Dino 246GTS

The EWTV crew on Mulholland with Scott McClure and his magnificent Dino 246GTS.

The Batmobile

From Randy Evans:

"Burt Ward and the Batmobile came to work as part of a promotion for Gentle Giant dog food. Everyone came out to have their picture with it. Which of course sparked trivia contests about who were the villains played by.

Burt was delightful and enthusiastic in sharing stories from production and patiently answered questions from and took pictures with all. Ironically he arrived in a Smart Car."




Thank you, Randy! I got to know Frank Gorshin--The Riddler--as he was a friend of Paul Stanley back in the day. I kept calling him Mr. Gorshin and he kept saying, "Frank, Stephen."

Ferrari 330GTC (video)

Here are some excerpts from our time with Eduardo Renta and his fabulous 330GTC.

From Don Klein who introduced me to John Fitch and facilitated my interview with John for the Carrera Panamericana documentary:

"Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the link. As you may recall, I have a '67 330 GTC up here in the Litchfield Hills of CT, and can attest that it's a wonderful touring car. Next time you see Eduardo's car, notice two things:

1) when sitting in the driver's seat with the door open, you can put your right hand on the steering wheel and reach back with your left hand and easily touch the rear tire. The car is THAT compact!

2) There is a sharp crease on top of the front fenders that stretches from the headlights to the windshield that's almost invisible until viewed from INSIDE the car. A wonderfully subtle design element.

Fitch is back at home, in relatively good health and spirits. I will give him your regards.

Cheers,

Don"

Gary Barnhill: Costa Concordia perspective

From Gary Barnhill:

I'm amazed at how often my airline check-pilot experience helps me understand current events.

My Example: The captain of the wrecked cruise liner held his job because no company "check-pilot" investigated his continual dangerous show-boating that led to the crash landing on rocks near the shore. The equivalent of tree-top buzzing in an airplane.

My Example: An airline has a minimum standard for all pilots. When pilots fail to meet that standard and are removed from the pilot seat the argument is usually; the standard is too high. (actually their union lawyer speaks in code: "the check-pilot was unfair") They argue, in code; the standard should be brought down to my lower level so I can keep the job.

Gary

Ferrari 275GTB (video)

Thanks to Kenny Lombino of the Ferrari Club of America, we were able to meet Michael Adams and enjoy his Ferrari 275GTB. Here are some excepts from the segment we shot for Elysée Wednesday TV.

Stephen Mitchell talks with General Richard Wilmot (part 1)

Always fascinating, always insightful, I was fortunate enough to sit again with General Wilmot and have a relaxed talk with him away from the studio.

Ferrari 275GTB: A Sunday drive

While talking with Kenny Lombino of the Ferrari Club of America on the phone, he asked if I knew Michael Adams. I did not. Kenny tells me that Michael is an interesting guy with some great cars and perhaps I'd like to do a shoot a video of one of his cars for the Elysée Wednesday TV drive series. Yes I would and so it was that we show up at Michael's house to experience his immaculate 275GTB.

Michael would have preferred we sample his 330GTS--his favorite--but the GTB has long been a favorite of mine and it has been decades since I drove one. It belonged to my friend John Andrews and it is said that John's car once belonged to Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and had been driven by Charles Manson when he spent some time hanging with the band. It wasn't John who told me this but, if true, it makes for an additional connection to the dreadful night on Cielo Drive--Steve McQueen, Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and that GTB.

Seeing Michael's GTB under the lights in his showcase garage, it could have been sitting in Otto Zipper's showroom on Wilshire at 26th Street back in the day as it looked brand new and flawless.
Making a tour of the car, there isn't a bad angle and I remember Brock Yates' write-up where he described moving a Captain's chair to different positions around a 275GTB so he could sit and contemplate the design from all angles.

When it came time to drive the GTB out of the garage, the ticking of the fuel pump brought back some very fond Lusso/GTO memories. The sound of the constant velocity starter motor completed the flashback. This GTB is a long-nose, single-cam V12 and it makes all the sounds one expects of a Ferrari engine with Weber carburetors, timing chains (instead of belts) and twelve cylinders.

Another vintage reference to the Lusso/GTO days is the view from the driver or passenger seat--one sees the finely sculpted hood and fender contours as they reach forward to a vanishing point. Mid-engined moderns don't offer this, the base of the windshield usually serving as the vanishing point with the front bodywork dropping immediately from sight.

Our drive took us down to the Pacific Coast Highway and up Sunset to Pacific Palisades Park. Continuing on Sunset, we completed the loop turning on Allenford and driving past Paul Revere where I went to school. I don't know which was more pleasurable--being in the GTB or looking at it from the chase car (Kenny's Maserati) and admiring this beautiful piece of industrial sculpture moving amongst the more prosaic automobiles.

Back home in Michael's driveway, Michael and Kenny engaged in some very entertaining banter that will be on display in the video excerpts when I post them. In the meantime, I offer my thanks to Kenny Lombino for making the introduction and to Michael Adams who graciously shared his marvelous GTB with us.

Jeanetta Dumouchel of EWTV was there to enjoy the car and shoot stills and video.

Dino 246 GTS: A day of fun

When Elysée Wednesday member Scott McClure mentioned that he was driving one of his Dinos to Los Angeles, it got my attention in a big way. I had never driven one of these Ferrari-made 246 Dinos though I had long admired their shape and often marveled at the sound of that engine as one would pass by on the road. I liked its size, too. The Dino is compact--a go-kart for grown-ups, you might say. Scott gave me an immediate 'yes' when I asked if he would like his Dino to be the subject of an EWTV drive segment.

Our crew on this outing consisted of Larry Crane (Auto Aficionado), Jeanetta Dumouchel (a producer with me on the Carrera Panamericana documentary), Chad Glass (who executed the Carrera Panamerican poster and the cover and internal art for my GTO book--perhaps I should say 'our' GTO book) and Kira Gurnée (who is producing her own TV series, 'Corkscrew Adventures'). Scott and I completed the group.

We gathered at the top of Beverly Glen and discovered that a number of Ferraris were present--430s, a 512TR, a 308 Dino--but Scott's red Dino drew the crowd. Though a beautiful car in photographs, the Dino shares a characteristic with all the Ferraris I've ever seen--they are even more beautiful to the eye than to the camera. The voluptuous curves of this spider reward the eye and have an almost hypnotic effect on the observer. The obvious style references to the P4 race car are very well executed here.

As we motored out onto Mulholland Drive, it was quickly clear that Scott drives his car like a Ferrari factory test driver doing justice to the Prova Modena plate attached to the Dino. The gearing was ideally suited to the tight corners and relatively short straights of Mulholland. We could not have picked a better road to sample this car.


Above, Chad drives Scott. Below, Kira drives Jeanetta.


Above, Jeanetta takes off with Kira. Below, Kira joins Scott.

When I took the wheel, what impressed me most was the quickness of the turn-in. Placing the car on the outside of a corner, only a small movement of the steering wheel put the car right on the apex and the Dino sling-shots through the turn. The power-to-weight ratio gives the car all the performance one could want on Mulholland and then some.

Above, the Dino showing poise. Below, Larry Crane is right at home.


We all took turns at the wheel and behind the cameras--still and video--so the day's effort was collaborative in every sense. Larry Crane took some low-angle roadside shots of the Dino drive-bys that recalled some shots from Steve McQueen's film Le Mans. Everyone had a great deal of fun--it took a day or so to get the smile off of my face--and I am only sorry that my son Sean was not with us on this occasion, the victim of a changing work schedule.


I'll post video clips once they have been edited.

Buskers: A New York story

Many of the projects I work on are understandable and predictable--movies with a French flavor or location, documentaries on Ferraris or racing. Elysée Wednesday TV has my signature all over it featuring good friends and exciting cars and is an natural extension of our Wednesday evening gatherings.

Buskers is something else entirely. It is a New York story and while I've visited the city, I've never lived there nor can I say that I know it more than superficially. Busking is the term for musicians--and other types of artists--performing in public on the streets and in the subways. It is not an activity unique to New York--two actors in my first film Montmartre were buskers and I spent an exciting July 14th celebration with them as they busked in the rue Mouffetard. I loved it!

I was recently given a copy of the book Buskers by my friend Larry Masser who was my agent when (Interview) began to attract interest in Hollywood. Larry is erudite and we share many interests. He thought I would enjoy Buskers. I did.

Written by Heth and Jed Weinstein, Buskers chronicles the life and times of these busking brothers and details the joys and the pain that comes with the life of a street performer. They endure so much for the pleasure they provide--though the music is too often taken for granted by passers-by--and one hopes that the pleasure they take from it is as gratifying to them as it would be for any performer with an audience. The story is as much about the brothers and their relationship as it is about the music. Life hasn't always dealt them an easy hand but they've played their cards well learning to bluff when the occasion demanded.

The first and natural instinct is to attach a New York director in making this book into a feature film--Abel Ferrara, for instance. Then the name Marshall Brickman comes to mind--a man who certainly understands New York and performing. Neil Jordan created such an edgy yet accessible atmosphere with The Good Thief, a favorite remake of a favorite French classic Bob le flambeur, that I can't help wondering about how such a film would look given his deft touch. Would the story interest David Permut? Creating the imagined combinations of writer, director and on-screen talent that will bring a project to life is like enjoying the appetizers to a wonderful meal--it shouldn't be rushed but we should be ready to move on to the first course that promises to be just as rewarding.

Serge Dermanian remembers Ferrari GTO 3987

Serge Dermanian looked after the cars in the Ralph Lauren collection that were kept in Montauk. Here he writes about GTO 3987.

Stephen, regarding the 3987 GTO, I remember when I got the car ready for New York State inspection, after carefully checking brake pads, hand brake, all fluid levels, all lights, wipers, etc.

As a whole, I was not to satisfied with the overall condition of the fit & finish. I had noticed, that the roof line was not as a few others I had seen in the past! My first "joy meeting" with a GTO, was in the early 60s at Thompson race track were I was spending my Sunday afternoons with Mike Gamino and his mechanic Liberio Gerardi. The sight of that tall shift lever impressed me, and the sudden silence of a Ferrari, every time he switched off the engine. Wonderful memories!

Now, the test drive. The engine ran "fairly well" but the gear box had a major problem. You probably remember the reverse gear safety feature, which is a piece protruding under the shift gate; in order to engage reverse, when in neutral, you must push the shift lever down to pass this safety feature. It was designed to prevent going inadvertently into reverse when shifting quickly from 1^st to 2^nd. Imagine the fiasco!

That safety device was completely worn out, probably during extensive racing. It was no trouble for me since I had worked on and driven many of these cars. As a matter of fact,

I had the NART spider next to the GTO and that gate was OK.

The next problem was excessive play in the steering system, I brought the car back to the garage, lifted it to check the steering carefully but all tie rods ends were fine. The steering box was the reason.

I called my friend Geoff Holland in Vermont who had the parts, follower and bearings, in stock. I purchased the shift gate as well. Removing the steering box is an easy task, I had done many of them. After dismantling it, I replaced the worn out parts utilizing special grease with anti-corrosion agents. I filled the box with GLX 140 that I purchased from a trucking company. You should not use 80/90 hypoid oil.

After replacing the shift gate, I purchased a beautiful piece of mahogany (knowing how much Ralph Lauren loved this type of wood) and installed the old gate on the wood block and drilled holes for pens and pencils! On the front, I glued a Ferrari emblem from a key chain and underneath a piece of velvet. Then I mailed it to Ralph for Christmas.

Voila! A Ferrari pencil holder for his desk. If someone sees it on his desk, you will know were it came from!

Hope you like my comments,
Serge Dermanian

I do like them, Serge. Thank you!

A Face in the Crowd

One day I was having lunch in Art's delicatessen in Studio City. This was before the big earthquake and Art's still had its counter-space. Always a popular lunch spot, Art's seemed to attract a lot of celebrities from the area which included the nearby CBS Cinema Center where Steve McQueen's grey Porsche 911S was frequently seen in its chained-off parking spaces--Steve got two.

Like most delicatessen's I've known, Art's tended to be a noisy environment--good food, loud talk. As I was having lunch with my companion, a gentleman in the booth across the way caught my attention saying, "Excuse me, but aren't you a director?" I told him that I was, thinking he had assumed from my general appearance that I wasn't an accountant. Then he asked, "Aren't you the film director who does that interview series on cable TV--the one with the fictional authors?" Again, I confirmed his suspicion but now I was curious. "How did you know?" I asked him. "I recognized you," he said. I thought about this for a moment before an obvious question came to my mind.

"How could you recognize me," I asked, "since I'm never seen and my voice is heard off-camera posing the questions?" Without missing a beat, he answered, "I recognized your voice." I thought it extraordinary that a stranger would recognize my voice in a crowded and noisy deli. "How many of the shows have you seen?" I asked. "Lots of them," was the answer. I had a fan!

Of the 500 or so half-hour interviews I produced for the series, there was only one in which I appeared on camera as the author. I wasn't prepared for the recognition that came from the show. I would be stopped in the gym by people who had believed the interview was as real as Charlie Rose and wanted to comment about the book the fictional character had written. Walking along the sidewalk in Brentwood, I would hear people call out, "Sean Miles!" which was the name of the fictional character I played. At the L.A. Coliseum watching Raiders football games, I noticed people pointing me out and making comments to their friends. The character I played had been a homicide detective who, it was suspected, had been killing suspects of violent crimes instead of arresting them. It was a sign of public frustration, I think, that most of those who approached me were very supportive of Sean Miles. An unarmed public can but hope for the best, I suppose.

Recalling this, I am reminded of just how powerful is the medium of television. It also validated my decision to remain off camera--with the one exception--when doing the series as I don't know how people in the public eye cope with the recognition that occurs everywhere they go. I remember seeing A Face in the Crowd, the film directed by Elia Kazan starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Anthony Franciosa which dealt admirably with this aspect of working in media.

I wonder why--in this era of reality shows--no one has thought to re-make this film.

Ferrari GTO: The history of s/n 3987

PJ said...

Hello Stephen,

I found your blog few days ago and I'm completely stunned with your stories about your Ferrari GTO #3987.

Those videos at Willow Springs and Mulholland are astonishing and the passion that you put in your writing when the subject is the GTO is almost touching.

I'm writing you from Portugal, I'm a huuuuge Ferrari fan and I would like to know please if it's possible for you to write about the GTO # 3987 since the first owner to the present, if you know the full history, of course.

It would be very appreciated and make me dream for a little while.

Thank you in advance.

My best regards,

Paulo Vilela,
Braga
Portugal

Hello Paulo,

Below you will find a history of GTO 3987 as compiled by the Barchetta website [http://www.barchetta.cc/english/all.ferraris/Detail/3987GT.250GTO.htm]. There are four errors/omissions I can point out. The first is the indication that a 3.3 litre 250LM engine was installed in 1966. This is inaccurate. The LM engine was installed during Dr. Stuart Baumgard's ownership which began in 1972 after he acquired the car from Alain de Cadenet. The second is that two owners are overlooked entirely. The first is Mark Slotkin who bought 3987 from Otto Zipper. The second is William Rinehart who bought the car form Mark Slotkin. I bought 3987 from William who had over-cooked the engine. The date given as my acquisition--1965--is incorrect and I did not take ownership of the car until 1968 if I remember correctly. Finally, according to Marcel Massini, the original GTO engine removed by Stuart Baumgard was reunited with 3987 by Don Walker.

There may be other inaccuracies of which I am unaware.

Ed Niles makes a further correction to the Barchetta information:

"Otto Zipper was on Wilshire. Ferrari Reps of Ca was von Neuman, on Cahuenga."

This is a cut & paste from Barchetta:

62 - N.A.R.T.
62/oct/21	1st OA	1000km Paris, Montlhery	Pedro Rodriguez/ Ricardo Rodriguez	#1	Pourret p325, 326 1000km Paris p20, 23
62 - Mecom Racing Team, Houston, TX, USA
62/dec/02	1st OA	5 Lap Tourist Trophy over 2-litres heat, Nassau	Roger Penske	#85
62/dec/02	1st OA	25 Lap Tourist Trophy, Nassau	Roger Penske	#85	BSW p232, 233
62/dec/02	1st OA	5 Lap Governor's Trophy, Nassau	Roger Penske	#85
62/dec/08	5th OA	5 Lap Texas Classic race, Nassau	Augie Pabst	#85	C137 p55
63/feb/17	2nd OA	3h Daytona Continental	Roger Penske	#29
63/mar/23	4th OA 1st GT	12h Sebring	Roger Penske/ Augie Pabst	#24	250 GTO p72
63/may/25	1st OA	Pensacola GT race	Roger Penske	#17
63/sep/08	8th OA 2nd IC	Road America 500, Elkhart Lake	Roger Penske/ Augie Pabst	#7	C152 p51
63/sep/29	2nd OA 1st IC	Lynndale Farms, Wisconsin Race, main	Augie Pabst	#2
63/oct/13	5th OA	L.A. Times GP, Riverside	Richie Ginther	#211
64 - Otto Zipper Motors, Ferrari Representatives of Hollywood, Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA, USA
64/oct/11	5th OA	Riverside, Los Angeles Times GP	Richie Ginther
65 - S. Mitchell, USA
66 - with engine 6045 250 LM
71 - Alain de Cadenet, GB
72 - Stuart Baumgard, Encino, CA, USA +213-981-0883
77/aug		Pebble Beach Concours	Stuart Baumgard
78 - Gaon & Stillmann, USA
83 - Don Walker, Dallas, TX, USA - restored
84/aug/23		International Ferrari Concours	Don Walker
84/aug/25-26	7th	Monterey Historic Races	Don Walker
85 - Ralph Lauren, Long Island, NY, USA
02/jan/26	display	XI. Cavallino Classic, class 16	Ralph Lauren
05/mar/16-jul/31 - displayed in the Fine Arts Museum, Boston, MA, USA

The TIMEless Exhibition: The supply and demand of culture

(I was asked by Martin Mervel of Studio/ SLAB Architects to write a piece for his TIMEless Exhibition that ran from May through August 2011 at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California. This is what I wrote. I post it now for review as we mark the passage of time.)

The American Heritage Dictionary defines culture as: The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. This is a very depressing thought, if I may say so. I grew up in a time when films were made by studios whose chiefs were from the Old Country and were dead-set on demonstrating by way of their product that they were of an elevated class--that they had class. These studios produced stars like William Powell, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck, Myrna Loy, Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner to name a few in no particular order. Some of the best roles for women were created during their reign. There is no equivalent of Bette Davis or Katherine Hepburn in the iconography of today's Hollywood. Has anyone filled Cary Grant's shoes in the movies or in our culture? Charm and stature have gone by the boards as valuable commodities, it would appear.

Having myself run a "movie studio" in the form of a repertory company for film and television with an average of a hundred actors, writers and directors in the organization at any given moment from about 1980 until 2001, I feel I understand the process of making movies. I know, for example, that one can choose to create a demand or supply a demand. The latter is perhaps the easier approach but it leads us to the current state of affairs--a dwindling spiral absent intellectual discourse and inspiration in the culture and movies and television shows that do all they can to make ignorance and coarseness acceptable and even laudable.

In the past, movies were aimed at adults. They were the dominant age group and thus the primary clientele at the box office. More recently, the age of the clientele has shifted and fourteen to eighteen year-olds are the prime audience. This explains why two films dealing with the same subject but made to suit a differing clientele are so at odds with one another. To wit: Tora! Tora! Tora! and Pearl Harbor.

One begins to realize that culture--whether in the movies, architecture, painting, dance or music--is a factor of what one can sell in a commercial transaction. It was ever thus, I suspect. Therefore, something other than commercialism has had an impact on what I see as the decline of our culture. I think I know what it might be.

I believe that the culprit is the bell curve used in the educational system also known as grading on the curve which, according to Wikipedia, is designed to yield a predetermined distribution of grades among the students in a class. Let us consider that for a moment. The system has designed a method of ensuring that the bulk of subject understanding on the part of students will be at the level of seventy percent. Social engineers intent on returning us to the Dark Ages could do worse than adopting the bell curve. As an aside, when was the last time you heard someone--a college graduate particularly--use the subjunctive case properly? When was the last time anyone had to learn a dance step?

How does one appreciate Mozart, Neutra, Hemingway, Picasso, Matisse, Billy Wilder, Cole Porter, Django Reinhardt or Miles Davis at a comprehension rate of seventy percent? Inadvertently, we have created a demand from that bulk of people in the middle of the predetermined distribution of grades for material that is less nuanced, more elemental and easier to grasp or, in the extreme, requires no understanding. For commercial reasons, the demand is being supplied.

I prefer that we begin to create a demand for more exacting standards of excellence in all areas of our culture. In my film school, we didn't grade on the curve. A student moved to Lesson Two only after understanding and mastering Lesson One. We could educate rather than process students. Would taking this approach mean that some would have a longer stay in the academic world than others? Yes, it would. It would also mean, I believe, that they would have a more fulfilling experience with the lives they lead subsequently in the real world and would imbue our culture with a demand for better, more nuanced offerings in thought, music, politics and every other facet of the thing we refer to as culture.

The following is a comment about this post from a friend and associate:

When I was a freshman in college, I took seven courses per semester. SEVEN! Sociology, history, philosophy, theology, English, language and a course in science were requirements for graduation. Slowly but steadfastly, American universities have eliminated most of the humanity requirements and diluted the course load by giving more “credit hours” for fewer courses. In most places, you can graduate by taking 32 courses. Next came the real culprit — grade dilution. By the mid 70s, students rushed to matriculate in classes where the professors were known for high grading. I knew no one in my class who had a gpa over 3.7, because no one did. It was all but unattainable. Today, it’s practically the norm.

Remember when Jay Leno would look over to Kevin Eubanks and ask semi-rhetorically, “what’s my favorite source of jokes?” and Kevin would respond on cue, “stupid criminal jokes.” Well, like Leno, I’m consistently harping on a single topic. My thing is not stupid criminal jokes, but the abdication of the educated class from rational analysis. The sheer aversion to logic, analysis and objective thinking displayed by college grads is stunning. BUT — the same can be said of college grads across all age groupings, so something else equally destructive is at work. I contend it’s the erosion of concentration. The culprit? The Chinese water torture we called the media and the addiction to consumerism that is its raison d’etre. The combination of these two diseases is creating a perfect race of eloi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloi] for the coming one-world order. -- J

JOHN LAWRENCE RÉ
Managing Partner/CEO
NORTHERN ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

And the following from Chad Glass:

Welcome to the age of "Jersey Shore" et al. That is the kind of mind numbing tripe that defines American culture today. That is the new normal, the desired level of the bar, the middle of the curve. Subsequently, critical thinking is cul-de-sacced at that level, set at the Jersey Shore level of critical thinking. "Reality" shows are idiotic time wasting activities that enable one to "hang out" and do absolutely nothing. Per this engineered model, the viewers all have surrogate "useless things" experienced -- based on a pre-packaged "hanging out" episode. So even that activity, hanging out, is not necessary anymore. One can never do anything at all and have a virtual experience.

That these experiences are created by external agencies, the viewer/consumer is that much more not in control of their own life. It is all someone else's reality. This is all very deliberate and planned in the hallowed production company board rooms, complete with war room style conference calls and video feeds. The strategies and scenarios are discussed at length with higher ups, out of town or overseas. It is a global operation to create a permanent zombie class of non-thinking human "units." But this is all never discussed overtly. The unwitting zombies just tune in and have non-discussions at work the next day over non-things. They laugh and chit chat and agree later to hang out after work, an empty existence, and have laughs and drinks over their non-reality.