In preparation for the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre film debuting on Netflix this Friday, lets take a fresh look on something from the ORIGINAL classic from 1974. The following was from an archived internet page in 2005, and isn't available publicly on the active web until now.
Art Director Bob Burns created three separate and distinct masks for Tobe Hooper's 1974 nightmare classic, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The "Killing" mask, which Gunnar Hansen wears in the climax of the film, was sold by Burns several years ago. The "Pretty Woman" mask, worn during the infamous dinner scene, was sold at auction on July 17, 2004 for $9,200. This ise is final mask of the set, the "Kitchen/Old Lady" mask. This grotesque face is worn by Hansen during much of the film, particularly during the scenes where he is seen in the kitchen. The bottom of the face is missing, as that part was stitched on separately to give Leatherface an even more horrific appearance. Made of a fiberglass material (which is no longer manufactured) and latex, Burns acknowledged that there were no duplicates made of any of these masks, and that these were the actual props that were used on-screen. In an email received shortly before Burns' untimely death in 2004, he said, "I was amazed to find out that this mask was still in existence. I had thought it had been discarded 25 years ago. It's always a thrill when my work pops up somewhere like this." The mask, along with several other key props, was kept in a storage room in Austin, Texas, until the unit was abandoned by the renter. At that point, the contents of the storage room were sold on a blind bid basis to a furniture store in Austin. From there, the contents were acquired by Ed "The Hitchhiker" Neal, who has kept possession of them until consigning them to auction in 2005.
