Last night’s broadcast of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien featured Conan’s visit to the prop department at Universal Studios. [Read more…]
Archives for 2009
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘Return to Oz’, Return to eBay, and Return of The Harrisons (formerly “Elstree Props”) from Retirement?
eBay seller “unisusu“, who has identified himself as Luke Harrison, grandson of Norman Harrison and son of Paul Harrison, has been selling entertainment memorabilia with Norank Engineering/Elstree Props/”Danziger Collection” lineage/provenance. Also of interest is the website norank.co.uk, more presumably unlicensed replica props attributed to Raiders of the Lost Ark, a large supply of gold-plated “production made” crew gifts from Walt Disney’s Return to Oz, and other newly produced (presumably unlicensed) “for sale” replica pieces from the same film. [Read more…]
Problematic Words in the Hobby: “Production Made”
Going back to the very first articles of the Original Prop Blog – The Hobby Without a Name & What is “Original”? – there are always words that are frequently used that are problematic. This will be the first in a series of articles which discusses some of these terms in some detail. The term for this article: “Production Made”.
More “Planet of the Apes” (The Terminal) Statue of Liberty Prop Revelations – John Tarter Provenance?
In April, the “Planet of the Apes” Statue of Liberty prop that has long been the focus of an ongoing investigation by the Original Prop Blog was determined to have in fact been made for and used in the 2004 Steven Spielberg film The Terminal starring Tom Hanks – not the 1968 science fiction classic Planet of the Apes. [Read more…]
NBC Chicago Reports “Prop Store to Auction Stuff of Dreams” Regarding Closure of 20th Century Props
As reported last month (see 20th Century Props Closes Its Doors After 40 Years; Auction Slated for Late July), 20th Century Props announced that it is closing and auctioning off its assets. This has garnered a substantial amount of news coverage (see Original Prop Blog on Twitter for continuing links/coverage), including a television broadcast today on NBC Chicago. 
[Read more…]
Auction Fraud at Center of FBI & Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Annual Report for 2008
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued their Annual Report a few months ago. Among the highlights is that auction fraud – a frequent topic in the hobby of collecting original television and movie props and wardrobe – was reported to make up one of four complaints made to the organization. [Read more…]
Original Prop Blog – June 2009 Web Site Traffic Statistics
The latest web site traffic statistics for Original Prop Blog, as of June 30, 2009… [Read more…]
Digital Screen Capture Software: “Aviary Screen Capture”
As a follow-up to an article published a year ago (see Digital Screen Capture Software: “SnagIt”, “ScreenHunter”), software company Aviary has released their own screencapture software which is very competitive with SnagIt and ScreenHunter, only it is either web-based or built-into the browser and is also free to use, which is in contrast to the previously reviewed alternatives which must be installed and stand alone at a cost. [Read more…]