museum what something is worth,” he said.
In addition, it is illegal for museums to tell people donating items how much the items are worth.
Plus, Patton-Hall said he genuinely does not know how much the items he authenticates are worth.
Surprisingly, the now-retired museum administrator did not get paid for this work on the show. The county is strict about getting a second paycheck while on county time.
“The reason I did it was to advertise the museum,” he said.
Apparently, it worked. He said attendance at the Clark County Museum increased 50 percent once he started going on the show.
Now that he is retired, Hall-Patton doesn’t think he’ll ask for a paycheck from the show. “Pawn Stars” has been donating to the county museum for several years, and he believes that is where any money he earned should continue to go.
“I’m going to have a nice retirement,” he said.
Hall-Patton also realizes that even if the show goes off the air his celebrity will continue.
“If I stop going on the show, it would not change the celebrity status because that show is not going to go off the air. The reruns are not going to go away,” he said.
Being a person people recognize is just part of his life now.
As for the county museum going forward, Hall-Patton wants the new administrator to cut his or her own path.
“Don’t try to be me, do what you’re going to do,” he said.
In honor of his work, Clark County declared Tuesday, May 4 as Mark Hall-Patton Day.
Mark Hall Patton, Former Administrator, Clark County Museum System
