John Zabrucky Archive
/John Zabrucky is an artist who created, owned, and ran Modern Props in Los Angeles for more than 40 years, beginning in 1977.
In his youth, John Zabrucky worked in the steel mills in his native Ohio, where he became familiar with the characteristics of aluminum, a material that became prominent in his own artwork and in the props that he designed for his company. He attended Kent State University, where he studied art and design. A focus on the Bauhaus style influenced his own artwork in terms of point, line, and shape. He also studied abroad in graduate school and was influenced by the Swiss International Style at the Basel School of Design as well as attending seminars at FIAT in Turin, Italy.
He left two teaching jobs at Kent State and the University of Akron for Los Angeles in 1974 with his then-girlfriend. It was during this time that he happened to be on the Warner Bros. lot waiting for a friend to go to lunch when he witnessed a prop malfunction. “I thought it was a really stupid thing. It was a crude, futuristic microscope with a dome with a very high-powered light inside. This light bulb heated up the plexiglass to the extent where the thing collapsed.” Zabrucky laughed, and a producer turned to him and asked if he could do better. He replied, “While I’m sleeping I can do better than that.” It’s fair to say Zabrucky made good on that haughty rejoinder. The producer hired him, launching him into the prop business.
Early on, he built props for the sci-fi tv show QUARK (1977), a series about a garbage collector in outer space, and launched Modern Props in the same year. His business was off and running. As with truly creative artists, his prop creations sprang from his imagination, and many of them that Zabrucky created became iconic images in movies and tv shows such as BLADE RUNNER, ROBOCOP and STAR TREK.
Over the years, Modern Props has earned a reputation for craftsmanship. Zabrucky himself designed these durable props made from aluminum and other high-quality materials. He employed an on-site fabricator and in-house machine shop that built them from scratch. These unique props lasted for decades and still are operational to the present day. They all possess detailed design and realistic details, including moving parts and blinking lights. Zabrucky also served as a set decorator for the movies BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS and PRAY TV, both from 1980. He also worked with the band DEVO in the development of costumes and sets, so early on he became acutely aware of the integral relationship of the individual props to the overall set design.
In conjunction with Zabrucky’s design and manufacture of these props at his facility, he also acquired more than 6,300 science fiction posters, for films produced between 1927 (METROPOLIS) and 2009 (TERMINATOR 4: SALVATION). Given Zabrucky’s fine arts background, his collection philosophy encompassed acquiring poster for the artistic value of their graphic quality. Thus, this collection of posters for films primarily produced in America also comprises extensive representation of design from an international perspective, across five continents (North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia). The posters comprise an array of formats, including one sheets and British Quads.
Dual Axis Generator
AKA, The Most Important Device in the Universe was built in the late 1970's and has been in over 200 films and tv shows.
Poster for FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956, U.S.)
John Zabrucky and the Legacy of Modern Props
Zabrucky closed Modern Props in 2020 due primarily to out-of-state tax incentives that drew productions far afield from Hollywood, the prominence of CGI, and a diminished demand for high quality prop construction. He subsequently signed an exclusive agreement with Gartenberg Media Enterprises (GME) to represent this invaluable archive of science fiction props and vintage science fiction posters for sale to a cultural institution that is committed to providing for the long-term care, preservation, and exhibition of these items.