Friday, December 9, 2011

Wild Wild West Jim West's prop images




Here are some great images of Jim West's gear from Wild Wild West.

Jim had several pistols on board his train car The Wanderer, but his favorite side arm was a Colt .45 nickel plated single action revolver, complete with sterling silver rattle snakes on the grips. This Jim West revolver pictured here is owned by archivist and film and television historian Rob Klein.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Superman II press kit



You can always get a feel for the budget behind a feature film based on several things: one, is how well the crew is taken care of...were there crew gifts? How good was the craft service table's goodies?

Another way is by the cool press materials created to entice the press to publish praise on the film. The Superman II press kit remains an excellent artifact created to support the film. Complete with a wonderful collection of stills and a bound full color cover complete with extensive information on the cast and crew and facts about the film's production.

Superman's "green crystal"



No doubt the the "Ruby Slippers" of Superman: The Movie and Superman II is the green Kryptonian Crystal that Jor-El (Marlon Brando) places in Kal-El's spacecraft when he is sent to Earth.

This is one of two known to exist and both are in America, though they were both created and filmed in the UK. One is owned by archivist Rob Klein, along with one of Chris Reeves' Superman costumes.

This particular hero green crystal is the very same one used in the scene by Christopher Reeve when he is explaining his history with it to Lois in the Fortress of Solitude in Superman II. Acquired via Christopher Reeve while wearing his Superman suit at the completion of the scene.

The Batcomputer



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Batman and Robin's Batcomputer


Its great to see one of our restorations covered on the web. The original Batcomputer was discovered by Emerald & Hobbit's archivist Rob Klein in the 1999. It was in the elements and being rained on. Rob purchased the set piece and restored it to its original glory, using as many of the original lights and components that were still able to be located. The restoration was completed in 2003 with working lights and switches, looking once again as it appeared in the 1966-1969 television series "Batman" and the 1967 feature film of the same name. Though it was labeled as many different "Bat" pieces of equipment over the three seasons that the script called for, it was referred often as simply as the "Batcomputer" in many episodes.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The original Lone Ranger costume


No doubt one of the coolest western costumes from entertainment history: The Lone Ranger's costume, complete with double gun belt rig complete with two six-shooter single action pistols and silver bullets across the back of the belt.

The General Lee from Dukes of Hazzard


No doubt one of the coolest cars in television history is the General Lee (which many know is a 1969 Dodge Charger) from CBS' television series "The Dukes of Hazzard' seen here with car enthusiast the lovely Jennifer Smith.

This no doubt is one of the original cars made for the series. This one as you can see, did not have the doors welded shut, but does have the tan interior, which was simply sprayed tan. Since there were many cars made for the series, as they would get trashed quickly from the aggressive jumps and stunts required for the show the interiors at times were not even altered to tan. This car has a very sloppy mask job and has a lot of over spray on the door jams, indicating how quickly the motor pool had to detail the cars for the show. The shotty interior paint job is a great indication of the cars authenticity.

Sid & Marty Krofft's HR Pufnstuf original Freddy the Flute puppet / prop


This is the original, one and only talking Freddy the Flute from H. R. Pufnstuf. This is the one that has a cable control which allows the mouth to open and close when manipulated. So anytime you see Freddy's mouth moving, it was this hero Freddy the Flute. Jack Wild had this Freddy in his shirt pocket as well. A cable ran down his shirt out of frame, at the end of the cable was a control that was activated by Sid Krofft, when it was pushed and pulled it made Freddy's mouth move.

The flute is made out of materials that have not held up well since 1969. Never the less Freddy still exists.

The Thing and Batman original props and costumes exhibit




Here are images of displays I worked on at the Arclight Hollywood for John Carpenter's "The Thing" and "Batman" for the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. These displays feature original artifacts from the films. These screenings are a great way to share original production artifacts with the real fans who make the effort to see these films again in a theater on the big screen.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Burt Ward his career after Batman, the 70s and mind control.



Fans of Burt Ward were waiting to see him appear in a new production anytime after they became captivated with his portrayal of the role he was destined to fill: Robin / Dick Grayson in the three seasons of BATMAN. No one will probably ever get it quite right as Burt did in his role as the boy wonder.

Burt was as perplexed at his lack of roles he was offered post Batman as his fans were. But perhaps this vintage TV article Emerald & Hobbit recently discovered in their archives sheds some explanation on why he may have been continually over looked, or perhaps avoided.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Superman Topps non-sports cards


The yin and the yang

Christopher Reeve and Brando together in Superman the Movie


This is the only scene that Christopher Reeve and Brando played together. In the cut scene from Superman II, it now appears in the Richard Donner Directors cut of Superman II.

Back to the Future part III DMC train





To celebrate Back to the Future's 25th Anniversary, the DMC Time Machine was placed on the tracks in the same location where Marty Mc Fly went back to 1985 in part III, it doesn't get much cooler than this...

In some photos it almost doesn't look real!

One of the best parts about being there was seeing the looks on peoples faces sitting a the stop light when the DMC actually went through intersection.

T. J. Hooker


Remember when Hooker teamed up with Herb (Battlestar Galactica Boomer) Jefferson Jr.

Nuff said-

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Star Trek II Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) costume




If you don't recognize this, then you have not seen Star Trek II Wrath of Khan. The best Star Trek film ever made.

Wild Wild West Robert Conrad 3rd & 4th Season costume



After nearly 20 years of searching I was finally able to locate and acquire my favorite costume from the exciting 60s TV series The Wild Wild West. This is Jim West's coat and pants worn by Robert Conrad in the 3rd and 4th season of the show. The cuffs are about 2" wide which means this coat was worn in the 4th season. This is the same costume Robert Conrad is wearing on the cover of TV Guide from 1968. Unfortunately, I located the pants and chaps about a year ago, before I located the jacket and I did not acquire them, as I had given up on ever locating the coat. This is a perfect example on why one should never give up, because about 10 months later I located the jacket and the matching pair of blue pants. Never the less these blue pants (pictured) were indeed worn with this blue jacket in many episodes, though the chaps were more often seen with this ensemble while Jim West was riding across the plains of the wild west.