TITANIC - PROP COMPANY GOES UNDER

PROP COMPANY GOES UNDER

20th Century Props, which has provided props to studios for 25 years, disclosed Thursday that it will close its doors and auction off all its inventory next month, saying that its business has been hard hit since the writers' strike and the slowdown in production. "I've been losing money every month for the last year," owner Harvey Schwartz told the Los Angeles Times . "It's been horrible." In 1994, Schwartz expanded his business when he bought the entire 20th Century Fox prop department. According to the Times, Schwartz has reduced the number of employees to six from 28 earlier this year. Some of those employees are obviously disgruntled. At least two posted messages on Nikki Finke's blog, one of them warning that the Titanic props referred to in news stories about the closing are "from a traveling museum show ... nothing from the blockbuster movie and/or the actual boat." Another commented facetiously "Of course, this could have nothing to do with gross mismanagement and ridiculous pricing."

12/06/2009