Grosh Backdrops and Drapery is the leading supplier of the finest quality backdrops, theatrical curtains, and drapes with over 80 years of experience. Hand-painted by our dedicated artists in our studio in Los Angeles, California, or printed using modern printers, our backdrops are available either for rent or purchase. Keep reading to find out more interesting facts about Grosh Backdrops & Drapery.
Eric: “We are an American company serving our country for the past 80 years.”
Carrie: “When people hear backdrops, they’re not quite sure, at first, you know, what it is, until we say scenery, you know, and then they realize that oh, it’s what’s on stage or behind an actor or behind the musician.”
Eric: “Here we don’t deal with green screens or special effects. What we have here is a bunch of scenic artists applying their talent to canvas, so that you can create the illusion that you’re in a cabin in the woods.”
This Is the Real Hollywood!
Eric: “I’ve heard people who come in here and say: “This is real Hollywood!”, and they’re right.”
David: “And we service America, all fifty states, and we’ve got customers in all fifty states.”
Greg: “We are one of the main backdrop companies with artists painting on site, designing full-time, all year round. Most of our competitors that we know of, are usually painting out of the country somewhere. We have six paint frames and ten artists painting every day.”
David: “So we feel that we have the most realistic, best-quality drops in the industry, hands down.”
Grosh’s History
Amanda: “Grosh was actually started in 1932 by Robert Louis Grosh, who was originally from Columbus, Ohio. He came over to the LA area in 1926, he began Earl Sons and Grosh. As the film industry gained popularity in the ‘30s and ‘40s, he really started developing unique sets and working through hardware and theatrical rigging, which is what we were heavily involved in through the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.”
Carrie: “The history here is amazing. There is some big names: Walt Disney, Jimmy Stewart, Laurel and Hardy. We do a lot of theatre, so we do a lot of shows: Annie, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, and that’s pretty fun.”
The Best Thing About Grosh
Joel: “One of the great things about Grosh is, number one, we have a huge rental inventory. We also have the capacity to do custom backdrops and drapes as well. Even for our own rental inventory. So if it’s drop that, you know, you’re interested in and you don’t see it, we’re actually very very keen and interested in making that drop and adding it to our rental inventory.”
Creating a Design
Greg: “So a customer will come to me with a certain backdrop in mind. Sometimes they have a design, sometimes they don’t. So I’ll take whatever information they have at hand, whether it’s photographs, images, and I’ll put it into my computer into photoshop and come up with the design that will work with them. And sometimes it is back and forth for a month. Wherever it takes to give the customer what he needs, so his show, will be exactly what they want.
And even in the rental department upstairs, they will say I have a customer who wants a, you know, exterior castle on the beach, so what I did, I took my design talent and into my office, on my computer, work with the rental department, created a backdrop that looks like a castle on the beach and now it’s in production, on the paint frame. So I think that is a part of the service Grosh has. I don’t think anyone in town could beat us for that.”
Stability and Experience
Eric: “Eighty years, now that’s stability. And with that comes experience. We here at Grosh listen to our customers by keeping our ears open for upcoming releases.”
David: “Our employees are delighted to be able to talk to clients and say: we have the most favorable pricing, we have the most generous cancelation policy, we got the longest rental period. All in all, we feel that we give the greatest value in the industry.”
Eric: “You know, whenever a customer drops off the piece, I always ask how did we do. Nine times out of ten, they’ll say: It was spectacular. When the curtains would open, we had an applause, just based on the scenery that was there. It’s nice to know our backdrops bring that kind of feeling out of people.”
