When 20th Century Props owner Harvey Schwartz looked at how high his bills stacked up against request orders coming from a recession-bashed Hollywood, he decided to pull the plug three months ago. Beginning today and running through Saturday, bargain hunters and the merely curious can file through 40 years worth of props at the self-described “Largest Prop House Under One Roof” and bid marvel at its inventory — or click on the company's auction Web page.

Mostly, prop houses supply the desks, coffee tables, ashtrays and globes that fill a movie's background. So it's not as though you're likely to score a Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane or a pair of Ruby Slippers or a Maltese Falcon. But you never know. According to Associated Press, some of the loot includes “the rattan sofa from The Golden Girls, the futuristic shower Tom Cruise used in Minority Report and a chair Claudette Colbert sat on in the 1934 version of Cleopatra.”

20th Century Props Auction, 11651 Hart St.,

North Hollywood; today through Sat., Aug. 1; inventory inspection: 8 a.m.; bidding: 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.; call Roy Gamityan (818) 884-3737.

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