The Amazing History of Earl Hayes Press: A Journey Through Time and Film

It all started with a conversation between Adam Savage, the renowned prop maker and television personality, and Michael Corey, who is also an expert in prop making and history. They were discussing the art of creating replicas and how it can be used to bring history to life. As they talked, the idea for a Fantasy Camp was born, where they would create a burn box that would transport Adam back in time to Casablanca, where he would board a plane with Victor LaValle and Elsa Loo to head back to New York.

As Adam prepared for his journey, he felt like he was embarking on an adventure. He had woken up to find himself in the midst of World War II, and his entire identity had been wiped out. But with the help of a telegram in code, he was able to decode the message and make sense of what was happening. The telegram read: "Get out of Paris." Adam knew that he had to leave immediately, so he went to the bank and accessed his safety deposit box. But as he opened it, he found that all of his belongings were useless to him now.

With no other option but to start anew, Adam created a new identity for himself as V. Henry Rothchild, a French citizen who worked as a dressmaker in Paris. He was on the run, and his only hope was to find a way to return to his life in New York. But first, he had to get out of France and make his way back home.

As Adam journeyed through time and space, he couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder and awe at the world around him. He marveled at the technology and the art that surrounded him, and he was grateful for the opportunity to experience it all firsthand.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Adam arrived back in New York, ready to resume his duties as an agent of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He had been on a journey through time, but he was determined to make the most of it and use his experiences to make a difference.

As Adam looked around at the familiar sights and sounds of his adopted city, he couldn't help but feel grateful for the incredible adventure that he had just experienced. He knew that he would never forget this journey, and he was excited to see where it would take him next.

The Real-Life World of Earl Hayes Press

But what about Earl Hayes Press, the company behind this incredible Fantasy Camp? How do they create these amazing replicas and bring history to life in such an authentic way?

According to Michael Corey, the company's expertise lies in prop making and history. "We've been doing this for a long time," he said. "And we're passionate about it. We want people to know that the history of Hollywood is real, and it's fascinating."

Earl Hayes Press has spent years collecting artifacts and memorabilia from the early days of cinema. From props and costumes to sets and backdrops, they have an incredible collection that spans decades and genres.

One of the most impressive aspects of Earl Hayes Press is their ability to recreate these historical artifacts with precision and accuracy. They use a combination of traditional techniques and modern technology to bring these pieces to life, making them feel like they were always meant to be here.

The Burn Box: A Window into History

At the heart of this Fantasy Camp was the burn box, a small but significant artifact that held the key to Adam's journey. The burn box was created by Earl Hayes Press and served as a tangible representation of the history and artistry that they bring to their work.

As Adam opened the burn box, he was met with a treasure trove of historical artifacts and relics. There were costumes, props, and even pieces of furniture that had been used in the making of some of Hollywood's most iconic films.

But the burn box wasn't just about show and tell; it was also a tool for storytelling and education. Earl Hayes Press saw an opportunity to share their knowledge and passion with others, and they used the Fantasy Camp as a way to do just that.

A Message from Adam Savage

As Adam looked back on his journey through time, he couldn't help but feel grateful for the experience. He wanted to thank Michael Corey and Earl Hayes Press for their incredible generosity and expertise in bringing history to life.

"I have to say, I was blown away by the attention to detail and the passion that went into creating this Fantasy Camp," Adam said. "It's not just about making replicas; it's about telling a story and sharing a piece of history with others."

Adam also wanted to acknowledge the team at Earl Hayes Press who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event possible.

"To Michael, Earl, and everyone else who helped bring this Fantasy Camp to life, thank you," Adam said. "I couldn't have done it without you."

The Future of Prop Making and History

As Adam looked to the future, he knew that prop making and history would always be a part of his work. He was excited to see what new challenges and opportunities lay ahead, but he also wanted to make sure that the art of prop making remained alive and well.

"I think what people love about prop making is that it's not just about recreating something; it's about bringing it back to life," Adam said. "It's about sharing a piece of history with others and giving them a glimpse into the world we live in."

Earl Hayes Press shares this vision, and they are committed to continuing their work as a premier prop making company.

"We're passionate about what we do, and we want to share that passion with others," Michael Corey said. "We believe that history is real, and it's worth sharing."

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right Michael one of my favorite things in spy movies is the Spy going to get out of town they go to some like place where they dig up a bag and it's got some extra identities and enough cash to get out of town that like Escape package like the born identity is built off that kind of McGuffin has always been one of my favorite props in movies and that's where we started talking about making something like that but in the midcentury the 1940s right which if you guys took that charge and ran several marathons with it tell me tell me where we where we went so this was an effort between both myself and the graphic designer here at ear High Press Kim baren who put an enormous amount of work into this and she approached it from the perspective of someone who does research for a living and is a graphic designer and I approached it from the perspective of of as a propm and a historian and we just kind of went Hog Wild with this this is and and this is the kind of thing that would happen in a movie you get involved with the with the with the the charge and you want to add to the story because because I've gotten a similar brief before of I need these items fill in the blanks so and what I got from you is money and some passports but we also needed the character to be fleshed out and we decided to give the your character some life and we added some history in there and then why are you running who are you running from how do you get out what are the methods by which you exit Etc so we arbitrarily created a time period that you lived in Paris that you were an an agent working for the United States but at that time the United States did not have a foreign intelligence apparatus right OS was just beginning and the OS did was it predecessor or S soe uh it its predecessor didn't come into play until 1942 so we placed you in Paris on the 30th of May 1940 the day that France has fallen and you receive a telegram an emergency Telegram in code that you have to get out and your only exit is casablanc oh my God I'm getting such chills there are so many beautiful pieces of ephemera and peppera here is that how you say it peppera yeah and it's uh it's some of it is original and some of it is stuff that we've remade so it's a mixed bag but all of it tells a story of both your life before who you really are and then who you had to become and how you get out incredible well let's walk piece by piece through that story of course absolutely okay so when you gave us the brief and and Kim Barons and I sat down and decid who you were we chose that your actual name your real identity is Adam Savage okay you lived in New York City and by the way uh the CIA from what I understand that is referred to the industry term is your true name your true name okay that's a good yeah so your true name is Adam Savage you lived in New York you were recruited by the war department to act as a courier which is what we called Foreign Service agents at that time you trained under what at that time would later become known as the S soe under the British cuz all of our intelligence at that time came from from the British because and this my favorite quote ever the United States didn't have an intelligence apparatus because a gentleman did not read another gentleman's mail that was how they felt about it you know what's so funny about that is that when you go back and you research Archimedes and you research um shooting arrows and projectiles there was a point in Warfare what was considered bad form to shoot somebody from a distance because you should be fighting you should be fighting up close and yeah but it was like cheating but it was all this like leftover mentality it was the same way that felt about OTS that submarines were ungentlemanly you know they really kind of are they totally are so we created your life in New York uh your identif your driver's license is being printed right now your period driver's license is being printed and it's the three-year driver's license which there's a very real story behind that why oh really so we set this in 1940 of course the fall of France in New York at that time driver licenses were one year but this would have been filmed in 1942 when the war was on as a propaganda film CU that's how we approach this and at that time so you didn't just invent the story you invented the the why the story was construed in period but also what they would have used at the time which at the time the New York driver's license was three years so since it's filmed in 42 they would have used the three-year license instead of the one yeah because that was what was available at the time I love that esoterica so you you one you had you as a as a a hobby you were a writer well before you left New York you pawned off you were Smith caranha typewriter so this is a pawn ticket a pawn ticket from 1939 yep before is clearly I was making some Christmas money right absolutely and or you you we decided that you were getting rid of stuff you couldn't take with you when you're going to Europe because that's when you left for Europe right at the end of December in 1939 this is I just would love to talk about this for one second MH is like when you make paper props and you print them with a laser printer and then then you handle something that is offset print yeah it's it's very obvious it's super obvious very there's no comparison and like any kind of detailed highlevel closeup would show and reveal what feels like these very true artifacts of offset printing where you've got that bleed a little bit of bleed from the stacking from the M it's just yeah there's a totally different feel to it and these these tickets are they're not period tickets they were not made in the 40s these were made in the 70s but they been reused so many times we we went with a lot of stuff that was they have they feel the right it's feels right so then moving on you you were also a fan of the burlesque well who isn't right and then of course you missed this show at Carnegie Hall which by the way that was your address in New York which was an actual apartment building at the time West 11 West 115th Street love it there your ticket to Carnegie Hall which you unfortunately never got to go to but you missed that but what we wanted to do was fill out your wallet because that's life that's a person's life was in their wallet so these were all things that we decided needed to exist within your wallet and of course like every man in the 1940s you smoke 10 packs of cigarettes a day but at that time you're in France so you would have French cigarettes and this or parisians which this is a a brand that was created by Earl Hayes it's one of the fake brands so moving forward we have your French identity card your checkbook because you have to have a checkbook yeah oh yeah this is an original checkbook oh my God Paris France oh my my God this paper is so oh it's beautiful this is what I was talking about last time that way in which you print something with such high detail it's almost impossible to replicate and this is so we know that the book is original but the stamps aren't these are created by Earl haes really yeah and we have later we'll show you all how they got all this stuff and why they would have had it Etc incredible so we we've moved on from your checkbook now your life in France we've established who you are why in your yor when you and you're in France you have your identity card you're walking around cash your little dictionary because maybe you're not super fluent in French but who is because I wanted to also tie this back with Earl Hayes you have to have a cover you know you are there under un assumed identity you have to have an assumed job so you are working at M naris which is a tailor and you are a dressmaker just like Earl Hayes was you don't actually do the work because you're there as a courier you're existing there a spy right well May May 30th 1940 France has fallen you receive a telegram and it is written in code oh look at this oh my goodness and it's folded like a telegram oh this makes me so happy and this is literally this is great this is uh ticket tape right Telegraph tape it's the so it's actually printer paper because telegraph tape the telegraph tape this this is real Telegraph but it's it's yeah that's how it was done it was so a telegram came out of a machine like this with paper like this and then someone would paste it onto the telegram it's so but because this is a movie in the 1940s and very few people in the United States would speak French or they would assume that it would then the scene it would be a closeup of you looking at your your uh telegramm and code which that's a real code by the way excellent that's the Culper code from the Revolutionary War which would have been readily available to people at the time excellent because that time the code that we were using was called cigaba and cigaba wasn't actually Declassified until 1996 so no one would have known about it amazing yeah and it's a similar to the Enigma except Enigma used five uh code discs sagaba machine used 15 was a much more complex machine wow but okay you do the close-up of that where it's in in code but then it has to be decoded so it fuzzes out and then you see what it says ident Francis Fallen stop identity compromise stop destroy all documents evacuate France through Casablanca to New York or London stop yes it's a McGuffin for a movie that never got made so awesome so now you've got to get out so you have to go to your stash secret stash this is the moment now within your secret stash you're going to have your real identity your true name your true identity what's what's what's I just wanted to point out like I could see the this is a safety deposit box and I know this because I found one on the street in New York when I was 18 and it was one of the very first and it had like the the hand painted gold pin striping around it that one did and it was one of the very first boxes that compelled me as a vessel of holding which is now like one of my primary obsessions AB so I totally recognized the little safety deposit Bo I'm so sorry no well this safety deposit box is from the 1930s it's a European design it came out of my kit I had it stashed so I brought it with me but you get there your real identity everything you need to get out is there so you go into your secret into the room by yourself and you open it and inside is everything you need to get out of the country it's born's box it's borne's box but if it was the 1940s right right right right so obviously you got to have a hideout piece you got to get out little little c 25 auto wear it on your ankle yeah just drop it in your pocket and you go this would also be how your employers would act as a mailbox you would go here once a month and then mail you would get your mail in here and these letters are from your girlfriend and your mom so amazing and then your alternate passports now these passports are real these are not printed up got it so you have a Hungarian passport in case you have to go through Hungary oh wow right oh my goodness and then an Argentinian passport wow and these were the covers they had these were the covers they had at the time goodness look at that and your US Passport we're actually printing right now and here in a bit we're going to make your French passport but your French identity you got to burn it right that's been compromised so in May 1940 the United States was not at war with Germany so you were technically neutral so you could move under your us identity if you had to was amazing okay but you don't want to so at the time Hungary was still not fully involved in the war and Argentina was completely not involved in the war so you would be able to actually move under those but to do so you need money mhm and that's what this box is set up for you have this is going to be confusing to some people but it makes sense for the time period you have Pesos Mexican pesos in 195 the United States passed a law that US currency could not be seen on screen and it was until 1960 that you really started seeing US currency so all US currency depicted on screen was pesos this was what people thought dollars looked like in the movies yes because the end of the Mexican Revolution a very enterprising individual named Earl Hayes realized that the Mexican was then worthless and he went and he bought truckloads of those very bills and that became the standard of US currency up until the 60s so since this is filmed in 1942 the money we're going to see on screen for US currency is the Mexican peso now this also is your mailbox this is also where you get your paycheck which is from a which is from a bank in Monte Carlo then it's your what amounts to about $250 a month right and that allows you to survive wow uh and this is your monthly stien well you got it on May 15th you hadn't cashed or deposit it yet this check is now worthless oh right right so burned now you're told to go through Casablanca uhhuh your French money is good because it's a French Colony but if you have to go through Egypt you have Egyptian money look at these oh my goodness amazing I love that you've figured out all the paths I could take well there's multiple paths because at the time though it was a fascist country Spain was also neutral uhhuh so you have Spanish currency Inc as well and then British pounds because you never know you might this is British pounds yeah these are Pounds Sterling from the period wow those are lovely yeah all fake of course of course extra French currency right and then well some Germany is right there yeah some German Mars now we we went ahead and we used some pre-war because of the the in iography sure yeah iconography that might be considered problematic today so we use the so you have every currency for every major economy around France at the time to get out incredible so you have money for bribes you have money to pay your way you have everything you need multiple identities to get out little bits of personal business here and there and then of course a hide out piece to help you along the way but you get to Morocco you are in Casablanca how do you get out well it doesn't matter what uh identity you're under there's only one piece of paper that you need to get out the letter of Transit the letter of Transit so this is the original from 1942's do not yeah I made sure of that this is the original first print yes off the press of the cablanca letter of translit yes and we are just wanted to say that one more time because that's amazing so we're going to print one of these actually we're going to print several of these and then uh we're going to make one of these for your character oh wow because we have to but it will be undated right because it would have been by Charles deal and left open so that you could fill in the date that you need to leave which because of the time it gets to it takes to get from France down to Casablanca you don't reach Casablanca until December 5th 1941 several months later yeah and you board a plane with two other individuals one a Hungarian Citizen and the other a Danish Citizen and you fly out from the airport in Casablanca on December 6 1941 tying it in directly to the end of the 1942 film Casablanca incredible Michael um I mean what is really beautiful about this is that is not just a simulacrum of a of a plot of an object of a McGuffin uh and of how they come to be but you one of the things I love covering on tested specifically is how uh films are not the sole vision of singular director's mind Village yeah that is a management structure in which everyone below the director is also weaving and getting involved in and pushing beautiful narratives and this is exactly the same we took this simple simple idea I had and ran so far and so deep it's just fantastic well it was such a beautiful opportunity to one tell a story and let my mind and Kim's mind take over and run with this but then also tie it into one of the greatest films of all time and also these wonderful pieces that exist here and were created here for that film and tie in this story with that story and tell the same story tell the story of both at the same time so now when when when you're going through and coming up with the original list of the items that it should hold um it looks to me like some of the choices you made are based on the institutional knowledge of what has gone before what other people have thrown in to make for characters because you've got these little things like Pawn tickets uh and burlesque tickets in Carnegie Hall um that's that kind of depth that Earl Hayes brings to oh yes absolutely and just kind of problem solving and they have a very unique uh way to do it because they've been around for so long and they've been doing it before internet was ever a thing right they had to reach out to everyone to get examples of absolutely everything and they still have it all here all of this comes from Originals that are in the building so and that have been in the building well have been with the company since 1915 right and on incredible yeah which is why we're able to make hyper accurate French passports from 1940 because we have original passports am I right that that's an original and that's the copy uh so yes this is one of the background screen used right uh which is interesting that the name Philip patain is on there because it was the Commanding General of all French forces in 1940 and then this is the fake that was made here this is the replica that was made here recently and these are more covers that were made these are original covers made During the period And original Pages made During the period would you you could you could actually a it at Staples and rust them before putting them in stap so you would get a but since this is supposed to be during that time per supposed be new the Staples wouldn't be oh my god of course yep and these are steel staples which would have been used not stainless steel so we Ed the correct Staples when we made it so it's as and the only difference with between these two is that one these were laser printed because these plates don't exist anymore they're long gone so we have to make do in some ways and one of them was that we they were printed on this amazing mimaki behind you and they were we were able to color match we were able to remove the filth of of the of of the years and create them as if they were made in 1940 incredible okay Michael we're going to walk through the French passport here okay yes we are so at we've discussed this before a lot of times the things that have been found here have been found on a random shelf in a random Box Etc yeah this is no different this was just a little while ago this was discovered cuz I'm looking at the name on that mm it's a suspiciously familiar your name isn't it it's is that really Victor laslo's freaking this is actually one of the production made passports from Casablanca for the character Victor llo played by Paul Reinhardt and this one does not have the art in it and you can see it was it was all filled out and then they used it to test stamps later on so wow and signatures signatur so it ended up being like a test pad look at but they did fill in everything wow and then the classic void and not for not valid for Motion Picture only only oh my goodness so this is an original from the production of the film oh my God this is what we based yeah these on cuz we and why we I mean Kim Baron the Magnificent graphic designer here went through and scanned the original right and then through digital means cleaned up all of the dirt and age yeah yeah and recreated all the elements of the interior look at that so this is May I just talk about this for a second I mean this is the kind of thing that uh not being if you don't pay attention to the right details everything falls apart and you can see there's this sort of like handmade aspect of this where these red lines are not perfectly even but that really feels like a kind of a period counterfeit proof kind of thing and Kim has just nailed every last bit of it I know there's some color variants in the paper but that's not really as important as how these Graphics feel like this was printed in the 40s M and and this all started out as off-white paper right because all of the color had to be added in and we took into account fading over the last 80 years and the variations in color but she perfectly matched it and then then comes the next difficult step is well one we have to match the handwriting which is going to be a fun process by hand and then the stamps all of these individual stamps which are crossed over each other and it's a big huge mess yeah so she again she pulled every single one of them out created digital versions of them and then we began the process of testing them oh my goodness for color for variation and then wow on different shades to see which color works the best so they didn't just I would just assume that they would use black they didn't because it's the highest contrast no no but black and white film black shows up different than blue shows up different than purple right so while the film isn't in color colors do make a difference and so they chose their color specifically here this kind of blue purple Pur thing so well that ink obviously doesn't exist anymore so what do we do oh so these are all your ink Texs okay now we had to go byy every shade of ink we could find to then figure out what the correct shade was and then that process we got through that and then there's paper stamps under here as well I was noticing these little doodads so Kim again uh the absolute talent that she is went through and recreated all of those stamps two different colors because it's two different colors of paper MH and then we're going to glue all these down we are Oh yay and then we're going to run all of the stamps and there's this right here void is a problem because those are actually punched through yeah the paper right and you can see the light coming through that machine used to do that is they're almost non-existent now really and we don't have one okay so we made a stamp to replicate it oh and then of course to replicate not valid for motion picture use only now we have images there's at least a couple of these passports known to survive right right right and we have plenty of reference images of how they all look but they're all different so there like where we know that all of our US passports are going to be perfectly uniform in their form back then different passport offices might have had small differences in the page layouts absolutely they'd had different layouts but there are more than one Victor llo passport oh and each one is different that's really interesting but we do know that they made other passports because this is one of the screen used background passports you've been able to screen match the screen match the number the name is covered wow but it's empty so this is and because it was only ever needed to be held in the background by yeah you just see the guy talking to the other guy at the table and that's the passport and we found out from previous owners these were rented wow they weren't purchased by the production they were just rented so they sent them back they got used in other movies they got remade and we have this as another reference so the differences are all over the place so creating one that's screen accurate is is almost impossible right right oh we can get close right we can get as close as humanly possible which is what which is what we've done here primarily the work because Kim Baron's done doing an amazing job with all of this stuff she is doing incredible work pulling out from this noisy data oh yes there's a lot going on in this pulling some of this out from this noisy data is incredible yeah um and I'm sure there were other reference materials and like oh we have we it's another one of the wonderful things about Earl his press is that we we not only have this as a reference but we also have the reference that was used to make right of course of course of course which is this this is the original art layout board no for the past I was thinking you guys put this together we did but back in the 30s right because it was originally made for the great zigfield which is dated fortunately for us it's dated Metro Gold 17th February 17th is uh a couple of days after production began on Casablanca wow so that's the approval stamp that and then this is the date for the beginning of production for the great zigfield so there are differences but this is what they based it on and when they went to go do this they had actually received a passport from the French government and each of these is a high quality photographable yep that they were then able to use to make plates that they then ran out on printing press to create these 31 piece 31 picas oh my God right four prints they're actually explaining on the p exactly how big it needs to be so this is this is the actual business end of the institutional knowledge it is AB this is the piece that after a production gets put away so that you can always make it again we can go back to it and come back at it and there's and you look at it you can see there's differences it's where they handrew the emblem that's on the front to remake it amazing and it's just it's so full of History this document right here and then when you realize that this is Genesis essentially right of the Casablanca passports this is where everything came from wow so we are working with the original reference from 1942 that is um I it just like this plus this is such an amazing kind of a piece of film history have you ever done a replica with this much original reference oh yeah no so I have I have yet I have yet to build one of these oh great so this is my first time building one so we oh so and I'm happy that the first time I'm building one building one of these is with Adam Savage so excellent so this should be a lot of fun so we'll get started we have to put all the stamps in this which is the first thing that goes down and we have to so we look at this page which is the noisiest page in here in all of this and we have to determine what what went down first right my guess and this is a guess is that the paper stamps went down before anything well and it clearly white stamps went down before oh wait no it's it seems to be it looks from top to bottom they just actually that was first second third fourth and fifth and I looks like the same from here so it's top to bottom and then three big stamps three big stamps and then there's oh wow right and then so there's this yeah and they just kind of but and this was something that Kim pointed out to me this is supposedly the travel of Victor llo right throughout the film so and we have a map here to explain this because it's a weird weird travel that makes no sense oh neat so but it also tells the end of the story we never see in the movie so he begins in France and he travels to Iran uh down there right Iran right from Iran he goes to alers uhhuh and from alers uh this little town is not on the map but it's right around here okay and then he ends up in Casablanca all the way over here yeah then he goes from Casablanca to Avon up to France uhhuh and then he ends up in the United States so he made it out the pass word makes it clear he made pass makes it clear that he made it out he got out September 12th 1942 which is the date production ended that's really neat oh my God okay so uh so we we started with this we had this it came this scanned everything the next step in all this is choosing paper choosing the correct weight of paper which fortunately Earl Hayes has about a hundred years worth of paper out here so once we've selected the grade of paper uh the correct weight the correct feel of it for both the cover and the interior pages I would be doing I would be like touching this paper touching this paper is it any more advanced than that nope tou it it's the it's the finger feel okay basically we we feel what is correct for it and then we move forward from there right and then it all goes into Photoshop it gets cleaned up it gets printed out and now we're left with this so now we have to start applying color to it but that's a very specific purple everything under there is a very specific purple we'll have to mix that but we got to cut all these out first okay all right so now we have all of our our little stamps cut out and and I have I have noticed something I think that when Kim created this she used a different passport as reference because there's minor differences I I was just noticing some minor minor differ I think that they were just pulling from a bin yeah and that's what ended up on it because who's gonna notice right but we're gonna get as close as we can and back then when they glued all this stuff down they would have used just paste in a jar but we're going to use glue stick because it's easier the same about the same yeah it's more or less the same right all right and then we'll try and position them as cleanly as possible onto the page so we've got that's sitting right at the Ed and it's two this is two pieces yeah it's one layered over the other and one of them is turned so we have one they're 90 degrees out from each other and then the next step is this guy is it no it's this one right here you're right yeah yeah it is there's the yeah it's like a really weird puzzle but that's all the paper they're always that way yeah it is an education in bureaucratic Precision isn't it yes of the development of bureaucratic Precision so uh I just noticed this over on one of the computers and it's actually something worth bringing up these are Sher shadler rulers so when I was a young graphic designer which was one of the very first uh uh uh uh careers I had as a young person I was did graphic design for about four years in Manhattan in the latter half of the 80s the first graphic design tool I spent real money on was a pair of shadler precision rules because these were at the time and probably still are the gold standard of traceable precise paa uh measurements for type setting uh and I used this as a type specker but I just I looked all the way across the room I saw this hanging off a computer and I'm like shaders yeah I totally remember buying these I remember being told about them remember being like I got to get me a pair of those cuz those are what the pros use and then reading in the documentation that they're traceable to the US Standard of what a pika is and like I was like traceable that's the first time I like got obsessed with the word traceable anyway I just thought you'd want to know about those so we have all the the paper stamps down now we got to start applying all this and it looks like and there's there's two at least two kinds of stamps there's a rectangular and a circle did did you it looks like all the circles are the same yeah the circles are all the same and the circle is actually the stamp of Casablanca that they just reused over and over and over again it's also the same stamp that goes on the letter of Transit and so this is that that's that right there okay so for some reason in Iran they were using the stamp of Casablanca yeah just like you do fair enough and it looks to me on this original yeah these L it's all the same color of purple they're not like varying of the color so my my guess and it's a guess based on just everything else that I've seen here is that the guy that created this just grab the stamp yes so little bit of blue yeah little bit of purple yeah and if it varies yeah no it's exactly right so can I do this Yeah Yeah by all means uh got four on that side yeah and then this one is a little bit off and it's off to the side and we're just G to go and there it is little bit little bit this one came across and it's over there we go um yep uh number three all right I'm doing it it's it's I'm not as messy as did they really just do four no it's five is it five it is five one two three four five oh it is five yeah they just could of stack them don't they oh my God and here we go okay and so and then this is the same color it is exactly the same color oh say so probably this probably has enough blue on it now you probably don't need to transfer any longer cuz it looks like it's mixed up pretty good gotcha oh I see that this has enough blue on it okay so doing this to get the color correct there we go oh my God this is terrifying all right and the second one here we go all right and now we do the circular now we do the circular one and this is this is your your seal that you're allowed to enter Casablanca apparently from every other country right all right so here comes the first one oh I didn't get enough down there all right and then here comes the second one beautiful and there's three yeah oh my God this is so much fun this this like movie prop making fantasy cam actually and then three over here I was oh the other's totally off the page on that one aren't they yeah they just went all over the shop yeah all right there's also all sorts of funny stuff going on there magnificent now this stamp down here which is the passport office from the United States yeah that wasn't on any of the other passports so we think that's one of the tests that they were using this for cuz they kept using it as a as a as a test pad copy that so now we none of these stamps need to be transferred over here until we get your picture down so right now I have to fill all this out with all of your information but the first thing I need I need a name oh an actual name yeah so what is your French Alias oh um this is a weird one yeah let's do this an old friend of my family's is his uh my two of my parents best friends were V Henry and jacen Rothchild okay so V Henry Rothchild all right old family friend I grew up with him let's let's take his name as my fake French name all right all right Adam we have the entire history of your character from the start of the story to the end you arrive in Paris 129 1939 you received the message to get out because France has fallen May 30th 1940 you escaped to bilbow in Spain you spend several months there because it's hard to get out well the fascist government there it's very difficult you go from there to algers and from algers you catch a point to Casablanca and then from there you get on the same Avon flight on December 6th 19 41 which eventually you arrive in New York 1712 1942 December 17th 1942 it takes you almost two years to get home amazing well it takes V Henry Roth long to get home so now we've got to do what they do with every passport in films we have to void them so they really do do this yes they absolutely even today we still void them out just in case somebody tries to use it amazing yeah and then this will is the replicating the process by which they would void them out they would be punched through the page of course right right right and of course it'd be on both sides and this is a legal requirement for Earl Hayes yes to void out anything that make or make it so different that it can't be usable as a fake I don't think people realize that like when film money when you see some scene in the film where money is like flying through the air this is really problematic because there's a very reasonable likelihood that someone on set's going to try and pass one of those bills and it has happened numerous I know I've heard about it tons and tons of versions of that I mean there's I don't want to name any names but there are several stories of places being raided because of it right well I mean especially yeah the Secret Service isn't isn't sitting there being like Oh it's an honest mistake they don't take it lightly as it turns out they take it somewhat serious I totally get that sense for the very last step in this the very back page oh for big motion it's only the classic yeah this is such a wonderfully like classic design this I have this in original movie props I own yeah and now we can edit that's the stamp now this of course is a brand new stamp CU all of these old stamps have long since rotted away we're going to do it in red would you like to do I would love to do this and just like right there on both pages on both Pages oh but they stamp over to Bunch so you can put it as many times as you want there we go perfect this is now a completed Casablanca esque a McGuffin from Casablanca type movie so now doesn't exists I have to give me a few minutes and I will complete the entire ensemble all of your pieces and then you can go from V Henry Rothchild to Adam Savage on your travels from Paris on the day that France has fallen all the way to Casablanca where you board the plane with Victor llo and Elsa LS and head back to New York to continue your job as by that time an agent of the office of strategic Services during the second world war amazing all I need now is a time machine oh it's probably best to just stay in this timeline cuz I feel like it was unpleasant then fa enough that's my identity card is this this is your entire wallet this is your whole life plus your passport as V Henry Rothchild Miss Roth Tri incredible so this is a person yeah that is an entire person created out of thin air from paper just through research and everything and then a story attached to it it's May 30th 1940 you've woken up you're getting ready to perform your duties as a courier for the war department under the name V Henry Roth troud a French citizen who actually works as a dress maker at in Paris however a young man runs up to you Miss Miss massage you rece the telegram in code mhm the telegram in code you decode that Telegram and here is the and here is the message get out of get out get out too bad we can't stay right so now it's time to leave you go to the bank you go to your safety deposit box all of that useless to you now you burn burn yeah that's all that whole identity is dead and then you go to your new identity the new version or whichever one is most convenient it's not completed yet unfortunately was so much involved look at this but this is your burn box from 1940 with leftovers of your life oh my God so that you can return to your life in New York as needed as Adam W Savage dud this is this is just such a beautiful thing oh my God crazy Michael I can't thank you enough for won the Fantasy Camp of making this burn box but you know in in doing this kind of replication when I have done it it has all been out of a passion for storytelling and for the history of film and it it rarely has occurred to me in the early days of my prop replication that the people who actually did this work were having as much fun as I do when I do it and it is delightful to realize that this institution is exactly having that much fun telling these kind of stories oh it's it's been an absolute gas to use a 1940s phrase that to make all this and to create these characters out of thin air and to just go with the smallest of brief and then take it to the next level and have all of this amazing come from it well I and I really I love having this sort of deep walk through of exactly how Earl hannes applies its trade because it is a beautiful trade and we can't transmit to you the smell of this building but it smells like paper in every form paper can exist and Old Paper to boot I just love this to me this place smells like history it really does because it is the history of Hollywood Within These Walls and I know I know as much as I can of you from tested and from the times that I've interacted with you and I know that you're going to take the in Kuno improve upon oh I'm gonna run with make that a little bit easier all of this is yours to take with you no everything uh the gun the Box all of the internals everything I'm going to cry don't you don't have to but oh my God also my wallet you can have my wallet too this is just amazing so B please improve upon it make them you know make more tell the story deeper you know make the charact flesh them out even more um and and then just absolutely run wild with it please uh from from all of us here to all press from props to history to Adam Savage and tested all of this stuff take it further dude dude thank you guys so much for joining me here at the amazing ear hay press Michael Cory thank you so much see you guys next time hey I hope you enjoyed that video I cannot tell you how much fun we had filming it I want to take a moment to thank Michael Corey props to history and specifically Earl Hayes press for their incredible generosity of the time and energy they have given us to let us follow along as they unpack and reveal the incredible history in this and all of their other buildings and if you have been watching any of these Earl Hayes videos and content and wondering to yourself how do I add any of that incredible history to my prop collection you are in luck because Earl Hayes has started to make parts of their incredible collection available to the public if you've ever wanted your own package of Smet well you can follow the link in the description below and go buy it this is just one of many things available and more will become available as time continues thanks again to Michael and Earl Hayes see you guys laterall right Michael one of my favorite things in spy movies is the Spy going to get out of town they go to some like place where they dig up a bag and it's got some extra identities and enough cash to get out of town that like Escape package like the born identity is built off that kind of McGuffin has always been one of my favorite props in movies and that's where we started talking about making something like that but in the midcentury the 1940s right which if you guys took that charge and ran several marathons with it tell me tell me where we where we went so this was an effort between both myself and the graphic designer here at ear High Press Kim baren who put an enormous amount of work into this and she approached it from the perspective of someone who does research for a living and is a graphic designer and I approached it from the perspective of of as a propm and a historian and we just kind of went Hog Wild with this this is and and this is the kind of thing that would happen in a movie you get involved with the with the with the the charge and you want to add to the story because because I've gotten a similar brief before of I need these items fill in the blanks so and what I got from you is money and some passports but we also needed the character to be fleshed out and we decided to give the your character some life and we added some history in there and then why are you running who are you running from how do you get out what are the methods by which you exit Etc so we arbitrarily created a time period that you lived in Paris that you were an an agent working for the United States but at that time the United States did not have a foreign intelligence apparatus right OS was just beginning and the OS did was it predecessor or S soe uh it its predecessor didn't come into play until 1942 so we placed you in Paris on the 30th of May 1940 the day that France has fallen and you receive a telegram an emergency Telegram in code that you have to get out and your only exit is casablanc oh my God I'm getting such chills there are so many beautiful pieces of ephemera and peppera here is that how you say it peppera yeah and it's uh it's some of it is original and some of it is stuff that we've remade so it's a mixed bag but all of it tells a story of both your life before who you really are and then who you had to become and how you get out incredible well let's walk piece by piece through that story of course absolutely okay so when you gave us the brief and and Kim Barons and I sat down and decid who you were we chose that your actual name your real identity is Adam Savage okay you lived in New York City and by the way uh the CIA from what I understand that is referred to the industry term is your true name your true name okay that's a good yeah so your true name is Adam Savage you lived in New York you were recruited by the war department to act as a courier which is what we called Foreign Service agents at that time you trained under what at that time would later become known as the S soe under the British cuz all of our intelligence at that time came from from the British because and this my favorite quote ever the United States didn't have an intelligence apparatus because a gentleman did not read another gentleman's mail that was how they felt about it you know what's so funny about that is that when you go back and you research Archimedes and you research um shooting arrows and projectiles there was a point in Warfare what was considered bad form to shoot somebody from a distance because you should be fighting you should be fighting up close and yeah but it was like cheating but it was all this like leftover mentality it was the same way that felt about OTS that submarines were ungentlemanly you know they really kind of are they totally are so we created your life in New York uh your identif your driver's license is being printed right now your period driver's license is being printed and it's the three-year driver's license which there's a very real story behind that why oh really so we set this in 1940 of course the fall of France in New York at that time driver licenses were one year but this would have been filmed in 1942 when the war was on as a propaganda film CU that's how we approach this and at that time so you didn't just invent the story you invented the the why the story was construed in period but also what they would have used at the time which at the time the New York driver's license was three years so since it's filmed in 42 they would have used the three-year license instead of the one yeah because that was what was available at the time I love that esoterica so you you one you had you as a as a a hobby you were a writer well before you left New York you pawned off you were Smith caranha typewriter so this is a pawn ticket a pawn ticket from 1939 yep before is clearly I was making some Christmas money right absolutely and or you you we decided that you were getting rid of stuff you couldn't take with you when you're going to Europe because that's when you left for Europe right at the end of December in 1939 this is I just would love to talk about this for one second MH is like when you make paper props and you print them with a laser printer and then then you handle something that is offset print yeah it's it's very obvious it's super obvious very there's no comparison and like any kind of detailed highlevel closeup would show and reveal what feels like these very true artifacts of offset printing where you've got that bleed a little bit of bleed from the stacking from the M it's just yeah there's a totally different feel to it and these these tickets are they're not period tickets they were not made in the 40s these were made in the 70s but they been reused so many times we we went with a lot of stuff that was they have they feel the right it's feels right so then moving on you you were also a fan of the burlesque well who isn't right and then of course you missed this show at Carnegie Hall which by the way that was your address in New York which was an actual apartment building at the time West 11 West 115th Street love it there your ticket to Carnegie Hall which you unfortunately never got to go to but you missed that but what we wanted to do was fill out your wallet because that's life that's a person's life was in their wallet so these were all things that we decided needed to exist within your wallet and of course like every man in the 1940s you smoke 10 packs of cigarettes a day but at that time you're in France so you would have French cigarettes and this or parisians which this is a a brand that was created by Earl Hayes it's one of the fake brands so moving forward we have your French identity card your checkbook because you have to have a checkbook yeah oh yeah this is an original checkbook oh my God Paris France oh my my God this paper is so oh it's beautiful this is what I was talking about last time that way in which you print something with such high detail it's almost impossible to replicate and this is so we know that the book is original but the stamps aren't these are created by Earl haes really yeah and we have later we'll show you all how they got all this stuff and why they would have had it Etc incredible so we we've moved on from your checkbook now your life in France we've established who you are why in your yor when you and you're in France you have your identity card you're walking around cash your little dictionary because maybe you're not super fluent in French but who is because I wanted to also tie this back with Earl Hayes you have to have a cover you know you are there under un assumed identity you have to have an assumed job so you are working at M naris which is a tailor and you are a dressmaker just like Earl Hayes was you don't actually do the work because you're there as a courier you're existing there a spy right well May May 30th 1940 France has fallen you receive a telegram and it is written in code oh look at this oh my goodness and it's folded like a telegram oh this makes me so happy and this is literally this is great this is uh ticket tape right Telegraph tape it's the so it's actually printer paper because telegraph tape the telegraph tape this this is real Telegraph but it's it's yeah that's how it was done it was so a telegram came out of a machine like this with paper like this and then someone would paste it onto the telegram it's so but because this is a movie in the 1940s and very few people in the United States would speak French or they would assume that it would then the scene it would be a closeup of you looking at your your uh telegramm and code which that's a real code by the way excellent that's the Culper code from the Revolutionary War which would have been readily available to people at the time excellent because that time the code that we were using was called cigaba and cigaba wasn't actually Declassified until 1996 so no one would have known about it amazing yeah and it's a similar to the Enigma except Enigma used five uh code discs sagaba machine used 15 was a much more complex machine wow but okay you do the close-up of that where it's in in code but then it has to be decoded so it fuzzes out and then you see what it says ident Francis Fallen stop identity compromise stop destroy all documents evacuate France through Casablanca to New York or London stop yes it's a McGuffin for a movie that never got made so awesome so now you've got to get out so you have to go to your stash secret stash this is the moment now within your secret stash you're going to have your real identity your true name your true identity what's what's what's I just wanted to point out like I could see the this is a safety deposit box and I know this because I found one on the street in New York when I was 18 and it was one of the very first and it had like the the hand painted gold pin striping around it that one did and it was one of the very first boxes that compelled me as a vessel of holding which is now like one of my primary obsessions AB so I totally recognized the little safety deposit Bo I'm so sorry no well this safety deposit box is from the 1930s it's a European design it came out of my kit I had it stashed so I brought it with me but you get there your real identity everything you need to get out is there so you go into your secret into the room by yourself and you open it and inside is everything you need to get out of the country it's born's box it's borne's box but if it was the 1940s right right right right so obviously you got to have a hideout piece you got to get out little little c 25 auto wear it on your ankle yeah just drop it in your pocket and you go this would also be how your employers would act as a mailbox you would go here once a month and then mail you would get your mail in here and these letters are from your girlfriend and your mom so amazing and then your alternate passports now these passports are real these are not printed up got it so you have a Hungarian passport in case you have to go through Hungary oh wow right oh my goodness and then an Argentinian passport wow and these were the covers they had these were the covers they had at the time goodness look at that and your US Passport we're actually printing right now and here in a bit we're going to make your French passport but your French identity you got to burn it right that's been compromised so in May 1940 the United States was not at war with Germany so you were technically neutral so you could move under your us identity if you had to was amazing okay but you don't want to so at the time Hungary was still not fully involved in the war and Argentina was completely not involved in the war so you would be able to actually move under those but to do so you need money mhm and that's what this box is set up for you have this is going to be confusing to some people but it makes sense for the time period you have Pesos Mexican pesos in 195 the United States passed a law that US currency could not be seen on screen and it was until 1960 that you really started seeing US currency so all US currency depicted on screen was pesos this was what people thought dollars looked like in the movies yes because the end of the Mexican Revolution a very enterprising individual named Earl Hayes realized that the Mexican was then worthless and he went and he bought truckloads of those very bills and that became the standard of US currency up until the 60s so since this is filmed in 1942 the money we're going to see on screen for US currency is the Mexican peso now this also is your mailbox this is also where you get your paycheck which is from a which is from a bank in Monte Carlo then it's your what amounts to about $250 a month right and that allows you to survive wow uh and this is your monthly stien well you got it on May 15th you hadn't cashed or deposit it yet this check is now worthless oh right right so burned now you're told to go through Casablanca uhhuh your French money is good because it's a French Colony but if you have to go through Egypt you have Egyptian money look at these oh my goodness amazing I love that you've figured out all the paths I could take well there's multiple paths because at the time though it was a fascist country Spain was also neutral uhhuh so you have Spanish currency Inc as well and then British pounds because you never know you might this is British pounds yeah these are Pounds Sterling from the period wow those are lovely yeah all fake of course of course extra French currency right and then well some Germany is right there yeah some German Mars now we we went ahead and we used some pre-war because of the the in iography sure yeah iconography that might be considered problematic today so we use the so you have every currency for every major economy around France at the time to get out incredible so you have money for bribes you have money to pay your way you have everything you need multiple identities to get out little bits of personal business here and there and then of course a hide out piece to help you along the way but you get to Morocco you are in Casablanca how do you get out well it doesn't matter what uh identity you're under there's only one piece of paper that you need to get out the letter of Transit the letter of Transit so this is the original from 1942's do not yeah I made sure of that this is the original first print yes off the press of the cablanca letter of translit yes and we are just wanted to say that one more time because that's amazing so we're going to print one of these actually we're going to print several of these and then uh we're going to make one of these for your character oh wow because we have to but it will be undated right because it would have been by Charles deal and left open so that you could fill in the date that you need to leave which because of the time it gets to it takes to get from France down to Casablanca you don't reach Casablanca until December 5th 1941 several months later yeah and you board a plane with two other individuals one a Hungarian Citizen and the other a Danish Citizen and you fly out from the airport in Casablanca on December 6 1941 tying it in directly to the end of the 1942 film Casablanca incredible Michael um I mean what is really beautiful about this is that is not just a simulacrum of a of a plot of an object of a McGuffin uh and of how they come to be but you one of the things I love covering on tested specifically is how uh films are not the sole vision of singular director's mind Village yeah that is a management structure in which everyone below the director is also weaving and getting involved in and pushing beautiful narratives and this is exactly the same we took this simple simple idea I had and ran so far and so deep it's just fantastic well it was such a beautiful opportunity to one tell a story and let my mind and Kim's mind take over and run with this but then also tie it into one of the greatest films of all time and also these wonderful pieces that exist here and were created here for that film and tie in this story with that story and tell the same story tell the story of both at the same time so now when when when you're going through and coming up with the original list of the items that it should hold um it looks to me like some of the choices you made are based on the institutional knowledge of what has gone before what other people have thrown in to make for characters because you've got these little things like Pawn tickets uh and burlesque tickets in Carnegie Hall um that's that kind of depth that Earl Hayes brings to oh yes absolutely and just kind of problem solving and they have a very unique uh way to do it because they've been around for so long and they've been doing it before internet was ever a thing right they had to reach out to everyone to get examples of absolutely everything and they still have it all here all of this comes from Originals that are in the building so and that have been in the building well have been with the company since 1915 right and on incredible yeah which is why we're able to make hyper accurate French passports from 1940 because we have original passports am I right that that's an original and that's the copy uh so yes this is one of the background screen used right uh which is interesting that the name Philip patain is on there because it was the Commanding General of all French forces in 1940 and then this is the fake that was made here this is the replica that was made here recently and these are more covers that were made these are original covers made During the period And original Pages made During the period would you you could you could actually a it at Staples and rust them before putting them in stap so you would get a but since this is supposed to be during that time per supposed be new the Staples wouldn't be oh my god of course yep and these are steel staples which would have been used not stainless steel so we Ed the correct Staples when we made it so it's as and the only difference with between these two is that one these were laser printed because these plates don't exist anymore they're long gone so we have to make do in some ways and one of them was that we they were printed on this amazing mimaki behind you and they were we were able to color match we were able to remove the filth of of the of of the years and create them as if they were made in 1940 incredible okay Michael we're going to walk through the French passport here okay yes we are so at we've discussed this before a lot of times the things that have been found here have been found on a random shelf in a random Box Etc yeah this is no different this was just a little while ago this was discovered cuz I'm looking at the name on that mm it's a suspiciously familiar your name isn't it it's is that really Victor laslo's freaking this is actually one of the production made passports from Casablanca for the character Victor llo played by Paul Reinhardt and this one does not have the art in it and you can see it was it was all filled out and then they used it to test stamps later on so wow and signatures signatur so it ended up being like a test pad look at but they did fill in everything wow and then the classic void and not for not valid for Motion Picture only only oh my goodness so this is an original from the production of the film oh my God this is what we based yeah these on cuz we and why we I mean Kim Baron the Magnificent graphic designer here went through and scanned the original right and then through digital means cleaned up all of the dirt and age yeah yeah and recreated all the elements of the interior look at that so this is May I just talk about this for a second I mean this is the kind of thing that uh not being if you don't pay attention to the right details everything falls apart and you can see there's this sort of like handmade aspect of this where these red lines are not perfectly even but that really feels like a kind of a period counterfeit proof kind of thing and Kim has just nailed every last bit of it I know there's some color variants in the paper but that's not really as important as how these Graphics feel like this was printed in the 40s M and and this all started out as off-white paper right because all of the color had to be added in and we took into account fading over the last 80 years and the variations in color but she perfectly matched it and then then comes the next difficult step is well one we have to match the handwriting which is going to be a fun process by hand and then the stamps all of these individual stamps which are crossed over each other and it's a big huge mess yeah so she again she pulled every single one of them out created digital versions of them and then we began the process of testing them oh my goodness for color for variation and then wow on different shades to see which color works the best so they didn't just I would just assume that they would use black they didn't because it's the highest contrast no no but black and white film black shows up different than blue shows up different than purple right so while the film isn't in color colors do make a difference and so they chose their color specifically here this kind of blue purple Pur thing so well that ink obviously doesn't exist anymore so what do we do oh so these are all your ink Texs okay now we had to go byy every shade of ink we could find to then figure out what the correct shade was and then that process we got through that and then there's paper stamps under here as well I was noticing these little doodads so Kim again uh the absolute talent that she is went through and recreated all of those stamps two different colors because it's two different colors of paper MH and then we're going to glue all these down we are Oh yay and then we're going to run all of the stamps and there's this right here void is a problem because those are actually punched through yeah the paper right and you can see the light coming through that machine used to do that is they're almost non-existent now really and we don't have one okay so we made a stamp to replicate it oh and then of course to replicate not valid for motion picture use only now we have images there's at least a couple of these passports known to survive right right right and we have plenty of reference images of how they all look but they're all different so there like where we know that all of our US passports are going to be perfectly uniform in their form back then different passport offices might have had small differences in the page layouts absolutely they'd had different layouts but there are more than one Victor llo passport oh and each one is different that's really interesting but we do know that they made other passports because this is one of the screen used background passports you've been able to screen match the screen match the number the name is covered wow but it's empty so this is and because it was only ever needed to be held in the background by yeah you just see the guy talking to the other guy at the table and that's the passport and we found out from previous owners these were rented wow they weren't purchased by the production they were just rented so they sent them back they got used in other movies they got remade and we have this as another reference so the differences are all over the place so creating one that's screen accurate is is almost impossible right right oh we can get close right we can get as close as humanly possible which is what which is what we've done here primarily the work because Kim Baron's done doing an amazing job with all of this stuff she is doing incredible work pulling out from this noisy data oh yes there's a lot going on in this pulling some of this out from this noisy data is incredible yeah um and I'm sure there were other reference materials and like oh we have we it's another one of the wonderful things about Earl his press is that we we not only have this as a reference but we also have the reference that was used to make right of course of course of course which is this this is the original art layout board no for the past I was thinking you guys put this together we did but back in the 30s right because it was originally made for the great zigfield which is dated fortunately for us it's dated Metro Gold 17th February 17th is uh a couple of days after production began on Casablanca wow so that's the approval stamp that and then this is the date for the beginning of production for the great zigfield so there are differences but this is what they based it on and when they went to go do this they had actually received a passport from the French government and each of these is a high quality photographable yep that they were then able to use to make plates that they then ran out on printing press to create these 31 piece 31 picas oh my God right four prints they're actually explaining on the p exactly how big it needs to be so this is this is the actual business end of the institutional knowledge it is AB this is the piece that after a production gets put away so that you can always make it again we can go back to it and come back at it and there's and you look at it you can see there's differences it's where they handrew the emblem that's on the front to remake it amazing and it's just it's so full of History this document right here and then when you realize that this is Genesis essentially right of the Casablanca passports this is where everything came from wow so we are working with the original reference from 1942 that is um I it just like this plus this is such an amazing kind of a piece of film history have you ever done a replica with this much original reference oh yeah no so I have I have yet I have yet to build one of these oh great so this is my first time building one so we oh so and I'm happy that the first time I'm building one building one of these is with Adam Savage so excellent so this should be a lot of fun so we'll get started we have to put all the stamps in this which is the first thing that goes down and we have to so we look at this page which is the noisiest page in here in all of this and we have to determine what what went down first right my guess and this is a guess is that the paper stamps went down before anything well and it clearly white stamps went down before oh wait no it's it seems to be it looks from top to bottom they just actually that was first second third fourth and fifth and I looks like the same from here so it's top to bottom and then three big stamps three big stamps and then there's oh wow right and then so there's this yeah and they just kind of but and this was something that Kim pointed out to me this is supposedly the travel of Victor llo right throughout the film so and we have a map here to explain this because it's a weird weird travel that makes no sense oh neat so but it also tells the end of the story we never see in the movie so he begins in France and he travels to Iran uh down there right Iran right from Iran he goes to alers uhhuh and from alers uh this little town is not on the map but it's right around here okay and then he ends up in Casablanca all the way over here yeah then he goes from Casablanca to Avon up to France uhhuh and then he ends up in the United States so he made it out the pass word makes it clear he made pass makes it clear that he made it out he got out September 12th 1942 which is the date production ended that's really neat oh my God okay so uh so we we started with this we had this it came this scanned everything the next step in all this is choosing paper choosing the correct weight of paper which fortunately Earl Hayes has about a hundred years worth of paper out here so once we've selected the grade of paper uh the correct weight the correct feel of it for both the cover and the interior pages I would be doing I would be like touching this paper touching this paper is it any more advanced than that nope tou it it's the it's the finger feel okay basically we we feel what is correct for it and then we move forward from there right and then it all goes into Photoshop it gets cleaned up it gets printed out and now we're left with this so now we have to start applying color to it but that's a very specific purple everything under there is a very specific purple we'll have to mix that but we got to cut all these out first okay all right so now we have all of our our little stamps cut out and and I have I have noticed something I think that when Kim created this she used a different passport as reference because there's minor differences I I was just noticing some minor minor differ I think that they were just pulling from a bin yeah and that's what ended up on it because who's gonna notice right but we're gonna get as close as we can and back then when they glued all this stuff down they would have used just paste in a jar but we're going to use glue stick because it's easier the same about the same yeah it's more or less the same right all right and then we'll try and position them as cleanly as possible onto the page so we've got that's sitting right at the Ed and it's two this is two pieces yeah it's one layered over the other and one of them is turned so we have one they're 90 degrees out from each other and then the next step is this guy is it no it's this one right here you're right yeah yeah it is there's the yeah it's like a really weird puzzle but that's all the paper they're always that way yeah it is an education in bureaucratic Precision isn't it yes of the development of bureaucratic Precision so uh I just noticed this over on one of the computers and it's actually something worth bringing up these are Sher shadler rulers so when I was a young graphic designer which was one of the very first uh uh uh uh careers I had as a young person I was did graphic design for about four years in Manhattan in the latter half of the 80s the first graphic design tool I spent real money on was a pair of shadler precision rules because these were at the time and probably still are the gold standard of traceable precise paa uh measurements for type setting uh and I used this as a type specker but I just I looked all the way across the room I saw this hanging off a computer and I'm like shaders yeah I totally remember buying these I remember being told about them remember being like I got to get me a pair of those cuz those are what the pros use and then reading in the documentation that they're traceable to the US Standard of what a pika is and like I was like traceable that's the first time I like got obsessed with the word traceable anyway I just thought you'd want to know about those so we have all the the paper stamps down now we got to start applying all this and it looks like and there's there's two at least two kinds of stamps there's a rectangular and a circle did did you it looks like all the circles are the same yeah the circles are all the same and the circle is actually the stamp of Casablanca that they just reused over and over and over again it's also the same stamp that goes on the letter of Transit and so this is that that's that right there okay so for some reason in Iran they were using the stamp of Casablanca yeah just like you do fair enough and it looks to me on this original yeah these L it's all the same color of purple they're not like varying of the color so my my guess and it's a guess based on just everything else that I've seen here is that the guy that created this just grab the stamp yes so little bit of blue yeah little bit of purple yeah and if it varies yeah no it's exactly right so can I do this Yeah Yeah by all means uh got four on that side yeah and then this one is a little bit off and it's off to the side and we're just G to go and there it is little bit little bit this one came across and it's over there we go um yep uh number three all right I'm doing it it's it's I'm not as messy as did they really just do four no it's five is it five it is five one two three four five oh it is five yeah they just could of stack them don't they oh my God and here we go okay and so and then this is the same color it is exactly the same color oh say so probably this probably has enough blue on it now you probably don't need to transfer any longer cuz it looks like it's mixed up pretty good gotcha oh I see that this has enough blue on it okay so doing this to get the color correct there we go oh my God this is terrifying all right and the second one here we go all right and now we do the circular now we do the circular one and this is this is your your seal that you're allowed to enter Casablanca apparently from every other country right all right so here comes the first one oh I didn't get enough down there all right and then here comes the second one beautiful and there's three yeah oh my God this is so much fun this this like movie prop making fantasy cam actually and then three over here I was oh the other's totally off the page on that one aren't they yeah they just went all over the shop yeah all right there's also all sorts of funny stuff going on there magnificent now this stamp down here which is the passport office from the United States yeah that wasn't on any of the other passports so we think that's one of the tests that they were using this for cuz they kept using it as a as a as a test pad copy that so now we none of these stamps need to be transferred over here until we get your picture down so right now I have to fill all this out with all of your information but the first thing I need I need a name oh an actual name yeah so what is your French Alias oh um this is a weird one yeah let's do this an old friend of my family's is his uh my two of my parents best friends were V Henry and jacen Rothchild okay so V Henry Rothchild all right old family friend I grew up with him let's let's take his name as my fake French name all right all right Adam we have the entire history of your character from the start of the story to the end you arrive in Paris 129 1939 you received the message to get out because France has fallen May 30th 1940 you escaped to bilbow in Spain you spend several months there because it's hard to get out well the fascist government there it's very difficult you go from there to algers and from algers you catch a point to Casablanca and then from there you get on the same Avon flight on December 6th 19 41 which eventually you arrive in New York 1712 1942 December 17th 1942 it takes you almost two years to get home amazing well it takes V Henry Roth long to get home so now we've got to do what they do with every passport in films we have to void them so they really do do this yes they absolutely even today we still void them out just in case somebody tries to use it amazing yeah and then this will is the replicating the process by which they would void them out they would be punched through the page of course right right right and of course it'd be on both sides and this is a legal requirement for Earl Hayes yes to void out anything that make or make it so different that it can't be usable as a fake I don't think people realize that like when film money when you see some scene in the film where money is like flying through the air this is really problematic because there's a very reasonable likelihood that someone on set's going to try and pass one of those bills and it has happened numerous I know I've heard about it tons and tons of versions of that I mean there's I don't want to name any names but there are several stories of places being raided because of it right well I mean especially yeah the Secret Service isn't isn't sitting there being like Oh it's an honest mistake they don't take it lightly as it turns out they take it somewhat serious I totally get that sense for the very last step in this the very back page oh for big motion it's only the classic yeah this is such a wonderfully like classic design this I have this in original movie props I own yeah and now we can edit that's the stamp now this of course is a brand new stamp CU all of these old stamps have long since rotted away we're going to do it in red would you like to do I would love to do this and just like right there on both pages on both Pages oh but they stamp over to Bunch so you can put it as many times as you want there we go perfect this is now a completed Casablanca esque a McGuffin from Casablanca type movie so now doesn't exists I have to give me a few minutes and I will complete the entire ensemble all of your pieces and then you can go from V Henry Rothchild to Adam Savage on your travels from Paris on the day that France has fallen all the way to Casablanca where you board the plane with Victor llo and Elsa LS and head back to New York to continue your job as by that time an agent of the office of strategic Services during the second world war amazing all I need now is a time machine oh it's probably best to just stay in this timeline cuz I feel like it was unpleasant then fa enough that's my identity card is this this is your entire wallet this is your whole life plus your passport as V Henry Rothchild Miss Roth Tri incredible so this is a person yeah that is an entire person created out of thin air from paper just through research and everything and then a story attached to it it's May 30th 1940 you've woken up you're getting ready to perform your duties as a courier for the war department under the name V Henry Roth troud a French citizen who actually works as a dress maker at in Paris however a young man runs up to you Miss Miss massage you rece the telegram in code mhm the telegram in code you decode that Telegram and here is the and here is the message get out of get out get out too bad we can't stay right so now it's time to leave you go to the bank you go to your safety deposit box all of that useless to you now you burn burn yeah that's all that whole identity is dead and then you go to your new identity the new version or whichever one is most convenient it's not completed yet unfortunately was so much involved look at this but this is your burn box from 1940 with leftovers of your life oh my God so that you can return to your life in New York as needed as Adam W Savage dud this is this is just such a beautiful thing oh my God crazy Michael I can't thank you enough for won the Fantasy Camp of making this burn box but you know in in doing this kind of replication when I have done it it has all been out of a passion for storytelling and for the history of film and it it rarely has occurred to me in the early days of my prop replication that the people who actually did this work were having as much fun as I do when I do it and it is delightful to realize that this institution is exactly having that much fun telling these kind of stories oh it's it's been an absolute gas to use a 1940s phrase that to make all this and to create these characters out of thin air and to just go with the smallest of brief and then take it to the next level and have all of this amazing come from it well I and I really I love having this sort of deep walk through of exactly how Earl hannes applies its trade because it is a beautiful trade and we can't transmit to you the smell of this building but it smells like paper in every form paper can exist and Old Paper to boot I just love this to me this place smells like history it really does because it is the history of Hollywood Within These Walls and I know I know as much as I can of you from tested and from the times that I've interacted with you and I know that you're going to take the in Kuno improve upon oh I'm gonna run with make that a little bit easier all of this is yours to take with you no everything uh the gun the Box all of the internals everything I'm going to cry don't you don't have to but oh my God also my wallet you can have my wallet too this is just amazing so B please improve upon it make them you know make more tell the story deeper you know make the charact flesh them out even more um and and then just absolutely run wild with it please uh from from all of us here to all press from props to history to Adam Savage and tested all of this stuff take it further dude dude thank you guys so much for joining me here at the amazing ear hay press Michael Cory thank you so much see you guys next time hey I hope you enjoyed that video I cannot tell you how much fun we had filming it I want to take a moment to thank Michael Corey props to history and specifically Earl Hayes press for their incredible generosity of the time and energy they have given us to let us follow along as they unpack and reveal the incredible history in this and all of their other buildings and if you have been watching any of these Earl Hayes videos and content and wondering to yourself how do I add any of that incredible history to my prop collection you are in luck because Earl Hayes has started to make parts of their incredible collection available to the public if you've ever wanted your own package of Smet well you can follow the link in the description below and go buy it this is just one of many things available and more will become available as time continues thanks again to Michael and Earl Hayes see you guys later\n"