Twin Peaks Cast & Crew Parking Placard

Having been too young to appreciate the cultural phenomenon of Twin Peaks in the early 90s, I have a great fondness for the ephemera that made for an immersive experience during the show’s initial run. Collecting vintage print ads, tie-in products, and fan magazines paints a picture of what the community felt at the peak of Peaks. Beyond that, artifacts from the show’s production – however mundane – are profoundly special to me as they offer a glimpse at the daily lives of the real people who made the art that brought that community together.

TWIN PEAKS CAST & CREW PARKING PLACARD

During the production of the original Twin Peaks, parking placards bearing the show’s name were distributed to the cast and crew to display on the dashboards of their cars when they parked in the City Studios lot in Van Nuys, California.

These brown and cream cardboard passes measure roughly 6X13 inches and feature a font that, to my knowledge, was not used in any other Twin Peaks branding.

This particular placard came from prop master/painter Dave Robinson, who told me it was more important for teamsters to use these than those listed on the call sheet as they needed to be able to identify the trucks parked on the lot. According to Dave, the department heads also used them when filming on location, except when the shoot was in a residential area as some locals didn’t enjoy having a film crew in their neighborhood.

The logo on the flip side shows that the placards were produced by Crescent Cardboard Company.

CRESCENT CARDBOARD COMPANY

Originally called Chicago Cardboard Company, the Illinois-based matboard manufacturer was founded in 1902 by Charles T. Ozmun. As the brand evolved, the Crescent name was adopted in 1940.

The same logo featured on the back of the Twin Peaks parking placards is still in use today, and the Ozmun family is still at the helm.

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME CAST & CREW PARKING PASS

After the series wrapped, a similar placard was made for the cast and crew of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me featuring the same distinct font and mountain range graphic.

In my years collecting Twin Peaks memorabilia, I have only ever seen one of these in an eBay listing from September 2024. While still rare, the placards from the TV series pop up on auction sites a bit more frequently with a price tag that’s slightly less shocking.

But considering how little we think about material like this in our daily lives, it’s incredible that any of these seemingly mundane artifacts are still out there and accounted for. One person’s trash is another’s tiny piece of TV history.