Where Do Sets Go To Die?

[Mr Roxy]

What happened to the beautiful train set from 20th Century when it closed?

[SNAFU]

If they intended to tour it, it would go into storage, otherwise it was  destroyed. Usually,

when a show closes, there is no money for storage.

[Kad]

Sets aren't meant to last forever. Many of them are not even built to last.

[artscallion]

Sometimes things find there way. But mostly not. I remember the giant "SHOOT TO WIN!" sign from Assassins was on EBay. I was also remember seeing set pieces from Doyle's Company in the dumpster next to the theatre a few days after it closed.

[Call_me_jorge]

I wonder where costumes go. When a Christmas story performed at the Tonys they were in costume even though the show closed 5 months prior.

[Kad]

Many costumes are donated to the Costume Collection. Some make their way to regional theatres, others into the hands of private collections. They're far easier to deal with and store than set pieces.

[DAME]

A lot of the costumes from Broadways "Spamalot " company resurfaced in the Hollywood Bowl production and parts of that surfaced at a regional production weeks later.

[best12bars]

Sometimes they get recycled. Like the giant glass panels in the Harmonia Gardens set from the film "Hello, Dolly!" One of them was used for an iconic stunt in a very different film.



 

[John Adams]

There's more interesting info at this thread from '09, especially the post from WOSQ. I found it interesting to see best12bars' example from Hello Dolly/Poseiden Adventure compared to what WOSQ wrote regarding theatrical sets brought in from abroad.

[darquegk]

Is that the climax of "The Game" in that stunt?

[Mr Roxy]

Many of Fox sets were recycled for their TV series. Many of sets from Irwin Allen shows appeared in his other shows. He let nothing go to waste.

[SNAFU]

TV sets are different. Often they are smaller and more generic. You can use and office set, hallway set over and over just by changing the moldings, paint colors and wall paper. I know of a few scenic shops here in NYC that warehouse television sets.

[Someone in a Tree2]

"Is that the climax of "The Game" in that stunt?"

JohnAdams correctly identified it as a scene from The Poseidon Adventure.

I actually worked in the Art Department on The Game-- we built a brand new set onstage of the steel super-structure above the glass ceiling, along with a partial glass ceiling piece for the stunt man to crash through for the dramatic fall that ends the movie. Then our set piece was inserted courtesy some great (pre-digital) visual effects into the real glass ceiling of the Palace Hotel location in San Francisco where the rest of the finale was shot. 

Years before, in 1982, I actually got to stand on the Hello Dolly Street on the Fox lot, which included the elevated train tracks built on an embankment that ran parallel to the Old New York facades that included the one for the exterior of Harmonia Gardens. By then the facades were already pretty dilapidated with great gaping holes showing the telephone poles on the back holding up those false fronts. I had no idea that within a couple of years the whole street would be gone, sold off to make room for what became Century City. The film Hello Dolly was truly the end of an era, but who knew it at the time?

[John Adams]

I remember that the TV show Pushing Daisies recycled everything from episode to episode. I would see furniture and set decoration (i.e. floral pieces, desk accessories and office knick-knacks) appear and reappear in completely unrelated scenes and spaces.

It became part of the many joys of watching that show. (Gee, I miss it!)

[Mr Roxy]

Debbie Reynolds had a great idea. She wanted to buy the old MGM backlot and turn it into a theme park. She could not get any backers and now the Hollywood Dream Factory is gone. What a gas it would have been.

[John Adams]

Mr Roxy said: "Debbie Reynolds had a great idea. She wanted to buy the old MGM backlog and turn it into a theme park. She could not get any backers and now the Hollywood Dream Factory is gone. What a gas it would have been."

BackLOG or -LOT?

I thought it was sad when she had to auction off portions of her collections a few years ago. Besides thinking that Debbie Reynolds might be in an undesirable financial state, it must have been very difficult to part with the history she had preserved.

[John Adams]

darquegk said: "Is that the climax of "The Game" in that stunt?"

I think it's from the beginning of The Poseidon Adventure.

 

[Mr Roxy]

Met her in Vegas years ago when she had a run down casino she eventually lost. Utterly charming is all I can say.

[madbrian]

Sets go to a farm in the country, where they will always be happy, and they can run ariund and play with other sets. 

[AC126748]

Opera companies and repertory theaters that present the same works every season (or every couple of seasons) keep their sets in storage. When a production is replaced, the sets are usually destroyed, but they can be sold to another company. (A recent example: The Met sold their old Robert Carsen production of Eugene Onegin to Lyric Opera of Chicago after their new production premiered). However, storing sets is incredibly expensive, and is impossible for many companies to do -- especially if a set is never going to be used again.

[John Adams]

Someone in a Tree2 said: "I actually worked in the Art Department on The Game"

That is really cool! So many interesting people here...

 

[darquegk]

That's a fascinating experience, Tree! Thanks for sharing it!