Where Do Costumes Go After Filming: The Story of a Famous Props

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

We often hear that the dresses in which the actors appear in films are then sold at auctions for huge sums of money. Some intricate costumes cost a fortune at the time of creation, but their fate can be sad. Until recently, unique rarities sometimes ended their days in landfills.

Storing costumes used on set is a real challenge for film studios. Some of them, of course, are used for other productions, but most of them are laid for long-term storage. It is surprising that in the Golden Age of Hollywood, the directors of film studios seem to have given little thought to the fact that the dresses and props that viewers will see and remember in famous films will be of great value. Today, fans are ready to shell out millions for the costumes of film stars, familiar to them from childhood, and filmmakers have learned to skillfully monetize these desires. But at the beginning of the 20th century, after the shooting, the costumes were sent to warehouses. There they were kept on cheap metal hangers, from which they sometimes fell into a deplorable state, as over time they began to decay and tear under their own weight. Costume designers sometimes made new ones from old outfits, thus destroying historical rarities. Miraculously preserved costumes of those times are now kept in museums or in private collections, but there are not so many of them left as could be.

James Tumblin, head of the hair and makeup department at Hollywood Studios, told reporters how in 1962 he saw a pile of clothes lying on the floor in the studio corridor. Among other trash, he noticed there was one of Scarlett's dresses from Gone With the Wind. At one time, to create these authentic outfits, costume designers looked through many historical sources and even specifically looked in the southern states for old-timers who could tell about old clothes. Learning that the whole pile of trash is intended for disposal, Tumblin asked to sell it:. Exactly 50 years later, a former studio employee sold this rarity at auction for $ 137,000. And in 1012, fans from 13 countries raised money to save 5 dresses from the legendary film, which, from constant exhibitions and moving, actually fell into disrepair - so many people wanted to see them.

In the middle of the 20th century, some far-sighted connoisseurs began collecting costumes, preventing priceless memory from perishing, but at that time such hobbies rarely brought income. For example, actress Debbie Reynolds managed to put together a unique collection, which included the magnificent outfit of Audrey Hepborn from the movie "My Fair Lady" and the luxurious toilets of Elizabeth Taylor from "Cleopatra". Here is how she described the sale organized in the late 60s by the famous studio MGM: The reason for such an unusual decision of the management of the film studio was a decline in production. Things were so bad for MGM at the time that they were trying to get things right by selling costumes on the cheap. Debbie Reynolds has earned her reputation as a collector and connoisseur of movie costumes, but she never realized her dream of being a Hollywood costume history museum. Shortly before her death, the actress had to sell her unique collection, and now it was sold to private collections.

At times the situation in our film studios was no better. According to the recollections of costume designers, at Lenfilm things were not so bad with the props, much was carefully stored there, sorted by eras, but about Mosfilm in Soviet times, the actors themselves told sad stories. So, for example, Lyudmila Gurchenko, after a trip to Hollywood film studios, bitterly made comparisons:

(Lyudmila Gurchenko "Lyusya, stop!")

After the 90s, the funds of the costumes of the film studio them were almost completely sold out. Gorky, and after all, once they occupied a separate building of four floors, where everything was kept according to the themes: a fairy-tale costume separately from a historical one, a military one from a modern one. Another adjacent building was set aside for storing shoes and military uniforms. Fortunately, much has been saved. Today, if you want to look at costumes from your favorite Soviet films, the State Central Cinema Museum and the Mosfilm Museum can help you: here, for example, are kept rarities from Ivan the Terrible by Eisenstein and Hero of Our Time in 1966, you can see costumes from "Tales of Tsar Saltan", "Cinderella", "Solaris", "Andrei Rublev", "Stalker" and other favorite films.

Making a movie is an amazing process that seems like a real mystery to the uninitiated. Photos about what happened on the set of Soviet films and remained behind the scenes will help to penetrate it