Earl Hays Press
Industry | Printing Cinema props |
---|---|
Founded | 1915 |
Founder | Earl Hays |
Headquarters | Los Angeles |
The Earl Hays Press is a Los Angeles company providing props to cinema and television productions. The company was established by Earl Hays in 1915 but in the 1960s was sold to employee Ralph Hernandez Senior whose descendants retain ownership. The company specialises in producing generic printed matters such as food packages, documents and advertisements to avoid intellectual property issues with real brands. Earl Hays produces a number of generic newspapers, often these include standard layouts on inside pages, one of which has been featured in hundreds of films and television series. Other notable products are "Morley" cigarette packets, in imitation of the Marlboro brand, and facsimile currency.
History
The company was founded by Earl Hays in 1915 to provide
Products
The Earl Hays Press specialises in "insert printing", ephemera that adds realism to theatrical scenes such as food and beverage packages, menus, magazines, currency, documents, credit cards, DVD and record covers, comic books and advertisements.[3][5] The company provides non-copyrighted versions of these for productions that cannot afford to or are unwilling to license real products. The company maintains a number of antique printing presses to provide authenticity to its products.[3] In line with Earl Hays' original business the press offers a variety of US and international license plate designs.[3] A stock of around 25,000 items is maintained.[5]
A major product is newspapers tailored to the time period of the setting.[3][5] The papers are produced with a number of titles and formats to imitate titles ranging from high-end financial papers to small local newspapers. Headlines can be customised to cover plotlines in the production but the article text is usually nonsense and pages are filled with generic photographs and headlines such as "Million Dollar Highway Repair Underway" and "New Government Tower Planned".[5] Inside pages are often to a generic design and one particular layout, including the headline "She's 3rd Brightest But Hard Gal To See" and an image of a brunette woman in a sweater has been noticed in hundreds of films and television shows since the 1970s.[6][7] A newspaper prop that was created by Earl Hays Press has been seen in many productions including, Desperate Housewives, Modern Family, Married with Children, Scrubs, No Country for Old Men, Absolute Power, and more.[2]
The Earl Hays Press produces
Earl Hays Press also produces
References
- ^ a b c d Pantazes, Lydia (May 19, 2023). "Sun Valley printing press sees effect of the writers' strike". spectrumnews1.com. Archived from the original on August 7, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
- ^ ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Earl Hays Press: Where Hollywood gets fake money and newspapers". BBC News. February 23, 2017. Archived from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
- ^ Printing. Walden, Sons & Mott. 1944. p. 41. Archived from the original on August 20, 2023. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Vaux, Robert (November 5, 2022). "Extra! Extra! Read All About TV's Most Famous Newspaper!". CBR. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
- ^ a b Rush, A. Lynne (May 15, 2018). "The most popular fake products in showbiz". Nerd Reactor. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
- ^ "How the same paper ended up in hundreds of films". news.com.au. October 29, 2015. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-005-44381-8. Archivedfrom the original on August 20, 2023. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
- ^ Bustillos, Maria (July 20, 2015). "Prop Masters". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on July 20, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2023.