Marty McFly 1985 costume, where is it now?

Back in 1989 to the early 1990's I was doing a ton of extra's work at all the major studios earning extra cash while I was in college. I became very good friends with several of the studios wardrobe & prop employees/ supervisors. The Universal wardrobe supervisor in the 1990's worked on the Back to the Future films as an AC (Assistant Costumer). Back in the day it was cool to ask these guys about purchasing wardrobe/ props since the employees and studios didn't really care about them being of any value to collectors (of which there were few of us at that time). I remember asking about buying some BTF stuff. He showed me what was probably the same jacket the other member here posted about. It was the Guess denim jacket (all pins/ patches removed), Docs shield glasses, Marty's cowboy hat, some hover boards and a few other items that were still in the inventory. Sadly I did not have the funds he wanted to buy it, which looking back $700 was nothing for ALL the pieces he showed me.

During one of my dozens of visits to the studios I was shown how the studio repurposes costumes after a film was over. What was not able to be used was literally thrown in the studio incinerator, dumped in the trash, or sold to Hollywood thrift stores in bulk for peanuts. I was told by the Universal Wardrobe Sup that worked on the movie that most of the BTTF wardrobe that was not able to be reused were treated in the same manner as any others. So that tells me that what was too worn to be reused was trashed. He then told me something that I had seen hundreds of times living within the studio system (my family has been in various aspects of the business since I was born)............................................the use of screen used wardrobe as Halloween costumes!!

When BTTF became a huge success like most other HUGE films, studio employees would borrow costume pieces from a movie and use them for studio, and around town Halloween parties. Yes even Docs, and Marty's wardrobe, hover boards you name it in earnest all used for Halloween parties. As was most often was the case with this situation, those people who borrowed the items failed to return them, or didn't return the them in the same unstained/ not torn condition in which they were borrowed. Not because they valued the jack as being a collectors pieces, but because no one really cared if or in what condition it was returned. So you can guess what happened next.......yep......... any item that did actually make it back to the wardrobe/ props departments damaged were tossed out since they couldn't be reused.

Keep this also in mind...................studios did, and still do to this day borrow wardrobe from one another when needed. It’s not unusual to find a wardrobe piece with Universal wardrobe tags located at Western Costume Co, or at Warner Brothers for that matter. I have seen, and experienced hundreds of instances where wardrobe props from one studio become absorbed into another’s.

A great example of this practice is the Maltese Falcon prop. We all know the Falcon was created by Warner Brothers Studio. Those that survived filming were scattered to the winds. One went with the Director, who gave it to Robert Conrad, which was later sold at Christies Auction in the 1990's. Another was at a flea market in New Jersey, and later sold by Profiles In History. The list goes on and on. The one that I found interesting was the lead version I saw at Disney Studios!!!!!!! Yes that is right........Disney Studios. They have had one for more than 40 years. I was told by their lead Archivist at the time that it was borrowed from Warner Brothers for some kind of Hollywood promotion that Disney had the contract for. The point.......it was never returned, nor asked for by Warner Brothers to this day. Another example would be finding Jack Sparrows Disney Studios created wardrobe actually at Sony Studios only 2 years ago! Yep....for whatever reason they have one in their wardrobe inventory. Who knows why.

Suffice to say that the off the rack Guess clothing that Marty wore, most likely is either being worn by some homeless kid in downtown Hollywood who bought it from a Hollywood thrift store for $2 bucks, is stuck in some film grips attic of old dusty Halloween costumes, could be sitting in another studios "deep storage" of unused wardrobe rotting away, or simply has been burned ages ago by Universal themselves. Even if the jacket were to appear on the market, it would be a tough one to authenticate due to the natural aging that cotton/ denim goes through when worn or not. Add to that if the jacket surfaced in some former studios employees teenagers closet, the identifying characteristics of what made it unique to Marty's jacket would most likely have been removed/ altered ages ago. Just my opinion/ information on the subject.

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-Here's a good picture of the jacket's interior.
 
Wow you can see the paisley lining does end at the armpit too.

Where in the world did you find THE Guess jacket? I thought Gamester was the only one with one.
 
HA! I wish I could go back and shove this in the faces of all those doubters over at BTTF.COM when I told them the interior was like this and not covered in paisleys. This lining was added to hide the huge GUESS logo on the inside. What was removed from the pic? Or is this the pin up from Teen Beat?
 
Here is the Safari shirt in an episode of Silver Spoons.

Don't ask me why I was watching this...

Silver Spoons? Clearly, you were watching it for Erin Gray. :love

As for the jacket, I find this kind of digging fascinating. Awesome thread. :thumbsup
 
Someone needs to invent a time machine, go back to 1985, and send 10,000 postcards to Teen Beat magazine to rescue this jacket from the dustbins of history. :)
 
I have an MA in Medieval Studies and you folk's research methods put us "professional historians" to shame. Bravo!
 
Thought you guys would enjoy this.
I was watching a Cosby Show rerun and my eyes just about popped out of my head when Theo walked in wearing this:

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The same with the Nike logo being removed from the Nike Bruin's tongue as well as the back of the shoe.

I know this is a pretty old post and the guy who posted only has one post from like a year ago, but why wouldn't they remove the GIGANTIC Nike Swooshes from the sides of the shoes making them obviously Nikes, or Nee-Kays if you are reading this from 1885.

Also, don't know if this has been brought up but on BTTF.com taxman apparently found out what THE vest is....I FOUND IT! This is like finding the holy grail... I have found the Marty McFLy Vest!!! : Back to the Future - BTTF.com
 
I know this is a pretty old post and the guy who posted only has one post from like a year ago, but why wouldn't they remove the GIGANTIC Nike Swooshes from the sides of the shoes making them obviously Nikes, or Nee-Kays if you are reading this from 1885.

Well, it took me a year but I did see your post! ;) Better late than never, right?

Unfortunately, I don't think my answer to your question will be worth your wait. I think the answer is relatively simple though, Nike in 1985 wasn't the same thing as Nike in 2013. It was a different world then. Simply by not having the name brand visible would be enough for Universal to not have to pay any kind of usage fees. This isn't to say Nike wasn't already hugely popular by 1985 (they were) but more a commentary on the fact that their "swoosh" logo maybe wasn't as iconic as it is now (because Nike was a much younger company) and also because we didn't live in such a lawsuit happy world, if anything Nike was probably happy for the free advertising.

You can go back and look at almost any movie or TV show from this era and see numerous examples of products that are clearly identifiable but despite that will still have their actual name brand covered-over or removed.
 
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