Sunday, October 11, 2015

KLEM FM


George Barris' shop built both the "Munster Koach" and "Drag-U-La" used in that short clip.

Barris is a living legend. Born in Chicago to Greek immigrant parents, he and his brother started customizing cars in the 1940's. They began doing custom work for Hollywood in the 1950's and became best known for creating the Batmobile from a unique Lincoln Futura. Barris kept the Batmobile until quite recently, selling it for $4,260,000.00. That seems like quite a profit, but consider that the original Lincoln Futura was never commercialized and cost around $2,200,000.00 to produce in 2015 dollars. So George roughly doubled the value.

Here's a link to some of the cars his shop produced through the years: Link

10 comments:

deborah said...

I think we boomers have a special attachment to the past, a tender nostalgia for all things mid-century.

edutcher said...

Definitely. The 50s and early and mid 60s were as good as anyone could want.

PS When I was a kid, I built a couple of the George Barris Kustom Kar models.

Great fun. With all the extra parts they gave you, you could trick them out any way you wanted.

deborah said...

Neat.

chickelit said...

Deborah, I used to consider myself a tail-end boomer (b. 1960), but I only identify with boomers when convenient. I think to be a bona fide boomer, your parents had to have been part of the "Greatest Generation." My dad was too young for service in WW II and so was his older brother. They were Korean War generation. I am stuck in the 70's like boomers are stuck in the '60's.

deborah said...

I consider the born 1946-1964 okay, though '64 is a bit late I guess. Born in '58 I consider myself a boomer. My parents were born in '35 and '36, and did contribute to the boom of babies. I think of myself as a combination of the the 60s and 70s... graduated HS in '76.

chickelit said...

deborah said...
... graduated HS in '76.

Please tell me you've seen Linklaters "Dazed And Confused."

deborah said...

No. Lots of movies I haven't seen. Like Ferris Beuller.

chickelit said...

Since you're unlikely to see it (you really should) here it is in 10 minutes: link. Note the dates.

I think this was Matthew McConaughy's first movie and also one of Ben Affleck's earliest films.

deborah said...

Cool, I'll watch it tomorrow. Thank you.

Michael Haz said...

Dig.