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Lot 838
A large American flag used in Patton
30 November 2016, 12:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$6,250 inc. premium
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A large American flag used in Patton
Twentieth Century-Fox, 1970. A 15 x 25 ft cotton 48-star American flag with rope header, with Jones Decorating Co. label sewn in to white border, "15 x 25 ft" stamped to border, with notes to border in ink: "20th C-Fox – 28 629 / US # 189 / used on 'Patton'" and "U.S. #212" (the latter is crossed-out). With a DVD copy of the film.
The rousing speech which opens Patton, and which is the most memorable sequence in the film, almost didn't happen. George C. Scott originally refused to do the opening monologue, shot in front of an oversized US flag, feeling that the scene would overshadow his performance in the rest of the film. Director Franklin M. Schaffer assured him that the scene would only be shown at the end of the film, and so the opening was shot in one afternoon at Madrid's Sevilla Films Studio using a trompe l'oeil painting of a large flag on the studio's back wall surrounded by drapes to simulate a stage.
Upon the production's return to California, the scene was shot again, this time for close ups, on the theater stage of the Patriotic Hall of the County of Los Angeles Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (renamed the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in 2004) in downtown LA. The present flag was provided to Twentieth Century-Fox by Johns Decorating Co., an exhibit, display and design construction firm founded by Elmer S. Jones, specializing in flags, banners and signage. Jones had acquired it from Annin & Co., the nation's oldest and largest flag manufacturer, who had reinforced the 48-star flag (appropriate to the WWII era), with lath pockets to accept wooden stretcher bars so that it could be displayed taut. Upon close inspection, there is a very clear difference between the trompe l'oeil flag from the Spanish footage and the present cloth flag in the LA footage.
The rousing speech which opens Patton, and which is the most memorable sequence in the film, almost didn't happen. George C. Scott originally refused to do the opening monologue, shot in front of an oversized US flag, feeling that the scene would overshadow his performance in the rest of the film. Director Franklin M. Schaffer assured him that the scene would only be shown at the end of the film, and so the opening was shot in one afternoon at Madrid's Sevilla Films Studio using a trompe l'oeil painting of a large flag on the studio's back wall surrounded by drapes to simulate a stage.
Upon the production's return to California, the scene was shot again, this time for close ups, on the theater stage of the Patriotic Hall of the County of Los Angeles Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (renamed the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall in 2004) in downtown LA. The present flag was provided to Twentieth Century-Fox by Johns Decorating Co., an exhibit, display and design construction firm founded by Elmer S. Jones, specializing in flags, banners and signage. Jones had acquired it from Annin & Co., the nation's oldest and largest flag manufacturer, who had reinforced the 48-star flag (appropriate to the WWII era), with lath pockets to accept wooden stretcher bars so that it could be displayed taut. Upon close inspection, there is a very clear difference between the trompe l'oeil flag from the Spanish footage and the present cloth flag in the LA footage.
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