USMC-EOD
Active member
If the other members don't mind, I would like to put this out there.
I think it is kind of a fun subject!
Having been stationed as a Marine on the West Coast for most of my life, Hollywood and the film industry had a very minor but sometimes obvious influence on my daily life. It certainly influenced my younger life in my career choice!
As a Marine, film and TV show folks would come out to film, or record sound for dubbing effects. Sometimes, we got to meet actors, or Marines would be used in background shots of specific films or TV shows.
As one of many examples of this, one of my best friends used to proudly proclaim that his SAW section was in the movie "Heat" because the film sound dubbing editors came out to Camp Pendleton to record his sections' guns being fired in specific burst patterns to be used and added to the film, back when he was a machine gun instructor at the School of Infantry there.
The proximity of Hollywood to Camp Pendleton also influenced some of the items I collect...
Long before I became an officer, as a young Infantryman with barely two nickels to rub together, I used to go to the gun shows and militaria shows throughout the Southern California area.
In the mid 1990s through the early 2000s, many of the older and well established prop houses began to go out of business and started selling off their stock. Inevitably, a LOT of the prop house material that had been sold off began to show up at various shows.
This prop house material ranged from completely fabricated uniforms, equipment, weapons and helmets, to 100% completely original and unaltered military items which would almost always have a Prop House marking stamp somewhere on or inside the piece.
The really great thing for me back then, being broke, young, and enlisted, was that most of the collectors at the time seemed to really look down their nose at any uniforms or items with a prop house marking as being not worthy to purchase.
That meant that a broke young Marine like me could get 100% original German, French, British and American WWI uniforms back then for around $5 to $15 bucks apiece from certain dealers!
I recall being very careful in my selections of uniforms, because some peices in the piles i went through were altered by the studios. Sadly, I encountered some WWI Marine uniforms that the studios had altered into German uniforms...
An example of the types of finds that a friend of mine got, were unaltered, original WWI Marine Corps enlisted and officer uniforms that appeared to have been used in John Ford's movie "What Price Glory".
I personally found and purchased studio-made WWII German uniform tunics of the exact type I used to see as a kid when I would watch TV shows like "Combat" and "Rat Patrol" because they were cheap and had a Hollywood History "coolness" factor to them.
I have attached photos of some of the Hollywood items I have found out in California over the years. I think it is a good selection of Hollywood stuff you can run across.
The M1915 Guard enlisted helmet was picked up for next to nothing, mostly because it has the "WCC" Western Costume Company stamp in the interior showing that it was formerly property of a prop house. Nobody wanted to buy it, even though it was absolutely original and displays well.
The French helmet is made of cast aluminum, the French Berthier bayonet is made of older rubber and fits onto a rifle, and the French F-1 grenade is made of some type of older resin.
The WWI style German canteen and stick Grenade are made of wood. I have seen complete sets of this studio made German equipment which when shot in the background on black and white film looks like the real thing.
The German M1916 helmets I have pictured are made of form hammered bronze with soldered-on lugs and liner strips. Usually see these in feldgrau or camo paint schemes like pictured.
I have seen these weird shaped M1916 helmets in black and white movies my entire life, but it wasn't until I got stationed out in California and held several in my hands at shows that I began to appreciate the Hollywood film history behind them, which is why I grabbed a couple offered cheaply. These particular two came from one of the oldest film prop houses in Los Angeles that had been in business since the very first early days of film.
I still have a few dunkelblau German uniforms I got cheap because of Studio Prop House stamps inside.
I actually got to pick up an MGM marked Luger with the bore of the end of the interior of the barrel threaded so it could accept a screwed-in 9mm blank adaptor a few years back.
I would love to hear stories or see film used items other members have to show.
I find this subject interesting and rich with some of the "Americana" type history of the filming industries "yester-years", which helped influence many of us at a younger age into the collectors we are today.
Bryan.
I think it is kind of a fun subject!
Having been stationed as a Marine on the West Coast for most of my life, Hollywood and the film industry had a very minor but sometimes obvious influence on my daily life. It certainly influenced my younger life in my career choice!
As a Marine, film and TV show folks would come out to film, or record sound for dubbing effects. Sometimes, we got to meet actors, or Marines would be used in background shots of specific films or TV shows.
As one of many examples of this, one of my best friends used to proudly proclaim that his SAW section was in the movie "Heat" because the film sound dubbing editors came out to Camp Pendleton to record his sections' guns being fired in specific burst patterns to be used and added to the film, back when he was a machine gun instructor at the School of Infantry there.
The proximity of Hollywood to Camp Pendleton also influenced some of the items I collect...
Long before I became an officer, as a young Infantryman with barely two nickels to rub together, I used to go to the gun shows and militaria shows throughout the Southern California area.
In the mid 1990s through the early 2000s, many of the older and well established prop houses began to go out of business and started selling off their stock. Inevitably, a LOT of the prop house material that had been sold off began to show up at various shows.
This prop house material ranged from completely fabricated uniforms, equipment, weapons and helmets, to 100% completely original and unaltered military items which would almost always have a Prop House marking stamp somewhere on or inside the piece.
The really great thing for me back then, being broke, young, and enlisted, was that most of the collectors at the time seemed to really look down their nose at any uniforms or items with a prop house marking as being not worthy to purchase.
That meant that a broke young Marine like me could get 100% original German, French, British and American WWI uniforms back then for around $5 to $15 bucks apiece from certain dealers!
I recall being very careful in my selections of uniforms, because some peices in the piles i went through were altered by the studios. Sadly, I encountered some WWI Marine uniforms that the studios had altered into German uniforms...
An example of the types of finds that a friend of mine got, were unaltered, original WWI Marine Corps enlisted and officer uniforms that appeared to have been used in John Ford's movie "What Price Glory".
I personally found and purchased studio-made WWII German uniform tunics of the exact type I used to see as a kid when I would watch TV shows like "Combat" and "Rat Patrol" because they were cheap and had a Hollywood History "coolness" factor to them.
I have attached photos of some of the Hollywood items I have found out in California over the years. I think it is a good selection of Hollywood stuff you can run across.
The M1915 Guard enlisted helmet was picked up for next to nothing, mostly because it has the "WCC" Western Costume Company stamp in the interior showing that it was formerly property of a prop house. Nobody wanted to buy it, even though it was absolutely original and displays well.
The French helmet is made of cast aluminum, the French Berthier bayonet is made of older rubber and fits onto a rifle, and the French F-1 grenade is made of some type of older resin.
The WWI style German canteen and stick Grenade are made of wood. I have seen complete sets of this studio made German equipment which when shot in the background on black and white film looks like the real thing.
The German M1916 helmets I have pictured are made of form hammered bronze with soldered-on lugs and liner strips. Usually see these in feldgrau or camo paint schemes like pictured.
I have seen these weird shaped M1916 helmets in black and white movies my entire life, but it wasn't until I got stationed out in California and held several in my hands at shows that I began to appreciate the Hollywood film history behind them, which is why I grabbed a couple offered cheaply. These particular two came from one of the oldest film prop houses in Los Angeles that had been in business since the very first early days of film.
I still have a few dunkelblau German uniforms I got cheap because of Studio Prop House stamps inside.
I actually got to pick up an MGM marked Luger with the bore of the end of the interior of the barrel threaded so it could accept a screwed-in 9mm blank adaptor a few years back.
I would love to hear stories or see film used items other members have to show.
I find this subject interesting and rich with some of the "Americana" type history of the filming industries "yester-years", which helped influence many of us at a younger age into the collectors we are today.
Bryan.
