Harvey Mayo
 

Important! Read the serious WARNING information below!

  Mayoholds.JPG (183857 bytes)

If you click on the thumbnail above: yes, that is a dentist's drill behind Harvey Mayo in the picture, but no, Harvey Mayo is not a dentist.

mayo5.jpg (19475 bytes) Left: Harvey Mayo-built model, owned by Chris Perrotta

Harvey Mayo's childhood hobby was building model cars from scratch. Then he saw the miniature Time Machine "vanish" in the 1960 George Pal film.... and he's been making new miniature Time Machines appear ever since then. By 1980, he'd built over fifteen of them, each better and more detailed than the last.

I think Don Brockway didn't count the models himself...

I 'commissioned' Harvey to build a model for me in 1987, but - between his other assignments in the film community and Harvey's own demanding standards of precision - the machine never got far beyond the stage shown in the two Polaroid shots at the bottom of this page. So the project was scrapped, but Harvey and I remain friends, and I'm still tremendously impressed by his talents in the world of miniatures. And I would still like to own a Harvey Mayo Time Machine.

Even Don Brockway didn't get a complete model...

Harvey has also built fully-functional miniature furniture using pearwood, satinwood, tulip wood, and mahogany. A miniature replica of a Louis XV lady's writing desk had brass hardware and hard-carved brass ornamentation.

Harvey worked for WED, the 'imagineering' arm of Disney, designing new attractions for the theme parks. How did he land that job? He walked in with a miniature Time Machine he had built -- and was hired on the spot.

The miniature Time Machine that Rod Taylor holds in The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal is a Harvey Mayo-built model.

MayoModConst.JPG (77778 bytes) mayo2modcons.JPG (71963 bytes) LEFT: The wooden "skeleton" of Harvey's Time Machine as seen in two Polaroids.

BEWARE of Harvey Mayo!!!
This page contains a serious warning:

I got an e-mail sent to me by Harvey Mayo in February 24, 2007:

Hi Sandra, the models I build are working minatures, all self- contained, batteries are in the base, all the wiring is inside the tubing, and their are no resin parts, just brass, hardwood , velvet for the chair, copper for the dish, all top quality parts, and all parts are hand made. A great piece for your collection. Would that be something you could consider having me build for you, if the price was fair, and I could make the piece in-between my regular work, to keep the cost down, let me know your thoughts, If you want to talk by phone, let me have a contact number.

Thanks, Harvey

Very tempting, isn't it? Yummy for every Time Machine lover!
But now comes the hard and important facts from six independent sources:

Every Time Machine fan can get an e-mail like this, but the images above are VERY old! Harvey Mayo has built only four (or five?) and two incomplete models of Time Machine models since the 1960:es, two and one incomplete of them shown in the images above... (The other incomplete model belongs to Frank) But he keeps selling them to people and not delivering any. There are many people who have been cheated out of thousands of dollars!

Four of my sources is e-mail from Rebecca, Ed & Lynda, Frank (aka "frankie") and "TymerC" (all of them deceived Time Machine fans), and the fifth is Chris Perrotta in the Don Coleman's web site discussion forum with 8 pages of Harvey Mayo Warnings! To read the complete forum, click here. If you don't, you can always read this mail from Chris Perrotta, taken directly from the forum:

Harvey Mayo burned me very badly on two separate Time Machine deals. Don Coleman and others are very much aware of this. I would never recommend him to anyone for anything. I would strongly caution anyone interested in buying a Time Machine model from Harvey, not to. It's always the same modus operandi - he takes your money, up-front, and then usually all of it by the time it "nears " completion, and then it's one excuse after another why he can't deliver. He's broken so many promises with me personally it's sickening. Regarding the commissioning of a Time Machine model from Harvey Mayo, ...BEWARE! - Chris Perrotta

And then some challenging info posted by Francois in Canada on page 3:

Chris was moving to Texas and insisted in taking the model with him even though the artwork was not done. Again, it was his choice. Nonetheless, here follows a quote from Chris as to his impressions of the model he owned for eight years as described in his eBay listing (#7574862550): “Built by Harvey Mayo, this little gem is a faithful reproduction of the one used in the film. This is not a toy or a kit build. It’s a meticulously handcrafted, highly detailed, functioning mechanical jewel. It has spent most of its years tucked away or under glass, so, it’s virtually dust free and works perfectly! I commissioned it many years ago and have been proud to own it ever since, but alas, there comes a time, when things like these, have to be passed on to others that have the same passions and interests.”

And further down on the same page, the clear and logical response from Chris himself:

Naturally, I only mentioned the good points about Harvey's model in my eBay ad. I was trying to sell it. I didn't want to poison my own well with information regarding Harvey 's business practices (his modus operandi). Anyone can understand the reasoning with that. Just because the points regarding his model were positive it makes no statement whatsoever on the difficulties in which I endured to get it completed - or the motive for selling it. In fact, it was the bad taste Harvey left me with, that I did sell it.

You can click on the image of Chris Perrottas model here on top of this page and see how many ornaments are missing on the console, the dish, the end caps of the time-generator pods...

Conclusion:
Do NOT buy anything from Harvey Mayo or else you will lose your money!

 

See also the exciting "e-mail chess game" between my boyfriend Borim Luneshar and Harvey Mayo: click here -- this will give you more information how a swindler works.
And I just love the clever "naïve"-looking letters of Borim... and this is also my sixth source!

And see also ALL Harvey's models compared to each other: click here. Updated 2012!

Sandra Petojevic, Master of Arts

 

Don Brockway, October 11, 1999 (updated (the warning, the e-mail from Harvey and Chris, the text from Francois and my own comments in green and yellow) May 23, 2007 by Sandra Petojevic, Master of Arts)

 

And now some updates from July 29, 2012: The "e-mail chess game" part II click here. N.B.: It contains explicit language!


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