Advantage Grip: Advantage Gripware is owned and operated by a family with a three generation history in the film industry. Grandfather Loet C. Barnstijn was a Dutch movie mogul. He produced many famous Dutch films in the early years of motion pictures. In October of 1935 his dream of building Movie Studios in Holland became reality and Filmstad (Film City) opened in The Hague. Akos Farkas filmed many of the films made at Filmstad, married to one of L.C.B's daughters, Charlotte and went on to become a very well known Director of Photography in Europe .As World War II broke out, L.C.B. fled to the United States; Filmstad was taken over by the Nazis and used as a V2 base to bombard London. In 1945, the allied forces bombed the entire complex. Today the site is a park. Akos and Charlotte along with their three children emigrated to the United States in 1952, where after a long struggle he again became a well known Director of Photography, shooting mostly television commercials along with some TV series and feature films. Akos died in 1971 in Manhasset, NY.
In 1979, Charlotte, her son Loet, an Assistant Cameraman (Local 644) and a Production Manager, her daughter Paula along with Loet's wife Lynn started Char-Lyn Motion Picture Products. At the beginning, Charlotte and Lynn would go to the New York Rental Houses and pick up frames to be recovered. They would then stop at Dazian's to buy the fabrics to cover the different frames. The company's original location was in Lynn's basement. After a few years, with the addition of many other products, we moved from the basement into a 400 square foot warehouse. All sewing was done by Charlotte, Lynn and Paula at their respective homes on Long Island, NY. In 1992, Charlotte passed away after surviving W.W.II in Holland and a long bout with cancer. Char-Lyn evolved into Advantage Gripware. In 1997 the entire operation was moved to Douglasville, Georgia in search of more sewing machine operators and more space, moving into a 2,000 square foot facility there. As we continued to grow, it became evident that a large expansion was necessary. In March, 2006 we opened our new 12,000 square foot facility in Roanoke, Alabama. On December 18, 2006 Advantage Gripware again moved to an even larger (17,000 square feet) manufacturing plant, also located in Roanoke, where most of our products will be manufactured and warehoused under one roof. Today, Lynn is President, Paula is Secretary, Loet is Director of Sales and New Product Development and Lynn's sister Marcia (Marty) is the Plant Manager.
