Submitted photo John Zabrucky, a Warren native, signed a deed of gift form last month donating hundreds of props to the Trumbull County Historical Society that his company, Modern Props, created for some of the biggest films and television series of the last 45 years.

EDITOR’S NOTE: John Zabrucky initially reached out to Tribune Chronicle Entertainment Editor Andy Gray, who did a feature on Zabrucky in 2020, about the idea of donating the Modern Props collection locally. Gray connected Zabrucky with Meghan Reed, director of the Trumbull County Historical Society.

WARREN — John Zabrucky asked a simple question: “Why can’t there be a science- fiction museum in Warren, Ohio?”

The Warren native and 1965 Warren G. Harding High School graduate, who now lives in Los Angeles, made a career out of imagining the future with his company Modern Props.

Zabrucky and his employees built equipment used by the Ghostbusters, that outfitted the Bat Cave in Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns” and was handled by the X-Men, the crew of the Starship Enterprise and many other iconic characters in hundreds of films, television series and commercials.

Zabrucky signed a deed of gift form last month donating hundreds of pieces that Modern Props created to the Trumbull County Historical Society, which is in the early stages of creating a home for that collection and preserving the history of the future.

Historical society Director Meghan Reed said her mind began racing when first approached with the idea.

“There are two (aspects) that are really exciting for me,” she said. “The first one is we are able to develop a space that will be an economic driver. We’ll have tourists from a multi-state region coming to Warren as a destination. We’re playing into the work we do in preservation and exhibit design and curation, but we’ll also be able to partner with all kinds of groups who want to see Warren be a better place to live and work. Being a part of that uplift of the community is really exciting to me.”

That museum also could provide additional resources currently unavailable to the historical society — classrooms for educational programming, exhibit space for touring exhibitions, even a space that could generate additional revenue by being rented out for special events.

THE COST

For any of that to become a reality, it will take money — a lot of money.

“Millions” was Reed’s answer to the projected cost, and it’s impossible to get more specific this early in the process.

“First of all, we need to settle on a building,” she said. “We’re in the process of scouting out buildings. After that, we’ll have to work with architects and designers to develop the space, and whatever building we select, there will have to be a lot of customization necessary to make sure we meet museum best practices and needs, like a specific HVAC system and insulation and that sort of thing to protect artifacts for installation purposes.”

Once they have a building and secure, temperature-controlled storage, work will start to bring the collection from southern California, which will be more involved than paying freight shipping on a couple of boxes.

Right now most of the collection is housed in 13, 40-foot storage containers at the warehouse Zabrucky owns. It could be condensed somewhat, but the shipping costs alone could be $50,000 or more.

There are some small pieces, but the collection includes futuristic-looking props that are nine feet tall or wide.

THE COLLECTION

Zabrucky never worked on any Lucasfilm projects, so there are no “Star Wars” connections to the items in Zabrucky’s collection, but he said it would be difficult to find a sci-fi project from the ’80s and ’90s and early 2000s that didn’t feature something from Modern Props.

The list includes movies such as “Blade Runner,” “Escape from New York,” “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Total Recall,” “Back to the Future II,” “Ghostbusters II,” “Speed,” “Independence Day,” “Starship Troopers” and television series ranging from “24,” “JAG” and “Bones” to most of the “Star Trek” spinoffs.

Because Modern Props built pieces and rented them to the film studios instead of selling them, nearly everything in the collection appeared in multiple projects.

At the company’s peak, some pieces were so in demand that they would move immediately from one film studio to another without ever returning to Modern Props in between.

“A lot of the props aren’t intrinsically famous, but even the lowliest of them have been in 30 or 40 films,” Zabrucky said.

Zabrucky doesn’t have an estimate for the value of the collection. A handheld communicator used in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” sold for more than $10,000 in an auction (another one still is in the collection), and he recently turned down a mid-five-figures offer for a few pieces that had been featured in the television series “Knight Rider.”

While there is an auction history that can be used to estimate the value of smaller, recognizable items, Zabrucky said it’s harder to gauge the price larger items might fetch, such as one piece that has been called “The Most Important Device in the Universe,” because it has been used in so many futuristic movies and shows.

“I would much rather have the collection taken care of and preserved (than selling it off himself),” Zabrucky said.

“I can just imagine, if anyone in Warren is like I used to be in high school or junior high, they’re going to be excited.”

THE POTENTIAL

The customers of Greg Bartholomew, who owns All-American Cards and Comics stores in Warren and Boardman and founded the Youngstown Comic Con, would be the potential clientele for this museum, and he’s seen firsthand their willingness to travel to enjoy things associated with the science fiction and superhero genres.

“I know our last year, we drew from nine or 10 states for the comic con,” Bartholomew said. “We had people from as far as Nebraska and North Carolina come in. This collection could draw from all of over North America, possibly even people overseas. I’ve been to Seattle to the science fiction museum out there, and it takes about two minutes to go through. There aren’t a lot of things to see. If this is as big as what it sounds like, it would dwarf that.”

Beth Kotwis Carmichael, executive director of the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau, said, “I see the addition of this collection to the Trumbull historical society as an opportunity for us to reach a different market that we haven’t before. It’s so unique, and it ties into some additional history Trumbull County has in this area of science fiction.”

Author Leigh Brackett, who lived in Kinsman, wrote one of the story treatments and has a screenplay credit on the “Star Wars” film “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Jackie Shannon, president of the historical society’s board, said, “I think it can bring a lot of value to Trumbull County. I think it can increase our tourism and put us on the map. I’m just ecstatic. I think it will be wonderful for the county and Warren city.”

While it will take a major fundraising effort, Shannon said she believes it can be done.

“We have Meghan, and she is remarkable at finding money,” Shannon said. “It’s not only getting it here, it’s where can we house it and preserve it. Those are the obstacles the historical society faces in the coming months and years, but we have Meghan.”

Reed, who is in her ninth year as director, has brought in about $2 million in state and federal grants to the organization during her tenure.

Reed has no timetable for the current project. However, the historical society acquired the Mahoning Avenue NW home in 2019 that is now the Morgan History Center. It opened in 2021 after interior renovations were completed. Exterior renovations continued after the opening, and they will break ground on an expansion project there later this year.

“I’m really hoping the community rallies around this project, and I’m very confident the money can be raised,” Reed said. “I will say from past experience on renovation projects that I will never give anyone a timeline ever again.”