I complain a lot about how hard it can be to write about the more obscure people. This is because it’s hard to write about the more obscure people. The resources are scanty, especially given how many articles I churn out in a week. I don’t have the time to search through reference books, even assuming there were reference books that had the information I need, which often there are not. I like writing about these people, because I think it’s important to know about them. Film would not be what it is without them. But today, we’ve hit someone I literally cannot find an image for online, who does not have a Wikipedia page, who appears on many pages with his information on them completely blank.

John Zemansky. Props. No biographical information on IMDb. No Wikipedia page. The pages of assorted other websites are blank, or at best they have a partial list of credits. I strongly suspect the IMDb credits are incomplete as well. They so often are in the behind-the-scenes stuff, as I’ve also complained about before. This is a man whose career stretches from at least 1973’s Battle For the Planet of the Apes to 2004 and Deadwood, but I’m quite sure there’s a lot missing.

Mostly what you’ll find information about is Back to the Future. And don’t get me wrong, that’s a hell of an accomplishment. Props on all three Back to the Future movies is a hell of a thing to rest a career on. That’s an iconic movie full of iconic imagery, and being a part of that, no matter how much of it he built and designed himself, is worth discussing. Unfortunately, most of what I’ve found on even that is, “Boy, he sure did do the props for the Back to the Future movies, didn’t he?”

But that movie does emphasize the importance of props. When you think Back to the Future Part II, do you think about the plot, or do you think about the hoverboard? The sports book? Maybe the weird double ties, admittedly, which are costume not props, but still. The movie does not work without its props. No movie does. From what little is available online, it appears that Zemansky had a hand in the looks of Hill Valley. The man had a hand in Gen-X and its imagery that no one quite remembers.

Oh, sure, he did lots of other things, too. The Thing, for example. The Shadow—it’s entirely possible he had a hand in that wicked knife. Mrs. Doubtfire. Harry and the Hendersons. And, sure, some of the more bonkers movies of the era. Satisfaction, wherein Justine Bateman in in a girl band. Death Becomes Her. He worked on Truck Turner, which I absolutely will get around to seeing one of these days, and presumably was responsible for the sardines and flowers in Noises Off . . . . He deserves our attention. Certainly more than he’s getting now.

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