Anyone who has watched “Saltburn” probably remembers the scene, and some who have not seen the dark coming-of-age thriller about two Oxford students may remember it, too: The part when middle-class Oliver (Barry Keoghan), while visiting the country estate of his wealthy friend Felix (Jacob Elordi), surreptitiously watches him take a bath and then slurps up the leftover water as it streams down the drain.
After the film’s release in late 2023, the scene spread widely online — and became the inspiration for candles, cocktails, bath bombs and thousands of discussion threads.
And the bathtub featured in it? It’s now on display in Massillon, Ohio, at the home of Kyle Harvey, 36, who bought the tub for $4,375 in an online auction last September. Mr. Harvey, who owns a local car dealership with some relatives, drove 18 hours round-trip to get it, he said.
“It’s a piece of history,” said Mr. Harvey, adding that he won the prop after a bidding war. “That bathtub had TikTok going for days.”
The fiberglass bathtub is in a room adjoining Mr. Harvey’s at-home movie theater. Other “Saltburn” memorabilia he bought in the auction are also on display there, including a framed photo of Mr. Elordi and Mr. Keoghan and ensembles that the actors wore in the film, which earned awards for both is costume and production design.
The bathtub came complete with stains around its drain — Suzie Davies, the “Saltburn” production designer, has said they were made using edible paint — as well as with a large rectangle cut out of it. That section was removed after Mr. Elordi was filmed bathing in the tub, so that cameras could capture Mr. Keoghan from the vantage point of being inside it.
When people ask Mr. Harvey what he does with the bathtub, his answer is simple: “I just look at it,” he said. “I’m looking at it right now. Barry Keoghan was right there, it’s so crazy to me.”
As Mr. Harvey showed off his treasures in a video call, he lamented Mr. Keoghan’s clothing size, which is “tiny,” he said. So far, Mr. Harvey had not managed to find the right size mannequin to fit an embroidered suit that the Irish actor wore with antlers in a party scene in “Saltburn” — a costume Mr. Harvey paid $8,125 for.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Mr. Harvey said. Mr. Keoghan — reportedly around 5 feet 8 inches — is shorter than many mannequins, which Mr. Harvey noted were typically 6 feet tall. “Trying to find one that will fit him is kind of a pain,” he said.
Mr. Harvey’s “Saltburn” pieces are part of a larger collection he has amassed of props and costumes from movies and television shows. He estimated that he had acquired about 200 pieces, and that he had paid about $70,000 for all of them. Though a handful had cost him thousands of dollars, most were bought for hundreds of dollars, he said.
They include dozens of clothes previously owned by Joe Exotic, the subject of the Netflix documentary series “Tiger King”; several outfits worn by Lady Gaga in the film “House of Gucci”; a mask and two vans from the horror movie “The Black Phone”; a horse trailer from “Twisters”; and a diner sign from “Friday the 13th,” one of his favorite horror films.
He started collecting such ephemera in 2017, after coming across a museum in Blairstown, N.J., dedicated to “Friday the 13th,” which was filmed in the town. (The museum has since closed.) Inspired, Mr. Harvey acquired a “Friday the 13th” script. It was the first item in his collection and he paid $3,500 for it.
His love of horror films in particular stretches back to when he was young. “My grandma and I would make cinnamon rolls, and I would make her watch horror movies,” Mr. Harvey said. “That was our thing.”
He said he had passed on his fondness for props and costumes to his 13-year-old daughter, Kasey: She convinced him to buy her some items from the reality TV show “Dance Moms,” including clothes and a chalkboard used by the instructor Abby Lee Miller, in 2023.
Mr. Harvey is part of a global community of passionate collectors who scour online forums, Facebook groups and auctions in search of objects from their favorite movies. Unlike the big-ticket items that attract publicity — ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” (which sold for $28 million last December), or a door from “Titanic” (which sold for $718,750 last March) — the props and costumes they’re after can be purchased at a much lower cost. The internet has made their hunting and trading easier than ever before.
“In the old days, pre-1990s, if you collected something, like cars, you’d go to car meets, different clubs,” said John Klisavage, 71, a former merchant marine officer who collects costumes. “Today, it’s so much more prolific.”
Mr. Klisavage, who owns a bookstore in Havre de Grace, Md., estimated that, since 2003, he had bought at least 1,600 film costumes — and possibly as many as 3,000. (He said he had lost count). His purchases include several dresses worn by Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls” and “Respect,” a biopic about Aretha Franklin, for which he paid around $65,000 in total.
Mr. Harvey said collecting allowed him to claim a piece of Hollywood. His ultimate wish, he added, is not to acquire any single item, but to spend a day or two on a film set.
“I’ll even help out,” he said. “You need me to get Starbucks? I’ll get Starbucks. I want to experience filming the movie, how it’s made. That would be my dream.”
He discovered “Saltburn” through TikTok, and loved it immediately. He watched the movie about a dozen times to decide which props and costumes he wanted to buy in the online sale held by VIP Fan Auctions, one of the major players in the prop- and costume-auction business (others include Heritage Auctions and Prop Store Auction).
When the bathtub scene went viral, people posted videos of their parents’ reactions to it on social media. But Mr. Harvey said he drew the line at showing his parents “Saltburn.”
“They have no idea why I have this bathtub in my house,” Mr. Harvey said.
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