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Did you wear a costume on Fat Tuesday? If so, you've probably packed it away, by now. But Darwin has met a man who isn't putting his costume away. Let’s make that "costumes," and we mean dozens of them! In fact, he never puts them away! Any of them!
Welcome to Marty Burrows world. It's a kind of Renaissance Science Fiction world. You know, Lord of the Rings, Hercules, Xena - Warrior Princess... LOTS of Xena.
“Xena, Hercules and Young Hercules are my favorites,” says Marty. And you can find them just about everywhere you look in Marty's house. Everywhere!
Darwin: “Some would say this is a bit extreme.”
“This is true,” Marty replies, then he laughs as he says… “But I've always been an over-achiever!”
Marty and his partner Madris have scanned websites and warehouses, studios and costume companies to come up with real artifacts from sci-fi movies and TV shows. How did all of this begin? “That big fiberglass rock from Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Darwin: “Which was filmed in Mobile.”
Marty: “Right.”
“Probably what's on display (inside his home, by the way) might be a third of what I've got in stock. Some of it's boxed up here, there and everywhere,” Marty explains. But there's still plenty to see, standing and sitting in the bedroom, living room.
What’s his most valuable piece? Marty says it’s a costume for the Amazon Queen from the sixth season of Xena. It took him 7 years to find the robe to complete the outfit.
As for the one he really, really wants but doesn't have? “The actual hero outfit of Lucy Lawless, the Xena outfit. Her leathers, and if you want them you'll pay about $15,000 or $20,000 for it.”
Wow! That's worth fighting for!
By the way, in case you’re wondering… yes, Marty does occasionally wear one of his many costumes. The last time he was seen publicly wearing one? “The People’s Ball” during Mardi Gras in Mobile.
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