while some props are cool, and this bird may be one, I can't actually think of any props I would go out searching for, although I do own one prop. I have a Lewis machine gun from 1930s that was bought by the previous owner from the MGM auction. I also used to own a Tommy Gun that I got at the same place. but it was hijacked from me 30 years ago already. I did buy them as props, but not because I was at a Hollywood auction, I was at an Arms auction that was the estate of a small town retired Sheriff in Indiana and he had the props. Short: when he died, his wife and attorney went out to this 20x60 foot bunker he built behind the house. She was forbidden to enter so she never knew what was in there, but this guy collected munitions going back to the Revolutionary war including cannons, live cannonballs, hand made bombs, WW2 4ft bombs, every kind of firearm (I also bought an 18th century Arabian rifle that I still have). Amazingly, his wife didn't see anything wrong with this when it was discovered, even though they had to leave the bunker, call the bomb squad and have the live stuff destroyed on property because it was unstable (including home made dynamite bombs with timers etc), but she was apparently incredibly offended because one corner of the bunker had been turned into a sort of shrine to Marilyn Monroe, and that really pissed her off....
Cool story, Rich. The part about the crazy, homemade explosives vs. the Marilyn Monroe shrine is funny. Some people might sum that up as "women's logic."
Guns that were movie props are really cool. At the Crime Museum in Washington DC, they have a few from classic movies. I'll add some pics in another thread.
