Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546058
34 FALL 2026 Costume House abe Gerber is a four- year-plus Costume House Costumer (which is a bit of a misnomer as he has been a member of Local 705 for 19 years). He runs the uniform building for United American Costumes, which carries a huge collection of historical uniforms from the French Indian War of the 1750s to today's modern warfare uniforms, with just about everything in between. When he started in the film industry, Gerber had been working as a production assistant on big-budget blockbusters, including Steven Spielberg films, when he eventually had to pause working when he got the flu. Having lile money and no health insurance, missing a week of work was an eye-opener. It made him realize it was time to join a union. Aer a great experience working in the Costume Department of War of the Worlds as a PA, he thought he would take his chances and went to Western Costume Company where he coincidently met Brian Callahan, whom he just worked with, who was unloading a truck. "I said, 'Brian, it's time I get into the union.' Brian saw me, and said, 'Come on,' and he walked me right into Frank [Allegro]'s office, and said, 'This is a good guy.' And talk about being at the right place at the right time. The Costumer before me either quit or moved on either that day or the day before, the timing was momentous and life altering. Frank then said, 'Can you pull a costume?' I replied, 'Yeah man, I can do anything.' That was a lie. I had no idea what to do, no clue at all. So, they hired me and I started out at Western. I was there for two years to the day. Frank said, 'Promise me that you're going to stay for a year,' and as a production assistant for many years, I replied, 'Did you just guarantee me employment for a year? Yeah, I'll take the job.'" The first uniform that Bobby Constantine asked Gerber to pull and recreate was a Roman soldier, which he says, "I had no idea what I was doing but I had seen Ben-Hur 100 times and knew I could do it." He still has photographs of it in his collection of binders of historical costume pulls he has made. "I'm adamant about taking photographs of everything; and this is all the stuff I did when I didn't know what I was doing, and I have to say, I'm prey proud of these … some of it may not be accurate, but it looks great! One day, they actually asked me to put together an actual suit of armor. I was thinking, 'They're paying me to play with a suit of armor?!' It was surreal. I started 'building' mannequins because Costume Designers need to approve what you pull and sending a picture of a costume hanging on a hanger is unimpressive. I ended up spending all my time sending pictures so in order to save time, I started puing everything up on mannequins just so they would say yes right away and I could move on to the next order. The stuff looked great in 3D, and it saved me a ton of time. Now, 20 years later, I have thousands of pictures so when I get a call, I just email a photo and say how many do you need and when do you need it?" Gerber spent the next two years learning from mentors like Constantine, Kurt Cox, Dick Lamont, Bill Burchee, and Patrick O'Driscoll. "These guys were so smart and experienced and they knew so much, it was truly stunning and more than a bit humbling. I rely on these guys to this day. Everybody was so helpful. Bill Burche had come from theater. Linda Tailor, who did Lile House on the Prairie and Carmen Lozano, they were literally a living encyclopedia! I was amazed at the amount of knowledge these people had. And though I'm sure I was very annoying, they were all very patient with me. One day, Bob Iannacone gave me the entire history of ties in one aernoon. These people amazed me. I was always interested in history but never thought about what people wore while they were living that history. I was hooked right away." Gerber took the leap back into the world of production, now as a Costumer, when he was hired for Angels & Demons. [Key Costumer] Dan North asked me to come out to the show, so I le Western and went on the show for a couple weeks and was very lucky. "They didn't want Left: Gerber with a binder of photos of the uniforms he pulled for Angels & Demons. Above: Roman Soldier uniform similar to the uniform pulled by Gerber. Opposite: Uniforms that sit above the bookshelves of Gerber's many reference books. G