Wrap it up!

Hey all! I talk a lot about how context is really important for 'selling' a food prop.  Ginger ale in a champagne flute is champagne, in a beer stein it is beer, or in a ginger ale bottle where it is....well, you get it.  Instant mashed potatoes can be made to look like ice cream or lemon meringue pie if you put them in the right container- and cotton batting can look like mashed potatoes if served in a bowl next to a turkey.

Often times, performers need to consume a food from a container which is no longer produced. Sure, it's easy to wrap a sparkling soda can with a beer label, but beer cans used to be straight sided with a small opening, and now we have cans that taper near the top and bottom, with wide mouth openings. Contemporary labels may look like their vintage counterparts- except for the huge UPC symbol and Surgeon General's warning.  There are lots of tricks to make your food packaging look right- but the first step is knowing what you're trying to accomplish- and I have a few links I think might help.

Historic Bottle Website
Put together by the Bureau of Land Management and the Society for Historical Archaeology (how cool is THAT!?) this website is full of information about glass bottles of all types and ages. Katie Andrew at Milwaukee Rep found this one for me.

Candy Wrapper Archive
This site is a fantastic find for propsters. You can search by brand, price, era, company, etc for your candy wrapper needs. There's also a blog about candy wrapper history. Pretty swell! Thanks to Hannah Burnham at USC for sending me this one.

Candy Wrapper Museum
Another neat archive of vintage candy wrappers- check it out!