Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Wonka Bar
photo: prop store
A hero Wonka bar from Mel Stuart's fantasy musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Wonka bars featured throughout this adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story, after Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) randomly hid five golden tickets within the wrappers of his chocolate bars. It was in such a bar that Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) found his precious ticket and his adventure began. The bar comes from the personal collection of Julie Dawn Cole who portrayed Veruca Salt
Very few hero versions of the chocolate bar were made for production, and props from this beloved film are extremely hard to find, as most were destroyed at the film's Bavarian studio to allow production to wrap quickly, making way for the immediate filming of Cabaret. This is the first hero bar Prop Store has ever encountered.
The bar is made of card, with a silver-painted core representing the foil-wrapped chocolate. Glued to the exterior is a paper cover bearing the iconic Wonka top-hat logo in yellow. The bulk of the front of the confectionary is decorated a rich chocolate brown. The sides of the bar are hand-painted pink, visible underneath the bright orange paper surround, which has become unstuck over time. The back of the bar is unpainted and rough, likely where it was originally affixed to part of the set. The bar shows some signs of age and use, with some colour fade to the corners and a light crease at the top edge. Dimensions: 16.5 cm x 8 cm x 1 cm (6 1/2" x 3 1/4" x 1/4")