Trophy firms have a lot of brass: corporate business is off but many marketers still score in athletics, movies.

Hollywood Trophy Co. provided more than 60 trophies last year to Orion Pictures Corp. for the "Addams Family" movie set. In the film, the trophies were mounted on the mansion walls.

But although the filming has long since been completed, those trophies are essentially no longer usable. The movie's prop director requested that all the attached figurines be decapitated to fit in with the film's theme.

And so it is for Southland trophy dealers, who cater to more than just neighborhood little league teams. Some businesses, such as Hollywood Trophy, comply with unusual requests from the entertainment industry. Others supply a wide range of companies with tailor-made trophies to reward employees of a variety of companies. And the Southland is also the home of one of the nation's most unique trophies.

The trophy business has flourished during the past five years because customers are now "recognizing participation as well as achievement," said Leonard Schenkel, secretary/treasurer of the Trophy Dealers and Manufacturers Association. For instance, in many little leagues all players now receive plaques instead of just the No. 1 team, he said.

But whereas the trophy business has gone unscathed in other economic downturns, as companies chose to award employees with trophies or plaques instead of cash, that isn't happening this time.

The industry has been beaten down by the current recession, Schenkel said, with many Southland trophy companies suffering 20 to 25 percent sales declines.

Nevertheless, the Los Angeles area has no shortage of eclectic trophies and awe-inspiring stories to go along with them.

Mike Baron, owner of Hollywood Trophy, supplies trophies to the entertainment industry. He noted the bar set for the hit comedy "Cheers" is filled with wall plaques his company supplied that character Sam Malone (Ted Danson) supposedly earned as a professional baseball player prior to his bartending career.

Furthermore, a "Married with Children" living room table is covered with trophies he supplied, Baron said.

He both sells and rents trophies to Tinseltown. Rental costs range from $7.50 per week for each of the most common pieces to $500 per day for a prized 36-inch-tall, 35-year-old pewter loving cup decorated with hand-applied designs.

The cup's most noteworthy appearances include a Chevrolet commercial in 1990 and a beer commercial for the 1992 winter Olympics, where a pseudo-Olympic hockey team holds up the cup in front of a cheering crowd at the ice rink.

After the beer commercial was filmed though, a film company employee picked up the cup and slipped on the ice, denting it. Repairing the damage cost nearly $1,000, Baron said.

Another local non-profit foundation houses a treasure trove of awards that have been presented to 20th century, world-class athletes.

But that pewter loving cup is not worth nearly as much as the World Trophy, a 7-foot-tall regal art piece that commands an alcove all its own in a room at the Amateur Athletic Foundation in Los Angeles.

The trophy is made of gold, silver and bronze, and it rests on a marble base. At its pinnacle sits a handcrafted world globe. The World Trophy was once valued at more than $25,000 but World Trophy coordinator Carmen Rivera said no monetary value can be attached to it because it is irreplaceable.

The World Trophy is so important it requires its own full-time coordinator six months out of the year. Rivera coordinates the trophy's award process. The trophy was designed in 1948 and since then has been awarded to six outstanding athletes each year, one from each of six international regions.

But the recipients don't get to take the trophy with them. Instead, each one's name is engraved on the trophy's panels, and the recipient receives a smaller, take-home trophy.

The take-home trophy is a 1-foot-high helix made of varying-sized pieces of green glass mounted on a base. The glass helix is an Amateur Athletic Foundation symbol, said foundation spokesman Patrick Escobar. Just a few recent recipient are Steffi Graff, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Greg LeMond.

The World Trophy may be the most stately piece in the Amateur Athletic Foundation collection, but Collections Manager Karen Goddy estimated the foundation has about 2,500 sports trophies stored away altogether. Most have been awarded at one time or another since the turn of the century to athletes from Southern California.

One other trophy on display is an ornate loving cup given to H. Chandler Egan, a runner-up in the 1904 Olympic golfing competition. Golf was held as an Olympic sport only during 1900 and 1904.

Some Southland trophy dealers cater to companies rather than sports teams. Roger Lawrence, owner of Gardena-based Roger Lawrence & Associates, recently designed 150, 9-inch-long, gold and silver-plated replicas of a Federal Express cargo plane. Federal Express delivered the awards to its agents in the Far East.

Also, Lawrence supplies Apple Computer Inc. with about 50 awards each year. The awards consist of a featureless human figurine surrounding by a halo made of gold and mounted on a 5-inch by 4-inch black marble base. A tiny gold-filled apple is also attached to the base.

Lawrence said his awards sell for from $40 to $250 apiece.

Although some trophies are quite pricey, the trophy businesses is not necessarily a lucrative one.

"Most are eking out a living," Baron said, adding, however, that as one of the more successful trophy dealers his 1991 sales exceeded $500,000.