Marty McFly’s rendition of “Johnny B. Goode” at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance in "Back to the Future" is one of the most memorable movie scenes from the 1980s.
But despite how unforgettable the image of Michael J. Fox rocking out on a Gibson ES-345 is, the whereabouts of the actual guitar are a mystery. And the cast from the film is asking for your help finding it.
In a video posted by Gibson on Tuesday, Fox, Lea Thompson (Lorraine), Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) and other members of the team behind the 1985 film are enlisting the public to track down the prop guitar, which they say has not been seen since 1985.
“It’s somewhere lost in the space-time continuum,” Fox said. “Or it’s in some Teamster’s garage.”
The guitar originally hailed from Norman’s Rare Guitars, a shop in Los Angeles known for its vast selection of vintage guitars.
Norman Harris, the shop’s owner, told Reverb in 2015 he received a call from the Warner Bros. Prop department in 1984 asking for a guitar that looked futuristic.
After originally renting the film a Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster, the art director came back to Harris asking for another option in red with a whammy. Though it wouldn’t be era-correct for 1955, Harris eventually presented them with the ES-345 (which would not be available until 1958).
When production was ramping up for the sequel, Harris told Reverb he received a call from the studio asking to use the same guitar once again. The problem was he didn’t remember what happened to it.
Gibson is producing a documentary about the search for the guitar as the film turns 40, titled “Lost to the Future.”
“We’ve been looking into leads and rumors for a long time, and as you can imagine, we’re talking 40 years ago, so memories fade,” "Lost to the Future" director Doc Crotzer told The Hollywood Reporter. “We weren’t in the era of digital trails, or of receipts and things like that. There are conflicting reports, too. You can find about as many different rumors as you can people.”
Harris apparently has told a few different stories over the years explaining the possible whereabouts of the guitar, including one that claims he sold it to a friend, who sold it to a woman who eventually returned to the store and asked for $1 million to sell it back.
Chuck Costas, a vice president at Propstore, a leading prop auction house, told cllct he thinks the guitar would sell for $250,000-$500,000 if sold at auction. Propstore sold another one of Marty McFly's guitars for more than $100,000 in 2024. "While it’s true, the famous Gibson guitar that McFly plays at the 'Enchantment Under the Sea' dance in that first 'Back to the Future' movie has never surfaced publicly, there was another film-used Gibson that showed up for sale on eBay many years ago," Costas said. "This was the one used in 'Back to the Future II' when the film makers revisited that same scene. That guitar now resides in a private collection."
It might seem like an unthinkable travesty for such an iconic piece of movie history to be lost, but it was only recently that studios recognized the value of their props from major films. Today, studios keep detailed inventory tracking systems and work with auction houses, such as Propstore and Julien’s, to sell items shortly after the release of the film to recoup costs.
The filmmakers are encouraging anyone with knowledge of the whereabouts of the guitar to visit the website losttothefuture.com and contact them with tips.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.