The other day, animation maven Jerry Beck told me that the old, vacated F.A.O. Schwarz space in The Grove is currently housing — though only until the end of the year — the first Turner Classic Movies store. The Grove is the new upscale shopping mall appended to the wonderful Farmers Market tourist attraction here in Los Angeles, not far from where I reside. In fact, it's so close that I walked over there today to lunch and check out the TCM shop.
Interesting place. It's one of those stores where you get the idea that no one thought they'd make a profit…or even not lose a bundle, but they had some reason for opening it, anyway. There isn't even that much for sale — some film books, a lot of stuff with the TCM logo, etc. Most of it is a mini-museum with about a dozen costumes and props from Casablanca, A Star is Born and other films that run often on the cable channel. I guess what they're selling is the idea of a retail Turner Classic Movies store and if this one draws enough attention and walkthroughs, they'll get serious about opening more and developing products for them. (I'm also guessing they got a bargain price on the huge retail space, only part of which they're using, because no one else wanted it for the rest of this year.)
One of the exhibits there now is a denim shirt and work pants supposedly worn by Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. I'm always a little suspicious of such claims…and not just because it seems quite possible for someone to take an old piece of clothing and claim that so-and-so wore it in such-and-such a film. There's also the fact that most key wardrobe for a movie is produced in multiple lots. If the star needs to wear a tux, especially in a role that requires physical action, the wardrobe folks will have four or five duplicate tuxedoes, plus two or three for the stand-ins and stunt people. Not long ago on eBay, someone was auctioning off what they claimed were the pants my friend Carl Gottlieb wore in the movie, M*A*S*H. I alerted Carl and he wound up buying them from the guy who won the auction…and it turned out, they were pants he'd never worn. They were from the right costumer and they had a real "Carl Gottlieb" label sewn into them. But Carl concluded they were "back-up" trousers — an extra pair that the wardrobe folks had at the ready, just in case he needed them. They never adorned his torso and they never appeared in the movie…and of course, the seller had no way of knowing that.
How can you authenticate such things? For years — it may still be there, for all I know — a memorabilia store in Las Vegas was selling what they claimed was one of Frank Sinatra's toupees. How could you prove this? Even when Frank was alive, you couldn't exactly go to him and say, "Hey, Blue Eyes! This your old rug?" I'm sure most stars couldn't even recognize their old wardrobe items…or hair.
So — a couple was looking at the alleged Cool Hand Luke work clothes and I heard the woman say, of the figure on which the outfit was displayed, "Ohhh…how I envy that mannequin." The guy she was with asked why and she said, "I would give anything to get into Paul Newman's pants."
A very gay black guy who also overheard her leaned over and said, "Get in line, get in line!"
Anyway, that's the Turner Classic Movies store. It's there until New Year's Eve and if you're over at The Grove, you might want to take a peek inside. But don't make a special trip because there isn't that much to see, apart from one pair of exciting pants.