Ghost Cars at the Winchester Mystery House (2017) - full transcript
Join host Adam West, TV's Batman, for the strangest car stories ever told including unexplained twists of fate, weird occurrences, haunted automobiles, and bizarre tales. See presidential assassination cars; famous Hollywood movie cars; Bonnie and Clyde Getaway Car; Indy 500 Death Car; Phantom Corsair; Tucker Torpedo; cars of Elvis, Clark Gable, James Dean, Howard Hughes, Bugatti, and more.
(whooshing)
(humming)
(pleasant music)
- [Narrator] Rolling slowly from the mist,
headlights flash and engines rumble.
You're about to enter a world of strange
and exotic automobiles,
hear stories of triumph,
and defeat, and weird tales
of the mysterious, the bizarre,
and unexplained twists of fate.
These are the Ghost Cars.
And now, here's your host, Adam West.
- We've just arrived at the
bizarre Winchester Mystery House
here in San Jose, California.
It's the mansion that once
belonged to Sarah Winchester,
the heiress to the bloodstained
Winchester rifle fortune.
Later, I'll be telling you
why her house is so strange,
and what's so unique about the garage
where she kept her cars.
I'll also tell you the
incredible story of this sleek
and mysterious automobile,
called the Phantom Corsair,
designed by a man who
could see into the future.
You know, many people
believe that automobiles
and houses have a mysterious
independent life of their own.
Perhaps you, yourself,
have experience a home
with some haunting memories,
or have owned a car
that had a personality all its own.
There are individual cars
all around the world,
with stories that strain the imagination.
And, with the help of
some good friends of mine,
we'll share with you
some mysterious stories.
(energetic music)
- He was the tycoon of a gambling
and hotel empire, and
loved beautiful cars.
Bill spent the last last
25 years of his life
amassing the largest
collection in the world.
And this 1911 Maxwell was the
beauty that got him started
on a collection that
filled three showrooms
with over 1500 extraordinary automobiles.
If Bill Harrah hadn't pursued
his extravagant hobby,
much automobile history
would have been lost forever.
But here's where the mystery comes in.
When he died in 1978, he left no plans
for keeping his marvelous
collection intact.
Now you would think
after spending millions
of dollars he would have
wanted to preserve it.
Some say he was so possessed
by the collection itself,
that it never occurred to him that anyone
would dare to dismantle
it after his death.
Although some of the cars were sold off,
fortunately the city of
Reno has stepped in to help
save much of this world famous collection,
and we're about to tell you the story of
some of its outstanding showpieces.
But before we do, let's
go back, all the way back,
to the origin of the automobile.
(vintage piano music)
- Think Henry Ford
invented the automobile?
Not a ghost of a chance.
This is the first internal
combustion engine motor car,
built by Frenchman Etienne Lenoir in 1863.
But he only built one,
and it was never patented.
In 1875 an Austrian name Siegfried Marcus
stated publicly, that
his motorized invention
was a waste of time and money.
Marcus would pursue it no further.
Carl Benz however,
wanted to build and sell
his three-wheeled motorcar, and by 1895
was selling 135 of his
automobiles per year
all over Europe.
His vehicle was practical, and successful,
which is why Carl Benz is recognized
as inventing the first automobile.
Curiously, fellow German Gottlieb Daimler
was developing his
version of the automobile
only 60 miles from Benz.
But they never met, or
even heard of each other.
Eventually, following 40
years of bitter rivalry,
Benz and Daimler would
merge their companies
into one powerful automotive entity.
Daimler's development of racing cars,
with their advanced engine
and chassis technology,
produced the top three winners
in the 1914 French Grand Prix.
One of the cars was shipped to America,
where it won the 1915
Indianapolis 500 Race.
The spirits of Karl Benz
and Gottlieb Daimler
continue to speak to today's international
automotive industry.
- This 1907 Thomas Touring Car is one of
the favorites here at Harrah's.
She's referred to as Blondie.
The manufacturer, E. R.
Thomas of Buffalo, New York,
bragged about how fast his cars would go.
Now just suppose we strip
this beautiful automobile
of her top and all dead weight,
and make a race car out of her.
Now just imagine.
- Well Linda we don't have to imagine,
because it actually happened,
and this is the car.
This is a 1907 Thomas Flyer.
On February 12th, 1908,
this American-built car,
along with three French cars, one Italian,
and one German car, began what was to be
the most incredible
endurance race in history.
It was the Around the
World, New York to Paris
Automobile Race, and this
Thomas Flyer was a late entry.
- Little was done to
modify it for the race.
Oh they did add 12-inch wooden planks
to replace the fenders for mud and snow.
- And you have to keep in mind that there
were no superhighways back then.
Day after day, the going got pretty tough.
- [Narrator] The voices
of 50,000 spectators
ring in the ears of the contestants
(lively music)
as they spirited their cars
westward from New York's Times Square.
They lurched and jerked
their way through Buffalo,
Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago.
Deep and drifting snow made
the travel treacherous.
West of Chicago the snow turned to rain
and mired the racers in ruts of mud.
Almost six weeks later,
the contestants arrived
in San Francisco, but the ghastly elements
had claimed two of the six starters.
The U.S. Flyer, Italian
Zust, French DeDione
and German Protos all boarded ships,
heading to continue their race in Japan.
But having never seen cars before,
the Japanese spectators actually slowed
the pace of the race down.
In the Far East of Asia the
drivers found no roads at all.
The Flyers straddled the
tracks of the winding
Trans-Siberian Railway,
putting a tremendous
strain on the car.
Breakdowns along the way called for
ingenious repairs, and took the Flyer
to the brink of failure.
But finally, the weary
and worn crew and car
arrived in Paris,
triumphantly driving down
the Shanzelize, on July 30th, 1908.
In 171 days, the Flyer had traveled
13,341 grueling land miles
to victory.
- I've been telling you
about Sarah Winchester
and her house, but this
program is mostly about
mysterious automobiles.
Sarah owned three, a Renault,
a Buick and a Pierce-Arrow.
Her contribution to automoive technology
is one of great significance,
and I'll tell you
about it later in the program.
She bought a Pierce-Arrow in 1911,
the same year the Indianapolis 500 began.
And here to tell us about some
Indianapolis cars with strange
and unusual stories is the voice of the
Indianapolis 500, Paul Page.
- This is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Hall of of Fame Museum.
It is here where they
house the great racing cars
of the decades, and pay tribute
to the men who drove them.
There are many myths and
legends connected with
the unrelenting quest for speed.
It was a mystery to many how the
Marmon Wasp became the first car to win
the very first 500-mile
race, back in 1911.
Driven by Ray Harroun,
it was dubbed unsafe
and unreliable because
it was a single-seater,
the only one of its
kind in that first race.
It won, with an average speed
of 74 1/2 miles an hour.
Every tale that is told about these
mysterious and powerful
machines contains a
dose of the unusual, even the bizarre.
In racing, death is a constant passenger.
Only the most daring and skilled driver
can take a car to the
limit, and avoid disaster.
But there was one car that
even the best could not tame.
(dramatic music)
The mystery surrounding
the Bowes Seal Fast Special
continues even today.
In 1935, a driver named Johnny Hannon
had been hired by car owner Leon Duray
to make his debut at
Indianapolis by driving #45.
Although a rookie, Hannon's
previous accomplishments
had given him the
credibility to run at Indie.
He felt confident that he was going to win
the 500 this first time out.
It was never to happen.
During his first practice run,
Hannon never appeared
through the fourth turn.
No one had reported seeing
the car stop on the track,
in fact, the car was nowhere in sight.
Finally, Duray found fresh
skid marks in turn three.
As he looked over the wall he was shocked
to discover his damaged
race car sitting upright
on the edge of a cornfield.
Hannon was dead, his (somber music)
riding mechanic severely injured.
Hannon's quest for instant
speed had brought him
to a swift meeting with death.
That one incident however,
was not to be the end
of the mystery, and
tragedy, surrounding #45.
Only six days later, veteran
driver Clay Weatherly
qualified the car for the ninth row.
Here's where the story
becomes almost bizarre.
On the 10th lap, Weatherly
like Hannon before him
lost control of the machine
and crashed.
(dramatic music)
He died instantly, and his
riding mechanic was also killed.
The tragedy put a pall on
the running of the 1935 race.
As the mystery surrounding
this death car intensified,
what prompted both
drivers to lose control,
was foul play involved,
was the car jinxed?
Why wasn't it pulled from the race after
the first fatality?
Well today these questions
still go unanswered,
but the story does not end here.
In 1936, this infamous car
was back in the lineup,
driven by a young Frenchman
named Cliff Bergere.
Why any driver would accept a ride
in the same machine that had
killed three of his colleagues
within nine days of each other is unknown.
But because Bergere did,
the jinx that had haunted
the Bowes Seal Fast
Special was now broken.
The 1936 driver of Leon Duray's death car
did not win the race that year,
but unlike his predecessors,
he did live to tell about it.
I'm Paul Page.
(eerie whooshing)
- Those are real bullet holes,
and this car once belonged to two of
the most notorious bank
robbers and murderers
of the 1930s, Bonnie and Clyde,
and here's Bonnie Parker herself,
to tell us the real story!
- Thanks a lot Jim.
I'm really glad I'm not Bonnie Parker,
because this is the very
car she and Clyde Barrow
were driving when they
were ambushed by the law.
This is the authentic
Bonnie and Clyde death car.
- You might say it was the
last ride for Bonnie and Clyde.
(energetic music)
- The truth is they were
lovers in crime who paid a
heavy price for defying the law.
Bonnie Parker was from a comfortable,
middle-class family in a suburb of Dallas.
She didn't have to steal.
- [Jan] On the other
hand Clyde Barrow was a
sharecropper's son who
by 1932 was establishing
a reputation as a car thief, bank robber,
and cold-blooded killer of a dozen men.
Then he met Bonnie
Parker, who was bored with
being a waitress and eager for action.
The two of them went on
a ruthless crime spree
that shocked law-abiding
citizens in five states.
- [Bonnie] While waiting on a side road
outside Grapevine, Texas for
other members of their gang,
Clyde and his cigar-smoking moll, Bonnie,
viciously gunned down two state troopers.
(gun firing)
- It was these atrocious
murders that sealed their doom.
Outraged, Dallas County Sheriff Newt Smith
said to his deputies, Bob
Alcorn and Ted Hinton,
"I want those two and I don't care what
"you have to do to get them!"
Alcorn was the only lawman
who could identify them.
And on May 23rd, 1934,
after a year of pursuit,
a tip-off sent him and
five other peace officers
to a rural area just outside
of Arcadia, Louisiana,
where they set their trap and waited
for the vicious pair to show up.
Their patience paid off.
- [Bonnie] At 8:30 in the morning a 1934
four-door Ford sedan rumbled
down the country road
directly into the lawmens' gun sights.
Alcorn was quick to identify Clyde Barrow.
He waited until the last
possible moment, then yelled,
- [Jan] "That's him, for sure!"
- [Bonnie] The six lawmen stood and fired.
(guns firing)
- [Jan] 160 bullets ripped
through the car door,
passing through both Clyde and Bonnie,
exiting through the other door.
The officers weren't taking any chances.
They intended to stop
them cold, and they did.
- [Bonnie] Found in the
car was Clyde's arsenal
of two sawed-off shotguns,
two machine guns,
10 automatic pistols, and
1500 rounds of ammunition.
- They were young and in love
and quick on the trigger.
But in the end, Bonnie and Clyde died
as they lived, by the gun.
(tense music)
- Bonnie and Clyde,
ghosts from the bullets of guns.
Perhaps guns made by Winchester?
- Exploring the strange Victorian mansion
that Sarah Winchester
built is no easy task.
You really have to begin here,
in this plain little room.
It's the seance room, and
it's the heart of the house,
surrounded by a confusing
maze of 160 rooms.
It's said that Sarah
Winchester was a woman
(wind howling)
driven by guilt,
and the terror of vengeance
from beyond the grave.
The tragic deaths of her
infant daughter and husband
forced her to consult a
medium, who convinced her
that her whole family had
been cursed by the souls
of those who'd been murdered
by the Winchester rifle,
and there was only one
chance for salvation.
She must move west and construct a house
that would never be finished.
Only then could she placate the spirits
and achieve eternal life.
According to legend,
Sarah came to this room
each night between the hours
of midnight and two a.m..
She summoned her ghostly accusers.
They gave her the mythical
commands for building her house.
Then each day she gave orders
to her army of carpenters
who worked unceasingly, 24 hours a day,
seven days a week for 38 years.
There are rooms that are
literally built around each other
(eerie music)
Priceless Tiffany stained
glass windows look out on inner walls,
or are completely hidden in closets.
The stairways can be treacherous,
they twist and turn, leading
back to where you started.
Here are a series of steps that lead
mysteriously to the ceiling and stop.
Only a ghost could get to the upper floor.
The storage space in closets and cupboards
can vary, from the size
of a three-room apartment,
to only one inch.
You never know what you'll
find when you open a door.
In this case, it's a blank wall.
Here the first step can kill you.
It's a one-story drop.
There's no question about it,
this is the house that guilt built,
and with its bell towers, weather vane,
turrets, gables, skylights
and Victorian gingerbread,
believe me there's nothing
like it in all the world.
A person could disappear
behind these walls
and never be heard of again.
That door won't open, and there's no floor
behind this door.
How am I gonna get out of here?
When I starred in Batman
I used to get out of
situations more dangerous than this,
it's as easy as saying, holy ghosts.
(whooshing)
I'm sure you've gathered by
now that Sarah Winchester
was more than a little eccentric.
Actually, it goes even deeper.
She zealously guarded her privacy.
Uninvited guests were unwelcome
and that even included the
President of the United States
who tried to get through
these front doors and failed.
(cheerful music)
In 1903 Teddy Roosevelt
was visiting the area
and was curious to see
the outlandish Winchester
house that he'd heard
so much about, so he
paid a surprise visit.
But Sarah refused to see him.
So he got back into his official carriage
and returned to Washington
without saying a word.
Horse-drawn presidential
carriages lost their
usefulness along about 1909.
To tell us more from the Henry Ford Museum
in Greenfield Village, Michigan,
is the lovely Eleanor Mondale.
- Thanks Adam.
You know, this is the very same carriage
that president Roosevelt used riding away
from Sarah Winchester's house.
Teddy Roosevelt was a very skilled rider
and he loved beautiful horses.
The thoroughbreds that pulled this rig
were considered the finest in the country.
Perhaps that's why
there were no motor cars
in the White House.
Then in 1909, President
William Howard Taft
finally changed the stables into a garage.
He purchased the first four cars in the
presidential fleet, a white steamer,
two Pierce-Arrows, and a Baker Electric.
Both the president and his
lady were mad for motor cars.
In President Taft's time the
cars were bought outright.
In contrast the cars of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
were specially built
for him, like this 1939
Lincoln convertible nicknamed
the Sunshine Special.
It was shipped around the
world to such exotic places
as Casablanca and Yalta.
During World War II
protective armor was added,
including a compartment for firearms and
sub-machine guns to
protect FDR from assassins.
The next president, Harry
S. Truman retired it in 1950
in favor of this up to the
minute Lincoln Cosmopolitan.
Unlike the ready-made
models, this car has enough
head room for even the tallest top-hat.
President Eisenhower was
responsible for adding
the clear plastic bubble top
over the back seat of the car.
He liked being visible to the crowd
while still feeling protected.
Of all the presidential vehicles,
this elongated 1961
Lincoln Continental remains
at the center of one of the greatest
mysteries in American history.
This is the car which
President Kennedy was riding in
the day he was assassinated.
(tense music)
Controversy has raged ever
since on the true circumstances
behind his brutal murder.
But loss of evidence and
disappearing witnesses
have ensured the impossibility
of formal prosecution.
The car was more luxurious
and contained more
special features than any other automobile
used at the White House.
After the tragic events
of November 22nd, 1963,
President Johnson had
the limousine sent back
to Detroit for remodeling.
When it rejoined the
official fleet in 1964,
the presidential continental had undergone
a somber transformation.
It contained enough armor
plating to resist a land mine,
and weighed more than five tons.
Even so, LBJ was always
uneasy when he rode in it.
The car remained in use for
presidents Nixon and Ford.
Then when Jimmy Carter became president,
and my father vice president,
they retired the car
here at the Henry Ford Museum.
- Teddy Roosevelt wasn't the only person
snubbed by Mrs. Winchester.
As time went on she
retreated further and further
from public view, until
the only two people she saw
were her butler, and her secretary.
Still, she avidly directed
the construction on her house
inventing new ways to make her estate
function more efficiently.
This call box to summon
her servants was one of her
many extraordinary inventions.
(bell ringing)
This storage room is stacked
with priceless wall coverings,
costly veneers and
masterpieces in stained glass.
Her delicate stained glass
windows were designed
by Tiffany's of New York.
On the rare occasions
when she left the house,
Sarah rode like a queen in a splendid
chauffeur-driven
Pierce-Arrow that reflected
her exquisite taste.
Exploring the Winchester
House, lost in luxurious
surroundings such as this
magnificent grand ballroom.
Can you see yourself dancing across this
elegant parquet floor,
above a silver chandelier
with a magical number of 13 candles?
Sarah could.
(lively chamber music)
She decided to give a ball,
soon after the room was completed.
A gourmet supper was
served off golden plates,
with rare wines sparkling
in crystal goblets.
Tuxedoed musicians played, and the butler
formally announced the name
of each arriving guest,
except, there were no guests.
And Sarah danced through
the evening alone.
Oh, if you're eccentric
it helps to be rich.
On the morning of September 5th, 1922,
the round-the-clock work on
this incredible house stopped.
Sarah Winchester had died
quietly in her sleep.
Now she too travels with the spirits,
her most surprising legacy?
It's in the garage.
I'll show you.
Sarah installed this oil
burning cast iron stove.
The stove heated the water
in this galvanized tank
which was fed up into the ceiling to this
deceptively simple device,
consisting of a pipe
and a rotating nozzle.
It created a spray of cascading water.
You see, Sarah invented the first carwash.
One wonders what she would have thought
of the automobiles we drive today,
with their advanced safety features,
sophisticated emission
controls and computers.
Our high-tech world would
probably boggle her imagination.
Technology keeps changing every day,
and the luxury car of
today quickly becomes
the museum piece of tomorrow.
- This low slung silhouette Buick Y-Job
is a museum piece, now on display at the
Henry Ford Museum in
Greenfield Village, Michigan.
But back in 1938 when GM first built it,
this was the most
futuristic automobile ever
to come out of Detroit.
The smooth contours and
concealed headlights
show the first attempt at
aerodynamic efficiency.
It was designed by the
legendary Harley Earl,
who inspired the GM Styling
Department for 30 years,
from the early 1930s through 1958.
Many cars that started
out on the drawing board
went on to become classics, like this
successful forerunner of the Ford Mustang.
The fantastic turbine-engine Chrysler.
The Ford X-100, or the exciting
and still awesome 1958 Firebird Two.
Looking back with a 1990s perspective,
the 1950s were a prosperous, secure,
and wonderfully optimistic time.
A technology-enriched
future of space travel,
jet airplanes and computers
seemed just around the corner,
and everybody really believed that
what was good for General
Motors, was good for America.
GM responded to all of this
by building some of the
loveliest fantasy cars ever imagined,
and going on tour with a splashy,
spectacular road show, called Motorama.
It lasted from 1953 until 1961.
Recently a number of Motorama
survivor vehicles were
gathered at exclusive Concourse D'Elegance
in Pebble Beach, California.
Joe Boods of Highland
Park, Illinois, was among
the collectors who brought their elegant
automotive art objects.
This 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special
is one of his prize possessions.
With its sleek sports car styling,
fiberglass body and
short, 100-inch wheelbase,
the incomparable Harley
Earl was the designer
responsible for its timeless good looks.
Of all his fascinating
chrome-trimmed creations,
the dazzling 1951 Buick LeSabre
is his most magnificent.
It has everything the car owner
of the '50s could wish for,
a beautiful long, low silhouette,
wide wrap-around windshield,
and fantastic fantail fins
that influenced every
other car that came after
it in the 1950s, including
this extraordinary
1959 Cadillac Cyclone.
This automotive work of
art was not only designed
by the great Harley Earl,
it was his personal car.
But GM wasn't the only
car company influenced
by future space travel.
This streamlined Chrysler
looks as if it could fly,
even when standing still.
And so does this beautifully
restored Plymouth.
Every car in this Concourse
D'Elegance has been
shined and polished beyond mint condition.
There were also foreign builders who
developed some fascinating
experimental cars.
The futuristic BAT cars are
among the most exciting.
Seeing all three of the BAT cars on parade
along with the long list
of dream cars of Motorama
is a rare treat for anyone
who loves automobiles.
This is a 1954 Chrysler automobile.
Kind of an interesting
car, although the owner
was even more interesting,
he was Howard Hughes.
Now the windows in this car
were hermetically sealed,
with the exception of the driver's door.
Now why would Howard do that?
Well because he loved clean air.
He actually built an air pollution system
in the back of this car that
fed into the automobile,
and it cost more than the car itself.
- [Narrator] This 1931
Bugatti Royale is a dream car
for the rich and pampered.
Experts estimate its value
at more than $10 million.
Only six of these Bugattis were ever made,
and it's fine artistry and detail
is reflected in its craftsmanship.
One of the largest
passenger cars ever made,
this 20-foot Bugatti is powered by
a 300-horsepower straight-eight engine.
This masterpiece was
supposedly built for the
King of Romania, but eventually
made its way to France.
In order to avoid capture or destruction
by the Nazis in World War II,
it was hidden in the sewers
of Paris until after the war.
- Bill Harrah acquired
the car and made it part
of his collection in 1964.
This car is to automobiles what the
Hope Diamond is to jewelry.
- [Narrator] These beautiful
and sometimes haunting
works of art are from the Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary
Art, and they depict both
the abstract and traditional visions of
the automobile from the artist's eye.
With pieces by Salvador
Dali, Picasso, and Matisse
the exhibit shows everything
from fleeting fantasy,
to the stark reality of cars
and their influence on society.
While everyone sees something
different in these works,
in the form of paintings,
photos and sculptures,
they all agree that they
reflect the automobiles' gift
of convenience, joy,
and sometimes tragedy.
(brooding music)
- In the late 1930s the
Winchester House was closed.
People feared that the place was haunted.
At the same time, this
mysterious car was being built.
Come to think of it, both
the house and the car
have a lot in common.
They're beautiful and they're mysterious,
and they have stories involving
bizarre twists of fate.
The car, called the Phantom
Corsair, may even be haunted.
The two men who loved it the most,
both died in tragic car crashes,
but that's only part of the story.
It all began back in
1936 with a 23-year old
Yale drop-out named Rust Heinz.
He was the heir to the famous
ketchup and pickle fortune,
you know, the 57 varieties folks.
He was obsessed with his dreams of a
futuristic vision he
called the Phantom Corsair.
His family in Pittsburgh
wanted him to grow up
and take over the factory.
But Rust was determined to
make his dream a reality.
Fortunately for him, two car builders
from Pasadena, California,
named Bowman and Schwartz
were smart enough to recognize
real genius when they saw it.
They willingly provided the
practical expertise Rust needed.
The car breezed through all the tests
in a specially constructed wind tunnel,
and was soon ready for
full scale construction.
Nothing like the Phantom Corsair
had ever been seen before.
The soaring lines of its
full-envelope aluminum body
seem to be moving even
when standing still.
It was strictly Buck Rogers.
The fog lights were built
in with chrome lined tunnels
that reflected light to
the sides of the car.
Wrap-around steel bumpers
were controlled hydraulically.
The doors open electrically.
And little wings raised the
roof, making it easier to enter.
The dashboard gadgets monitor everything
from oil pressure to altitude.
And most importantly the entire interior
was padded with cork paneling.
The emphasis was on safety and comfort.
The Phantom Corsair was
far ahead of its time,
but unfortunately, time had
run out for young Rust Heinz.
On the way to the first
public showing of his
beloved Phantom Corsair, he was killed in
an automobile accident
driving another car.
His hopes for marketing his
Phantom were tragically ended.
Still the car has endured.
It starred opposite Paulette Goddard and
Douglas Fairbanks Junior in the 1939 film,
Young at Heart, portraying
a mysterious vehicle
called the Flying Wombat.
The Phantom Corsair was
sold to a number of owners
during the years that
followed, then in 1951
it was bought by comedian Herb Shriner
who shared the same love
for this amazing vehicle
that Rust Heinz once had.
Shriner too was killed
in an automobile accident
while driving another car.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Perhaps both would still be alive if only
they'd been driving the Phantom Corsair.
The car remains an enduring
monument to a young man's dream.
(pleasant music)
- Another young man who had
a dream was Preston Tucker,
whose Tucker Torpedo
was considered to be the most
revolutionary car of its time.
In fact, it was too revolutionary.
This futuristic car was the
brainchild of Preston Tucker,
born in Michigan in 1903.
After working for Ford, Cadillac,
and Pierce-Arrow, Tucker's
first innovative design
was the combat car, built
during World War II.
This vehicle could travel at speeds
exceeding 100 miles per hour,
but it was the gun turret
that secured Tucker
a government contract.
His real dream was to
build a car that would
revolutionize the auto industry.
He fought hard to obtain
financial backing,
and soon formed the Tucker Corporation.
He made plans to produce a car with
a rear-mounted engine, fluid drive,
a safety chamber for the car's occupants,
pop-out safety glass, and
an engine powerful enough
to safely cruise at more
than 100 miles per hour.
The prototype was introduced,
and the word was in.
The Tucker Torpedo was the car to own.
Dealerships were set up,
orders began to arrive,
and a 2200-employee plant was opened
on Chicago's south side.
Against all odds, Preston
Tucker had taken on
the big three of Detroit, and succeeded.
Early production units of the Torpedo
showed them to be sturdy
and dependable vehicles,
and Tucker had captured America's eye.
But the shadow of gloom descended over
the Tucker success story.
There was talk of financial wrong doing in
securing the backing to build the Tucker,
leading to criminal charges of mail fraud
and federal securities violations.
(tense music)
Preston Tucker fought
the accusations and
was successful in being
acquitted in January of 1950.
But the court case had seriously tapped
his finances and dealt a death blow to his
automobile company, as it
was filed for bankruptcy.
The car that was perhaps
destined for greatness
became only a specter of
what it could have been.
Only 51 Tuckers were ever built.
Preston Tucker's cousin, Frank Tucker,
fondly remembers the car maker's dream.
- It came to my knowledge
that Preston wanted
to build a car, it was about 1941 or '42.
He had a artist's book
of artist conception,
a car he wanted to build one
day, and the reason I remember
it is because, not the obvious reason but,
each drawing had a
(mumbles) page, I remember,
I was about 14 years old at the time.
And so I knew that long ago
that Preston someday
wanted to build a car.
There are people that will tell you that
the big three didn't have anything to do
with Preston's demise, but,
I truthfully believe that when he came out
with the Tucker car, it
was more than they wanted.
And inasmuch as the
government was after him,
and so on, the big three
just stood in the background.
But if they would have permitted him
to go on with the Tucker, he
might have had other problems.
That's my belief.
I say that if you took
the Tucker car today,
and you put it in a
row with several of our
modern automobiles, the
Tucker will still turn heads,
there's no doubt about it.
- [Narrator] Amazingly, 46 of
the 51 Tuckers remain today,
and they still turn heads.
One lucky owner is Sharon Vick,
who talks about the Tucker's features.
- The biggest safety feature on the car
was the crash chamber,
and that's on the passenger side.
It's reinforced with steel, and,
the passenger, when
they saw they were going
to have a wreck, they were to roll down
into the crash chamber and be protected.
It was the first car to have padded dash.
It has pop-out windshields,
and they do work.
When they were testing the car at the
Indianapolis race track,
I believe a tire blew out
and the car did roll over,
and the windshields did
pop out like they were supposed to.
The other features it had which
aren't necessarily safety,
it has a rack over the back
seat where the women could put
their purchases, their packages,
their groceries and things like that.
The doors are cut back into the roof,
and that was for easy access in and out.
It drives really well,
we've probably put two or
3000 miles on it at least,
and it likes to hum along 80,
but you try and keep it down,
and it would run at 100
for quite a long time.
- [Narrator] Preston
Tucker and his dream car
quickly became and remains to this day
a part of the American car culture.
In 1956, at the age of 53,
Preston Tucker was said to
have died from a broken heart.
But his story of
imagination and perseverance
secured a place for him
in the eyes of many.
In fact, Preston Tucker
influenced one of the
world's biggest film makers, to make his
visionary tale into the reality of cinema.
(electric crackling)
- [Announcer] It was
almost too good to be true.
- Detroit, they're putting
the squeeze on him!
We can't buy steel, we can't buy anything!
So I made an appointment
with Senator Ferguson.
- What do you think, a big
smile and pat on the back
is gonna make him forget
he's a senator from Detroit?
- That's a fine idea of yours,
selling dealerships for cars
that don't exist.
- What'd he say?
- He said stay out
of the car business.
- Tucker built the thing.
(mumbles) everything
he advertised, not yet,
but enough right now to cost billions
just to keep up with him.
- You don't understand how
powerful the forces are
that are working against us!
- [Man] Ever since you
road tested the new car,
40 G-men have been following
you around the clock.
- What for?
- You made the car too good!
- [Narrator] Tucker's the
story of a young man's dream,
told with Hollywood
stars, stars whose cars
have stories of their own to tell.
- You know most Hollywood
stars love to travel in style.
And this man was no different.
(vintage singing)
♫ Swanee
♫ How I love ya, how I love ya
♫ My dear old Swanee
- Those are the immortal
sounds of the first
superstar of talking
pictures, Mister Al Jolson.
And this, was his 1933 Cadillac Fleetwood,
and as you can see,
it's luxury all the way.
Truly a great car!
A lot of Hollywood stars
prefer to own specialty cars.
Al Jolson was an all-out kind of performer
who loved his automobiles
and his audiences.
This car has been completely restored.
As beautiful as the cars in
the Harrah's collection are,
most of them were purchased
in rather poor condition,
and upgraded here.
Bill Harrah made sure the Jolson car
was restored to its original perfection,
with all the little details.
This car only cost $8000 when it was new,
and you had to be a star to
afford it back then in 1933,
which was right in the
middle of the Depression.
Now I'm going to tell you
the story of two brothers,
Fred and Augie Duesenberg.
They were car builders
in Indianapolis, Indiana,
and a lot of the technology
and the ideas that they got
came from Speedway racing,
and the would take those
ideas and apply them
to some of the most magnificent
passenger cars ever built.
The Duesenbergs were
awesome, the Duesenberg
straight-eight dual overhead cam engine
originally developed for racing
was a legendary performer.
In the late 1920s the Duesenberg company
was absorbed into E.L.
Cord's growing conglomerate
in Albert, Indiana.
It was after this merger
that the legendary
Model-J was born.
Now needless to say,
the Model-J Duesenberg
was the hot item in Hollywood,
everybody wanted one!
James Cagney had one, Billy Rose,
the great producer had one, and this one,
this Model-J Duesenberg
was owned by the great
screen legend, Clark Gable.
And here to tell us a little
bit more about Clark Gable
and this fine automobile is the director
of the Berry Automobile
Museum, Skip Marketti.
Skip welcome to the show!
- Thank you Ed, thank you for inviting me.
- Let's talk a little bit
about this Clark Gable
Duesenberg here, quite an automobile.
- Yes.
- Now Clark Gable not only
liked to drive these cars, but
sort of a relaxation thing,
he really like to work on these cars.
- Yes, he and his good
friend Gary Cooper were
rivals on-screen and also
rivals in the automobile hobby.
They both owned Duesenbergs,
they both raced them,
at (mumbles) Dry Lake, and,
they both liked to work on their cars.
This one particular was designed
by Clark Gable with the
help of a stylist at
Bohman and Schwartz
Corporation, W. Everet Miller.
Clark had a lot of input
in the style of the car,
the swoopy fenders, the
laid-back windshield,
the dual rear-mounted spares which
legend has that he wanted
the spares on the rear
so that he could easily work on the engine
without having to work
over the side-mount spares.
- Now Skip brings up a good point.
Bohman and Schwartz were car
builders here in California.
What's interesting about that is,
is that the Dusenberg
brothers, back in Indianapolis,
only built the chassis,
and then sent them out
to a variety of different coach builders
throughout the United States.
- That's correct.
Bohman and Schwartz were the
coach builders to the stars,
in Pasadena, California.
They were a company that took
over the coach building trade
from Murphy, of Pasadena.
Murphy was an earlier company.
Both Mister Bohman and Mister
Schwartz had worked for
Murphy Corporation in
Pasadena, and took over
the company upon Walter Murphy's death.
They'd built some of the finest,
most beautiful automobile creations.
Most of the Duesenberg
bodies, I say the most
prolific Duesenberg bodies were Murphy's,
and then later Bohman and Schwartz.
- This would mean too then
that no two were ever alike.
- Never, all Duesenberg coach work
was dissimilar in some way.
They had owner's input for
details like upholstery,
how the windshield slanted,
various things like this.
It was a true, coach-built automobile.
- Now these cars were
very big, very heavy,
but they were very powerful
and extremely fast.
And these particular cars had a first!
They had a monitoring system in them.
- Yeah, the monitoring system
monitored the chassis
lubrication, which was
automatically lubricated
about every 50 miles,
when to add water to your battery,
and two other similar functions.
They were electrically
actuated red and green lights
on either side of the dash board.
- Now this car also played
a role in the affair
of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable,
did it not?
- Yes, yes.
It was a central part of their affair.
Clark Gable and the
beautiful Carole Lombard,
went on several excursions
in this beautiful automobile.
And unfortunately after her death
during World War II,
Clark stopped driving the
car and put the car away,
and it was not driven by him ever again.
- If a man can bridge the
gap between life and death,
I mean if he can live on after he's dead,
then maybe he was a great man.
James Dean said that, and perhaps he knew
something about the
future, because he became
even a greater star, after he was
killed in an automobile accident in 1955.
But James Dean was different.
He had a unique style all his own.
And back in the '50s,
everyone wanted to be
just like James Dean.
He was the kind of guy who
marched to a different drummer.
James Dean was one movie star who always
seemed real to us, we could relate to him.
He came from the bright lights of Broadway
to Hollywood, and made only three films
in his short career, East of Eden,
Giant, and his most popular
film, Rebel Without a Cause,
which costarred Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo,
and this 1949, two-door Mercury coupe.
In fact, this car was the
inspiration for the first
of the custom car designers.
They'd take off all the excess chrome,
to give it a sleeker look.
It was called nosing and decking.
All things considered,
I'd say this 1949 Mercury
was the perfect choice,
when Warner Brothers
needed a hot car to costar with James Dean
in Rebel Without a Cause.
- [Narrator] Elvis Aron Presley was the
King of Rock and Roll.
He filled Graceland with
hundreds of big boy toys,
and his love of fancy and
exotic cars was no exception.
One Memphis auto dealer
recalls selling more than
100 luxury cars to the king.
Along with this pink Cadillac,
Elvis loved this white limo,
equipped with all the comforts,
including gold trimmed
interior, a small bar,
a refrigerator and TV set.
His vast collection of amazing automobiles
prove just one thing...
Elvis sure knew how to party.
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Step into the store
and let's, buy some more
♫ Let's have a party tonight
♫ We're gonna have a
♫ Have a
♫ Party, tonight
♫ Tonight
- In Hollywood, anything is possible.
- Well that's true, and
of course automobiles
do take on a personality all their own.
There are cars that can think,
automobiles that can talk.
Classic example is the
KITT car that you saw with
David Hasselhoff, in the
TV series Knight Rider.
KITT will talk to everybody.
- [KITT] That's right Jim.
I love to welcome people here
to the Universal Studios tour,
and I'll talk to everybody.
I'm located right next to
the new Star Trek exhibit.
As for my name, KITT, that stands for
Knight Industries 2000.
I was on the television show Knight Rider.
David Hasselhoff, who
played Michael Knight,
drove me to fame.
We were together on network
television for four years.
What makes me so special is,
I am an ultra-advanced computer,
and built with enough hi-tech devices
to make even Robocop jealous.
I'm programmed to save human lives.
I can also trace phone calls,
monitor action through a
built-in television camera,
detect nearby explosives, and of course,
play video games in my spare time.
I can attain speeds in
excess of 300 miles an hour.
My sleek body style is
molded in the shape of
a 1980 Trans Am Firebird, and
is made of super plas-steel,
which is even stronger than the heat tiles
on the US space shuttle.
This makes me virtually indestructible.
- And here it is, a real
favorite of Steven Spielberg's.
He used it in his hit
movie Back to the Future,
a real box office smash.
While you're on your
Universal Studio's tour,
you'll see many of the
sets from that movie,
including the clock tower
that was struck by lightning,
which eventually enabled
Michael J. Fox and
his time machine to get back home.
And this is the machine he did it in,
a really zapped up DeLorean!
But this is Hollywood, where
reality is in the script.
According to Doctor Emmett
Brown, the whacked-out
scientist played by Christopher Lloyd in
Back to the Future, the
secret of time travel lies
in the flux capacitator, a
computerized graphic gizmo
that looks a little like a divining rod.
The energy converter
on the back of the car
takes in plutonium and
creates a nuclear reaction.
Then, you're on your away.
And oh, don't forget that extra supply of
plutonium for the return trip.
- I'm in north Hollywood,
at Jay Ohrberg's Star Cars.
Now Jay has managed to
amass and accumulate
the biggest collection of television
and movie cars in the world.
Cars with personalities, like this,
the longest convertible
limousine in the world,
built out of a Mercedes or
two, it's over 40 feet long.
And yet behind me here is a bar,
and behind that is a heart-shaped hot tub,
just the thing you need
to go driving around town.
This is quite a collection,
and let's take a
closeup look at it, right now!
Jay Ohrberg has built and accumulated
over 175 famous cars, and I'm sure
you recognize the Pacman rod.
Now much like Pacman, this vehicle
turns when you least expect it,
and I think you put the quarters
right down here in these slots.
Now I've got another famous
car, right over here.
On the Universal lot there's
a pretty famous address,
1313 Mockingbird Lane, The Munsters,
and out in front you saw
this car parked a lot.
When they were driving it, Fred Gwynne
was right behind the wheel
there, who played Herman.
And way in the back, sat Yvonne
De Carlo who played Lily.
And they certainly had lots
of horsepower to work with.
Let's move into the science
fiction category now,
from the famous movie Blade Runner,
this car is almost a cult hero.
It was driven by Harrison Ford,
and it's a super cop
car that could not only
run down the bad guys on the highway,
but if it needed to, it could
fly over 'em and catch 'em.
(energetic music)
- The earliest images that
came from Hollywood screen,
proved that filmmakers
knew how to make a scene
exciting, use a car.
Whether it was tumbling,
crashing, skidding,
burning or bashing,
Tinseltown quickly learned
that it took a special breed of driver
to make an auto scene spectacular.
So was born the Stunt Driver.
The task was to crash the
car, make it look real,
and hopefully walk away
to do it one more time.
As time went on, some movies featured
the automobile as the center of attention.
Once such film was the 1977 thriller,
aptly entitled, The Car.
Effects teams built five identical cars,
only to see them filmed and destroyed.
One exciting stunt called for the auto
to skid and roll five times,
finally tumbling right over
the sheriff and his deputy.
Precision timing and steel nerves,
along with accurate planning,
led to a successful and spectacular bit.
The 1986 critically
acclaimed hit, directed by
Rob Reiner, Stand by Me,
called for stunt driver
Brian Carson to fill in
for Kiefer Sutherland.
Carson's perfect timing
created a white-knuckle ride,
as he avoided a head-on
collision in a 1950 Ford.
The lumber truck swerved right on cue,
and the meticulous planning paid off.
Carson was once again called into service,
this time in 1985's Crime Wave.
Set in Detroit, his car
is rammed from behind
on a highway, as fiery
pyrotechnics add to the realism.
(energetic music)
It seems that man has always
liked to dance with the demons,
perhaps with a touch of insanity.
It may be a death wish,
or just the sparkle of fame and fortune.
For whatever reason,
there have always been
audiences to watch these thrill seekers
take on the specter of death.
The first stunt drivers were the
International Congress of Dare Devils.
Soon, Lucky Teter, King
of the Dare Devils,
created a show of precision driving
that was designed to thrill fans.
But after a jump led to a fatal crash,
his became a ghost car.
Lucky (mumbles) was famous
for endless rolls in his auto,
but he also defied death by
crashing into flaming walls.
However, daredevil Jimmy
Lynch met the Grim Reaper
in a ramp-to-ramp jump.
The Chitwood family still
thrills audiences today.
Professional stunt driver Brian Carson
began his career in the early '70s,
doing dive-bomber crashes and barrel rolls
at local fairgrounds across America.
Some competitions pitted
one driver against another,
with the grand prize going to the one
who could roll their car the most times.
Carson progressed to
sidewinder rolls and bus jumps,
all the time keeping one step ahead
of becoming a mere memory.
Today, Brian Carson, along
with his movie stunt driving,
thrills crowds by heading his ghost cars
square into the fiery face of death!
- Although many concept,
idea and dream cars
have been produced over
the last half century,
very few remain.
Most were destroyed by the manufacturers.
It was their way of
protecting their secrets.
That makes these cars here at the
Berry Automobile Museum
that much more important.
These cars are truly works of art,
as finely crafted as
any piece of sculpture.
This is a 1953 Chrysler special,
designed by Virgil Exner.
The Chrysler Special is powered by a
180-horsepower Hemi V-8 engine.
A lot of styling elements,
such as the grill,
wheel arches and roof line were later
used in production models.
The body of this car was produced by Ghia.
Giacento Ghia began his
career as an apprentice
to an Italian carriage maker
at the turn of the century.
By the 1920s, Ghia and
his partner were building
car coaches for a large
and illustrious clientele.
The 1953 Fiat Supersonic was
also built at the Ghia factory.
The actress Lana Turner once
owned one of these cars.
The body style used on the Supersonic
was later adapted to other vehicles,
like this 1954 DeSoto Adventurer II.
The DeSoto was highly accessorized,
it had electric windows,
an electric powered sliding rear window,
a radio, a heater, and a matching
two-piece set of luggage.
After the Corvette was introduced in 1953,
other companies began to investigate
producing fiberglass sports cars.
Take a look at this 1954 Plymouth
Belmont, built by Briggs.
It debuted at the 1954
Saint Louis Auto Show.
This is a 1962 Aston Martin
with a body by Zagato.
It is one of only 19 ever built.
The Italian coachwork is very shapely.
Today's aerodynamics is an
accepted part of car design,
but back in the 1950s, this
was not necessarily the case.
In 1955, when this Ghia coupe
known as Gilda was produced,
it caused an international shiver.
The car is constructed
of lightweight aluminum
and mounted on a tubular frame.
This car built in 1958, established the
British manufacturer Jaguar
as a performance leader.
This model is unique because
of its Italian Bertone body.
The engine incorporates a
special high performance
head design and an extra
carburetor for extra horsepower.
And this is the car that
ushered Jaguar into the 1960s,
the legendary E-Type.
It's profile made it an instant classic,
as did its V10 engine.
This car remains at the top of the list
of Jaguar collectors.
From the grill to the taillights,
it's perfection in design.
This 1962 Dual-Ghia is
truly a car of the stars.
Dual Motors only produced
about 100 of these cars.
Highly sought after in Hollywood,
their owners included Frank Sinatra,
Peter Lawford and Eddie Fisher.
This Corvette show car was built in 1964,
one year after the
introduction of the Stingray.
15 coats of candy apple
red lacquer were applied
over a gold base to achieve
this spectacular finish.
The enlarged grill and altered
hood would later be used
in the 1965 through '67 styling.
Note the unique side exhausts
and dual sport mirrors.
The mirrors eventually
became a factory option.
The Corvette's fuel-injected engine was
chrome plated for the show.
This show car was displayed
at the Detroit auto show,
and the New York World's Fair.
From the time production
began 40 years ago,
right up to today, the
Corvette has represented
some of the most advanced
automotive styling.
This one-off Chrysler show
car was built in 1967.
It is called the Dodge Deroo.
The name is derived from
an old Anglo-Saxon word
meaning dart, and it's no coincidence
that this car was built
on a Dodge Dart chassis.
(pensive music)
- And in case you're curious,
there really is a ghost car.
This 1940 see-through
Pontiac was one of the
top attractions at the
1939 New York World's Fair.
Produced at a cost of
$25,000, the Ghost Car's body
was made of the then
revolutionary materials
of Plexiglass and Lucite.
Two versions of the clear
plastic car were made in 1939.
And one is actually
still in existence today.
Perhaps someday it will
make a ghost appearance
in your neighborhood.
(whooshing)
- I hope you've enjoyed
probing into the mysteries behind these
fabulous cars as much as I have.
Not every automobile comes
with a mystery attached to it,
but they do all have the
power to transport us
wherever we want to go
with speed and comfort.
I hope that you'll give them
the respect they deserve,
keep your eyes and ears
open and drive safely.
Now for all of us here on the program,
I'd like to say thanks for looking in.
(pleasant music)
(humming)
(pleasant music)
- [Narrator] Rolling slowly from the mist,
headlights flash and engines rumble.
You're about to enter a world of strange
and exotic automobiles,
hear stories of triumph,
and defeat, and weird tales
of the mysterious, the bizarre,
and unexplained twists of fate.
These are the Ghost Cars.
And now, here's your host, Adam West.
- We've just arrived at the
bizarre Winchester Mystery House
here in San Jose, California.
It's the mansion that once
belonged to Sarah Winchester,
the heiress to the bloodstained
Winchester rifle fortune.
Later, I'll be telling you
why her house is so strange,
and what's so unique about the garage
where she kept her cars.
I'll also tell you the
incredible story of this sleek
and mysterious automobile,
called the Phantom Corsair,
designed by a man who
could see into the future.
You know, many people
believe that automobiles
and houses have a mysterious
independent life of their own.
Perhaps you, yourself,
have experience a home
with some haunting memories,
or have owned a car
that had a personality all its own.
There are individual cars
all around the world,
with stories that strain the imagination.
And, with the help of
some good friends of mine,
we'll share with you
some mysterious stories.
(energetic music)
- He was the tycoon of a gambling
and hotel empire, and
loved beautiful cars.
Bill spent the last last
25 years of his life
amassing the largest
collection in the world.
And this 1911 Maxwell was the
beauty that got him started
on a collection that
filled three showrooms
with over 1500 extraordinary automobiles.
If Bill Harrah hadn't pursued
his extravagant hobby,
much automobile history
would have been lost forever.
But here's where the mystery comes in.
When he died in 1978, he left no plans
for keeping his marvelous
collection intact.
Now you would think
after spending millions
of dollars he would have
wanted to preserve it.
Some say he was so possessed
by the collection itself,
that it never occurred to him that anyone
would dare to dismantle
it after his death.
Although some of the cars were sold off,
fortunately the city of
Reno has stepped in to help
save much of this world famous collection,
and we're about to tell you the story of
some of its outstanding showpieces.
But before we do, let's
go back, all the way back,
to the origin of the automobile.
(vintage piano music)
- Think Henry Ford
invented the automobile?
Not a ghost of a chance.
This is the first internal
combustion engine motor car,
built by Frenchman Etienne Lenoir in 1863.
But he only built one,
and it was never patented.
In 1875 an Austrian name Siegfried Marcus
stated publicly, that
his motorized invention
was a waste of time and money.
Marcus would pursue it no further.
Carl Benz however,
wanted to build and sell
his three-wheeled motorcar, and by 1895
was selling 135 of his
automobiles per year
all over Europe.
His vehicle was practical, and successful,
which is why Carl Benz is recognized
as inventing the first automobile.
Curiously, fellow German Gottlieb Daimler
was developing his
version of the automobile
only 60 miles from Benz.
But they never met, or
even heard of each other.
Eventually, following 40
years of bitter rivalry,
Benz and Daimler would
merge their companies
into one powerful automotive entity.
Daimler's development of racing cars,
with their advanced engine
and chassis technology,
produced the top three winners
in the 1914 French Grand Prix.
One of the cars was shipped to America,
where it won the 1915
Indianapolis 500 Race.
The spirits of Karl Benz
and Gottlieb Daimler
continue to speak to today's international
automotive industry.
- This 1907 Thomas Touring Car is one of
the favorites here at Harrah's.
She's referred to as Blondie.
The manufacturer, E. R.
Thomas of Buffalo, New York,
bragged about how fast his cars would go.
Now just suppose we strip
this beautiful automobile
of her top and all dead weight,
and make a race car out of her.
Now just imagine.
- Well Linda we don't have to imagine,
because it actually happened,
and this is the car.
This is a 1907 Thomas Flyer.
On February 12th, 1908,
this American-built car,
along with three French cars, one Italian,
and one German car, began what was to be
the most incredible
endurance race in history.
It was the Around the
World, New York to Paris
Automobile Race, and this
Thomas Flyer was a late entry.
- Little was done to
modify it for the race.
Oh they did add 12-inch wooden planks
to replace the fenders for mud and snow.
- And you have to keep in mind that there
were no superhighways back then.
Day after day, the going got pretty tough.
- [Narrator] The voices
of 50,000 spectators
ring in the ears of the contestants
(lively music)
as they spirited their cars
westward from New York's Times Square.
They lurched and jerked
their way through Buffalo,
Cleveland, Toledo and Chicago.
Deep and drifting snow made
the travel treacherous.
West of Chicago the snow turned to rain
and mired the racers in ruts of mud.
Almost six weeks later,
the contestants arrived
in San Francisco, but the ghastly elements
had claimed two of the six starters.
The U.S. Flyer, Italian
Zust, French DeDione
and German Protos all boarded ships,
heading to continue their race in Japan.
But having never seen cars before,
the Japanese spectators actually slowed
the pace of the race down.
In the Far East of Asia the
drivers found no roads at all.
The Flyers straddled the
tracks of the winding
Trans-Siberian Railway,
putting a tremendous
strain on the car.
Breakdowns along the way called for
ingenious repairs, and took the Flyer
to the brink of failure.
But finally, the weary
and worn crew and car
arrived in Paris,
triumphantly driving down
the Shanzelize, on July 30th, 1908.
In 171 days, the Flyer had traveled
13,341 grueling land miles
to victory.
- I've been telling you
about Sarah Winchester
and her house, but this
program is mostly about
mysterious automobiles.
Sarah owned three, a Renault,
a Buick and a Pierce-Arrow.
Her contribution to automoive technology
is one of great significance,
and I'll tell you
about it later in the program.
She bought a Pierce-Arrow in 1911,
the same year the Indianapolis 500 began.
And here to tell us about some
Indianapolis cars with strange
and unusual stories is the voice of the
Indianapolis 500, Paul Page.
- This is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Hall of of Fame Museum.
It is here where they
house the great racing cars
of the decades, and pay tribute
to the men who drove them.
There are many myths and
legends connected with
the unrelenting quest for speed.
It was a mystery to many how the
Marmon Wasp became the first car to win
the very first 500-mile
race, back in 1911.
Driven by Ray Harroun,
it was dubbed unsafe
and unreliable because
it was a single-seater,
the only one of its
kind in that first race.
It won, with an average speed
of 74 1/2 miles an hour.
Every tale that is told about these
mysterious and powerful
machines contains a
dose of the unusual, even the bizarre.
In racing, death is a constant passenger.
Only the most daring and skilled driver
can take a car to the
limit, and avoid disaster.
But there was one car that
even the best could not tame.
(dramatic music)
The mystery surrounding
the Bowes Seal Fast Special
continues even today.
In 1935, a driver named Johnny Hannon
had been hired by car owner Leon Duray
to make his debut at
Indianapolis by driving #45.
Although a rookie, Hannon's
previous accomplishments
had given him the
credibility to run at Indie.
He felt confident that he was going to win
the 500 this first time out.
It was never to happen.
During his first practice run,
Hannon never appeared
through the fourth turn.
No one had reported seeing
the car stop on the track,
in fact, the car was nowhere in sight.
Finally, Duray found fresh
skid marks in turn three.
As he looked over the wall he was shocked
to discover his damaged
race car sitting upright
on the edge of a cornfield.
Hannon was dead, his (somber music)
riding mechanic severely injured.
Hannon's quest for instant
speed had brought him
to a swift meeting with death.
That one incident however,
was not to be the end
of the mystery, and
tragedy, surrounding #45.
Only six days later, veteran
driver Clay Weatherly
qualified the car for the ninth row.
Here's where the story
becomes almost bizarre.
On the 10th lap, Weatherly
like Hannon before him
lost control of the machine
and crashed.
(dramatic music)
He died instantly, and his
riding mechanic was also killed.
The tragedy put a pall on
the running of the 1935 race.
As the mystery surrounding
this death car intensified,
what prompted both
drivers to lose control,
was foul play involved,
was the car jinxed?
Why wasn't it pulled from the race after
the first fatality?
Well today these questions
still go unanswered,
but the story does not end here.
In 1936, this infamous car
was back in the lineup,
driven by a young Frenchman
named Cliff Bergere.
Why any driver would accept a ride
in the same machine that had
killed three of his colleagues
within nine days of each other is unknown.
But because Bergere did,
the jinx that had haunted
the Bowes Seal Fast
Special was now broken.
The 1936 driver of Leon Duray's death car
did not win the race that year,
but unlike his predecessors,
he did live to tell about it.
I'm Paul Page.
(eerie whooshing)
- Those are real bullet holes,
and this car once belonged to two of
the most notorious bank
robbers and murderers
of the 1930s, Bonnie and Clyde,
and here's Bonnie Parker herself,
to tell us the real story!
- Thanks a lot Jim.
I'm really glad I'm not Bonnie Parker,
because this is the very
car she and Clyde Barrow
were driving when they
were ambushed by the law.
This is the authentic
Bonnie and Clyde death car.
- You might say it was the
last ride for Bonnie and Clyde.
(energetic music)
- The truth is they were
lovers in crime who paid a
heavy price for defying the law.
Bonnie Parker was from a comfortable,
middle-class family in a suburb of Dallas.
She didn't have to steal.
- [Jan] On the other
hand Clyde Barrow was a
sharecropper's son who
by 1932 was establishing
a reputation as a car thief, bank robber,
and cold-blooded killer of a dozen men.
Then he met Bonnie
Parker, who was bored with
being a waitress and eager for action.
The two of them went on
a ruthless crime spree
that shocked law-abiding
citizens in five states.
- [Bonnie] While waiting on a side road
outside Grapevine, Texas for
other members of their gang,
Clyde and his cigar-smoking moll, Bonnie,
viciously gunned down two state troopers.
(gun firing)
- It was these atrocious
murders that sealed their doom.
Outraged, Dallas County Sheriff Newt Smith
said to his deputies, Bob
Alcorn and Ted Hinton,
"I want those two and I don't care what
"you have to do to get them!"
Alcorn was the only lawman
who could identify them.
And on May 23rd, 1934,
after a year of pursuit,
a tip-off sent him and
five other peace officers
to a rural area just outside
of Arcadia, Louisiana,
where they set their trap and waited
for the vicious pair to show up.
Their patience paid off.
- [Bonnie] At 8:30 in the morning a 1934
four-door Ford sedan rumbled
down the country road
directly into the lawmens' gun sights.
Alcorn was quick to identify Clyde Barrow.
He waited until the last
possible moment, then yelled,
- [Jan] "That's him, for sure!"
- [Bonnie] The six lawmen stood and fired.
(guns firing)
- [Jan] 160 bullets ripped
through the car door,
passing through both Clyde and Bonnie,
exiting through the other door.
The officers weren't taking any chances.
They intended to stop
them cold, and they did.
- [Bonnie] Found in the
car was Clyde's arsenal
of two sawed-off shotguns,
two machine guns,
10 automatic pistols, and
1500 rounds of ammunition.
- They were young and in love
and quick on the trigger.
But in the end, Bonnie and Clyde died
as they lived, by the gun.
(tense music)
- Bonnie and Clyde,
ghosts from the bullets of guns.
Perhaps guns made by Winchester?
- Exploring the strange Victorian mansion
that Sarah Winchester
built is no easy task.
You really have to begin here,
in this plain little room.
It's the seance room, and
it's the heart of the house,
surrounded by a confusing
maze of 160 rooms.
It's said that Sarah
Winchester was a woman
(wind howling)
driven by guilt,
and the terror of vengeance
from beyond the grave.
The tragic deaths of her
infant daughter and husband
forced her to consult a
medium, who convinced her
that her whole family had
been cursed by the souls
of those who'd been murdered
by the Winchester rifle,
and there was only one
chance for salvation.
She must move west and construct a house
that would never be finished.
Only then could she placate the spirits
and achieve eternal life.
According to legend,
Sarah came to this room
each night between the hours
of midnight and two a.m..
She summoned her ghostly accusers.
They gave her the mythical
commands for building her house.
Then each day she gave orders
to her army of carpenters
who worked unceasingly, 24 hours a day,
seven days a week for 38 years.
There are rooms that are
literally built around each other
(eerie music)
Priceless Tiffany stained
glass windows look out on inner walls,
or are completely hidden in closets.
The stairways can be treacherous,
they twist and turn, leading
back to where you started.
Here are a series of steps that lead
mysteriously to the ceiling and stop.
Only a ghost could get to the upper floor.
The storage space in closets and cupboards
can vary, from the size
of a three-room apartment,
to only one inch.
You never know what you'll
find when you open a door.
In this case, it's a blank wall.
Here the first step can kill you.
It's a one-story drop.
There's no question about it,
this is the house that guilt built,
and with its bell towers, weather vane,
turrets, gables, skylights
and Victorian gingerbread,
believe me there's nothing
like it in all the world.
A person could disappear
behind these walls
and never be heard of again.
That door won't open, and there's no floor
behind this door.
How am I gonna get out of here?
When I starred in Batman
I used to get out of
situations more dangerous than this,
it's as easy as saying, holy ghosts.
(whooshing)
I'm sure you've gathered by
now that Sarah Winchester
was more than a little eccentric.
Actually, it goes even deeper.
She zealously guarded her privacy.
Uninvited guests were unwelcome
and that even included the
President of the United States
who tried to get through
these front doors and failed.
(cheerful music)
In 1903 Teddy Roosevelt
was visiting the area
and was curious to see
the outlandish Winchester
house that he'd heard
so much about, so he
paid a surprise visit.
But Sarah refused to see him.
So he got back into his official carriage
and returned to Washington
without saying a word.
Horse-drawn presidential
carriages lost their
usefulness along about 1909.
To tell us more from the Henry Ford Museum
in Greenfield Village, Michigan,
is the lovely Eleanor Mondale.
- Thanks Adam.
You know, this is the very same carriage
that president Roosevelt used riding away
from Sarah Winchester's house.
Teddy Roosevelt was a very skilled rider
and he loved beautiful horses.
The thoroughbreds that pulled this rig
were considered the finest in the country.
Perhaps that's why
there were no motor cars
in the White House.
Then in 1909, President
William Howard Taft
finally changed the stables into a garage.
He purchased the first four cars in the
presidential fleet, a white steamer,
two Pierce-Arrows, and a Baker Electric.
Both the president and his
lady were mad for motor cars.
In President Taft's time the
cars were bought outright.
In contrast the cars of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
were specially built
for him, like this 1939
Lincoln convertible nicknamed
the Sunshine Special.
It was shipped around the
world to such exotic places
as Casablanca and Yalta.
During World War II
protective armor was added,
including a compartment for firearms and
sub-machine guns to
protect FDR from assassins.
The next president, Harry
S. Truman retired it in 1950
in favor of this up to the
minute Lincoln Cosmopolitan.
Unlike the ready-made
models, this car has enough
head room for even the tallest top-hat.
President Eisenhower was
responsible for adding
the clear plastic bubble top
over the back seat of the car.
He liked being visible to the crowd
while still feeling protected.
Of all the presidential vehicles,
this elongated 1961
Lincoln Continental remains
at the center of one of the greatest
mysteries in American history.
This is the car which
President Kennedy was riding in
the day he was assassinated.
(tense music)
Controversy has raged ever
since on the true circumstances
behind his brutal murder.
But loss of evidence and
disappearing witnesses
have ensured the impossibility
of formal prosecution.
The car was more luxurious
and contained more
special features than any other automobile
used at the White House.
After the tragic events
of November 22nd, 1963,
President Johnson had
the limousine sent back
to Detroit for remodeling.
When it rejoined the
official fleet in 1964,
the presidential continental had undergone
a somber transformation.
It contained enough armor
plating to resist a land mine,
and weighed more than five tons.
Even so, LBJ was always
uneasy when he rode in it.
The car remained in use for
presidents Nixon and Ford.
Then when Jimmy Carter became president,
and my father vice president,
they retired the car
here at the Henry Ford Museum.
- Teddy Roosevelt wasn't the only person
snubbed by Mrs. Winchester.
As time went on she
retreated further and further
from public view, until
the only two people she saw
were her butler, and her secretary.
Still, she avidly directed
the construction on her house
inventing new ways to make her estate
function more efficiently.
This call box to summon
her servants was one of her
many extraordinary inventions.
(bell ringing)
This storage room is stacked
with priceless wall coverings,
costly veneers and
masterpieces in stained glass.
Her delicate stained glass
windows were designed
by Tiffany's of New York.
On the rare occasions
when she left the house,
Sarah rode like a queen in a splendid
chauffeur-driven
Pierce-Arrow that reflected
her exquisite taste.
Exploring the Winchester
House, lost in luxurious
surroundings such as this
magnificent grand ballroom.
Can you see yourself dancing across this
elegant parquet floor,
above a silver chandelier
with a magical number of 13 candles?
Sarah could.
(lively chamber music)
She decided to give a ball,
soon after the room was completed.
A gourmet supper was
served off golden plates,
with rare wines sparkling
in crystal goblets.
Tuxedoed musicians played, and the butler
formally announced the name
of each arriving guest,
except, there were no guests.
And Sarah danced through
the evening alone.
Oh, if you're eccentric
it helps to be rich.
On the morning of September 5th, 1922,
the round-the-clock work on
this incredible house stopped.
Sarah Winchester had died
quietly in her sleep.
Now she too travels with the spirits,
her most surprising legacy?
It's in the garage.
I'll show you.
Sarah installed this oil
burning cast iron stove.
The stove heated the water
in this galvanized tank
which was fed up into the ceiling to this
deceptively simple device,
consisting of a pipe
and a rotating nozzle.
It created a spray of cascading water.
You see, Sarah invented the first carwash.
One wonders what she would have thought
of the automobiles we drive today,
with their advanced safety features,
sophisticated emission
controls and computers.
Our high-tech world would
probably boggle her imagination.
Technology keeps changing every day,
and the luxury car of
today quickly becomes
the museum piece of tomorrow.
- This low slung silhouette Buick Y-Job
is a museum piece, now on display at the
Henry Ford Museum in
Greenfield Village, Michigan.
But back in 1938 when GM first built it,
this was the most
futuristic automobile ever
to come out of Detroit.
The smooth contours and
concealed headlights
show the first attempt at
aerodynamic efficiency.
It was designed by the
legendary Harley Earl,
who inspired the GM Styling
Department for 30 years,
from the early 1930s through 1958.
Many cars that started
out on the drawing board
went on to become classics, like this
successful forerunner of the Ford Mustang.
The fantastic turbine-engine Chrysler.
The Ford X-100, or the exciting
and still awesome 1958 Firebird Two.
Looking back with a 1990s perspective,
the 1950s were a prosperous, secure,
and wonderfully optimistic time.
A technology-enriched
future of space travel,
jet airplanes and computers
seemed just around the corner,
and everybody really believed that
what was good for General
Motors, was good for America.
GM responded to all of this
by building some of the
loveliest fantasy cars ever imagined,
and going on tour with a splashy,
spectacular road show, called Motorama.
It lasted from 1953 until 1961.
Recently a number of Motorama
survivor vehicles were
gathered at exclusive Concourse D'Elegance
in Pebble Beach, California.
Joe Boods of Highland
Park, Illinois, was among
the collectors who brought their elegant
automotive art objects.
This 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special
is one of his prize possessions.
With its sleek sports car styling,
fiberglass body and
short, 100-inch wheelbase,
the incomparable Harley
Earl was the designer
responsible for its timeless good looks.
Of all his fascinating
chrome-trimmed creations,
the dazzling 1951 Buick LeSabre
is his most magnificent.
It has everything the car owner
of the '50s could wish for,
a beautiful long, low silhouette,
wide wrap-around windshield,
and fantastic fantail fins
that influenced every
other car that came after
it in the 1950s, including
this extraordinary
1959 Cadillac Cyclone.
This automotive work of
art was not only designed
by the great Harley Earl,
it was his personal car.
But GM wasn't the only
car company influenced
by future space travel.
This streamlined Chrysler
looks as if it could fly,
even when standing still.
And so does this beautifully
restored Plymouth.
Every car in this Concourse
D'Elegance has been
shined and polished beyond mint condition.
There were also foreign builders who
developed some fascinating
experimental cars.
The futuristic BAT cars are
among the most exciting.
Seeing all three of the BAT cars on parade
along with the long list
of dream cars of Motorama
is a rare treat for anyone
who loves automobiles.
This is a 1954 Chrysler automobile.
Kind of an interesting
car, although the owner
was even more interesting,
he was Howard Hughes.
Now the windows in this car
were hermetically sealed,
with the exception of the driver's door.
Now why would Howard do that?
Well because he loved clean air.
He actually built an air pollution system
in the back of this car that
fed into the automobile,
and it cost more than the car itself.
- [Narrator] This 1931
Bugatti Royale is a dream car
for the rich and pampered.
Experts estimate its value
at more than $10 million.
Only six of these Bugattis were ever made,
and it's fine artistry and detail
is reflected in its craftsmanship.
One of the largest
passenger cars ever made,
this 20-foot Bugatti is powered by
a 300-horsepower straight-eight engine.
This masterpiece was
supposedly built for the
King of Romania, but eventually
made its way to France.
In order to avoid capture or destruction
by the Nazis in World War II,
it was hidden in the sewers
of Paris until after the war.
- Bill Harrah acquired
the car and made it part
of his collection in 1964.
This car is to automobiles what the
Hope Diamond is to jewelry.
- [Narrator] These beautiful
and sometimes haunting
works of art are from the Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary
Art, and they depict both
the abstract and traditional visions of
the automobile from the artist's eye.
With pieces by Salvador
Dali, Picasso, and Matisse
the exhibit shows everything
from fleeting fantasy,
to the stark reality of cars
and their influence on society.
While everyone sees something
different in these works,
in the form of paintings,
photos and sculptures,
they all agree that they
reflect the automobiles' gift
of convenience, joy,
and sometimes tragedy.
(brooding music)
- In the late 1930s the
Winchester House was closed.
People feared that the place was haunted.
At the same time, this
mysterious car was being built.
Come to think of it, both
the house and the car
have a lot in common.
They're beautiful and they're mysterious,
and they have stories involving
bizarre twists of fate.
The car, called the Phantom
Corsair, may even be haunted.
The two men who loved it the most,
both died in tragic car crashes,
but that's only part of the story.
It all began back in
1936 with a 23-year old
Yale drop-out named Rust Heinz.
He was the heir to the famous
ketchup and pickle fortune,
you know, the 57 varieties folks.
He was obsessed with his dreams of a
futuristic vision he
called the Phantom Corsair.
His family in Pittsburgh
wanted him to grow up
and take over the factory.
But Rust was determined to
make his dream a reality.
Fortunately for him, two car builders
from Pasadena, California,
named Bowman and Schwartz
were smart enough to recognize
real genius when they saw it.
They willingly provided the
practical expertise Rust needed.
The car breezed through all the tests
in a specially constructed wind tunnel,
and was soon ready for
full scale construction.
Nothing like the Phantom Corsair
had ever been seen before.
The soaring lines of its
full-envelope aluminum body
seem to be moving even
when standing still.
It was strictly Buck Rogers.
The fog lights were built
in with chrome lined tunnels
that reflected light to
the sides of the car.
Wrap-around steel bumpers
were controlled hydraulically.
The doors open electrically.
And little wings raised the
roof, making it easier to enter.
The dashboard gadgets monitor everything
from oil pressure to altitude.
And most importantly the entire interior
was padded with cork paneling.
The emphasis was on safety and comfort.
The Phantom Corsair was
far ahead of its time,
but unfortunately, time had
run out for young Rust Heinz.
On the way to the first
public showing of his
beloved Phantom Corsair, he was killed in
an automobile accident
driving another car.
His hopes for marketing his
Phantom were tragically ended.
Still the car has endured.
It starred opposite Paulette Goddard and
Douglas Fairbanks Junior in the 1939 film,
Young at Heart, portraying
a mysterious vehicle
called the Flying Wombat.
The Phantom Corsair was
sold to a number of owners
during the years that
followed, then in 1951
it was bought by comedian Herb Shriner
who shared the same love
for this amazing vehicle
that Rust Heinz once had.
Shriner too was killed
in an automobile accident
while driving another car.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Perhaps both would still be alive if only
they'd been driving the Phantom Corsair.
The car remains an enduring
monument to a young man's dream.
(pleasant music)
- Another young man who had
a dream was Preston Tucker,
whose Tucker Torpedo
was considered to be the most
revolutionary car of its time.
In fact, it was too revolutionary.
This futuristic car was the
brainchild of Preston Tucker,
born in Michigan in 1903.
After working for Ford, Cadillac,
and Pierce-Arrow, Tucker's
first innovative design
was the combat car, built
during World War II.
This vehicle could travel at speeds
exceeding 100 miles per hour,
but it was the gun turret
that secured Tucker
a government contract.
His real dream was to
build a car that would
revolutionize the auto industry.
He fought hard to obtain
financial backing,
and soon formed the Tucker Corporation.
He made plans to produce a car with
a rear-mounted engine, fluid drive,
a safety chamber for the car's occupants,
pop-out safety glass, and
an engine powerful enough
to safely cruise at more
than 100 miles per hour.
The prototype was introduced,
and the word was in.
The Tucker Torpedo was the car to own.
Dealerships were set up,
orders began to arrive,
and a 2200-employee plant was opened
on Chicago's south side.
Against all odds, Preston
Tucker had taken on
the big three of Detroit, and succeeded.
Early production units of the Torpedo
showed them to be sturdy
and dependable vehicles,
and Tucker had captured America's eye.
But the shadow of gloom descended over
the Tucker success story.
There was talk of financial wrong doing in
securing the backing to build the Tucker,
leading to criminal charges of mail fraud
and federal securities violations.
(tense music)
Preston Tucker fought
the accusations and
was successful in being
acquitted in January of 1950.
But the court case had seriously tapped
his finances and dealt a death blow to his
automobile company, as it
was filed for bankruptcy.
The car that was perhaps
destined for greatness
became only a specter of
what it could have been.
Only 51 Tuckers were ever built.
Preston Tucker's cousin, Frank Tucker,
fondly remembers the car maker's dream.
- It came to my knowledge
that Preston wanted
to build a car, it was about 1941 or '42.
He had a artist's book
of artist conception,
a car he wanted to build one
day, and the reason I remember
it is because, not the obvious reason but,
each drawing had a
(mumbles) page, I remember,
I was about 14 years old at the time.
And so I knew that long ago
that Preston someday
wanted to build a car.
There are people that will tell you that
the big three didn't have anything to do
with Preston's demise, but,
I truthfully believe that when he came out
with the Tucker car, it
was more than they wanted.
And inasmuch as the
government was after him,
and so on, the big three
just stood in the background.
But if they would have permitted him
to go on with the Tucker, he
might have had other problems.
That's my belief.
I say that if you took
the Tucker car today,
and you put it in a
row with several of our
modern automobiles, the
Tucker will still turn heads,
there's no doubt about it.
- [Narrator] Amazingly, 46 of
the 51 Tuckers remain today,
and they still turn heads.
One lucky owner is Sharon Vick,
who talks about the Tucker's features.
- The biggest safety feature on the car
was the crash chamber,
and that's on the passenger side.
It's reinforced with steel, and,
the passenger, when
they saw they were going
to have a wreck, they were to roll down
into the crash chamber and be protected.
It was the first car to have padded dash.
It has pop-out windshields,
and they do work.
When they were testing the car at the
Indianapolis race track,
I believe a tire blew out
and the car did roll over,
and the windshields did
pop out like they were supposed to.
The other features it had which
aren't necessarily safety,
it has a rack over the back
seat where the women could put
their purchases, their packages,
their groceries and things like that.
The doors are cut back into the roof,
and that was for easy access in and out.
It drives really well,
we've probably put two or
3000 miles on it at least,
and it likes to hum along 80,
but you try and keep it down,
and it would run at 100
for quite a long time.
- [Narrator] Preston
Tucker and his dream car
quickly became and remains to this day
a part of the American car culture.
In 1956, at the age of 53,
Preston Tucker was said to
have died from a broken heart.
But his story of
imagination and perseverance
secured a place for him
in the eyes of many.
In fact, Preston Tucker
influenced one of the
world's biggest film makers, to make his
visionary tale into the reality of cinema.
(electric crackling)
- [Announcer] It was
almost too good to be true.
- Detroit, they're putting
the squeeze on him!
We can't buy steel, we can't buy anything!
So I made an appointment
with Senator Ferguson.
- What do you think, a big
smile and pat on the back
is gonna make him forget
he's a senator from Detroit?
- That's a fine idea of yours,
selling dealerships for cars
that don't exist.
- What'd he say?
- He said stay out
of the car business.
- Tucker built the thing.
(mumbles) everything
he advertised, not yet,
but enough right now to cost billions
just to keep up with him.
- You don't understand how
powerful the forces are
that are working against us!
- [Man] Ever since you
road tested the new car,
40 G-men have been following
you around the clock.
- What for?
- You made the car too good!
- [Narrator] Tucker's the
story of a young man's dream,
told with Hollywood
stars, stars whose cars
have stories of their own to tell.
- You know most Hollywood
stars love to travel in style.
And this man was no different.
(vintage singing)
♫ Swanee
♫ How I love ya, how I love ya
♫ My dear old Swanee
- Those are the immortal
sounds of the first
superstar of talking
pictures, Mister Al Jolson.
And this, was his 1933 Cadillac Fleetwood,
and as you can see,
it's luxury all the way.
Truly a great car!
A lot of Hollywood stars
prefer to own specialty cars.
Al Jolson was an all-out kind of performer
who loved his automobiles
and his audiences.
This car has been completely restored.
As beautiful as the cars in
the Harrah's collection are,
most of them were purchased
in rather poor condition,
and upgraded here.
Bill Harrah made sure the Jolson car
was restored to its original perfection,
with all the little details.
This car only cost $8000 when it was new,
and you had to be a star to
afford it back then in 1933,
which was right in the
middle of the Depression.
Now I'm going to tell you
the story of two brothers,
Fred and Augie Duesenberg.
They were car builders
in Indianapolis, Indiana,
and a lot of the technology
and the ideas that they got
came from Speedway racing,
and the would take those
ideas and apply them
to some of the most magnificent
passenger cars ever built.
The Duesenbergs were
awesome, the Duesenberg
straight-eight dual overhead cam engine
originally developed for racing
was a legendary performer.
In the late 1920s the Duesenberg company
was absorbed into E.L.
Cord's growing conglomerate
in Albert, Indiana.
It was after this merger
that the legendary
Model-J was born.
Now needless to say,
the Model-J Duesenberg
was the hot item in Hollywood,
everybody wanted one!
James Cagney had one, Billy Rose,
the great producer had one, and this one,
this Model-J Duesenberg
was owned by the great
screen legend, Clark Gable.
And here to tell us a little
bit more about Clark Gable
and this fine automobile is the director
of the Berry Automobile
Museum, Skip Marketti.
Skip welcome to the show!
- Thank you Ed, thank you for inviting me.
- Let's talk a little bit
about this Clark Gable
Duesenberg here, quite an automobile.
- Yes.
- Now Clark Gable not only
liked to drive these cars, but
sort of a relaxation thing,
he really like to work on these cars.
- Yes, he and his good
friend Gary Cooper were
rivals on-screen and also
rivals in the automobile hobby.
They both owned Duesenbergs,
they both raced them,
at (mumbles) Dry Lake, and,
they both liked to work on their cars.
This one particular was designed
by Clark Gable with the
help of a stylist at
Bohman and Schwartz
Corporation, W. Everet Miller.
Clark had a lot of input
in the style of the car,
the swoopy fenders, the
laid-back windshield,
the dual rear-mounted spares which
legend has that he wanted
the spares on the rear
so that he could easily work on the engine
without having to work
over the side-mount spares.
- Now Skip brings up a good point.
Bohman and Schwartz were car
builders here in California.
What's interesting about that is,
is that the Dusenberg
brothers, back in Indianapolis,
only built the chassis,
and then sent them out
to a variety of different coach builders
throughout the United States.
- That's correct.
Bohman and Schwartz were the
coach builders to the stars,
in Pasadena, California.
They were a company that took
over the coach building trade
from Murphy, of Pasadena.
Murphy was an earlier company.
Both Mister Bohman and Mister
Schwartz had worked for
Murphy Corporation in
Pasadena, and took over
the company upon Walter Murphy's death.
They'd built some of the finest,
most beautiful automobile creations.
Most of the Duesenberg
bodies, I say the most
prolific Duesenberg bodies were Murphy's,
and then later Bohman and Schwartz.
- This would mean too then
that no two were ever alike.
- Never, all Duesenberg coach work
was dissimilar in some way.
They had owner's input for
details like upholstery,
how the windshield slanted,
various things like this.
It was a true, coach-built automobile.
- Now these cars were
very big, very heavy,
but they were very powerful
and extremely fast.
And these particular cars had a first!
They had a monitoring system in them.
- Yeah, the monitoring system
monitored the chassis
lubrication, which was
automatically lubricated
about every 50 miles,
when to add water to your battery,
and two other similar functions.
They were electrically
actuated red and green lights
on either side of the dash board.
- Now this car also played
a role in the affair
of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable,
did it not?
- Yes, yes.
It was a central part of their affair.
Clark Gable and the
beautiful Carole Lombard,
went on several excursions
in this beautiful automobile.
And unfortunately after her death
during World War II,
Clark stopped driving the
car and put the car away,
and it was not driven by him ever again.
- If a man can bridge the
gap between life and death,
I mean if he can live on after he's dead,
then maybe he was a great man.
James Dean said that, and perhaps he knew
something about the
future, because he became
even a greater star, after he was
killed in an automobile accident in 1955.
But James Dean was different.
He had a unique style all his own.
And back in the '50s,
everyone wanted to be
just like James Dean.
He was the kind of guy who
marched to a different drummer.
James Dean was one movie star who always
seemed real to us, we could relate to him.
He came from the bright lights of Broadway
to Hollywood, and made only three films
in his short career, East of Eden,
Giant, and his most popular
film, Rebel Without a Cause,
which costarred Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo,
and this 1949, two-door Mercury coupe.
In fact, this car was the
inspiration for the first
of the custom car designers.
They'd take off all the excess chrome,
to give it a sleeker look.
It was called nosing and decking.
All things considered,
I'd say this 1949 Mercury
was the perfect choice,
when Warner Brothers
needed a hot car to costar with James Dean
in Rebel Without a Cause.
- [Narrator] Elvis Aron Presley was the
King of Rock and Roll.
He filled Graceland with
hundreds of big boy toys,
and his love of fancy and
exotic cars was no exception.
One Memphis auto dealer
recalls selling more than
100 luxury cars to the king.
Along with this pink Cadillac,
Elvis loved this white limo,
equipped with all the comforts,
including gold trimmed
interior, a small bar,
a refrigerator and TV set.
His vast collection of amazing automobiles
prove just one thing...
Elvis sure knew how to party.
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Let's have a party
♫ Step into the store
and let's, buy some more
♫ Let's have a party tonight
♫ We're gonna have a
♫ Have a
♫ Party, tonight
♫ Tonight
- In Hollywood, anything is possible.
- Well that's true, and
of course automobiles
do take on a personality all their own.
There are cars that can think,
automobiles that can talk.
Classic example is the
KITT car that you saw with
David Hasselhoff, in the
TV series Knight Rider.
KITT will talk to everybody.
- [KITT] That's right Jim.
I love to welcome people here
to the Universal Studios tour,
and I'll talk to everybody.
I'm located right next to
the new Star Trek exhibit.
As for my name, KITT, that stands for
Knight Industries 2000.
I was on the television show Knight Rider.
David Hasselhoff, who
played Michael Knight,
drove me to fame.
We were together on network
television for four years.
What makes me so special is,
I am an ultra-advanced computer,
and built with enough hi-tech devices
to make even Robocop jealous.
I'm programmed to save human lives.
I can also trace phone calls,
monitor action through a
built-in television camera,
detect nearby explosives, and of course,
play video games in my spare time.
I can attain speeds in
excess of 300 miles an hour.
My sleek body style is
molded in the shape of
a 1980 Trans Am Firebird, and
is made of super plas-steel,
which is even stronger than the heat tiles
on the US space shuttle.
This makes me virtually indestructible.
- And here it is, a real
favorite of Steven Spielberg's.
He used it in his hit
movie Back to the Future,
a real box office smash.
While you're on your
Universal Studio's tour,
you'll see many of the
sets from that movie,
including the clock tower
that was struck by lightning,
which eventually enabled
Michael J. Fox and
his time machine to get back home.
And this is the machine he did it in,
a really zapped up DeLorean!
But this is Hollywood, where
reality is in the script.
According to Doctor Emmett
Brown, the whacked-out
scientist played by Christopher Lloyd in
Back to the Future, the
secret of time travel lies
in the flux capacitator, a
computerized graphic gizmo
that looks a little like a divining rod.
The energy converter
on the back of the car
takes in plutonium and
creates a nuclear reaction.
Then, you're on your away.
And oh, don't forget that extra supply of
plutonium for the return trip.
- I'm in north Hollywood,
at Jay Ohrberg's Star Cars.
Now Jay has managed to
amass and accumulate
the biggest collection of television
and movie cars in the world.
Cars with personalities, like this,
the longest convertible
limousine in the world,
built out of a Mercedes or
two, it's over 40 feet long.
And yet behind me here is a bar,
and behind that is a heart-shaped hot tub,
just the thing you need
to go driving around town.
This is quite a collection,
and let's take a
closeup look at it, right now!
Jay Ohrberg has built and accumulated
over 175 famous cars, and I'm sure
you recognize the Pacman rod.
Now much like Pacman, this vehicle
turns when you least expect it,
and I think you put the quarters
right down here in these slots.
Now I've got another famous
car, right over here.
On the Universal lot there's
a pretty famous address,
1313 Mockingbird Lane, The Munsters,
and out in front you saw
this car parked a lot.
When they were driving it, Fred Gwynne
was right behind the wheel
there, who played Herman.
And way in the back, sat Yvonne
De Carlo who played Lily.
And they certainly had lots
of horsepower to work with.
Let's move into the science
fiction category now,
from the famous movie Blade Runner,
this car is almost a cult hero.
It was driven by Harrison Ford,
and it's a super cop
car that could not only
run down the bad guys on the highway,
but if it needed to, it could
fly over 'em and catch 'em.
(energetic music)
- The earliest images that
came from Hollywood screen,
proved that filmmakers
knew how to make a scene
exciting, use a car.
Whether it was tumbling,
crashing, skidding,
burning or bashing,
Tinseltown quickly learned
that it took a special breed of driver
to make an auto scene spectacular.
So was born the Stunt Driver.
The task was to crash the
car, make it look real,
and hopefully walk away
to do it one more time.
As time went on, some movies featured
the automobile as the center of attention.
Once such film was the 1977 thriller,
aptly entitled, The Car.
Effects teams built five identical cars,
only to see them filmed and destroyed.
One exciting stunt called for the auto
to skid and roll five times,
finally tumbling right over
the sheriff and his deputy.
Precision timing and steel nerves,
along with accurate planning,
led to a successful and spectacular bit.
The 1986 critically
acclaimed hit, directed by
Rob Reiner, Stand by Me,
called for stunt driver
Brian Carson to fill in
for Kiefer Sutherland.
Carson's perfect timing
created a white-knuckle ride,
as he avoided a head-on
collision in a 1950 Ford.
The lumber truck swerved right on cue,
and the meticulous planning paid off.
Carson was once again called into service,
this time in 1985's Crime Wave.
Set in Detroit, his car
is rammed from behind
on a highway, as fiery
pyrotechnics add to the realism.
(energetic music)
It seems that man has always
liked to dance with the demons,
perhaps with a touch of insanity.
It may be a death wish,
or just the sparkle of fame and fortune.
For whatever reason,
there have always been
audiences to watch these thrill seekers
take on the specter of death.
The first stunt drivers were the
International Congress of Dare Devils.
Soon, Lucky Teter, King
of the Dare Devils,
created a show of precision driving
that was designed to thrill fans.
But after a jump led to a fatal crash,
his became a ghost car.
Lucky (mumbles) was famous
for endless rolls in his auto,
but he also defied death by
crashing into flaming walls.
However, daredevil Jimmy
Lynch met the Grim Reaper
in a ramp-to-ramp jump.
The Chitwood family still
thrills audiences today.
Professional stunt driver Brian Carson
began his career in the early '70s,
doing dive-bomber crashes and barrel rolls
at local fairgrounds across America.
Some competitions pitted
one driver against another,
with the grand prize going to the one
who could roll their car the most times.
Carson progressed to
sidewinder rolls and bus jumps,
all the time keeping one step ahead
of becoming a mere memory.
Today, Brian Carson, along
with his movie stunt driving,
thrills crowds by heading his ghost cars
square into the fiery face of death!
- Although many concept,
idea and dream cars
have been produced over
the last half century,
very few remain.
Most were destroyed by the manufacturers.
It was their way of
protecting their secrets.
That makes these cars here at the
Berry Automobile Museum
that much more important.
These cars are truly works of art,
as finely crafted as
any piece of sculpture.
This is a 1953 Chrysler special,
designed by Virgil Exner.
The Chrysler Special is powered by a
180-horsepower Hemi V-8 engine.
A lot of styling elements,
such as the grill,
wheel arches and roof line were later
used in production models.
The body of this car was produced by Ghia.
Giacento Ghia began his
career as an apprentice
to an Italian carriage maker
at the turn of the century.
By the 1920s, Ghia and
his partner were building
car coaches for a large
and illustrious clientele.
The 1953 Fiat Supersonic was
also built at the Ghia factory.
The actress Lana Turner once
owned one of these cars.
The body style used on the Supersonic
was later adapted to other vehicles,
like this 1954 DeSoto Adventurer II.
The DeSoto was highly accessorized,
it had electric windows,
an electric powered sliding rear window,
a radio, a heater, and a matching
two-piece set of luggage.
After the Corvette was introduced in 1953,
other companies began to investigate
producing fiberglass sports cars.
Take a look at this 1954 Plymouth
Belmont, built by Briggs.
It debuted at the 1954
Saint Louis Auto Show.
This is a 1962 Aston Martin
with a body by Zagato.
It is one of only 19 ever built.
The Italian coachwork is very shapely.
Today's aerodynamics is an
accepted part of car design,
but back in the 1950s, this
was not necessarily the case.
In 1955, when this Ghia coupe
known as Gilda was produced,
it caused an international shiver.
The car is constructed
of lightweight aluminum
and mounted on a tubular frame.
This car built in 1958, established the
British manufacturer Jaguar
as a performance leader.
This model is unique because
of its Italian Bertone body.
The engine incorporates a
special high performance
head design and an extra
carburetor for extra horsepower.
And this is the car that
ushered Jaguar into the 1960s,
the legendary E-Type.
It's profile made it an instant classic,
as did its V10 engine.
This car remains at the top of the list
of Jaguar collectors.
From the grill to the taillights,
it's perfection in design.
This 1962 Dual-Ghia is
truly a car of the stars.
Dual Motors only produced
about 100 of these cars.
Highly sought after in Hollywood,
their owners included Frank Sinatra,
Peter Lawford and Eddie Fisher.
This Corvette show car was built in 1964,
one year after the
introduction of the Stingray.
15 coats of candy apple
red lacquer were applied
over a gold base to achieve
this spectacular finish.
The enlarged grill and altered
hood would later be used
in the 1965 through '67 styling.
Note the unique side exhausts
and dual sport mirrors.
The mirrors eventually
became a factory option.
The Corvette's fuel-injected engine was
chrome plated for the show.
This show car was displayed
at the Detroit auto show,
and the New York World's Fair.
From the time production
began 40 years ago,
right up to today, the
Corvette has represented
some of the most advanced
automotive styling.
This one-off Chrysler show
car was built in 1967.
It is called the Dodge Deroo.
The name is derived from
an old Anglo-Saxon word
meaning dart, and it's no coincidence
that this car was built
on a Dodge Dart chassis.
(pensive music)
- And in case you're curious,
there really is a ghost car.
This 1940 see-through
Pontiac was one of the
top attractions at the
1939 New York World's Fair.
Produced at a cost of
$25,000, the Ghost Car's body
was made of the then
revolutionary materials
of Plexiglass and Lucite.
Two versions of the clear
plastic car were made in 1939.
And one is actually
still in existence today.
Perhaps someday it will
make a ghost appearance
in your neighborhood.
(whooshing)
- I hope you've enjoyed
probing into the mysteries behind these
fabulous cars as much as I have.
Not every automobile comes
with a mystery attached to it,
but they do all have the
power to transport us
wherever we want to go
with speed and comfort.
I hope that you'll give them
the respect they deserve,
keep your eyes and ears
open and drive safely.
Now for all of us here on the program,
I'd like to say thanks for looking in.
(pleasant music)