The American Museum of Natural History has an amazing historical photo archive, many of which show the setup and construction of their dioramas and exhibits. Museum props is props too!
Here is the curious evolution of the typewriter, with pictures. I’ve certainly had to provide my fair share of vintage typewriters for shows, but I’ve never had to track down one of those writing ball machines.
Haley Polak, a props artisan, had to build a mastodon skeleton. She used urethane foam and FoamCoat to pull it off.
Finally, here is a very cool photo set of an android being built. It has lots of great process shots of sculpting, molding and casting.
The following article and images first appeared in The San Francisco Sunday Call, March 22, 1908. Check out the first part of this article here.
Note: The fire and ruins which Harry Rosemond refers to are the result of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the US, the result of which left 80% of San Francisco destroyed.
The Problems of the Prop Man
by C. W. Rohrhand
Bergere saw a safe in the ruins
“We do have some funny stunts thrown at us back in the ‘prop’ room,” continued Rosemond, a smile coming over his face and his eyes lighting up. “Yes, sir, we certainly have some funny stunts thrown at us back in the ‘prop’ room. We opened the Orpheum at the Chutes on the 21st of May after the fire and the first rattle out of the box along comes Bergere. Says she wants to play ‘The Red Thief,’ and nothing but a real safe will do for her to blow the door off. I tell her we can’t get a safe. She does not believe me, but takes me all over town. Not a safe to be hand. All the safes here and in Oakland being bought by wholesale houses starting offices in flats and residences in the Mission and Western Addition. We come to the corner of O’Farrell and Van Ness and stop to look at the bread line in front of the cathedral. She grows pathetic. Can’t stand it. Must cry. Turns her head away. Looks down the block of ruins. Dunbar’s old place, O’Farrell and Polk. Big safe sticking out of ruins. ‘Harry,’ says she, ‘Harry, look at that! that’s the safe we want.’ Marine guard on O’Farrell street, another on Polk. Orders to shoot any one looting premises. I’ll admit I gave up. Chalk it against me. Bergere did not play ‘The Red Thief’ until we got to the new house a year afterward. Plenty of safes then. Plenty of time to make a safe. I made one.
“You see, after the fire, when we started at the Chutes we had nothing in our ‘prop’ room except the regular tables and chairs. The first Sunday we got our first dose of ‘Harry, I forgot to put it down on the prop list, but, you know, I make a quick change and need a table. You know, Harry, any old table will do.’ Any old table! With three makeup tables taken and us at Twelfth avenue and Fulton street and 20 minutes to 2 and the opening show—any old table! I tried to get one from Wallenstein, who runs the cafe. Nothing doing. I begged the candy girl. No response. I tried to steal Manager Morrisey’s desk. Frost; he had his eye on it. I tried to get Miss Carlisle’s typewriter table. Nix. I walked over to the park, cut down two trees, stole two boards from the back fence and made a table. Time, 25 minutes. I guess that’s bad?”
Forgot to mention that he wanted a table for “quick change”
Things do not always come as easy for the property man as the throwing together of a makeup table. Sometimes he’s called on for the impossible at the very last moment before the curtain rises.
“Take Burkhart, for instance,” said Harry, with a sad, far away look. “She’s an actress all right. She’s ‘there’ before any kind of a house. But for a woman who wants props and don’t know exactly what she wants she beats them all. She wants anything that will look nice and doesn’t tell us what ‘look nice’ means. And worst of all, she waits till the music rehearsal on Sunday morning to fix up her scene.”
Originally published in The San Francisco Call, March 22, 1908, page 4.
The following article and images first appeared in The San Francisco Sunday Call, March 22, 1908.
The Problems of the Prop Man
by C. W. Rohrhand
When the famous financier gave the famous advice to his son, “My boy, get money, honestly if you can, but get it,” every property man took off his hat to the name of the famous financier. Strike out the word “money,” insert “properties” and you read the mandate every vaudeville manager hands to his property man. To be a property man in vaudeville does not necessarily mean to be dishonest. He must have friends—friends who have nice furniture, friends who have swell ornaments, good pictures, nice glassware; friends who have things necessary to dress a scene.
To the property man all gold must glitter, no matter what it is made of. In the “legitimate,” that is, at the theaters playing shows “off the road,” or at the stock houses, the property man has time to spare in which to produce the properties needed. Usually these houses make up their season’s attractions long before the season starts, and as all plays have scene and property plot attached to the manuscripts, it is a comparatively easy task for the property man to prepare, months in advance, for a show that is to come.
In vaudeville things are different, especially at the Orpheum. The management may know who is coming, may have an idea of what the act will be, but aside from that knows nothing until the actors arrive in town, which is usually on Thursday of the week preceding their appearance in the bill. And if the management does not know, the men “behind” surely do not. There’s the rub. Harry Rosemond is property man at the Orpheum. He is one of the oldest in the business on the coast, and when he throws up his hands you know that “get properties, honestly if you can” has failed to work. It is then that Harry Rosemond goes on his still hunt and returns not until he has either the “props” needed or the material with which to make them.
Jolly Jollier prop plot
“About Thursday we get our property plots,” said Rosemond. “Fifteen minutes after we read them we go crazy. Did you ever see a property plot? Here’s one; ‘A Jolly Jollier.’ They have 74 props in their plot and carry 15. The other 59 we dig up. My boy, get properties. That’s what the manager puts us here for. Just plan, ‘get them.’ Look down that list. They have 8 menu cards, 8 soup spoons, 1 silver soup dish, 1 silver fish dish with cover, 1 silver bread plate and 6 silver knives and forks. Nothing breakable, see? and they want such things as champagne glasses, sherry glasses and soup plates. We go to work looking up what we have in our property room and who of our friends have what we have not. If we can only dig up 58 pieces they throw up their hands, declare their act spoiled and add that they never yet met a property man who cared a cuss whether their act ‘went’ or not.
I don’t know much about Pinterest, but here’s a whole bunch of puppet building resources. They look very pinteresting.
Here’s a great in-depth tutorial on making a two-part underpoured mold written by Adam Savage. Yes, I’ve already had some Adam Savage on the blog this week; there are only so many props people out there who write about what they do.
By now, you’ve all heard about 3D printing, and some of you have even gotten your own 3D printers to play around with. Here’s a great article on why 3D printing is overhyped. It is not saying 3D printers are worthless or a waste of time; rather, it offers a sobering look at the reality of 3D printer’s capabilities versus how they are presented in the media. They are at the peak of hype right now; I’ve seen articles promising they will destroy traditional manufacturing and even end consumerism. The reality is that they can make shapes in plastic from digital models, something which may be useful to some props people in certain situations.
Fans of The Walking Dead may enjoy this piece on John Sanders, the prop master for the show. He talks about weapons and special props which will be appearing in the upcoming season.
Jeff Burks has posted quite the treatise on workshop cleanliness from 1885. I think a clean and well-organized shop is vital to working safely and efficiently; however, the author states that when you are finished with a tool, “return it to its place, immediately after you have done using it.” Now, I’ve heard “tools away at the end of the day,” meaning don’t waste your time putting a tool away if you might need it half an hour later. How does everyone else deal with putting tools away?
Every year at the San Mateo Maker Faire, Adam Savage, from MythBusters, delivers a speech to a massive crowd. This year, his speech was called “Work Hard and Work Smart”. It is almost like a commencement speech, so I thought it would be great for all the graduating students who will be entering the professional world in a few weeks or even days. He gives a lot of practical advice as well, and all of his examples are from the world of special effects and props, so his workplace stories will sound familiar to all of my readers.
The speech itself is about 12 and half minutes long. He takes questions at the end which lead to further interestingness, so if you want to see that, you can view the much longer video here.
Making and finding props for theatre, film, and hobbies
