Twin Peaks Prop – Nadine Hurley’s Cotton Balls

I recently shared a publicity photo of Wendy Robie who played Nadine Hurley which was taken on the set of the Palmer house. Thanks to that image, I located the specific brand of COTTON BALLS she used to make her completely silent drape runners.

NADINE HURLEY’S COTTON BALLS

In Twin Peaks episode 1.001, Norma Jennings stops by the Twin Peaks General Store where she bumps into Nadine Hurley. After being up all night, Nadine purchased cotton balls to make her drape runners completely silent. As she speaks with Norma, we get a good look at the cotton ball packaging.

In the full color publicity photo of Nadine with her drape runner and a bag of cotton balls, I noticed a manufacturer’s name printed on the pink and blue plastic bag.

Zooming in, I determined the cotton balls were manufactured by Petalove.

During close-ups of Nadine and Norma speaking, you can see the bar code and a drawing of a baby.

Nadine turns the bag over when explaining how cotton balls were the key to her contraption. You can see how the name “Petalove” was blacked out by the prop department.

A reaction shot of Norma gives another look at the front of the cotton ball bag.

One final shot shows the back of the bag again. This time, we see a drawing of a woman and part of the number 100.

COTTON BALLS BY PETALOVE

Thanks to a 1989 advertisement in The Central New Jersey Home News, I found a bag of 100 count cotton balls made by Petalove. While I’ve been unable to locate a color image, the design appears similar to the episode. It would be a miracle if I ever found a bag like this from the 1980s. Packaging like this is disposable so it’s highly doubtful people saved it.

McCrory Stores trademarked the name “Petalove” in October 1979. This chain of five and dime stores was based in York, Pennsylvania. John McCrorey opened his first McCrory store in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, in 1882. By 1885, the J. G. McCrory Company had five stores in Pennsylvania. McCrorey dropped the e from his last name to avoid paying for extra letters on his store signs.

The stores typically sold shoes, clothing, housewares, fabrics, penny candy, toys, cosmetics, and often included a lunch counter or snack bar.

Over the years, the company acquired other stores such as TG&Y, Newberry, H.L. Green, C.G. Murphy and many more. By 1989, McCrory was operating 1,300 stores. However, the changing retail landscape including the migrating of shoppers from the inner cities to the influx of superstores run by Target and Walmart had diminished the competitiveness of five and dime stores. The company declared bankruptcy in September 2001 and by 2002, all stores were closed.

One assumes the cotton balls that lined the drape runners seen in episode 2.002 were from that Petalove bag.