America has long had a love affair with the automobile. Cars are the ultimate expression of form, function, fashion — and speed.
But most of all the car represents freedom.
Try and remember when you were a teenager yearning for your driver’s license so you could hop into daddy’s car and go, go, go. It didn’t matter where, you just wanted to burn rubber and escape into the far horizon.
The exhilarating and touching American Graffiti (’73) is the ultimate expression of American car culture. Every scene takes place in a car, or beside a car.
Los Angeles was the first America city built to accommodate the automobile. And Hollywood stars, most born dirt-poor, expressed delight in their sudden prosperity and fame by purchasing and posing with their dream machines.
A great road trip story is Zenobia, by Rose Wilder Lane and Helen Dore Boylston. Living in Paris in 1926, they decided to buy a Model T Ford and drive it to Albania. Remarkably enough, they made it.
Rose (daughter of the author of the Little House on the Prairie books) was a writer and an early Libertarian thinker…I excerpted some of her thoughts about the problems she faced in getting the Model T thru the French bureaucracy of the time, here.
I really recommend the book…it’s a lot of fun to ride along with these two high-spirited women (Helen’s nickname was “troub,” for “trouble”) on their adventure.
Several years ago, I saw an actual Stanley Steamer going down the road, about 60 mph, on the George Washington Parkway near Reagan Airport.
Apparently there are quite a few of these still in running condition.
Here’s a link to Marc Cohen’s “Silver Thunderbird.” It gives me chills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt5J9dT8edk
Ah…cars. le sigh
I grew up in a car-centric household; I used to say that my dad was a race car driver trapped in a businessman’s body. He taught me how to drive, one of many great legacies I have from a man who left life too soon at the age of 63.
One enduring legacy related to cars is the first one I ever drove with him: his 1967 Shelby GT500. Oh my – spoiled me forever. I still lust for powerful muscle cars but my husband – wise man that he is – recognizes that I am far too much like my dad in this area so refuses to let me indulge my inner desires. And I am OK with that – he loves me and wants to see me live.
Steve McQueen was the epitomy of cool – in fact I don’t think there has been an actor since who measures up to the McQueen standard. My dad’s favorite movie – of course- was Bullitt. He could tell you right down to the second when the infamous chase scene would start. If he knew it was going to be on TV, he’d schedule his whole day around the ability to see the chase scene.
Kris – I know that your father was a cool guy! Deciding on a car is always a compromise between practicality and fun (unless you get – say – a Prius ) – but I learned 20+ years ago to veer towards fun.
And I remember a great quote by Road & Track’s Peter Egan – “It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow”.
I have a 27 year old 115 hp sports car – and after all those years it still puts a smile on my face.
Something like a Mazda Miata – or VW GTI – or dozens of cars these days which are fun, practical and economical to drive.
And Steve McQueen? Watch the movie Lemans – produced by him (supposedly he was so angry at neighbor James Garner getting the part in Grand Prix he decided to make his own racing movie – and he did all his own driving in the Porsche 917 – a deadly car to drive but also fast.
BTW this being a movie blog just read in the new Road & Track that Ron Howard is coming out with – they say – a movie that is better than either Grand Prix or LeMans – about the 1976 F1 season – with Niki Lauda and James Hunt –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0peowCAPGeQ
Sadly, Le Mans did so poorly at the box office that it bankrupted McQueen’s production company.
As for fun cars that put a smile on your face, but which may not be very practical, I’ve always had a thing for the Morgan sports car.
The Morgan – well, they have a “new” one out – The Aero – and then this one
http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk/mmc/carrange/roadster/roadstermorgan.html
would be my vote – and if I am not mistaken still building it (with a more modern engine) the way they did in the 30s – with a wooden frame! The design – to me – is timeless – 1937 or 2013 – looks great.
However this one
http://www.morgan3wheeler.co.uk/home.html
Might be a bit too “traditional” for me 😉
R & T interviewed a Manhattanite who had this as his daily driver – rain or snow!
Love that Morgan. But too late. If I bought one now, it would really come across as a mid-life crisis car. Any car with three wheels just conjures a golf cart, or a buggy in a Florida retirement home.
Robert – the only “mid-life crisis” car in So Cal is a Por-sha 😉
Don’t know how much better “Rush” will be than “Grand Prix” because I’m unsure of what’s being measured. It seems to me very difficult to beat Frankenheimer’s idea of mounting radio-controlled cameras on the race cars to show an approximation of the driver’s view.
Larry (between you & Robert I have almost got my “basic cinematography appreciation” certificate – you make a good point and one that R & T addressed. Yes, Grand Prix has the best “action scenes” – they even had a LeMans Ford GT40 with a front mounted camera – The point they (R & T) make is that the plot for Grand Prix was thin – and dragged on for 2+ hours. (I agree!).
Rush deals with the friendship and rivalry of James Hunt and Niki Lauda – Lauda was almost killed in a fiery crash at the Nurburgring – his face shows the scars with an ear burned away to this day – but amazingly he was back racing 4 weeks later.
Rush has a good plot which should interest even people who aren’t fans of F1 or gearheads.
Robert – Le mans has been described as almost a documentary – I do think – like Grand Prix – it appeals to mainly gearheads – the 2 of these movies are to most people the definitive racing movies – at least until Rush comes out (according to Road & Track)
Didn’t know that it bankrupted McQueen (but looking at what they had to pay for in production I can understand!)
That’s a good point about the plot in Grand Prix. Thin is a generous description.
KrisinNewEngland:
Your father was obviously a wonderful man. Our condolences. I just saw Bullitt again for the zillionth time. The plot is still too dense, but the chase still puts a smile on my face—as does the image of Jacqueline Bissett eating breakfast cereal.
Robert – I thought you’d be interested in Natalie Wood’s 300SL
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/01/08/natalie-woods-mercedes-benz-heading-to-auction/?test=faces
The original 300SL was made only for racing – and legendary car importer Max Hoffman (who brought VW, Alfa Romero, Porsche and BMW to this country to his Park Ave dealership) told a cash-strapped postwar Daimler-Benz that if they would build this for the street, he would commit to buying 6,000 of them.
The engineers hated the original “Gullwing” – because the racing tubular frame did not allow for conventional doors – but the car became an icon.
The roadster, which came in 1957 replacing the coupe, had a modified frame, disk brakes, better suspension –
Anyway as seen in the article Natalie had her SL painted pink with red interior (ugh!) and the new owner had it restored to a more traditional (and proper) color.
Incidentally Annette’s color on her T Bird seems to be custom, too. Certainly the wheels are.
I suspect that photo of Annette with her T-Bird was taken in the 60s, judging by her hairstyle, clothing, and pointy shoes. To see what I mean, take a look at this photo of this T-Bird fan in 1956: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4198668288/nm0002088
The caption is wrong – it is a ’57 (you can tell by the small fins) – same as Robert’s picture – but looks like a different house! Looks like she repainted the car. The house in Robert’s picture looks like my old street.
I’ll bet Robert’s picture is from the 60s.
heh. My point was her hairstyle in the 50s vs 60s. Robert’s photo was most likely from the 60s later than the photo on IMDB (despite the year of the car). Annette was born in 1942, so in 1957 she would have been about 15 depending on the month of the photo. The IMDB photo of her would probably have been very early 60s.
There used to be a woman who drove around Beverly Hills in a pink Corvette. In Hollywood, the image makes perfect sense.
Three-wheel cars are the antithesis of cool.
I’m surprised that I haven’t seen a hipster tooling around the Chicago Bridgeport neighborhood in one of those; they seem to be drawn every other oddball form of transportation 🙂
In all my exuberance I saw FERRARI and then – after my allotted 4 minutes – see “McQueen
& Peggy” 😉
McQueen was the consummate car guy (and motorcycle)
Lately I am stuck on the British series Top Gear. (119 episodes are available on Netflix).
In one of the segments they interviewed a British celebrity who is an avid Ferrari collector. He bought the Coburn Ferrari for – I think – $11 million and had it repainted white to match all of his other Ferraris). (which as an aside, a collector’s faux pas – having the original color far more desirable) But then, Clay Lacy painted his P51 Mustang purple).
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/19/1961-ferrari-california-spyder-sells-for-record-10-894-900/
The Jag – I can remember getting a ride in one when I was 6 – a friend of my parents just bought the car. Like the Mercedes-Benz 300SL it was a sports car that really raised the performance bar – 120 mph in 1954. (in yet more trivia Jaguar pioneered disk brakes and Mercedes-Benz, not wanting to pay Jaguar a royalty, had the most sophisticated drum brakes on the original 300SL)
The T-Bird – what a wonderful picture – that has to have been one of the best times in Annettte’s life, when those of us of a certain age grew up with her from her time on the Mickey Mouse Club The 55-57 T Bird was an icon in the So Cal car culture.
BTW there is a whole story on the making of American Graffiti . It sat in the can for several years at Universal because they didn’t know what to do with it. Made for $700,000 it is considered by AFI to be among the top 100 movies.
And the scene with Wolfman Jack – a bit of artistic license, since he always broadcast from Mexico on a monster 500,000 watt station (his program at night could even be heard in Alaska)
Great post, Robert.
The McQueen photo looks like it was taken around the time of “The Thomas Crown Affair,” my favorite of his movies and overwhelmingly better than the remake. The photo looks so well staged that it must have been a publicity still for the movie. Peggy Moffitt was an iconic 60s model, photographed by her husband in Rudi Gernreich’s monokini. She wasn’t in TCA to the best of my recollection, though, so it must have been a total publicity setup.
Larry:
Definitely a publicity photo for “Thomas Crowne”. McQueen was a T-shirt, jeans kinda guy, who never, if he could help it, wore suits. And the three-piece suit was a signature Thomas Crowne look.
Robert – a funny image that burned into my mind was driving though Palm Springs in the 80s – seeing at a service station a gold Corvette – a 70ish woman getting out in a gold sequin-lined jumpsuit.
Every scene takes place in a car, or beside a car.
Almost every scene. I recall a radio-station scene with Wolfman Jack that takes place indoors.
Kishke:
I think you’re right. Thanks for correcting me.