By: Julie L. Cleveland
It’s all about how you look, how you dress and what props you carry. The movie industry knows this very well. If it weren’t for costumes and props, the movies would be about a lot of people just standing around talking at each other. You can see that at the mall. No, it’s about what you’re wearing and what you’re carrying.
When I was off on a jaunt to Seattle, I wandered into the EMP museum, and while there were a lot of exhibits, the ones from the movies and television shows were by far, the neatest. They had several great selections of movie memorabilia to gawk at. From the pointed hat of the Wicked Witch of the West to the amazing coat from the Matrix movie, the costumes were fun to see.
It’s really hard to see here, but the Matrix coat is huge! Keanu Reeves is only 6-foot 1-inch tall, but this coat had to be created for someone who was well over ^-foot tall. Since I am only 5-foot 3-inches, everything looks tall to me, but this was more than tall, it was Hagrid the Giant tall. (Harry Potter for the Muggles out there).
Props Make the Story
When you think of props, especially as I was wandering around in the Science Fiction section of the museum, you think about the guns and other alien killing devices, but here is a simple prop that is fairly easy to recognize for all movie fans.
I saw the first Star Wars movie at the drive-in theatre when it was first released. It wasn’t until almost 30 years later that I saw the rest of the series, and this exhibit belongs to Yoda.
If you didn’t recognize the cane of Yoda, this next one is sure to be recognizable.
Superman is still an alien, and he came to earth in this spaceship from the planet Krypton.
Even Robots Need Costumes
Here are three robotic co-stars that had to have their costumes handmade.
We have the teddy bear from A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), a Steven Spielberg movie that I have never seen, and the evil robot from The Terminator, which I have seen too many times.
Lastly, here is an entire body costume for one of the borgs in Doctor Who. I have never seen this show, but I know that it is wildly popular.
I looked for C3PO and R2D2, but didn’t see them anywhere. But this guy was in the lobby outside the Science Fiction exhibit door. 
For those of you who remember Robby the Robot from the original Lost in Space television series, you can see that when they redid the series and made it into a movie, Robbie lost his fishbowl head and his dryer vent arms and legs in this updated version of what a good robot should look like. Some of us still remember spinning pie plates as flying saucers!
If you end up in Seattle over the summer, stop into the EMP museum and check out the amazing exhibits. You can’t miss it, it is at the base of the Space Needle.
Enjoy,
Julie and Blu
