Major Props Store Closing Down, Planning Huge Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 22nd 2009 at 9:01PM

The recession has hit the movie and film industry in Southern California and a huge props emporium in North Hollywood is now looking at closing. 20th Century Props of North Hollywood is planning to close next month. The prop shop has supplied props for major movies and television shows for over 20 years and has a huge 118,000-square-foot warehouse. But the prop house has been losing money as film production has fallen for a variety of reasons. First the industry was hit by the writers' strike. Then the recession kicked in and many productions were postponed or scrapped. Also filmmakers are finding it prohibitively expensive to film in California and are increasingly heading to other places which offer tax breaks and other incentives. The owner says he has lost close to $2 million over the past year. The prop store employed 28 full-time workers.

The LA Times reports that the the shop will auction off the inventory which owner Harvey Schwartz says consists of 93,752 pieces including rattan furniture set used on the TV series "The Golden Girls" and a desk owned by Howard Hughes and used in the movie "The Aviator." The insured value of the props is around $8 million but the sale value could be as much as $30 million. The props store also sells items on eBay and is a fantastic decorating resource for fans of retro styles. Offerings on eBay range from the small and inexpensive such as Art Deco clocks to the huge and more expensive items like a 1940s flying horse gas station sign.

Gallery: 20th Century Props on eBay

Tags: auction, ebay, hollywood, props

Filed under: Auctions

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mae Jun 23rd 2009 9:33PM

Really? I thought movie set just bought and sold thier sets, why in the world would they rent? They can pay actors millions, but cant buy a set up to furnish a room? Hollywood is over-rated anyways.

janardale Jun 24th 2009 2:09AM

The companies do not rent for economical reasons. They have no place to store the props once a series or a film shoot wraps. It is a better decision to rent these things, they rent everything from the props, to the honeywagon trailers.

Susan Jun 23rd 2009 11:05PM

Oh Mae, Hollywood is a BUSINESS town. The Hollywood film industry is the biggest business in the world. OVER RATED? Tell that to the millions of people world wide who can identify a picture of a Hollywood star from just about any decade. It is NOT over rated. It is what it is. Did you read the article? The desk used in the AVIATOR was HOWARD HUGHE'S DESK. The producers put it in there for other film makers to rent. Not every film maker is a bagillionaire!

Tim Cobb Jun 23rd 2009 11:02PM

With the economy as it is, it is understandable that this would be another type of business that would suffer. Too many areas to list for all the failures, of course, and most, more important than another. The motion picture/television industry has provided the world such entertainment, and this entertainment has been at times, the perfect escape from a normal person's life, for those short moments. Much more importantly, it has even provided inspiration to dream. Memorabilia from this medium is a part of history. I do hope that those lucky enough to obtain this memorabilia will appreciate some of this preservation of Americana, at least, a bit. More and more, museums of all types are disappearing quickly, in which, I personally am saddened by this. Of course there are far more important issues facing the world, the ecomomy, and the people. That is common sense. I do just hope that too much preservation of history will not be lost into oblivion.

Tim Cobb Jun 23rd 2009 11:05PM

With the economy as it is, it is understandable that this would be
another type of business that would suffer. Too many areas to list
for all the failures, of course, and most, more important than
another. The motion picture/television industry has provided the
world such entertainment, and this entertainment has been at times,
the perfect escape from a normal person's life, for those short
moments. Much more importantly, it has even provided inspiration to
dream. Memorabilia from this medium is a part of history. I do hope
that those lucky enough to obtain this memorabilia will appreciate
some of this preservation of Americana, at least, a bit. More and
more, museums of all types are disappearing quickly, in which, I
personally am saddened by this. Of course there are far more
important issues facing the world, the ecomomy, and the people. That
is common sense. I do just hope that too much preservation of history
will not be lost into oblivion.

Mike Wahner Jun 24th 2009 12:35AM

I have enjoyed the splendor and beauty of the film industry over the past 5 decades.It is indeed a shame to see the history of Hollywood sold for mere pennies because of the greed of people in positions of power.Instead of selling out,we should be preserving our film past for future generations to enjoy.