Film Prop Thursday: Pamela Voorhees’ Head
One of the most talked about and iconic scenes in the Friday the 13th film series is that of the decapitation of Mrs. Voorhees. The effect of the decapitation was achieved by casting a fake head of actress Betsy Palmer and then attaching that fake head to a dummie via toothpicks. With one clean swipe, the machete would break the toothpics and the prop Pamela Voorhees head fell off. Not to be lost in that sequence is the generous amount of blood and use of manly hands grasping at the air.
After production wrapped, it is believed that the prop head stayed in the possession of effects man Tom Savini for some time. In 2024, the prop head was offered for sale to private buyers, but there were no takers for the item at that time. A year or so later, the Pamela Voorhees head was placed up for bid on eBay for the price of $10,000. Someone did buy this piece from that eBay auction and then later that same person sold the prop at the Profiles In History auction house.
The exact owner is not known at this time, but whoever it is has in their possession a true historical artifact from an influential film in motion picture history.
I would have bought it for $3,000 in a second.
Awesome prop and still very rare to what survived from the first films. I did purchase another big item at the same time so I sadly had to pass this awesome piece. It just came a few days too late. However time proved that there is always a chance to a piece popping up again.. so who knows, maybe I can go for it then.
Does anyone know how much it sold for at the Profiles in History auction?
Lucky person!!!
Awesome pics bro. $10,000.00, I knew the prop was valuable but wow thats alot of dough. Thanks for posting the pics.
I love the picture of Adrienne King holding the head. I’m curious, do the man hands that are shown grasping at the air belong to the same person who grabbed Kevin Bacon’s head from under the bed during his death scene?
I beleive the man hands were Tom Savivi’s.
The grasping hands belongs to Tom Savinis good friend Taso Stavrakis.
Yeah and Taso should have shaved his hands for his scenes as Mrs. V.