Prop Company that supplied BR to go out of Business

[andy]

20th Century Props, one of the worlds largest prop houses that also supplied props for Blade Runner to go out of business. Likely because of movie companies moving out of Hollywood for tax breaks after California raised their taxes and fees for location shooting. Auctions of their stuff to be planned.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/from-boom-to-bust-for-hollywoods-prop-industry.html

Maybe some of the most elusive BR props will show up on the market now. Still very sad none the less.

Andy

[joberg]

Or greeblies used to make BR stuff

[hirohawa]

Panavision is also in real trouble. Their business is down 20% because of the strikes and "artists" like Soderbergh who are shooting their "films" on Red One.

[spinner44.com]

This is sad. Unfortunately it will only get worse.

I used to think how cool it would be to escape to the BR world on a vacation. With it looming as a reality, it's not such quaint an idea.

Just wait till businesses get taxed into oblivion. Then the SWHTF. I guess 2019 isn't that far away.

[AKU-AKU]

Their handle on eBay is 20thcenturyprops

I've followed their auctions over the past 3-4 years, and for the most part, it's been furniture, sculptures, household items, knick-knacks, and other vintage set pieces. They usually start the bids on the high side, but I once won an art deco Kodak Brownie camera from them for $20 in pristine condition - VERY cool little shelf decoration, and it still works!

Every once in a while they relist large recognizable props from Sci-Fi movies such as the coffin from Terminator 3, the Lexus engine block from Minority Report, or a 1:1 scale cabin of an SA-43s endo-atmospheric attack jet from Space Above and Beyond. Their starting bids or Buy it Now prices are so high, these 3 items never sell...

But maybe now we'll see some more goodies. When they list items, it's usually in the hundreds at a time, so save the handle to a Favorite Seller Search and click to receive e-mail notifications!

[andy]

I am hoping they will have the original Johnny Walker bottle. Since it was used in two movies at least, it very likely came from a prop house or at one time resided at one. Chances are that since it hasn't been seen since Annie, it is probably long gone.

Andy

[andy]

Link to more info including catalog and video walk through. Lets see if we can spot some BR stuff in there...

http://www.greatamerican.com/GAGAuction/Auctions/AuctionDetails.aspx?Id=393

Andy

[joberg]

A bit of news regarding these JW whisky bottles; I learned through a friend of my Father (works in movies in Europe as a prop-master) that only 2 whisky bottles were made out of glass (found props) and the rest were vacu-formed (around 10) to be placed in various sets and situations.
A funny thing happened about those plastic bottles: they leaked! So everytime you see a shot of an empty JW bottle, it's the plastic one, liquid in it: the glass one.
Of course, during the shoot, some people were nervous about the real bottles since only 2 were "working"; they were praying everytime that nothing bad happened to those! As you can also see in Annie: no liquid in that plastic one

[Gaff87]

Very cool video, alot of amazing stuff.
I'd love to go there just to take a look at it all

You think some of Deckards lights and lamps could be in there somewhere?

[SKIN JOB 66]

[Gaff87]

Very cool info Joberg!!

[Mr Webber]

Nice info joberg, when the super troopers are flying through Decks place, all the empty bottles look kinda weird, especially around the esper.
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Formerly offworld66

[joberg]

Well, it seems that, in this industry, the "6 degree of separation" is at work.
Someone is bound to hear/work on stuff that happened on a particular set at a certain time...now if you watch the Annie segment, you'll hear a "thump" when the bottle hits the floor: that's the plastic one!
No word on how my Father's friend new this info, or to whom he'd talked to

[andy]

I went through all the catalog pictures and could not find any of the recognizable pieces.

It is possible that many of the pieces were already sold knowing they had a connection to a movie that their sale value would way out shine their replacement value. A way of making money and retaining stock since this stuff is mostly retail made stuff and could be replaced.

I was hoping to run across the lamps from the movie, especially the marble one, but no such luck. The auction previews have started, and the auctions start soon. Still more stuff to be listed too.

Andy

[Gaff87]

ABC World News is just about to show a little bit about this here in the UK, will take a look and see if there is anything from BR that i recognize.

EDIT

Nope, didn't spot anything.
Some really cool items though.
Really like the phone booths from the 30/40's they had though, reminded me of "North by Northwest"

[photek]

caught a piece on NPR this morn about Harvey's collection. i wasn't listening until they said "... he's provided vintage props to movies like Blade Runner..." and my thoughts turned only to my radio. i followed the links and found nothing either but kept wondering why of ALL of the films he has supported, why this one was named. hmm.

sure do wish i knew the guy and could have a private walk-through before all of the goodies are gone to the richies!

well, i at least hope the lucky new owners of some of these items (that you guys have worked so hard to just get a better glimpse of through HD and screen cap software) at least post pix for us.
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two legs bad, four legs good.