Posted on 11/05/2015 4:33:39 PM PST by Olog-hai
George Barris, the legendary custom car builder who created television's original Batmobile and helped define California's car culture with colorfully designed vehicles ranging from the stunningly beautiful to the simply outrageous, died Thursday. He was 89. [...]
Barris customized cars and buses for TV shows, movies, celebrities and heads of state and was a pioneer in designing small, plastic models of those customized cars. The models popularized his wildly imaginative vehicles all the more when they were assembled by millions of American youngsters in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
I built several of his models as a kid. He, Von Dutch, Roth and several others helped shape an era.
Certainly the end of an era. Husseinz’s fault.
He wasn’t really a CIA hitman either ...
stand up Chuck
A Hollywood icon with Motown connections.
Wonderful “fantasy” designs for several V shows.
Munsters and Beverly Hillbillies come to first recollection.
The Batmobile was a really neat vehicle. I especially liked it when they did a bat curve.
The original series is still on every Saturday Evening on METV. If you are going to do camp do it totally or not at all.
The fat guy on AMerican Pickers bought his coffin car, last I saw of Barris was on that show...another American great gone.
The Original Batmobile
The Munster Mobile
The Pink Panther
The Vox Mobile
The Monkeemobile
The Original Black Beauty
The Flint Mobile
Drag-U-La
* This week, Clasp Garage took a look at the zebra-styled Mustang that George Barris built for Frank Sinatra - specifically for his movie "Marriage on the Rocks."
Does anyone remember the tracked all terrain type vehicle they used on “Lost In Space”. It had a mostly plexiglass shell.
It may have been a specially made vehicle but it just looked too nice for the show’s crummy special effects.
And this one...
1huBYww~~60_35.JPG)
RIP.
I remember that the model kits of Barris' cars were by AMT, while Roth's cars were put out by Revell (which usually required more talent to build right).
Many years after I had stopped building model kits, I had the opportunity to talk - and occasionally work - with a gent who had been involved with the production of both Revell and Monogram kits, and he told some entertaining stories of the "golden days" including how cheesy some of the customs (and "kustoms") really were under the surface.
Mr. niteowl77
That vehicle was called the Chariot. It was built on an off the shelf snow vehicle.
http://www.carlustblog.com/2010/01/the-chariot-from-lost-in-space.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
