Movie making fever 'gone' says Mich. man who rents films decor

Steve Humphreys is a retro vintage antique dealer, who made a killing renting furniture and decor to Hollywood producers.  At least he did when movies were being made here.

"It's pretty much gone other than commercial work," he said.

Humphreys told me Governor Rick Snyder's swift scaling back of film tax incentives only to kind of reinstate them was a strategic misstep.

"He eliminated the movie business.  He said he wasn't going to.  He put his people in place, and they turned down lots of movies right off the bat.  We lost 'The Avengers'.  We've lost three movies in the last year," he said.

In other words, Michigan's movie boom is a relic of another time now past.

"The fever is gone.  It was a fever here, especially in the Ferndale area.  There's production companies.  There was a school down the street training people to be in the movie business.  They're all gone now.  I don't think it could ever get... back to where it was," said Humphreys.

So his store, Vogue Vintage, keeps on keeping on as a clearing house for the mod and the odd.  He used to make another $30,000 a year supplying movies.  Now he counts on Internet customers and estate sales to keep him in business.

"Stuff I normally would rent we're selling it," said Humphreys.

Vogue Vintage is on Woodward in Pleasant Ridge.