Heeere's Johnny's House!

One of Johnny Carson's first stages will be put up for sale on the Internet auction site eBay on Monday.

"I hope it's like a rookie card," said Jim Pruett, one of two South Dakota men who bought the boyhood home of the former host of NBC's "The Tonight Show."

Pruett, of Brandon, S.D., and Rick Runge of Sioux Falls, S.D., bought the house for $150,000 in March and have spent the last two months restoring it to the way it looked in the 1940s.

That includes a new paint job for the outside of the four-bedroom house, which was built in 1920.

Pruett hopes there is more interest in the house on eBay than there has been for bits of the home's original plaster and flooring they've already been trying to hawk on the Internet site.

"We paid some money for the Johnny Carson name," Pruett said. "I can't imagine going into this and not making money."

If the house doesn't sell, they say the city should buy it for a Carson museum.

"That place would be packed all the time," Pruett said.

However, city officials have not expressed an interest in buying the house.

They apparently are not the only ones lukewarm to the project. Pruett said Carson has not responded to their request for information about the home's original furnishings.