Changes were coming to the studios at 23rd Street North in Wilmington after new owners Carolco purchased the facility from DEG in 1990. Some of those changes would be in the wardrobe department, where DEG had maintained a collection of costumes from movies shot by the company, including a now iconic robe worn in the legendary film “Blue Velvet.”
Since Carolco didn’t intend to maintain a wardrobe department, which some studios would maintain and rent out to create new revenue streams, the piece of clothing was now in jeopardy of being sold or possibly just thrown away.
For former assistant studio manager Jayme Bednarczyk, the blue velvet robe was too much of an important part of film history to be discarded. So she rescued it, and has been saving it ever since.
“It’s an iconic film. I knew it needed to be saved,” Bednarczyk said of the robe worn by actress Isabella Rossellini. “I’m not the owner of it, I’m just the keeper of it until it’s decide where it needs to go permanently.”
The robe, on loan from Bednarczyk, is one of the artifacts from movie history that visitors to the Cape Fear Museum’s “Starring Cape Fear!” museum exhibit will see when the collection first opens to the public at a preview party on Thursday, April 21, and then to the general public on Friday, April 22.
The exhibit will feature artifacts and information on many of the movies that have been filmed in the Cape Fear region over the past 30 years, including “Firestarter,” the 1984 film adaptation of a Stephen King book that launched the film industry here.
It was producer Dino De Laurentiis whose company DEG brought “Blue Velvet” and some of the first filming to Wilmington and he is also represented early in the exhibit with a display of the hat, T-shirt and satin windbreaker he would wear while at the studios.
Since “Starring Cape Fear!” walks visitors through the region’s film history chronologically, the striking robe from 1986’s “Blue Velvet” is one of the first things for visitors to see. Its drapes a headless mannequin at full length and in the display are some of the special effects props used for the movie, including a blood-spurting knife and the severed ear that played into the movie’s plot.
In the past 30 years, more than 400 productions were filmed in the lower Cape Fear region, the museum said.
The exhibit will include artifacts and memorabilia from productions that may not have received as much attention or notoriety as some of the most popular and well-recognized local productions like “Dawson’s Creek,” “One Tree Hill” and “Iron Man 3.”
For instance, “Muppets from Space” might not be a classic film, but a dilapidated Wilmington home included the set used to portray the Muppets’ boarding house. And there’s a poster from “The Crow,” where actor Brandon Lee, son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, was killed in a gun fire accident during filming in a Wilmington sound stage.
Video game fans may recognize the costumes from “Super Mario Bros.” and fans of mullets can get an up-close look at the jet ski ridden by Kenny Powers, the abrasive character portrayed by Danny McBride in “Eastbound & Down.”
“We expect visitors to see some of these exhibits and say ‘I didn’t know that was filmed here,’” said museum spokeswoman Amy Mangus. “That’s the reaction we’re going for.”
The exhibit includes some more recent filming too, like 2014’s “Tammy” and TV shows like “Sleepy Hollow,” “Revolution” and “Under the Dome.”
The exhibit is the first in which the museum has featured artifacts from local film history, though it did send approximately 100 pieces to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh for its recent exhibit, “Starring North Carolina!”
“Starring Cape Fear!” will be on display at the museum through Feb. 26, 2017. The April 21 preview event is from 6-9 p.m. and is $30 for non-members.
email [email protected]
