After decades spent filling Toronto’s film sets with everything from classroom desks to crystal balls, Fritz Lev is ready to step into a new role: the retiree.
But before he can roll credits on The Prop Room, Lev’s searching for a buyer to take over—someone fiercely passionate about antiques and the film industry, who will properly take care of his prop rental business.
“In an ideal world, it would help if it would be somebody that has some knowledge about the film business, the way it works,” Lev told CTV News Toronto on Friday. “That would be a prerequisite, but it’s not an essential. It’s really more somebody (that) can move it forward, that young person that has drive.”
Lev was not always in the business of loaning unique items to film and theatre sets. The 77-year-old first sold fine antiques at his boutique, Inquisitive Antiques, which was once located on Bayview Avenue, sourcing items locally or during his travels abroad to build his cabinet of curiosities.
“About 44 years ago, a lady came in and asked me if I rented and I said, ‘I’ve never done it before, I don’t know what it’s all about,’” Lev recounted. “She said, ‘That’s what other people do.’ So I said, ‘Oh, well, I’ll do it.’”
Lev forayed into the rental side of the business with what sounded like immediate ease.
“She happened to be the wife of a gentleman that had a large commercial photography studio and the word got out there that I was renting, and, before I knew it, I had people coming in regularly to rent objects,” Lev said, noting he had never spent a dime on advertising as folks would seek out his services from the recommendation of others.
What set The Prop Room apart from other prop houses in Toronto, in Lev’s view, was the eclectic catalogue.
The collector said he typically opted for one-of-a-kind, unusual objects, like a three-foot-tall hourglass he found during a trip to Italy, or a stake fit for a vampire hunter.
His stock of around 35,000 items is practically reminiscent of a museum, showcasing various snapshots of time as far back as the Middle Ages.
“We have a lot of very highly specialized items, and that’s the reason why the film people come to us,” Lev said.
One of the first TV shows he says he had loaned props to was “Anne of Green Gables.”
“All the school desks in there were all mine and her bedroom,” Lev said, pointing to the bed she slept in and various kitchen items.
Since then, he has had set decorators from shows like “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Suits” and “Umbrella Academy” rent out some of his wares. The demand for his prop rental business brought Lev enough revenue where he eventually shut down his antique store to cut away to The Prop Room full-time, moving to a warehouse in East York in 2010.
Time for final curtain call
For decades Lev says he has been fortunate enough to run The Prop Room, appreciating how he could never predict what would happen as every day brought something new to his proverbial set.
“It’s not like going in the factory and stomping out widgets for 52 weeks of the year,” Lev said. “It’s always exciting. How lucky can you be to have a job like this?”
But now it’s time for Lev to call cut. It’s time for him to sell his business to someone else who will honour his legacy.
He says he has had some people kick the tires, but either they lacked the passion he was looking for or the means to afford the business. If he can’t find anyone who fits the bill, Lev says he will sell off his expansive catalogue.
“If they don’t want to purchase the business, they could certainly move the inventory and start their own business,” Lev said. “That’s no skin off my nose.”
As of now, The Prop Room is slated to close on Jan. 30.
“I’m fortunate that I actually love what I’m doing, but at the same time, I wouldn’t mind handing it over to somebody else.”
