The 'Joy' of making mops

The producers of the 20th Century Fox movie, "Joy," are spreading a different kind of joy among the employees of Algoma Mop Manufacturers this holiday season.

Mops created by the Algoma-based company's employees made their "debut" Friday in the Christmas Day movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper.

The movie is based upon the story of Joy Mangano, who overcame hardship and became an inventor and home-shopping entrepreneur, building a business dynasty that began with the Miracle Mop in the 1990s.

When the prop master (the person in charge of all props for a movie) couldn't find enough of the original Miracle Mops for the movie, she contacted Algoma Mop Manufacturers, a subsidiary of East Shore Industries, which employs more than 80 adults with disabilities.

The employees (known as clients) assembled more than 500 mops for the movie last winter.

"It was a top-secret project when our clients were working on it," said Tracy Nelson, chief executive officer of East Shore Industries. "Even our clients who were making them last winter didn't know we were doing them for the prop master at 20th Century Fox."

The prop master had searched for original Miracle Mops on eBay, but she only found about 30 of them, said Allan Wartella, director of sales for Algoma Mop.

"She needed mops in all stages of manufacturing, so she looked on the Internet for mop companies that could provide her with hundreds of mops and our name came up," Wartella said.

"We hit it off right away," he said. She was from Michigan and asked him if they were ice fishing yet in Algoma.  He told her that he carved fish decoys for ice fishing and they both started talking about their aging parents in the Midwest, he said.

"We had a real comfort level," Wartella said. "She finally said, 'Here's what we need; tell me what you need to get it done?'"

He contacted Olson Fabrication of Algoma, one of East Shore Industries major supporters, which developed a metal-fabricated, hand-operated mop looping work station.   The station was almost identical to  those used by Mangano when she invented the Miracle Mop, a plastic mop with a head made from a continuous loop of cotton that could be easily wrung out. What Wartella needed was a machine similar to those used by Mangano to make the Miracle Mops in the 1990s.

Once Algoma Mop had the machine, they had about two weeks last winter to make the mops, Wartella said.

"We were working evenings and nights to get it done," said Nelson. She said that the prop master also asked them to provide large bales of yarn, scrap yarn pieces and cotton dust bunnies to create the full effect of a mop manufacturing floor for the movie.

The film's director, David O. Russell, best known for "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012) and  "American Hustle" (2013), was very particular about only using props that were from that period, said Nelson.  At one point, they had to change the hunter-green tape used on the mops to a Kelly green tape that was more common during the 1990s, she said.

When the Algoma Mop employees were finally finished with the mops, a snowstorm hit Boston, where the movie was being filmed. Because trucks weren't getting through to the city, 20th Century Fox asked them to send the mops by train and plane so filming wouldn't be delayed, Wartella said.

"At one point, we were driving the shipments down to Appleton so they could be loaded on a Federal Express plane," Wartella said.

All of the mop products seen in the movie were made by Algoma Mop, Nelson said.  She said that 20th Century Fox paid them a "very fair" price for the mops and they didn't shop around for competitive prices.

Algoma Mop Manufacturers has been making mops since 1926 and was purchased by East Shore Industries in 1981. This is the first time they have had such a visible project, said Nelson, noting that the company sells more than $600,000 of commercial mops annually to schools, prisons and other markets throughout the United States.

More important to Nelson and her employees was the excitement of being involved in a major film project.   She said that the movie could be nominated for several Academy Awards and it would be particularly notable if the movie received a nomination for set design.

East Shore Industries' employees will see the movie at a Green Bay or Sturgeon Bay theater a few days after Christmas, said Nelson.

Some props come to symbolize the movie, such as the ruby red slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" and the lightsaber from "Star Wars," said Candace Hanmann, director of fund development for Algoma Mop.

She hopes that the mops also will become part of movie-making history.

"It has been an unforgettable holiday," Harmann said.  "One that has brought much joy to all of us."