Their Star Only Gets Brighter

Old movie props never die. They just win new public roles appropriate to their Hollywood pasts.

Consider last month’s auction in Santa Paula of relics collected by James Brucker, late owner of the defunct Movieworld exhibit in Buena Park.

* Urns that flanked the gateway to Emerald City in “The Wizard of Oz” sold for $6,750. They were bought by Planet Hollywood, a restaurant chain featuring movie memorabilia and owned by Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.

* The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum paid $3,500 for a 1935 Lincoln movie-camera car to be displayed at the Petersen Museum, due to open next year.

* The Leslie Special, a bridal-white car driven by white-suited hero Tony Curtis in “The Great Race,” went for $61,000 and will reappear in the Los Angeles car collection of Howard Brown.

“A million items sold for more than $730,000 with most of them going back to movie producers and property departments,” says spokeswoman Julie Rosoff. “So look for them as they come soon to a theater near you.”