Posted on 02/16/2010 4:19:42 AM PST by Daffynition
In 1989, VH1 gave away 36 vintage Corvettes in a contest. The winner sold those cars to artist Peter Max, who let them rot in a Brooklyn parking garage for twenty years. The cars recently disappeared. This is their story.
In 1988, VH1 was struggling for ratings. As part of a publicity stunt, the music video network spent a truckload of money on 36 vintage Corvettes. The cars were given away in a telephone sweepstakes the next year, and one winner walked off with the complete set.
The contest was the brainchild of freelance TV producer Jim Cahill. VH1 charged him with the task of raising the network's national profile and attracting the then-vibrant baby-boomer demographic. He came up with the idea — give away one car from every year of the Corvette's three-and-a-half-decade history — while sitting on the freeway in Los Angeles.
What followed was a buying spree of epic proportions. Over the course of several months in 1988, Cahill spent $610,000 — roughly $1.1 million when adjusted for inflation — of VH1's money on what must have seemed like the automotive purchasing orgy of a lifetime. According to a period article in Vette magazine, the 36 cars that he bought were "drivers," not "Bloomington cars." Fourteen were convertibles, and 25 of the 36 contained automatic transmissions (eww). Cahill shepherded the cars from commercial shoot to commercial shoot, kept them fastidiously clean, and generally went to town with the whole mess. He also did what any of us would do — he drove one home each night for 36 nights. (He has since noted that, although some of the cars were healthy and drove well, many of them were nightmarishly bad.)
To facilitate the contest and help recoup some of the investment, VH1 set up a 900 number that charged two dollars per call. Prospective entrants called the number to register, and AT&T gave the network $1.49 from every call. 190,000 people called in the first day, 1.3 million registered in total, and VH1 made its money back in less than two weeks. Amazingly, the contest was won by Dennis Amadeo, a carpenter from Long Island who entered only once. He flew to California and was given the five-pound bag of keys by ex-Beach Boy Mike Love in a ceremony in Culver City.
This is where it gets weird.
Enter Peter Max. Max, a Manhattan-dwelling American graphic artist responsible for a large part of the 1960s pyschedelic design movement, was, and is not, a car guy. He gained fame for his "Cosmic '60s" style and use of vibrant color, and while he has painted everything from a Boeing 777 to Dale Earnhardt's NASCAR Monte Carlo, he isn't the type of celebrity to have a Lenoesque garage full of automotive weirdness. Nevertheless, he bought the cars from Amadeo. As he tells it, he found out about the collection through a friend, fell asleep shortly after, and had a dream that included cheerleaders, the 36 'vettes, and a stadium full of people yelling "They're Peter Max's cars!" Naturally, when he woke up, he got out his wallet. (We make our spontaneous, million-dollar decisions based on REM sleep, too. Doesn't everybody?)
Max contacted Amadeo, made a deal — $250,000 cash plus $250,000 in artwork and a portion of the proceeds should the cars be sold again — and, despite a few reservations, had the Corvettes shipped to New York. Cahill facilitated the preparation and handover of all 36 cars, ensuring that they were both clean and driveable when they were put on the truck.
This is where it starts to get depressing: Because Max was then involved in a number of different projects (not the least of which was an IRS investigation), the Corvettes sat, were moved, and then sat again. They eventually ended up in the basement of a Brooklyn apartment building that had once been a New York Daily News printing plant. They sat there, gathering dust, for years.
[snip]
Sigh.
one would think that if someone had the cash to purchase all of those vettes, that someone could spring for car covers to protect the investment especially if he intended to let them sit like that. then again, now that these vehicles have deteriorated, some lucky people will eventually be able to pick up a classic vette for far below the fair market value.
Makes me want to cry!
What a tragic waste. Some people.
Weird-ass story.
Nice. 36 Corvettes that have been time capsuled “as is/was” in a garage for a couple of decades. Now the fun can begin!
I knew an aviator with a collection of 16 aircraft, said he was going to restore them all. I watched airline pilots flying in from all over wanting to buy one of these collector birds of their dreams (all basket cases, and they wanted to restore it or have someone do it for them) and he wouldn't sell anything. Big sale after his death, all were sold in lots by type, and many had gone to seed beyond repair, it was in a way sad. He sold only one of them while he was alive and it is one of a handful of "Kinner Low Wings" and I am not sure if the hulk he had went on to fly or was used as parts, it went to someone affiliated with the a major museum....
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I’ve seen a lot of car projects like that. Guys buy old cars thinking they’ll fix them up and then loose interest or can’t afford it. The cars sit in fields or barns and rot away. When I was a teenager I tried to buy an old 1920’s school bus that was abandoned and the guy wouldn’t sell it. 20 years later the bus was still rusting away and beyond help when he died. I also knew a woman that had a farm and had a ‘57 chevy pickup that sat in the field and hadn’t run in years. I offered to buy it and she wouldn’t sell. It rotted away.
"Thanks...
my reaction to seeing what Peter Max has done (not done) with the Corvette Collection is mixed...
a) on one hand-of course he's the biggest fool in history for not even investing in car covers to keep the grime off them...in fact-when we shipped him the Corvettes-I asked his production manager if he wanted me to include car covers and they said..."No thanks..we'll take it from here." It was 2500 bucks for covers and they refused to make that simple investment. Oh well. I think that cost them a million bucks in the long run. I also offered them the services of an expert on long term classic car storage who would have helped them remove batteries, cover them properly and mount the cars on blocks to save the rubber, but again-they flat out refused. Oh well. By then, I had freight on board and all I could do was wave. They even refused simple 6 mil plastic covering to insure against fluid drips during cross country semi trailer transport.
Ouch!
I was in complete control of the Corvette collection for 16 months and not only did I have them detailed every six weeks-I had a company that specialized in car prep for commercials on retainer and every time I took them out and photographed them or shot film/video- we dusted them, polished them and upon completion of the creative assignment- covered them. (I will be sharing all my photos, archives, videos and on air promos in the coming weeks on this site exclusively)
b) on the other hand-Peter's mistreatment of the collection has made for a very strange, unique "urban legend" and what comes NEXT will/should be VERY VERY VERY interesting...
Stay tuned & stay in touch!
Peace"
Jim Cahill
| "Since I put up these pictures here at the beginning of February 2007, the story of the Portugese barn full of classic and not-so-classic cars seems to have taken on a life of its own. The interwebs have been abuzz with theories and somebody has even gone to the trouble of making up a story about it. Classic car lovers, treasure hunters and auction houses have all somehow contacted intuh.net in an effort to find out more. In order to stem the flow of e-mails and even telephone calls: here's all I know. At the end of January 2007, I stumbled upon a Portugese web forum with a thread that contained a large number of pictures of old cars left in a barn, somewhere in Portugal. The picture files themselves were hosted on the web site of a Portugese classic car dealer, but were taken down after only a few days. I thought it would be a shame not to have them online, so I rescued them from my browser cache and put them up here, on intuh.net. For all those who have been eagerly sending round e-mails about 'a New York man' having bought 'a piece of land in Portugal' for 'next to nothing', that happened to have this treasure-filled barn on it: I'm pretty much convinced that's an urban myth. Cheers, |
At what point do you become labeled with the same medical diagnosis as a “cat lady”?
Sometimes things “happen for the best.” :-D
I'm working on restoring an Airstream trailer to go camping in now.
I'd like to find a 55 bed to make a utility trailer for it.
She gets to sleep in the garage but it is my daily driver.
What an idiot. Even if your a light in the loafers poofer who isn’t into cars, why would you intensionally let the value of these collectables decrease on purpose?
Brain damage. Confirms my theory.
Look at it this way no matter how long they sit,they will never rust.....
There was a guy in Indiana that I used to but vintage mustang parts from. He was also a collector. I went to his farm once where he had a dozen or so classic mustangs of varying conditions, most in need of restoration. Fastbacks, convertables, HI-POs, GTS. He would not sell any of them. They were left out in the elements. Visited him 10 years later and they were all rust buckets covered with chicken crap. What a loss...
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