‘Strip’ Show

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Oct. 8, 1999 | 9:08 a.m.

Elvis leans against the receptionist desk while Sammy Davis, Jr. caresses Marilyn Monroe's silk-gloved hands by the glassed-door lobby of the Henderson headquarters of "The Strip."

Jimi Hendrix is missing but is expected soon, along with Madonna, but costume supervisor Randall Thropp and costume designer Julie Carnahan can work with the impersonators they have -- including a great Tom Jones in a spectacular costume. They are looking for that Las Vegas look.

"Vegas is about color, it's about fun," Thropp says, inspecting Groucho Marx for authenticity. It's about clothes, baby!"

The 14-hour day is just beginning on the set of "The Strip," a new hourlong action drama that premieres on UPN (KCNG Channel 25) at 9 p.m. Tuesday -- but not on Cox Cable, which doesn't carry UPN.

Sean Patrick Flanery ("Simply Irresistible," "Young Indiana Jones," "Powder") stars as Elvis Ford, a Las Vegas native and rebel ex-cop, and Guy Torry as Jesse Weir, the witty Philadelphia transplant in awe of the city and its characters. They go to work for casino owner Cameron Greene (Joe Viterelli) as "security consultants."

Executive producer and big-time movie producer Joel Silver, (all the "Lethal Weapons," "Die Hards" and, more recently, the blockbuster "The Matrix") is behind the new show and it's flashy look.

Thropp and Carnahan take care of that look, times 10.

"They brought us on after the pilot and they wanted more, (producers) wanted Joe (Viterelli) more upscale, they wanted more touches, tie bars, nice ties ... and they wanted Guy's character (Jesse) to pop," Thropp says.

To pop is to let the clothes speak for the character before he even opens his mouth.

"It makes the actor feel like he's got something extra there," Thropp says. "It's not just a shirt with buttons on it, he's got a flash of gold, or rhinestones. That's what helps the character, helps (the actor) develop and continue the character."

On one side of the 30-foot wardrobe trailer hangs Flanery's wardrobe: whites, grays, a few navys and bad-boy blacks. Along the other side, beneath skimpy skirts, canary yellows nestle between vibrant blues and cranberry buttondowns for Torry's more flamboyant character.

"That's why we have Guy (Torry), he's the Rio hotel in one outfit," Thropp says, delighted to have such fun with a character.

Warner Bros. Television sent a basic wardrobe of hundreds of clothes of all sorts for Thropp to work with, which have been used on other shows. "You never know who could have worn these," Thropp says, fingering a silk jacket.

He will need the large variety for all the extras "The Strip" uses -- be they big or small, large of hip or short of leg.

"We have to cover the gamit," Thropp says. "We have cocktail (dresses), we've got leather jackets, vinyl jackets, we've got hookers, bathrobes. In one of the other rooms I have a whole section of hospital stuff in case we do a hospital scene. We have priests' wear, furs, negligees."

Then there are the constant changes to the script. Recently, a Jimi Hendrix impersonator had been turned into a James Brown, but Thropp was quickly prepared with velvet and fake fur.

The day starts at 9:30 a.m. when the cast and crew roll in from their makeshift apartments in the heart of Las Vegas to a filming location in town or to the set at the edge of Henderson. Work days can last up to 18 hours. There is a lunch break every six hours, during which Thropp prays that the actors don't spill anything, although he's prepared for anything.

"If the actor rips something, spills something, you have another outfit so you don't hold camera, that is the worst thing you can do, you've got to keep moving," Thropp says.

Each principal actor has triples of each outfit, then those triples are duplicated for the stunt double in a bigger size to make room for the padding. And then there's the unknown mishaps to which an action series is prone.

"Like a lady being tossed out of a truck, that is unpredictable (for clothing)," Thropp says.

Well, that would seem to be so in any situation.

"If she hits and skids and rips up the clothes, you have to be ready to go (change her)," Thropp says, adding that fake blood increases his costs. "You are trying to keep the (fake) blood to a minimum, it gets costly. If you are going to bloody something up you can't get it out right away."

He should know: He worked for four seasons on "Tales of the Crypt," a campy horror TV series. "I've worked with blood for like eight years," Thropp says. "I did a string of horror movies, 'Amityville 6' and "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,' the remake."

And tips for getting the red out? "You've got to Shout it out," he says. "Do not send it to the dry cleaners. The dry cleaning fluids sets the stain. What you do is soak it in Shout about an hour, hour and a half, and put it in the hottest water the fabric can stand and it comes right out."

Two set costumers watch the continuity and are on the set at all times to ensure that everybody is clothed correctly, and that isn't easy. A Polaroid of each principal actor is taken after each scene so that if the scene needs to be re-shot, the wardrobe department knows exactly what clothes to dress the actor in, down to the smallest detail: rings on their fingers, hair clips, sheers sticking from a bloody jean-clad leg. It's all in the details.

"You write down what the outfit is, what the label is, if there is a rip in it, is there a stain on it, which shoes, which socks, which jeans, everything," Thropp says, breathlessly.

If a stain was on a jacket pocket, which has since been cleaned, it needs to be duplicated down to the color, size and even texture so that a 30-second scene can flow with what was previously shot. Due to all these changes, new clothes need to keep streaming through the wardrobe department.

Thropp and Carnahan spend most of their days shopping for upcoming episodes -- 13 episodes are scheduled -- and love the 24-hour accessibility of just about anything a costumer can need from feathers to fedoras.

"At 1 a.m., if we run out of panty hose, we can run to Wal-Mart," he says. "You can't do that in Los Angeles."

Thropp prefers Savers thrift store for its $1.99 retro shirts. A Savers calendar is tacked on the wall next to his desk with the discount days clearly marked. He uses any means for a discount, even sending the resident senior for the over-65 discount when needed.

"It's tough to come in under budget all the time," Thropp says.

A lot of clothes need replacing or some repair on the action set because of, well, all the action. "That's the worst -- gun shots -- because you can only use natural fibers," Thropp says. "Polyester isn't good to use. Like the Elvis outfit, you shouldn't (shoot) that. Polyester tends to melt."

For a gunshot effect, the fabric is scored (weakened so it will tear) and a wire, like a small firecracker, is fitted inside the fabric. Each time an actor is shot, three shirts need to be scored for the scene along with the back-ups for the stuntman and the star.

"It's not hard to do, it's hard on the budget," he says.

Then there are natural disasters. "You'll meet actors who after one day you know they need a bib," he says.

"There was an actress, who is on a hit sitcom right now, she couldn't keep food in her mouth," Thropp says. "She'd start to eat and it never failed, there would be mustard, mayo, a little bit of ham -- there's like a whole meal on her chest. She was like a condiment tray. I had to make her wear a bib."

He respects those who respect his clothes. "Some people are very tidy about their clothes, others horrendous," Thropp says.

Torry's character dresses in expensive clothes bought by Thropp at a discount shop at the Belz Outlet mall, with shoes from Kmart made to look worn. He respects all that wardrobe does for the character's look.

"When it's time to eat, I get an apron from the caterer and I put it on over my clothes because I want to make sure to keep wardrobe happy," Torry says. He also puts tissue around his collar so as not to mess it up with makeup. "Even though they have doubles (of clothing), it helps them out a little bit."

Torry smooths his tie and leans far out to take a sip from his orange juice, ever so careful not to spill or crease as he waits for the next scene, which could take hours. And the wardrobe department is eternally grateful for those small gestures.

"It sounds silly but you don't have a lot of time to clean up," Thropp says. "When they call 'lunch over' those actors go right into makeup for touch-up and they go right back on the set," he says.

Viterelli tends to smoke through the scenes, his fittings, his day, Thropp says, as he wisecracks to the cast and crew. "He smoked through his whole fitting," Thropp says.

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