props

Major Props Store Closing Down, Planning Huge Auction

Filed under: Auctions

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