If you need some rubber hammers to throw at someone or a dummy to toss off a building – Studio Props in Santa Clarita is your one-stop prop shop.
Dick Kyker opened Studio Props in Santa Clarita 15 years ago after retiring from 35 years as a property master in the movie business. Kyker walked through the one of the two buildings that offer 5,000 square-feet of storage space for all manner of movie props.
“Studio Props is the only full service prop house in Santa Clarita,” Kyker said. “A lot of the movie ranches and studios in Valencia and Santa Clarita use us because of the convenience and our prices are always better and our quality is good.”
Kyker’s career has included major feature films of the 1970s and 80s such as “The Deer Hunter” with Robert DeNiro, “Heaven’s Gate” with Christopher Kristofferson and “Beverly Hills Cop” starring Eddie Murphy, as well as television mini-series such as “The Sacketts” from 1979 starring Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott and Ben Johnson.
More recently, Kyker was property master for the TV series “24”, and current shows like “The Mentalist”, “Castle” and “Arrested Development”.
A little farther down were rows of 1990s television cameras, digital still cameras and a 16 mm movie cameras from the 1960s. Kyker pulled down a vintage 1950- era press camera and flash bulbs.
“ I just sent 15 cameras like this to a movie shoot about a murder in the 1960s,” Kyker said.
The next isle over there were boxes of rubber, prop tools like picks and shovels, hammers, screw drivers, crow-bars, even barbed wire and two rubber rattlesnakes.
“Here are two rubber steam irons that matched a real one in the scene – the rubber one was thrown at the actor in a movie,” Kyker said.
Kyker pulls open the drawer of a storage cabinet full of prop badges reading, “Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs”. The drawer next to it contains dozens of prop badges reading “Metropolitan Police Officer”.
Kyker, a former police officer, knows his stuff.
“Our specialty is police, SWAT, Press – media, and EMT medical – gurneys, stretchers, dummies,” Kyker said, as he walked to a rack containing many, hanging police utility belts.
“We also have the older flap holsters which would be correct for the 1960’s,” said Kyker.
“We even have fake drugs and money.”
