Tales Of Collateral Damage: A Studio Cleaner Laments “Devastating” Loss Of Business, Workers During Ongoing Strike
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: For 36 years, Dmitry Tokar’s La Cienega Studio Cleaners has made sure costumes for film and TV projects are fresh and neat as a button by working six days a week, 24 hours a day in Hollywood.
His doors aren’t open for the regular Joe and Janes who need a suit cleaned or a dress steamed. “We are strictly show business,” he says of his North Hollywood location and satellite spots at NBC-Universal and Fox. “We have 12 trucks that do nothing but pick up and deliver to and from sets from all the studios and from all the locations.
That’s all we do. You can ask around. We’ve probably one of the biggest in town as far as overnight. We’ve done all the NCISes, as well SWAT, 911: Long Star … you name it.
We were doing all the Marvel shows, and not just dry cleaning, but dyeing as well.” But not anymore. With the WGA strike about to reach 100 days and the actors on the picket line since July 17, business is down 93 percent at La Cienega — which forced Tokar to recently lay off 17 of his 56 workers.
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