Monkey Business Pays Off After Appearance On Oscars

An amusing moment of the Academy Award ceremonies Monday night came when David Letterman tried to persuade the world that many celebrities competed with him for his cameo role as Earl Hofert, an old salt, in last year’s flop movie “The Cabin Boy.”

In one of his brief scenes in the movie, Letterman held up a handmade stocking monkey and bellowed, “Do ya wanna buy a monkey?”

During the Oscars, a tape was shown in which various celebrities, including Paul Newman, Albert Brooks and Rosie O’Donnell, reenacted the scene, using a monkey from the Woman’s Exchange, a crafts cooperative at 1095 Third Ave., that sells modest items made by New York artisans.

“Little old ladies in Brooklyn” make the dolls from “socks, fabric or whatever they have around the house,” said Bobbie Patterson, a volunteer and board member of the Exchange. Patterson said the women preferred not to be named. (“They’re very proud,” she said.)

She said “prop people” from Letterman’s “Late Show” came last month and bought a few monkeys. Store volunteers, who thought the toy would show up on that program, were shocked to see it on Monday’s internationally televised ceremony.

“I couldn’t really believe it,” Patterson said. “We were very happy.”

On Tuesday, Patterson put up a sign next to the monkey, already sitting in the window, that read, “Do ya wanna buy a monkey?” and immediately sold 10. The store normally sells around 50 in an entire year.

Despite their new-found fame, the monkeys will not go up in price: Large ones, which are 18 inches tall, sell for $20.75; a 6-inch version is $15.

Patterson said that 60 percent of the price “goes to the woman who made it. It helps local craftspeople who have little or no other income. They are really busy today.”