Stephen Mitchell

Dino 246GTS

2012-01-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

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

The Batmobile

2012-01-26T13:35:00.001-08:00

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)

2012-01-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

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)

2012-01-22T00:36:00.000-08:00

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)

2012-01-18T19:13:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-13T13:27:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-09T21:58:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

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 Reinhart (I'm not certain of the spelling) 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

2012-01-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

(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.

Ferrari 330GTC

2011-12-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes one comes across a 'match made in Heaven' and it is recognizable from a mile away. Eduardo Renta and his Ferrari 330GTC is just such a match. Elegant, well presented and capable of holding one's interest are qualities shared by the man and his machine. Before heading out onto Mulholland Drive, Eduardo and I sat and talked for awhile at the Starbucks near the top of Beverly Glen and it was immediately clear that he understands his car and its place in the Ferrari line-up. His appreciation for its signature, vintage elements runs as deep as my own.

As we steered the Ferrari onto Mulholland followed by the Elysée Wednesday TV crew (Chad Glass, Jeanetta Dumouchel and Sean Mitchell on this occasion) the sound of the robust twelve cylinder engine brought back all the memories that one would expect. It was nervous and ready to run like any thoroughbred should be--and as with most Ferraris, you are always going slower than it wants to go.

When the 330GTC was first reviewed in the automotive press, it was generally held to be the best all-around Ferrari of the day combining performance and styling in a well-balanced package. Bill Harrah, whose Modern Classic Motors was the Western States Ferrari distributor (he was also a Nevada casino owner), chose one as his personal transportation. In fact, I believe that at least one magazine used Bill's personal car for its road test. The GTC is essentially a 275GTB with a four litre engine and its own unique, more restrained, styling.

It is easy to think of the GTC as a two-seater version of the 330 2+2 with regard to design and, I suppose, that's an accurate assessment. However, there are subtleties of design that make it a sublime variation on the theme first penned by Tom Tjaarda for the Series 1 2+2. It benefits greatly from the foreshortening and the proportions are far more aggressive than the photographs imply. The rear tumblehome creates a dynamic entirely lacking in the 2+2 and along with the reshaping of the headlights and grill, when seen in person, causes one to reevaluate the design giving it an upgrade in esteem.

It was interesting to hear everyone's opinions about the car when we parked on Mulholland to admire the car and take photographs. Chad offered comments as an artist about the design elements, Jeanetta likened the chrome trim--absent from modern machines--to the accessories worn by a stylish woman and Sean liked the combination of Ferrari sights and sounds so different from those of modern offerings.

As for my own impressions, the 330GTC has all of the characteristics that created the Ferrari legend and driving it puts one in a different world in a way other cars just cannot. The Ferrari is an experiential phenomenon that exceeds the consideration of aesthetics and performance--it takes you places both literally and figuratively. Soon, I will post extracts of this episode of Elysée Wednesday TV so you can get a sense of this car in action.

I want to thank Eduardo for generously sharing his Ferrari with us. I want, also, to thank Richard Mitchell of Black Horse Motors for making the introduction.

Virginia Madsen

2011-12-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

One evening I receive a call from a woman who wanted to talk about a segment of my series (Interview) which she had just watched on television. The caller was Virginia Madsen.

The story that caught her attention was about a woman living a solitary life in an isolated mountain cabin. The character is at one with the peaceful surroundings of nature where she lives with her dogs and the comforts she finds in her collection of books. It was as though she had taken a page from Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Alone, she felt secure but the undercurrent was that she needed the quiet and safety of self as a remedy to whatever life had imposed on her in earlier times. The story turns on the disruption of her idyll when her cabin is invaded by a fugitive who takes her hostage.

A lifetime earlier, I had seen The Collector with Terrence Stamp and Samantha Eggar, an excellent if disturbing film about captivity. I can't say that I had it consciously in mind as I created this story though there are similarities. What similarities there were disappeared in the second half of the second act--at the mid-point as Syd Field would say. Here, I told the tale of a woman who is able to neutralize the threat to her with a calm acceptance of her tormentor giving him nothing against which to attack. This curious void and lack of resistance threw off her captor's equilibrium disconcerting him. He became curious about her rather than certain, gradually putting aside the hatred that his mania had dictated to him. In the end, he surrenders himself to her and, subsequently, to the authorities. He finds himself in prison under a life sentence. It is then that the two marry each other.

Virginia told me that she was intrigued by the story as a film in which she could play the woman's role. She thought her brother (Michael), also an actor, would be perfect for the role of the captor. She requested that I send a cassette to the woman who was her manager at the time which I did. Subsequent phone conversations with the manager were, in stark contrast to my conversation with Virginia, disagreeable to say the least.

Another close encounter. Another lesson learned.

As a post script, the actress who played the book's author in the segment that caught Virginia Madsen's attention was Katherine James. She, too, had called me one day after having seen an (Interview) program on cable and wanted to talk to me about the series--she had seen other episodes. I invited her to come on the show and when she agreed, I created the story described above for her to play as I felt it resonated with who she was--at least, with whom I perceived her to be.

As I became better acquainted with Katherine, I learned she had been offered the title role in the movie Candy--a send up of Voltaire's Candide--that featured Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, John Huston, Walter Matthau and Ringo Starr amongst others. It was directed by Christian Marquand with a screenplay by Buck Henry from the novel by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. She declined the role and, instead, went off to London with Ginger Baker.

There's no business like show business.

Lamborghini Miura

2011-12-21T11:06:00.001-08:00

Back in the day, it seemed we were always going somewhere. It could be Matthew Ettinger and I taking our girlfriends to Las Vegas sampling the restaurants, the shows and the health club facilities (neither of us gambled--with anything but our lives, that is) and 'Vegas was still an elegant sort of place to be. Baseball caps were seen only in the downtown area or near the bus station and if you showed up on the Strip wearing flip-flops anywhere other than by the pool you would have been taken away and buried in the desert along with the other miscreants who had committed cardinal sins against the casinos.

Sometimes the excursions were local. Many's the time Matthew and I darted about Los Angles, his son Marcus with him in the Breadvan and his son Mason with me in the GTO. Occasionally, we were joined by John Andrews in his Lamborghini Miura--a beautiful car in orange with, I think, a standard a grey leather interior. I don't know that I would ever order an orange car--it was Frank Sinatra's favorite color, by the way--but the only other color offered initially by Lamborghini for the Miura was a vibrant, pale green. I'll take orange. On one very memorable occasion, John joined Matthew and me for a night ride which featured an episode of Matthew cliff-hanging in the Breadvan after sliding off a mountain road in Ice Canyon and losing power because the battery wasn't bolted down. It had slipped its cables.

There were times when John and I were off to see someone or something at some distant place and we would take the Miura. He would suggest that I drive, which I was always happy to do. It meant that he would have to share the passenger seat with my girlfriend Ruth, a tall, slender, pretty brunette with big brown eyes that could have inspired a Margaret Keane painting. I wonder who was getting the better deal in that arrangement.

The Miura was the first mid-engined car I'd ever driven and the handling dynamics are different than those of a front engine car. It felt very neutral as it tracked through corners. The big surprise for me though was when I first stepped on the accelerator pedal. It didn't budge. I thought maybe I was pushing on a dead pedal--the sort one finds to the left of the clutch pedal as a footrest--but that was ridiculous. I pushed harder and it finally moved and I heard the engine revs increase. I imagined that this is what the pilot of a Vickers VC10 must have experienced pushing rudder pedals attached to sixty yards of cable offering up maximum resistance. It was a stunning change from the GTO in which you only had to wiggle your toe to get a few thousand more RPMs on the tach.

I never knew whether John had effected some modification to the car that made the accelerator pedal a constant adversary or if the cause could be attributed to the flood of '66 in Florence, Italy. It seems that John bought the Miura used and sight unseen from Tom Meade and discovered the fact that it had been submerged at some point only after it landed on the docks in San Pedro. Life is an adventure and when you bought an exotic car in those days, you had doubled-down.

The Miura made a lovely noise and I enjoyed driving it very much. All things considered, I would have preferred a Lusso and the GTO was way out in front as far as I was concerned. However, the Miura was fun and it was different. It was a car that entertained the driver and I would like to drive one again sometime--preferably one that hadn't been in Florence in 1966.

Addiction Incorporated premiere in New York‏

2011-12-19T01:08:00.000-08:00

The first thing that caught my attention at the premiere of Addiction Incorporated at the Film Forum in New York was the theater marquee. Not only was Addiction announced as a New York Times Critics' Pick but it shared the marquee with the iconic French cinema classic Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) by Henri-Georges Clouzot starring Yves Montand, a film that inspired two remakes--Violent Road (aka Hell's Highway) directed by Howard W. Koch in 1958 and Sorcerer directed by William Friedkin in 1977. Addiction Incorporated was in very good company.

(Stephen with Victor DeNoble)

The theater was packed and the audience very attentive. During the Q&A session with producer/director Charlie Evans Jr. and the film's principal Victor DeNoble it became obvious that a very informed public was in attendance. Many of the faces in the audience could be seen on the screen including Mitchell Zeller (Associate Commissioner and director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Tobacco Programs and served as the FDA’s representative on tobacco issues in all dealings with the Congress, federal and state agencies, public health groups and foreign governments from 1993 until June 2000) and Steven C. Parrish (who served as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs, Philip Morris Companies Inc.). Also in the audience was Sheelah A. Feinberg of the Coalition for a Smoke-free City A very informed audience, one might say.

(Mitchell Zeller with Stephen)

The premiere presented the opportunity to reacquaint myself with authors Thomas O'Callaghan, his wife Eileen, and Martin Fitzpatrick (who shares my passion for all things John le Carré) who were invited by Jeanetta Dumouchel.

(Stephen with Martin Fitzpatrick)

(Jeanetta Dumouchel and Martin Fitzpatrick)

The 'after party' was an opportunity to meet personally with others involved or having an interest in the project and I especially enjoyed speaking with Mitchell Zeller, Sheelah Feinberg, Tony Cedras (who played various instruments on the Addiction musical score) and his friend Lydia Matthews who is Dean of Academic Programs at Parsons The New School for Design.

(Tony Cedras with Stephen)

(Stephen with Lydia Matthews)

(Lydia Matthews and Jeanetta Dunouchel)

It was a privilege to be a part of this project as a co-producer and Charlie is due full honors not only for the fine result but for the impact the film is already having on those who have seen it. My advice would be to show Addiction Incorporated to someone you love. I'll be following my own advice this week showing it to someone who is very close to me.
http://www.addictionincorporated.com/

Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

I was prepared for a pleasant flight home from New York. The premiere of Addiction Incorporated at Film Forum had been a wonderful experience providing the opportunity to witness the accomplishment of a friend and associate and a chance to meet and commune with like-minded people whose commitment to an idea had cost them more than can be adequately accounted for. Conversations with intelligent and thoughtful individuals had been invigorating and inspiring. New York is always a dynamic experience but this trip was especially rewarding.

Leaving the hotel early, I hadn’t time to read the copy of the New York Times that was delivered to my room. I decided to save that pleasure for the flight home and took the paper with me. Ensconced in a comfortable seat on the Airbus and heading toward TOC, I read that Christopher Hitchens had died, succumbing to pneumonia—a complication of esophageal cancer. I am devastated.

I cannot say why I feel so connected to Christopher. His succinct summation of Sarah Palin during the last election cycle and his voluntary subjection to waterboarding were two outstanding moments in the life of a journalist, I thought. His position with regard to the Deity challenged many of us to review and consider our own thoughts on the subject thus qualifying Christopher, in my view, as the quintessential philosopher.

He had a way with words did Christopher. This was an art form in which he excelled. He was a wordsmith--a consummate communicator--and that, I think, is the highest compliment I can pay to anyone.

It is a supreme irony that I return from a journey celebrating the efforts of Charlie Evans Jr. and Victor DeNoble to spread the word about nicotine addiction and the horrific effects of tobacco on human mortality to read about the loss of a valued intellect and instigator of critical thought.

Woe is all of us.

Maserati type 61 'Birdcage'

2011-12-15T21:48:00.000-08:00

As my plane is sitting in the queue for take-off from Lax to JFK the other day, I glance out the window to see a most unlikely sight. What looked like an aircraft tow tractor passed by going the opposite direction using a lane that ran between the taxiway and the runway. Strapped to its platform was an immaculate, white Maserati Type 61 'Birdcage' like the one pictured here. As the plane made its U-turn and accelerated down the runway, I looked to see what had become of this rare race car but to no avail.

Would that the camera had been nearby.

Reviews of Addiction Incorporated

2011-12-15T13:36:00.000-08:00

New York Times

http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/movies/victor-j-denoble-guides-addiction-incorporated-review.html

Radio
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/dec/14/addiction-incorporated/

Film journal
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/reviews/specialty-releases/e3i5ddd2755484eeea78efd191065651aed

NPR
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/14/143464905/addiction-inc-big-tobacco-keeping-us-hooked

eTaiwan
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1787030

Cinespect
http://cinespect.com/?p=2544

A.V. Club
http://www.avclub.com/articles/addiction-incorporated,66614/?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=feeds&utm_source=channel_film

Rotten Tomatoes
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/addiction_incorporated/

And:

http://newyork.timeout.com/arts-culture/film/2337813/review-addiction-incorporated

http://www.azreporter.com/tt/1762.html

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/kicks_tobacco_ash_LRc6gDLqmeSoTPhAYDgqHM

http://moviereviewintelligence.com/movie-reviews/addiction_incorporated/

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/addiction-incorporated

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/addiction-incorporated/5964

http://www.artnewsworldwide.com/the-new-york-times-arts/57266-movie-review-victor-j-denoble-guides-addiction-incorporated-review.html

Variety reviews Addiction Incorporated

2011-12-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

Scientists gather to observe an animated test subject in a re-enactment from "Addiction Incorporated"

Addiction Incorporated (Documentary)
By Dennis Harvey

A Variance Films release of an Acappella Pictures presentation of a Dune Road Films production. Produced by Charles Evans Jr. Executive producer, Charmaine Parcero. Co-producers, Devorah Devries, Stephen Mitchell. Directed by Charles Evans Jr.

With: Victor DeNoble, Paul Mele, Russ Herman, David A. Kessler, Michael C. Moore, Keith Summa, Henry Waxman, Steven C. Parrish.

Potent docu "Addiction Incorporated" chronicles the long and tortured road traveled to establish federal regulation of the tobacco industry -- a cause finally won largely due to the revelation that some manufacturers long had proof cigarettes were addictive, despite decades of public denial...

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946743/

Ford GT40 in Southern California

2011-12-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

My friend Randy Evans recently had an encounter with a Ford GT40--not the remake, but an original--that is being used daily on the streets of Southern California by its owner who is a figure in the Shelby American club. He graciously shared them with me and I share them with you with his permission.

Rolls-Royce twins at Santa Barbara

2011-12-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

While my friend Gary Wales of the Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman of the Guard Extraordinary also known as the Beefeaters was in Seattle attending a Beefeaters gathering, his Rolls-Royce twins (the subject of the Rolls-Royce speedsters: A matched set video) were entered in the Santa Barbara Concours d'Elegance. These photos show them receiving the Panache award. Marilyn Wales, Gary's wife, is seen being interviewed in the second photo.

Congratulations!

Larry Crane: Auto Aficionado: Westlake Malibu Lifestyle Magazine

2011-12-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Larry Crane, who was the editor/designer of the splendid Auto Aficionado magazine, wrote a profile about me in Westlake Malibu Lifestyle magazine. Larry kindly sent it to me in a PDF today. Larry's article can be read in digital version (pages 24 & 26) online at:

http://wmlifestyle.com/wmlifestyle_nov_dec_2011/digital_issue.html

Porsche 911S: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

2011-12-04T13:19:00.000-08:00

My experience driving Porsches is very limited. For a short time I had a Speedster and loved looking out through the narrow slits that were the windscreen and side windows giving the impression of driving a Sherman tank. As much as anyone, I enjoyed watching Paul Newman in the movie Harper driving the faded blue Speedster with primer patches and especially liked that the engine heard on the soundtrack was actually that of a Porsche Speedster. Kudos for Hollywood on that occasion. But having most of my automotive experience in high powered, high top-end machines like the GTO and 454 Corvettes, the Speedster felt underpowered on the freeways--nimble though it was on Mulholland--and I always felt like I was having to keep out of everyone's way and in constant danger of being run over by an 18-wheeler. That was not the case with the 911S.

I didn't own the pale yellow 911S Targa I speak of and we may never know who actually did--but more about that later. What was known at the time is the it belonged, if you will, to a friend who came and went in my life leaving a lasting impression and introducing me to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. He was a hold-over hippie with a long braided ponytail and a seemingly endless supply of patchouli oil, also known as hippie perfume. He was a contradiction in terms in every possible way but we hit it off as both of us enjoyed fine restaurants, good movies and a few other things as well. High speed driving counted among them.

I only drove it the one time but could have grown to like the 911S even if it didn't have a V12 that revved to seven grand. It was a thoroughbred and it liked to be let off the leash, which is exactly what happened that night. Running across the desert floor at about three in the morning, I was seeing 130 on the speedometer. I don't know how much the Porsche had in reserve but it felt comfortable and very stable. As it pushed through the dark night, Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida came on the tape player. Up went the volume and, possibly too, the speed. We were listening to the full, seventeen-minute version for those taking notes.

At speed in the dark desert, the road ahead appeared like the optical effect used by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey to represent Dave Bowman's flight through infinity & beyond--an impression enhanced by In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida dialed in to 11. Six minutes, thirty seconds into the song, the music fades to feature a drum solo by Ron Bushy that is at once pagan and mystical. At 9:11, the organ brings us back to the theme which at 11:00 becomes agitated. At about this time, I see bright lights in the distance reminding me again of the Kubrick film when the Monolith is being inspected on the moon--an eerie extraterrestrial scene with cosmic resonance. At 13:04, Ron Bushy is seriously back on the drums and the music incorporates plaintiff sounds that could come from an animal in distress as we come up to the highway construction crew which occupies the right lane for a distance of what seemed like several miles using huge machines that look grotesque half hidden in the dark and partly overexposed by the dazzling work lights.

Should I have slowed? Yes. Did I? I'll leave you to know the answer for yourself. By the time the music played out, the strange scene with its blinding lights was at our six and disappearing into a small speck on the horizon when the vast darkness snuffed it out. It was the most surreal seventeen minutes of my entire life. I've put the video of the song below in case anyone should want to close their eyes and imagine the experience I've described.

As for my friend, he disappeared like those lights in the desert night never to be seen again. Before he was gone, I learned that he had ties to an East coast crime family, the Porsche was stolen and the police had issued him a document certifying that the Porsche was not stolen. How surreal is that? I'm just glad I didn't know all of this that night in the desert.

Addiction Incorporated: Theatrical Trailer

2011-12-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

Ferrari 250 LWB California

2011-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

This wonderful car is undergoing restoration by its current owner. Here is a note concerning the car from friend and former owner Gary Wales:

“I traded the car straight across from Ed Jurist of The Vintage Car Store in Nyac, New York for my A6GCS 2000, After blowing up the engine [Note: This happened when Gary was ‘flipped-off’ by the driver of a 427 Corvette. Gary returned the salutation and a speed contest ensued with catastrophic results to the V12 engine]. I traded it for a Mercedes-Benz 190SL convertible which had been put together from two damaged cars. 1203 GT was maroon with black interior and I did no mods on the car whatsoever. As far as what color I would choose, I would have the original color that it now has but would have a biscuit interior. Black leather is to damn hot in a sunny clime.”

Didier de Radiguès

2011-11-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

Appel à témoins de monsieur Didier de Radiguès: [English translation below]

Ce matin, le réveil aura été plus dur que les autres jours parce qu'en me levant, j'ai dû constater qu'on était venu me cambrioler et m'arracher toute ma collection de casques, de trophées, de combinaisons et de souvenirs de ma carrière!!!

Si vous avez des informations à ce sujet ou que vous avez entendu parler de quelque chose qui vous semble étrange, vous pouvez toujours m'en avertir à l'adresse mail suivante trophees27@gmail.com.

De tout coeur merci.

Pourriez-vous aussi faire tourner ce message?

Bien à vous,
Didier de Radiguès

Call for witnesses by Mr. Didier Radiguès:

This morning waking has been harder than other days because when I got up, I found that someone had come and robbed me taking my collection of helmets, trophies, and racing suits, the memories of my career!

If you have any information on this or have heard of something that seems strange, you can always let me know at trophees27@gmail.com.

Wholeheartedly thank you.

Could you also run this message?

Sincerely,
Didier de Radiguès

T-Bone Burnett

2011-11-26T11:57:00.000-08:00

One afternoon the phone rings and a fellow by the name of T-Bone Burnett is on the line. He says, "My girlfriend and I have been watching your interview series on cable and there's something going on you may not know about." T-Bone goes on to tell me that their circle of friends are fans of the series and call each other whenever they discover that an episode is airing. They would then watch it and afterwards have a discussion about the theme of the story that was presented in the show. He was right; I did not know this sort of thing was happening.

It was usual during the years the series ran to get calls from people like Marlon Brando, Tita Cahn, Henry Jaglom, Steven Keats, June Lockhart, Adrian Lyne, Ryan O'Neal or Ron Shelton. These phone calls were always fascinating and usually lasted up to thirty minutes or more as we would discuss the show, its unusual concept and, of course, the story. Very often, such a phone call would end in a transaction to option or buy the story. In any case, these conversations conveyed that the callers had been personally moved by the show's content and it was very gratifying that artists whose work had pleased me were pleased by my own efforts.

What set T-Bone Burnett's call apart from all the others was that a de facto group had formed for a time around the show. It recalled my time living in Paris when a movie would air on French television followed by a televised discussion or debate about the story--except that these discussions were taking place off-camera. What impressed me was the T-Bone had taken the trouble to call and tell me about their interest. It was a very thoughtful thing for him to do.

T-Bone is a twelve-time Grammy Award winner and entered my Hall of Fame with his contribution to The Big Lebowski.

Ferrari GTO: Audio recorded in Paris for Marc Sonnery

2011-11-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

"Hi Mr Mitchell,

I'm 13 and I have a huge passion for cars. I am fascinated by the fact that you drove your GTO every day, just like it was made to. I wish everyone would do that...Can I ask, where might I find the tape that describes the difference of the car when you owned it and now? It sounds very interesting to hear it.

Thanks, hope to hear from you!

A kid"

Here you are. This audio track was recorded in Paris for Marc Sonnery as we did a walk-around of 3987 while it was on exhibition at L'art de l'automobile, Les Arts et Métiers.

From Serge Dermanian who looked after 3987 and the other cars in the Ralph Lauren collection:

"Stephen..great! Love it! My comments:

The dry sump oil tank, holds about 24qts of lubricant. I remember it well when I owned GTB-C 9027, I opened a full case of Castrol GTX oil to fill the thank, & so, so right about the deep stick! You had to get the engine really warm so oil reaches the running temp. This had to be done with the engine running at idling!

I have mixed emotions about the front driving lights. These are ordinary, rectangular Cibié lights fitted in to a recessed body area.

Good work! Regards!!

Serge Dermanian"

La Carrera Panamericana 2011: Tomás López Rocha

2011-11-15T15:24:00.000-08:00

Hola amigo,

We won historic B class the Carrera Panamericana 2011 in our Porsche 911. Un abrazo, Stephen. I hope to see you soon.

Tomás López Rocha

Addiction Incorporated

2011-11-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

Today, I attended the Los Angeles screening of Addiction Incorporated--a documentary about the tobacco industry directed by Charlie Evans Jr. who is also the originating producer of the film. Charlie’s interest in telling the story of Victor DeNoble, whose research at Phillip Morris and subsequent public testimony had a drastic impact on the entire tobacco industry, goes back to 1994. I came late on the scene in 2005 and was privileged to make a modest contribution as a co-producer to this project that is now complete and ready for exhibition to the public. The photo above shows Charlie, me, Charmaine Parcero who is the film's executive producer and Victor DeNoble.

After the screening, Charlie and Victor answered questions from the audience which included Stefan Wente (seen with me above), who I met at one of Charlie’s music dinners and Elysée Wednesday regulars Jeanetta Dumouchel, Tom Gurnee and Eric Moreno.

Charlie’s perseverance and single-minded determination brought this project to fruition. His skillful direction and orchestration of this story make it a compelling film worth a second and third viewing. I am very proud of the final result and pleased to have been included in the effort to bring Addiction Incorporated to the screen.

http://www.addictionincorporated.com/

American Film Market

2011-11-09T00:12:00.001-08:00

Last night I attended a gathering linked to the American Film Market at the Saluté wine bar in Venice. It was hosted by my friend Roy M Martens (who created The Film Portal), Mac Africa and Tifanie Jodeh, Esq. Some excellent jazz was perfomed by Jeff Goldblum and The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. John Altman played a wicked saxophone and Lizann Warner made a memorable appearance as one of the guest singers.

Roy attends our Elysée Wednesday gatherings when he is in town and we make a habit of spending time together at Cannes during the festival there. With his Film Portal social network, he provides news, tips, information and--perhaps most importantly--connections aimed at enhancing one's film market and festival experience whether it be Cannes, AFM, Toronto, Venice or Berlin.

Thanks to Roy for a delightful evening!

Ferrari World Finals, Mugello, Nov 6, 2011 from John Murray

2011-11-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Elysée Wednesday member and Ferrari owner John Murray attended the Ferrari World Finals at Mugello a couple of days ago. He was kind enough to send along these photos of what went on. Thank you, John, for putting us there!

George Carlin and Formula 1

2011-11-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

After the Ontario Speedway had been built, a non-championship Formula 1 event was staged as a preliminary to having the track approved for a championship event to be placed on the calendar the following year. It was an unusual race being run in two heats. There was an interesting mix of drivers with Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx driving for Ferrari. In addition to the Formula 1 drivers of the time--Emerson Fittipaldi, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, Chris Amon, Graham Hill, Ronnie Peterson et al--the field included American drivers A.J. Foyt, Mark Donohue, George Follmer, Swede Savage, Tony Adamowicz and Al and Bobby Unser. I attended the press/V.I.P. cocktail party held on an evening prior to the race. Jacky Ickx, in his blue blazer and grey flannels, looked more like a fashion plate from Gentleman's Quarterly or Vogue Hommes than a racing driver but everyone present knew his abilities.

On race day, I hired a limousine to take my girlfriend and me the forty or so miles to the racetrack. As we pulled into the parking area we found ourselves behind another limousine. After a traffic control staffer spoke with the driver ahead of us, that limo was directed to a priority parking area. As we pulled up, the staffer asked our driver if we were with the Nixon party. "Yes, we are," he replied ensuring a prime parking spot for us and a premium tip for himself. Apparently, the limo that had preceded us was transporting Tricia Nixon (and her husband, Ed Cox) who, I thought at the time, made for an unlikely race queen, but there you have it. I believe she presented the winner's trophy.

After a short walk from the car to our seats, we discovered that we were sitting right in front of George Carlin and his two beautiful companions for the afternoon. All this and Formula 1, too! George kept us entertained the entire afternoon with a few editorials and running commentary that were clearly not 'material' but off-the-cuff, stream-of-geniusness that made the day unforgettable. When the results of the two heats were combined, the winner was Mario Andretti in the Ferrari followed by Jackie Stewart in a Tyrell and Denny Hulme in a McLaren.

Strolling back to the parking area with our new friend and his companions, we said goodbye and got into our respective limousines that were next to each other in the private area. I guess George was with the Nixon party, too!

John Fitch signing Carrera Panamericana poster

2011-11-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

On a rainy day in Connecticut, our good friend Don Klein made arrangements for John Fitch to sign sixty of our full-size, numbered Carrera Panamericana posters that artist Chad Glass executed for our documentary. This clip was shot by Don with his phone as they unwrapped the shipping parcel.

Rolls-Royce speedsters: A matched set

2011-10-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from a special day spent with Gary Wales and the pair of boat-tail Rolls-Royce speedsters he designed and built on two 1937 Rolls-Royce chassis.

Phil Hill and Peugeot

2011-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

From Serge Dermanian:

"In 1960, Peugeot/Renault USA shared common import facilities in New Jersey for the North American market when Peugeot launched their new 403, a 4-door sedan. I am certain many will remember that car and some of you probably owned one.

To publicize this new car from France, Peugeot asked Phil Hill to participate in an unusual way but typical of 50's advertisers. They recorded Phil's voice introducing the new car. Recording him at Riverside Raceway, you hear race cars going by in the background! One side is the 33&1/3 LP, in red, the other side is the nationally famous picture of Phil, sitting on the roof of the Peugeot with his legs hanging down, through the sun roof.

This is a unique piece of memorabilia of a great driver who gave us so much enjoyment every time he sat behind the wheel of a race car during these heroic days of racing.

Serge"

If any collector would like to acquire these documents of Phil Hill and those times, contact me via this blog--simply post a comment here which I will not publish--and I will put you in touch with Serge.

LAPD ride-along

2011-10-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

In the mid-seventies, I probably looked like the last person one would imagine riding in the front seat of a black and white Los Angeles Police Department squad car. Looking more like a musician than anything else, I saw a lot of double-takes from people wondering why I was in the front seat and not handcuffed in the back seat on my way to jail. On these occasions, I got a cop's perspective on the city in which I was born and grew up. The view through the windshield of a black & white was very different than that through the windshield of a Ferrari to which I was accustomed, needless to say.

I rode with a sergeant in downtown Los angeles out of Parker Center--the Glass House, as it was called. Later, I rode in Van Nuys and, later still, in Venice. Leaving Parker Center for the first time, the sergeant gave me his call sign telling me that if he were to be shot I was to use the radio to tell the dispatcher that there was an officer down and give his call sign. It put the job description into sharp focus.

We had just left the Parker Center garage on that first ride when the dispatcher called a 211 in progress. Someone was robbing a bank only a few blocks away. We went to Code 3 which meant lights and siren. In those days--maybe today as well--only one unit responding to a call was allowed to use lights and siren. Everyone else went lights-only. The reason for this was that when two or more units used sirens, too many accidents occurred because one could not hear the other as their own siren blocked out the sound of the other.

We pulled to the curb and left the black & white parked in a traffic lane. I followed the sergeant along the sidewalk until we got close to the bank at which point he flattened himself against the wall--gun drawn--and continued toward the bank. I followed suit. As we got close to the entrance, someone called Code 4. The bank robber had surrendered or been subdued. The event was over.

On another occasion, we responded to a disturbance at a transient hotel. Two fellows who had scraped together enough money to pay for a cheap room for the night were having a dispute. We arrived after the first unit had responded. The two vagrants were venting their anger to the officers already on the scene about what one had done to the other. As the sergeant and I approached, the senior of the two officers interrupted them and pointed to me. "Tell it to the lieutenant." Suddenly, I was a lieutenant on the LAPD! Without losing a beat, both men aired their grievances to me. I listened to them both and kept my silence for a moment or two after they had finished. Then I told them, "Either you both behave, go back to your rooms and stay there or the officers will take you down to the Glass House where you will spend the rest of the night until a judge can see you in the morning." They barely said thank you before disappearing back into the hotel happy to remain free for the night to enjoy the relative comfort of their rooms.

That same evening, we responded to a call about a man trapped beneath a car in a parking lot. He had been hiding and when the lady backed out of the parking space, she ran over him. Hearing him scream, she jumped out of her car and ran away leaving him pinned by one of the wheels. He was suspicious and wouldn't say why he was hiding but there was no reason to arrest him and away he went lucky not to have been crushed. Much later that night, we responded to a call at an emergency room in a downtown hospital. They had a dead body. It was the same man. It just wasn't his night.

Van Nuys was a different environment. Robberies and drugs seemed to define the action. It was as if some people got off on the violence regardless of the minimal return. Venice was unlike either downtown or Van Nuys. Gang activity was the primary concern and a black & white unit was not the safest ride in that area. It felt like a battleground in an undeclared war. Driving the same streets in my own cars never gave me the same feeling though I may have had a false sense of security.

I think, more than anything else, those experiences gave me an understanding of just how thin is the social veneer.

A matched set of Rolls-Royces

2011-10-23T07:16:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Elysée Wednesday TV filmed with my friend Gary Wales and his matched set of boat-tail Rolls-Royce roadsters. Gary designed and built the bodies--using aluminum--on Rolls-Royce chassis dating from 1937. He moved the engine and windshield scuttle back considerably to give these roadsters the idealized look of a classic sporting car of the time. Gary is a gifted artist and has a perfect sense of what makes a vintage car compelling.

We drove the cars up Mulholland to Old Topanga Canyon Road ending up at the top of Topanga overlook of the San Fernando Valley. My son Sean was along for the ride and filmed from the passenger seat in the second Rolls driven by Andreas. I rode with Gary. Jeanetta Dumouchel handled the still photography and we were joined by Gary's brother Johnny and his associate Gary McLaughlin operating a D-Cam--a remote controlled, mini-helicopter equipped with a digital video camera.

These cars sound like racing cars and with their light-weight coachwork, they move along at an enthusiastic clip. I enjoyed Gary's running commentary as we negotiated the tight canyon curves--I think our viewers will, too. He is a character with a high entertainment factor.

As one would expect, these Rolls-Royce twins attracted a lot of attention. They produced immediate smiles everywhere we went. Over the years, Gary has created some amazing and unforgettable bodies on classic platforms--Bentley, Talbot-Lago, Rolls-Royce--but with this matched set of twin Rollers, I think he has out-done himself.

Jay Sebring

2011-10-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

The sixties were a time of change in many ways. Political and cultural upheaval were the order of the day. Fashion and style were evolving quickly. If one has seen video clips of the Beatles' historic first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, one might remember seeing a shot of the camera panning across the audience. What struck me about this shot was that everyone--whether youngster or adult--looked like they were in their fifties or older. It was as un-stylish as a crowd could ever be. All that was about to change.

I met the actor Robert Phillips (The Dirty Dozen, The Killers) on the set of Mission: Impossible--either The Contender or The Council episode, I can't recall which--when Paul Stanley was directing. We met again at a party Paul and Jacqueline Stanley threw at their home in the Pacific Palisades. Robert usually played 'heavies', a movie term for bad guys. He looked like a bad guy but wasn't. We talked about movies and acting and the business, which is to say that I drew him out wanting to learn as much as I could--an instinct that would serve me well a lifetime later with (Interview). Before we parted company that evening, Robert gave me the name of his barber saying he thought I would like him. The name was Jay Sebring.

It was a time when hair stylists were becoming celebrities. Gene Shacove--the inspiration for Warren Beatty's character in the movie Shampoo and an owner of the hot disco The Candy Store--was known for taking care of well-known ladies. Jay Sebring was becoming known as the hair cutter to the male stars of Hollywood with Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty among his clients. I called for an appointment and remember seeing Jay's black Porsche parked in front of Sebring International on Fairfax Avenue when I arrived. I think it was the first time I ever walked away from a haircut without a scowl on my face--probably because the way he cut my hair made it look as though I hadn't had a haircut. I became a regular customer. The photo of me below taken during that period shows his handiwork.

Later, I met Sharon Tate on the set of the Dean Martin film The Wrecking Crew. Jay and Sharon had been a couple before she became involved with Roman Polanski. Thus, I had encountered two of those present at the house on Cielo Drive that terrible evening of August 9, 1969. Another person I'd met was supposed to be there that night but didn't go. His name was Steve McQueen.

Sometimes, six degrees of separation turns into one.

Maserati Quattroporte

2011-10-17T00:05:00.000-07:00

My life seemed to be on a course that was pretty well set. I would regularly travel to England and or Italy to buy cars and sell them in Los Angeles. In between trips, I bought and sold Corvettes. I lived in one of those stilt homes on the side of the hill above Coldwater Canyon with a stupendous view of the entire San Fernando Valley. My girlfriend worked at William Morris and, inexplicably, I'd already been paid to write two screenplays though I hadn't sought the assignments. My carport covered a couple of Maserati Mistrals and the driveway hosted a Corvette and a Maserati Quattroporte. A friend made the observation that I had it all. How interesting it is to hear how another views one's circumstances. Paris was still a few years away and that would handle what I felt was lacking in my life but at that moment, I was living the life of cars.

I really liked the Quattroporte and it was usually my first choice when selecting a car to drive for the day. I bought it in Milano from Robbie Crepaldi and I loved the sound of the four cam V8 engine. It was an unusual car for the time with its sports car handling and four door body. As a sports car, it should have been faster but for a sedan it was quick enough. I drove it for two weeks after it landed on the docks in Los Angeles before I discovered where they'd put reverse in that five speed gear box--a spring-loaded dog-leg up and to the left of first gear. The Frua design was familiar and unusual at the same time. The car seemed smaller in life than in photos. It had a rich leather interior that belonged in a Rolls-Royce. I would go for long rides in the car, usually at night. Sometimes my father would tag along.

I found it interesting that my father came to like the Quattroporte because he tried to talk me out of buying it. He was with me in Italy where we'd gone to the Italian Grand Prix with Stuart and Beverly Baumgard, visited the Ferrari factory and sampled pretty much everything Milano had to offer. One night when I was under the weather, my father went out alone and ended up joining a parade that turned out to be a mass demonstration by the Italian communist party. They all ended up in a park eating spaghetti, drinking wine and listening to jazz until the sun came up. On another occasion, I told a taxi driver we wanted to go to a jazz club and we ended up in a nightclub with some spectacular looking women who all seemed to want our company. It didn't take us too long to realize the taxi driver had delivered us to an upscale maison close instead of the jazz club I had requested. We enjoyed a memorable three hour lunch with Tom Meade while waiting to see some Maseratis in Parma where we were joined by the proprietor of the restaurant. We witnessed an operatic scene in Milano's Stazione Centrale at two-thirty in the morning when a man followed his suitcase-bearing wife into the train station pleading with her not to leave him. Half-way up the monumental stairway they drew a crowd--Lord knows from whence all those people had come at that hour--cheering and encouraging her to return home with him (after much coaxing, she did). We danced with fashion models (it was catalog week) every night at the Nepenthe. We chatted amiably with the elegantly dressed Christian, an impoverished Italian nobleman-turned-car smuggler (he looked like Curt Jürgens), at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele over our afternoon coffee. We enjoyed ourselves for an entire month in Italy and maybe that is why my father came to like the Quattroporte as much as I did.

These photos show my father with Tom Meade in the distance and me with Beverly and Stuart Baumgard (who then owned GTO 3987) at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

I have been back to Milano-- shooting part of a movie on one occasion--and so much of the city is exactly as it was when I was buying cars but the circumstances have changed. It is funny how the thought of a car can conjure up so many memories.

Lyle Tanner on Ed Niles & Ferrari SWB 1465

2011-10-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

I received this note from Lyle Tanner, a fellow Ferrari Owners Club member back in the day and proprietor of Lyle Tanner Ferrari Parts:

"Stephen:

I would like to mention that with Ed's help, I got #1465 Interim Short Wheelbase. Raced at Le Mans in 1959. They made six. Roberto Goldoni got the car for me. I couldn't get it started when it came off the ship.

I finally looked under the dashboard and there was another key that turned the battery on and off. Once turned, it ran great. The first time I pulled up to fill the tank with gas, the attendant and I thought there was a leak under the car after 25 gallons went into the car. We opened the trunk and discovered there was no trunk, just a 37 gallon gas tank.

Also interesting is when you got the car over about 140mph, the wiper blades would lift off the windshield.

I weighed the car one day with about 1/2 a tank and me standing on the scale. I couldn't believe the whole package weighed 2,300lbs.

Ed sold me a 500 Mondial. RHD and no LHS door. My wife at the time hated it. I was an engineer for the City of LA at the time and would often part it in the LA City Hall garage.

Can you imagine doing that today? After about one year, Ed bought it back.

Lyle "

[Photo Daniel Vaughan]

Ed Niles & the Ferrari Breadvan

2011-10-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

In response to the 'Gary Wales & the Ferrari Breadvan' post comes this anecdote from Ed Niles:

"Along with Matthew, Gary is one of the great characters of our world. Although I’ve heard this tale before (several times?) it still brings a chuckle.

Speaking of oft-repeated tales, I was responsible for the B-V coming here. My friend and Lusso owner Gordon Culp saw that I was having fun and making money, so he said, “Let me have the next Ferrari that your friend Roberto (Goldoni, in Rome) comes up with.” OK, so the next one was the B-V. I told Roberto to put a substantial deposit on it, which he did, although somewhat impecunious at the time. Then Gordon got to look at the pix, and said, “Gee, I’m going to have to spend some money re-shaping the body; I want the back to look like a GTO.” After I talked him out of that idea, he went to his banker, whose first question was, “The car is here in LA so we can inspect it, right?” Followed by, “you do have a California pink slip, right?” Somehow I thought that Gordon had the money.

Well, the upshot of it all was that my friend Gordon was not as hip as I had thought, and in the meantime Roberto was mailing me every day about his deposit. So much for trying to be a nice guy/middleman. That was when I started calling around, and when I got to Dick Merritt I hit the jackpot. Dick had just teamed up with Gary, a former stock-broker, and they were buying.

Dick has his own version of bringing the car back, which very roughly approximates Gary’s.

You can’t imagine two more disparate characters than Dick and Gary, but that’s another story."

Gary Wales & the Ferrari Breadvan

2011-10-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

In this excerpt, Gary tells me about driving the Ferrari Breadvan from New York to Detroit in the dead of winter.

Elysée Wednesday TV

2011-10-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

Last evening we established the plan for EWTV. Present were Matthew Ettinger (former Ferrari Breadvan owner and long-time friend), Larry Crane (Automobile Quarterly, Auto Aficionado, he appears in my Carrera Panamericana documentary), Chad Glass (he did the poster for the Carrera doc and the cover art for my GTO book), Richard Mitchell (Black Horse Motors), Jeanetta Dumouchel (a producer with me on the Carrera doc), Kenny Lombino (Ferrari Club of America), Martin Mervel (Studio Slab Architects), Eric Moreno (Ferrari enthusiast and EW regular), automotive designer Greg Maga and model maker Antoine Pallaud.

It was a very productive gathering and the format and tone of the series came into sharp focus. Two segments have already been shot though not edited and plans were set into motion for shooting the next segments including one proposed by Gary Wales, though unable to attend last evening, involving an outing in his matched set of boat-tail Rolls-Royces. Ed Niles was unable to attend but will be a valued member of the Elysée Mob.

We have assembled an interesting collection of individuals with distinct personalities, backgrounds and interests. I think the adventures we will be filming should be entertaining and, just possibly, informative.

Ferrari 16m Scuderia Spider raw footage

2011-10-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some clips of my ride with Kenny Lombino in his 16M. No editing or narration--just some raw footage. Another teaser of things to come.

Ferrari 16M Scuderia Spider

2011-10-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the pleasure of going on an exciting drive with Kenny Lombino of the Ferrari Club of America. It was an In Your Area drive that Kenny hosts on a monthly basis. I first met Kenny a year or so ago when he came to one of our Elysée Wednesday gatherings. We ran into each other again at the unveiling of the Ferrari FF in Beverly Hills. Kenny extended an invitation to me to be his ride-along in one of the monthly runs, which I gladly accepted. He cautioned me by saying cryptically, "It may be a different Ferrari." I knew Kenny drove an F430 spider and I responded by saying, "One's as good as another."

Sometimes, one is better than another. Kenny's new ride is a black 16M Scuderia spider--one of 499 built. The 16M is Ferrari's commemoration of having won 16 constructor's championships in Formula 1. With about 500 horsepower, a dry weight of 2954 lbs., electronic controls for stability and traction and a top speed of 196, it is a stunning package. This would be Kenny's first run with the car. I was honored to be along for the shakedown cruise.

We were joined by a number of fine people in their Ferraris--a couple of Maranellos, a couple of F430 spiders, an F430 Berlinetta, a 360 spider and a 308 GTS all of which looked and sounded like brand new cars. We were going to lunch in Wrightwood and took a meandering route through the desert hills and forested mountains to get there. The roads meandered. We did not.

Ferrari engines have always had a signature sound. The engines that powered the cars I owned--the GTO, Lusso, PF coupe, etc.--were very distinctive with their twelve cylinder cadence and timing chains. The new generation of V8 Ferraris are just as recognizable and distinct from other performance cars. To hear one passing in traffic is exciting. To hear its throaty song just over your shoulder is a thrill. When the throttle is opened, the sound transforms into something I can't describe in words but, by itself, justifies the price of the car.

Let me say that I am usually a bad passenger. I have driven high performance cars all my life. I attended the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School and know how a car should be handled at speed. It requires understanding of the physics involved and finesse with regard to the tendencies of the car one is driving. Within minutes, I can become very ill-at-ease when someone else is driving. As John Fitch told me, "A driver is always an optimist and a passenger is always a pessimist." Truer words were never spoken!

As we hit the first series of tight, decreasing radius turns leading up a fairly steep hill, I broke out in laughter. Kenny was hitting it hard and really putting it to the road. Late braking, early acceleration out of each turn and making the suspension accept the G-forces as it was designed to do, Kenny handled the car exactly as I would have done. He knew what he was doing and my only worry was trying to keep the hand-held camera as steady as possible under the circumstances. Kenny's last-minute braking reminded me of Richard Mitchell's description 'Stops on a dime and gives you nine cents change'!

The 16M never put a foot wrong and rewarded Kenny's skillful hand at the wheel. As I wrote in an earlier post, I feel that attendance at a performance driving should be mandatory for anyone seeking a driver's license. When the type of cars that were with us on the drive are in the hands of people who care enough to take this kind of instruction, it brings a level of competence and responsibility to which everyone on the road should aspire.

Many thanks, Kenny, for a very memorable day!

This from Darren Costello:

“Today Lake Forest Sportscars (north of Chicago) had a
Concours D'Elegance. Lots of great cars. Ferrari, Aston, etc.
Look at what my son (drivers seat) climbed into. When I saw
your update I couldn't resist.”

Ferrari Maranello

2011-10-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Some evenings are better than others.

Ferrari GTO photos from Larry Crane

2011-09-27T16:54:00.000-07:00

In recent months, I've made the acquaintance of Larry Crane after Richard Mitchell said I should speak to him about his Carrera Panamericana tribute Ford as I was shooting the Carrera documentary at the time. I made contact with Larry and he graciously joined us in the hills of Griffith Park so we could include footage of his car and an interview with him in the Carrera documentary. During lunch at the Figaro Bistrot on Vermont, I discovered we both loved cars to an extraordinary degree and shared an appreciation for David E. Davis, Jr.

In the months following our first meeting, Larry has attended Elysée Wednesday--usually with Ed Niles in tow--and we have exchanged our views on various car-centric subjects. A few days ago, Larry wrote to me saying he was interested in doing a profile piece on me for Westlake Malibu Lifestyle magazine. Why not? It was during the course of his interviewing me that he makes reference to photos he shot of my Ferrari GTO. This took me by surprise and I asked if I could see them. He sent them immediately.

What surprised me was that--though the photos were obviously taken during the time I owned the car (SM1 license plates being the most obvious telltale)--I did not recognize the time and place shown in the photos. Larry remembered. He told me he had snapped the photos in the paddock at Riverside Raceway. That unlocked the memory. I'd driven alone to see a Can Am race and spent most of my time wandering about the garages rubbing elbows with (Sir) Stirling Moss, Brock Yates, Bill Hickman and, of course, the drivers who were racing that day. I remember standing near the end of the back straight watching Dennis Hulme in his amazing McLaren M8D flying towards the braking point for Turn 9.

I wouldn't have imagined that, while I was walking about like a kid in a candy store taking in as many of the sights and sounds of an important race as I could, someone I'd meet a lifetime later would happen upon my car and take the time to photograph it thereby providing me a memory that would have been lost forever had he not done so. I didn't have a camera that day but I am very glad that Larry did. I told him that I really enjoy the fact that the photos show my GTO parked casually between a Ferrari 275 GTB and a 289 Shelby Cobra. Weren't those the days!

Reno Air Show crash: Gary Barnhill comments

2011-09-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Gary Barnhill flew the F-100C as one of the USAFE Skyblazers based on Ramstein Air Base in Germany. With his permission, I am publishing his comments on the recent Reno Air Show crash.

Regarding the high G load and the pilots age:

In 1965, very early in the air war over North Vietnam, we were searching for new and more effective tactics. This did not require a lot of motivation to search in earnest.

Flying the F-105 Thud I rolled in quite high on a target with the intent (unauthorized) of experimenting with a pure vertical strafe run. Normal strafe runs were ten to 30 degrees in training. The sleek and heavy Thud hit 1.2 Mach real fast and I gave a good pull on the stick as you can imagine the the ground was coming up rather fast.

The next thing I remember was slowly regaining consciousness and both hands were clawing at the side of the canopy (as in: let me out of here). For a brief period I had lost contact with being a pilot flying an aircraft.

The Thud was going nearly straight up. Consciousness returned in time to recover to normal flight.

George Zigelhoffer advised all three gear were hanging out. Return to base was uneventful.

It was determined that something in the controls malfunctioned and the aircraft pulled 13 g. George observed the aircraft sorta swapped ends and went from vertical down to vertical up.

My point is; at age 29, wearing an inflatable G-suit and being in good health (if you don't count the smoking and drinking) I totally blacked out and was not longer flying the aircraft.

IMHO, the P-51 pilot became unconscious as a result of "snapping" on 11 or more g. One report claims 22 g. I believe the result would have been the same for a younger pilot wearing a g suit.

We sat upright in the Century Series jet fighters (F-100, F-101, F102, F-104, F-105, F-106).

I don't know if the P-51 racer's seat was inclined like a Formula One race car or the modern jet fighters.

I think it possible the small bit of aircraft change of direction shortly before impact was the result of the pilot stirring somewhat in the process of regaining consciousness. The poor guy was just a few short seconds short of recovering.

Gary Barnhill

The Plush Bunny

2011-09-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

I found myself standing at the entrance of the Plush Bunny behind a velvet rope when someone waiting to get in asked me a question. There was too much noise--a band playing inside the club and a noisy crowd outside--and I didn't hear what he was saying. I was about to ask him to repeat his question when I saw that he was preparing to punch me in the face. Talk about telegraphing a punch, this guy took a longer wind-up than Hideo Nomo. I was going to wait for him to throw it and and parry the blow. As a guest in Matthew's night club, I didn't want to abuse his hospitality by delivering a counter-attack to one of his paying customers. Before any of this could develop and before the fellow could conclude his extended wind-up, a fist came flying past my left ear from behind and landed squarely on the malcontent's nose causing a deformation worse than the time Matthew crushed the front end of the Breadvan into a mountainside in Malibu. It was 'lights out' and the fellow dropped like the proverbial sack of potatoes. Ronnie Melthrotter had a devastating right and was never slow to demonstrate it. He ducked under the rope and gave the fellow a nine-count while his assistant Richie glowered at the crowd discouraging any further shenanigans. As the fellow regained consciousness, his friends carried him off to a car never to be seen again.

The 'Bunny was an interesting night club and Margaret Mead would have found plenty to fascinate over watching the dynamics and inter-actions of the patrons and staff. There was always live music, minimal conversation and some pool tables. I was commonly at the 'Bunny when I should have been in school--I signed up for night classes because Peter Gibbons and Elliot Bliss were teaching cinema classes in the evening after putting in a full day at CBS Cinema Center as heads of the camera and sound departments. I got straight As in all my courses, so my absences did no damage. The same might not be said of my attendance at the 'Bunny. I became quite a good pool player though I discovered you can shoot ten great games and the eleventh reveals you to be a complete fraud. The music was hot, the girls were hotter and there was always action of one sort or another to keep things from getting dull.

Regularly, Matthew would appear at the door to his offices and motion me inside. I'd follow him through the outer office--always filled with people I didn't know and whose function was undefined except to say you sure as Hell weren't going into the inner office to see Matthew unless you were invited or were one of the inner circle. I had open access. I would be summonsed to hear a wacky deal proposition from someone completely out of touch with reality, to meet an amazing woman or to be introduced to some legend in the Ferrari world. Nothing short of these would warrant pulling me away from the pool tables and the other action in the club. This was 'A Moveable Feast' that delivered to your door.

Every year, the 'Bunny celebrated New Year's Eve by announcing a gala presentation of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. It was always a sell-out and much anticipated. I would be surprised if scalpers weren't re-selling the tickets. I always made it a point to be present. Every year, at the beginning of the evening, Matthew would go onstage to make the introduction for the night's entertainment, but only after reading aloud a telegram from Ike Turner apologizing for their absence and explaining that the tour bus had broken down in Blythe or some other godforsaken place. The replacement would be Mr. Clean, a black saxophonist with a shaved head who did great Junior Walker covers, or El Chicano playing their then current hit Viva Tirado. In any case, no one wanted a refund.

At two in the morning when the club would close, Matthew and I would climb into our Ferraris-- the Breadvan and the GTO--which were parked at the club's entrance and race away with the girls we had invited to breakfast. I usually made it home by ten the next morning and to school for afternoon classes. In the following years, Matthew would have other clubs but they were more conventional and not the exclusive sort of domain that was the Plush Bunny. What wonderful times they were!

Ferrari on Mulholland (again) raw footage

2011-09-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post some clips of our morning on Mulholland. No editing or narration--just raw footage. A teaser of things to come.

Ferrari on Mulholland (again)

2011-09-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Mulholland Drive is an iconic road to anyone growing up in Los Angeles combining the properties of a Lover's Lane and a Mille Miglia-style road course. It overlooks the San Fernando Valley on one side and Bel-Air, Beverly Hills and Hollywood on the other. It represents a sort of carefree abandon that cuts across and through the serious nature of a sprawling city. It is escapism from an enforced reality and the reality of those who have escaped, if only for the duration of an exciting drive.

In my youth, I enjoyed such a reality when Peter Helm, his friend Rick and I took our Ferraris onto Mulholland for some fun which Peter captured with his 8mm camera. Yesterday, at the instigation of Elysée Wednesday regular Richard Mitchell of Black Horse Motors, we took a literal and figurative trip down memory lane and drove a Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 along the same stretch of Mulholland between Beverly Glen and Laurel Canyon.

We were accompanied by Jeanette Dumouchel, a producer with me on the Carrera Panamericana documentary, and Chad Glass who rendered the poster for the doc. We all took a turn at the wheel of the Ferrari and while the vintage handling of this thoroughbred was a new experience for a couple in our group, it was a strong dose of déjà vu for me. The familiar sound of the free-revving 4-litre V12, the feel of the big Nardi steering wheel and the action of the 5-speed transmission (it was a late series model) conjured an era that is long gone but no less exciting for its passing.

We documented the entire drive with the Panasonic P2 HD camera and, at one point, we stopped along the side of the road to shoot static shots and stills of the car. The 330 2+2 is much more compelling in life than in any photos I've ever seen. This one, originally sold by a wily Enzo Ferrari to Pat Boone who had really wanted to buy a Superamerica--no one ever made a success of saying no to Il Drake--is in beautiful condition and attracted the attention of one the ubiquitous tourist vans that cruise the city which stopped in the middle of the road to gawk at us.

Though I felt at home in the 330, I told Richard I would need at least an hour with the car to be comfortable finding its limits. As a 2+2, it is not the Lusso and far removed from the GTO in which I enjoyed this road in the past but it was great fun to drive and was really intended as a comfortable, high-speed touring car for the Friday night rush from Paris to Toulon for a weekend of sailing.

My thanks to Carl Steuer of Black Horse Motors and, of course, Richard Mitchell for a most enjoyable morning!

Jim Russell Racing Drivers School

2011-09-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

When I first became interested in sports and racing cars, I read everything I could get my hands on that dealt with the subject of high performance. Road & Track, Motor Sport and Car and Driver magazines were must-reads. Add to those the elegant and beautifully produced Automobile Quarterly and one could learn quite a lot about cars and the people who made and enjoyed them. Of course, I wanted more than to just read about these experiences. I wanted to take part. I wanted to race cars.

I began by reading two excellent books. The Technique of Motor Racing by Piero Taruffi and Racing and Sports Car Chassis Design by Michael Costin and David Phipps. It would be more accurate to say that I devoured these books reading them over and over. I began to understand apexes and braking points and concepts like polar moment of inertia and center of gravity as they applied to making a car move faster through a corner. It was a good start but I wanted more.

So it was that I went to the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School with its classroom near Rosamond, California using Willow Springs Raceway for the practical application of the lessons taught. It was my first time in an open-wheeled formula car--a Lotus Formula Ford. There was no synchromesh on the gears so one had to match engine revs with every shift while learning how to control every aspect of the car's behavior to the maximum extent possible. It was a lot to concentrate on because it was not driving for fun, it was driving for precision. Surprisingly, I was told to limit my revs--and therefore speed--and to focus instead upon accuracy with regard to braking points and apexes, entrance and exit points when cornering. As I would later experience when learning to fly glider planes, the deep concentration of the early stages became seat-of-the-pants instinct very quickly.

As we progressed, authorized speeds were increased. Finally, I thought I was moving along at a pretty fast pace between Turns 2 and 3 when a track version of a Shelby Mustang GT350 blew past me like the Lotus was parked, which taught me a valuable racing lesson that applies to street driving as well. Always keep an eye on your rear-view mirrors.

Months later, my familiarity with the track served me well when my friends and I spent the day at Willow Springs with the GTOs and several other Ferraris. More recently, John Fitch told me something I hadn't considered offering an interesting perspective. He said, "It is more important to go fast in the faster corners than in the slower ones since you gain more time in the longer corners." Rest assured, I've been putting that into action.

I have always thought that schools like Jim Russell should be required of all who drive a car on public roads. I think the current driving tests--at least in California--serve only to notify the public of the codes for which they will be fined when they are violated and have nothing to do with car control and competence.

This from Ed Niles:

"Sweet! In the early days of our marriage, around 1975, I put Phoebe through the Bondurant School, and she had a ball and came out a pretty fast driver; faster than I, for sure. The timing and the money never coincided for me, so I have lacked that experience. When we had the 275GTB/C she beat me up the Virginia City hillclimb. The timers were afraid to tell me, thinking my ego couldn’t stand it; I was actually quite pleased that I got my money’s worth! Ed"

Val Guest: The Day the Earth Caught Fire

2011-09-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

One of the pure pleasures of the modern age is being able to communicate with those who might have been out of reach in earlier times. One such occasion was when I tracked down the British film director Val Guest who made one of my favorite science fiction movies of all time--The Day the Earth Caught Fire. I saw the film as a kid--probably at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica on Montana--and was enthralled by the concept of a London plagued by hurricanes followed by scorching heat and the unforgettable heat mist that rose only four stories high and was as thick as the worst London fog. Edward Judd played the lead role with Leo McKern and Janet Munro making great additions to the cast.

At one point in my adult life, I had a desire to see the film again so I visited The Continental Shop on Wilshire in Santa Monica which specializes in British imports--everything from licorice toffee to fine china tea sets. They also offer an extensive collection of British films and, happily, The Day the Earth Caught Fire was among them. The gentleman behind the counter who transacted the sale fell into conversation with me about the film. It was one of his favorites, too. We talked about Val Guest and some of the other films he'd directed including the original Casino Royale on which Val was one of several directors. I made the comment that I would love to meet him. "He lives in Palm Springs, you know," said the gentleman. "He's a customer of ours."

The next day, I found myself speaking on the phone with a very amiable Val Guest who was more than happy to receive my call and discuss The Day the Earth Caught Fire. He had taken special pains with the script to ensure that it was a grown-up, intelligent look at the subject (nuclear testing) and that it wouldn't fall too far into the category of make-believe. I think he did an excellent job and told him so. Val told me he felt that Arthur Christiansen (editor of London's Daily Express who essentially played himself and stood as technical adviser for the newspaper sequences) might have been weak in the acting department. I told Val that I thought Christiansen's performance was the most memorable of all and--like the Dude's rug which really tied the room together--anchored the film in reality making everything else that much more credible. Michael Caine can also be seen in a small role as a policeman directing traffic during the havoc.

It was our habit to hold a quarterly exposition of all the work--film and television--produced by the repertory company in the previous months. It was a way of allowing everyone in the organization to see what others in the company were doing and was an enjoyable form of celebration. In the months where the desert heat relented, we held this convention in Palm Springs at the Ocotillo Lodge. We would gather near the pool in the evening and screen scenes from the many projects outdoors. It was my wish to invite Val to one of these where he might speak to the actors and filmmakers in the company. He seemed delighted by the suggestion and said he would be happy to attend.

The next two "film nights" took place in Los Angeles owing to weather and before a Palm Springs event could be scheduled, the repertory company came to an end. I regret not having made a special trip just to meet Val Guest. We spent a considerable amount of time on the phone and I know that we would have closed whatever restaurant Val would have chosen for our conversation about film. Alas, it was never to be and is a missed opportunity I regret.

Last night, I watched The Day the Earth Caught Fire for the umpteenth time and found it as engrossing as the first time I saw it. I am glad that, at least, I had the chance to tell Val how much I liked his movie.

Jaguar E-Type

2011-09-08T09:03:00.001-07:00

My first car was an E-Type Jaguar. It was a yellow coupe; the last of the 3.8 litre cars with the covered headlights and the lowered foot wells. It had a black leather interior with the completely black dash whereas earlier models had a bare aluminum centerpiece. I thought it was the most beautiful car in the world. Quite a few others thought so, too, and would tell me so whenever I was broken down at the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. I should have listened to family friend Paul Stanley who tried to convince me to buy a Corvette instead. Paul drove an impeccable, 1959 fuel-injected Corvette that he later left in my hands to drive and take care of when he went to Brazil for a month to shoot episodes for a Tarzan television series starring Ron Ely. I didn't listen to him. I wanted the Jaguar.

I looked at quite a few E-types and somehow, with my father's help, talked the sellers into letting me take their cars to the Hornburg Jaguar dealership on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica for a mechanical inspection. My father helped me ferry the cars from as far away as Pasadena and we ended up with three of them--all yellow E-type coupes--getting inspected on the same day. It was quite a sight!

I made an offer on the car with the best inspection report and, at 16, became the proud owner of a slightly used E-Type Jaguar. On the same day I collected the car, I left on a trip to Oklahoma thinking it would be a great way to get to know it. I had it fully serviced at a Jaguar dealership near the seller and drove off feeling very enthusiastic about my new car. Within a mile, the water temperature gauge soared off the scale and from the louvers on either side of the power bulge came billowing clouds of steam. As D.S. Jenkinson used to write in Motor Sport magazine, there's nothing like "Jaguar motoring"!

I made it back to the dealership where it was discovered that the mechanic had forgotten to put coolant in the radiator after he had drained it. An honest mistake and there was no chance I'd be returning to this dealership for future service given its location. So, it was off we go, Take 2. The first destination was Las Vegas where an honest working man could still get a square deal at the dinner table if nowhere else. About the time I got to Victorville, I had the sensation that one of my tennis shoes was melting and that I was getting a third degree burn on the bottom of my right foot. I pulled to the side of the road to find that my tennis shoe was melting. The accelerator pedal on the Jaguar was metal and not covered with a rubber pad and what with the extended driving in the desert heat...

After rummaging in the 'boot'--an early version of a hatchback door that opened sideways--I threw on a pair of dress shoes that I wore only at weddings and Sunday brunch at Scandia and continued on my way wondering if Jenks ever drove his beloved Jaguar in the desert.

Chickasha, Oklahoma had never seen an E-Type or any other sort of Jaguar before. I know this because it said so in the newspaper which ran an item about the car within days of my arrival. I remember being parked at the local A&W enjoying a root beer float when a car full of girls screeched to a stop and in unison they cried out, "California plates!" as though they'd just seen Elvis. Hmmm...

I don't remember much else about the trip other than I loved driving the car and would go for long drives to nowhere in particular. The trip home was uneventful unlike the rest of my experience with the E-Type. One thing after another broke, fell off or ceased to function until the final straw brought about our divorce. I was going to Riverside Raceway to see the Times Grand Prix and had been looking forward to the driving the Jaguar. That morning, I hand washed the car which was my habit. I slipped into the driver's seat and belted up. I inserted the ignition key and turned it to the on position. I then pushed the starter button and CLANK! This was followed by what sounded like a jackhammer being dropped on concrete. I suddenly regretted ever having read Motor Sport magazine or any of Jenk's columns.

It took only a few minutes to ascertain that the CLANK had been the starter motor and the second sound was produced as it hit the garage floor after separating from the engine--launched like a grenade, as it were. My "Jaguar motoring" had come to an end and I drove the family Cadillac to Riverside that day. Soon after, I sold the E-Type and bought a sensible car that had no reliability issues for the years I owned it--a Ferrari Berlinetta Lusso.

Shelley Hack

2011-09-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

When I was in Michigan visiting in-laws, I would call Kathi Carey, who was my "right hand" and talented actress, writer and director in my organization, to get updates about the goings-on. During one of these phone calls, Kathi tells me that Shelley Hack had called after seeing one of the (Interview) shows on TV and wanted to take me to lunch. My first question was, "Who is Shelley Hack?" This may seem strange coming from someone totally immersed in making films and television shows but her name hadn't registered with me though she starred in the series Jake and Mike and had made a big splash in the Charlie's Angels series not to mention her great walk-on in Woody Allen's Annie Hall. I asked Kathi to set up a lunch at Musso & Frank--a favorite restaurant of mine--on a day following my return to Los Angeles.

I forget now which segment Shelley had seen but as we enjoyed our lunch together, she wanted to talk about the show and the possibility of using the underlying story as the basis for a movie that would cast her in the lead. Like many who had seen the show on cable TV, she was buzzed by the story and the unusual manner in which it was presented in the context of a fictional interview. When it became obvious that we were both interested in the idea of developing the story into a vehicle for her, she arranged for us to meet after lunch with her manager to move the idea forward.

Our lunch conversation turned to the workings of the film business in general and I trotted out a few bits of advice I would give to actors as they would join the repertory company. The most important of these was that an actor's viability relied upon the number of film directors who are aware of the actor's signature, on-screen skills (not thinking to use the word brand in those days) and had witnessed his or her performances. I thought of this as basic Marketing 101 given that it is a director who decides who gets cast into a film--the casting director makes recommendations after filtering out most of the candidates. In the end, it is the director's prerogative. For lead roles where 'bankability' enters into it, add the category of producer. It was the first time Shelley had given consideration to this and wanted to hear more and I was happy to tell her. Before leaving Musso's, Shelley wanted to know what my terms were for the sale of my (Interview) stories. When I told her, quoting a ballpark price and credits, she laughed good-naturedly saying I reminded her of someone.

After lunch, we drove separately to the office of Shelley's manager's on Sunset Boulevard near Doheny. Shelley was there when I arrived and he understood why I had been invited. We spoke of the story and how it could be presented discussing the project's potential as a film or TV movie. It was a good meeting and it was obvious to him--and to me--that Shelley was excited about moving the project along. As the conversation wound down, however, the manager said something to the effect that, in the final analysis, they could proceed on the project without me by changing a few of the story elements. I suddenly saw him in a new light and wanted nothing more to do with him. It might have been my imagination, but I sensed that Shelley was embarrassed by the remark.

I left his office thinking that it isn't often that one meets the best and the worst the industry has to offer in the same day.

Ferrari GTO at 140 mph

2011-08-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

There is something special about late night/early morning motoring that goes beyond the absence of traffic. The darkness combined with the cooler air seems to add horsepower to the car as well as the dream and I used to do quite a bit of this on my way home after a night at Matthew's night club and the ceremonial three AM breakfast with selected companions.

One night, or early morning, I was headed home on the freeway at what I would call cruising speed. The GTO had a rev counter but no speedometer, so it was all seat-of-the-pants, so to speak. Nearing home, I turned onto my exit and waited at the end of the off-ramp for the traffic light to turn from red to green. It seemed to take forever and though no one else was on the street at that hour, I (inexplicably) waited for the green light reflecting, perhaps, on the events of the evening. When it finally turned green, I saw red. It was the red light from a California Highway Patrol car which pulled up behind me. "Pull to the side of the road," came the metallic command from the P.A. I did as instructed.

As the patrolman and I exited our cars, he came towards me with an incredulous smile saying, "If you hadn't stopped for the light I'd never have caught up with you." I mentally filed this in Notes to Self and prepared for the worst. His next words were: Can I see the engine?

He seemed to know what he was looking at, noting the six carburetors, twelve velocity stacks, and two distributors. He took his time enjoying the sight and I wasn't going to rush him. He asked about the redline. Usually 7000, 7500 on birthdays and special occasions, I told him. He used his flashlight to examine all the interesting bits in the engine compartment. I couldn't help noticing his citation pad tucked under his arm. Again, no need to rush him.

Finally, he'd seen all there was to see and had, no doubt, committed it to memory. Had he a camera with him, I'm certain he would have asked to take a picture. "Do you know how fast you were going?" Under any other circumstances, this would be a cool question that I would attempt to answer but before I could decline, he went on to say, "I clocked you at 140 about four miles back."

As I began to think about whom I could rouse from bed at that hour to bail me out of jail, the patrolman said, "Try to keep your speed down while you're in California, okay?" Absolutely okay, I thought!

And so it was that we parted company as the sun was coming up, the Nevada plates going far beyond the call of duty on this occasion.

An addendum from Ed Niles:

"Reminds me of the time that the FOC had a group (“Ride’n’Drive”) going to Las Vegas. We got caught in a road block after the eye in the sky spotted us, and the first one to whom the officer spoke was Walt McCune, who flashed his LAPD sergeant’s badge. Next in line was Bruce Sand, who showed his Sheriff’s Reserve badge. Turning red, the officer went back to poor Dan Ward, and said, “I suppose you’re a [expletive deleted] cop, too!”

Proving that cops are human, we too got off with a warning.

Keep on keepin’ on with the great tales. Ed"

Ferrari 365 California spider

2011-08-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

This from my friend Serge Dermanian in France:

Stephen,

Remember the Citroen SM? In 1973, I was awarded the franchise for that french car for my High Performance Cars dealership in Waltham, MA. In Fébruary 1974, Mr Paul McDonald came to my showroom with his friend Skip Barber to test drive my own company car, a brown Citroen SM. After the test drive, Skip gave his approval, for Mr. McDonald to purchase my car. Great! But not so great because, "I have a car I am asking you to take in trade." What was it? A 1967 Ferrari 365 California spider (s/n 9849)!

I told him "OK" but I had to see the vehicle. I knew about the California spiders and a few had passed through the store. That was a time when a NY Bronx car broker was bringing in lots of Ferraris from Italy as the strength of the dollar was convincing overseas owners to get rid of their cars. I remember having a rare Michelotti-bodied, blue 250 GT in the NY warehouse.

The California was brought in for a test drive and appraisal It had good oil pressure, the gear box shifted well without any second gear grinding. However, the steering was very hard! The odometer showed 31,074 miles. The problem was that the paint was terrible; a partially faded burgundy. The Borrani wheels were slightly pitted. I noticed that the front pop-up fog light doors were welded shut and under the hood, the power steering pump was missing. Upon further investigation, I found all the missing items just thrown into the trunk! It looked like a junk yard with lots of small parts including the two pop-up light assemblies. That was good! I inventoried all the parts and thanked God they were there. Some small items I had to order from Ferrari and we were fortunate in those days to find practically all parts in the States.

The California's original teak dash was in good order and the Blaukpunkt radio & power antenna and power windows were all working. The black leather seats were fine. The convertible top was in fair condition but this car had been sitting outdoors on a used car lot in New Hampshire and the rear plexiglass window had chalk traces of a dollar sign & would you believe it? The price was $3,500!

I started the restoration work, doing it myself and making a list of parts. I still have today the original parts layout of the power steering system, driven by the left bank camshaft. As I dismantled the car, I found that all the trim pieces, handles, grill, etc. had the 9849 number inscribed--even windshield posts, inside the chrome! When stripping off the paint we found green paint and, under that, the original white paint.

If anyone has the 1990 first quarter Prancing Horse N°94, I had written the story of that car, in that issue, for David Seibert. I am not going to redo my old story, but will add this: the windshield was broken while in storage in Abko Auto body. No one had a windshield in stock, not FAF (the Ferrari store of Atlanta), not the factory. What to do?

I had found an advertisement in Autoweek magazine from someone offering to re-manufacture any windshield as long as you send them the old glass. I air-shipped the broken glass with no word as to how long it would take. After many attempts, I failed to reach them on the phone because the phone had been disconnected! Luckily enough, I had a customer, a Khamsin owner, who had a body shop supply business with an office close to the windshield specialist. There he found that the doors had been locked by the police because they were using the windshield business as a front to bring drugs in from Mexico! My friend succeeded in convincing the local sheriff to release my glass, which was then sent to a glass company in Pittsburgh.

I had chosen light silver, since I was told by the factory it was originally white with two-tone white and blue hide. I had the original brochure from 1967 showing this car in that configuration. The result was superb with new Borranis and a new black mohair top. The pop-up lights were now working and the power steering as well. I had replaced the Borrani wheels with the original, correct sizes, as noted on the SEFAC rim sizes notice. I was pleased with the result

On June 10, 1977, I sold 9849 to a man who had promised that he was buying it for his personal use, since it was a 4-seat convertible and he could safely take his 2 children on trips. Therefore, I was very upset when just about a month after purchasing 9849 he had advertised my car in a half-page, back cover, color picture at more than 3 times the price he had paid to me, falsely stating that the restoration was done under his friend's supervision. They had removed the trapezoidal back-up lamps replacing them with two large, round tail lamps. I've seen many of the 13 365 Californias and none had that type of tail lamp. Also, only one of the 13 produced ever had pop-up lights originally. I think that should set the record straight.

Voilà, Stephen! I hope you can use it with all the pictures!!

Serge Dermanian

Yes I can, Serge. Thank you very much!

This just in from Larry Crane:

Stephen,

Are you aware this is one of the cars Tom Tjaarda did for Pininfarina? I always liked this car. It was huge, but a pretty shape—like the Queen Mother 365 GT 2+2. Tom did that one and the 4-lite 330 2+2 as well. I have a digital Tom portfolio I assembled for a future issue of AUTO Aficionado, but the magazine didn't survive long enough to publish it.

Thanks for these fascinating posts.

Larry

CASA VETTURA PRODUCTIONS

Connie Sellecca

2011-08-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

When David Permut got involved with me and my Stevie Williams (Interview) story, we looked about for an actress who might play the lead role. A production company interested in the project put forward the name of a female rock & roll singer who would have given a sharp edge to the character of Stevie as a feature film. Unfortunately, her first film was released during these talks and it wasn't doing well. Her name fell off the list and thus a Hollywood lesson was learned.

Other names were considered but the only one I can recall was Jennifer Aniston. Whether the project was ever submitted to her or received a decline I couldn't say. What did happen is that we got excited about a particular actress whose beauty and vulnerability combined with her popularity amongst television audiences made her a perfect candidate to play Stevie Williams as a movie for TV. David sent a cassette of the Stevie Williams interview to Connie Sellecca in the hopes that it would interest her. It did.

Upon their first viewing of the show, both Connie and Chuck Binder (Connie's representative) thought that Stevie Williams was a real person with a true story. David set them straight explaining that it was an original story told in an unusual format--a fictional, Charlie Rose-style interview. A meeting was arranged and David and I met with Connie and Chuck to discuss the project and how it might be presented. The role went against Connie's established brand but in such a way as to expand her definition rather than subvert it. We all seemed to agree that Connie would be perfect in the part and it was difficult to imagine that anyone could disagree.

In the coming weeks, the project was presented with Connie attached in the title role. During that period, an odd phenomenon began to manifest. I would run into Connie almost everywhere I went. Whether it was at 'dog park' up on Mulholland above Laurel Canyon where I would run my black Afghan hound, in a store shopping or pulling alongside her at a traffic light, it seemed that fate was steering us in the same direction. I began to wonder if destiny was pulling the strings and if our project would benefit from whatever was directing these encounters.

One day, I get a call from David Permut. We have a meeting regarding Stevie Williams with ABC who had a special interest in Connie Sellecca. When David and I arrived at the appointed hour, Connie was already in chambers with the executive in question. Perhaps they had other business or maybe Connie was setting up our pitch. In any case, an assistant came to beckon us to the inner sanctum. There we had a very enjoyable meeting with Connie, the executive and her assistant. Before we got to the Stevie Williams story, the executive wanted to know more about (Interview) and how it had come about. She was particularly interested to hear about the call I'd received from Marlon Brando about the show a few weeks earlier.

The meeting ended with good feelings and an expectation that the project would be taken on by ABC. Alas, it never happened. The reason given was that they only wanted true stories. My thought was that Stevie's story was as true as anything we'll ever see on television--including the six o'clock news--and that so-called "true stories" that are the basis for so many TV movies and feature films have been so re-worked and homogenized that they must be labeled "Based on a true story", which in the English language means fiction.

Though the Stevie Williams story was ultimately picked up by Rob Cohen for Taft-Barish Entertainment, I wonder if Shakespeare ever ran into this problem to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature.

Pebble Beach 2011

2011-08-22T23:07:00.001-07:00

My pilgrimage to Pebble Beach this year was memorable for many reasons. My purpose in attending was to shoot footage of the GTOs that would be the feature attraction--for me, at least--of the event for inclusion in my on-going GTO documentary. The cars looked great and each of them was recognizable by their distinguishing detail differences unlike another GTO I visited recently.

On Saturday, I toured the Gooding tent and photographed those cars to be auctioned that most interested me. A certain Ferrari Testa Rossa caught my eye as did a SWB Berlinetta and quite a few other makes and models that are the stuff of dreams. Later that night, I walked along Ocean Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea which was like cruising night on Van Nuys Boulevard on steroids. Museum-quality cars of every description could be seen passing by or parked. Everything from Ferrari Lussos and Lamborghini Miuras to classic Rolls-Royce and Packards were on display. It was a wonderful exhibition where the only cost of admission was your enthusiasm.

Towards the end of the evening, I wanted to show a friend a spectacular Rolls-Royce boat-tail roadster (pictured above) I'd noticed from a block away. It was parked on a corner and had been attracting a constant flow of admirers. As we neared the car, a voice calls out, "Stephen Mitchell!" It took me a moment or two to recognize the face that went with the voice in the dark of the evening. It was Gary Wales who has been creating stunning specials on classic platforms for as long as I can remember. Gary can be seen on the cover of Marc Sonnery's book Rebel, Rebel about the Ferrari Breadvan and his involvement with that famous Ferrari is chronicled in the book. Gary and I used to help each other get our Bentleys through customs and off the pier as they arrived from England--a lifetime ago.

On Sunday morning, I ran into Jim Glickenhaus, Meg Cameron and Veronica Cameron-Glickenhaus in the Club d'Elegance tent where we were having breakfast. Jim had shown the Baja Boot at Quail and Pebble was a "busman's holiday" to use his words. Moments later, Tomás López Rocha sauntered up to our table. Tomás and I met some months ago when he was sitting near us at an Elysée Wednesday gathering and overheard our conversation about the Carrera Panamericana in which his father raced. Tomás participated last year in La Carrera and intends to run again.

I took my time shooting all of the GTOs perched above the sea along the edge of the lawn. They were magnificent and I reveled in how each of them displayed their individuality. No two were the same. I exchanged a few words with one of the owners but it became immediately clear to me that my fascination was with the cars. It was interesting to hear the comments from people in the crowd who were savoring the GTOs. Some were learned and some were enthusiastically uninformed. All were spellbound as was I.

By the time I had gotten the footage I wanted, I was exhausted from the sun, lack of sleep and the weight of the camera which seemed to have gained at least ten pounds during the course of my shooting these cars. I decided to take refuge in the Tap Room where I had enjoyed a great lunch the previous day leaving my friends to tour the cars on display. I discovered the difference between Saturday and Sunday at Pebble--there was a twenty-minute wait just to get in the door. I settled for a chair in the lobby next to the stairs just to be able to sit down and get out of the sun. It was people-watching at its best!

Sitting in one of the two chairs at the foot of the stairs, I quickly became aware that something was going on at the top of those stairs. An endless stream of people approached the two women standing guard trying to convince them that they were 'on the list', should be on the list or if a certain someone were called, they would confirm the person in question should be added to the list. "I'll have to call Maria," she would tell them. Some were allowed to climb the stairs, others were turned away. As I say, it was an endless procession.

As I sat waiting for my friends to return, I grew curious as to what was going on upstairs. Finally, I turned to one of the women, who was no more than arms length away from me, and asked what was the event. "Ferrari," she said rather curtly. "Would that be Ferrari North America or the Ferrari Club of America?" I asked. "Just Ferrari," she replied in a dismissive tone that signaled the end of the conversation. I accepted the rebuke and the implication that I had overstepped myself and went back to enjoying the parade of people passing through the lobby.

When my friends returned to find me in my chair, I asked them with mischievous glee if they would like to go upstairs to a Ferrari party. They said they would like that. I told them to give me a minute and turned to my new friend, the woman with the list. "Would you please ask Maria if she would like Stephen Mitchell to come up? I used to own the Ralph Lauren GTO." She gave me a confused look no doubt trying to decide if I was pulling her leg and continuing to be a general nuisance. When she sensed that I wasn't, she disappeared up the stairs. Moments later, she returned saying, "Maria said you should come up."

The Ferrari hospitality suite was well stocked and provided a bird's-eye view from windows just above the awards podium. We met some terrific people and enjoyed a new perspective on the festivities below. We quite enjoyed ourselves and all thanks go to the woman downstairs who set it all in motion. Marco Mattiacci, whom I met at the unveiling of the Ferrari FF in Beverly Hills, was there and everyone was appreciative of his hospitality.

This extraordinary day ended as it began. I was driving a friend from our parking space in Lot 4 (forth-and-long, as I called it) to his car in Lot 7 (also referred to as Lot 7 of 6), we passed in front of a lovely home where the people had set up camp chairs to watch and applaud the classic cars that were driving past every few minutes. I stopped in front of them and called out, "We like your style!" It was only then I noticed a black Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and a red Iso Rivolta parked behind them in the driveway. "Bella Scaglietti!" I said and they waved to us to join them. We did and spent the better part of an hour enjoying talk of cars and people. A young girl showed us the signature of Piero Rivolta on the inside of the Iso's trunk lid--signed by Piero a couple of days earlier at the Concorso Italiano (pictured below)--and insisted that my friend sit behind the wheel of the Iso. Only the fear that our friend's car would be locked up or impounded tore us away from this impromptu gathering reminiscent of the best Elysée Wednesday events.

All in all, a very memorable Pebble Beach!

[Photo of my new friend with Piero Rivolta and the Iso courtesy of Mike Gulett of My Car Quest.]

Jalopnik: The ten craziest daily drivers

2011-08-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

6.) Stephen Mitchell's Ferrari 250 GTO

Suggested By: irishman

Why It's Crazy: In the late 1960's up through 1970, Stephen Mitchell owned a Ferrari 250 GTO, and used it as his primary form of transportation. He drove it all over the southwestern United States, to film sets and racetracks. Fortunately, unlike Paul Bailey and his F40, Mitchell's neighbors seemed to enjoy the sound of the car. His GTO is currently owned by Ralph Lauren.

Photo credit: Autoweek

Jalopnik

Veloce Today: Ferrari GTO S/N 3987

2011-08-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ferrari GTO S/N 3987

by pete on August 16, 2011

Art by Chad Glass

Filmmaker Stephen Mitchell recently wrote “Rendezvous Redux” for VeloceToday. Below, for the first time, is the full story behind Stephen Mitchell, the amazing YouTube videos and GTO 3987. And whether you view the two film clips before or after reading the article make sure you do and watch them all the way through. You will be amazed. Trust me.

http://www.velocetoday.com/ferrari-gto-sn-3987/

Serge, the GTO and...

2011-08-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

Serge Dermanian was the "caretaker" for the cars in the Ralph Lauren collection that were kept at Montauk. He drove them, performed maintenance on them and cared for them as though they were his own. In this interview, when I referred to GTO 3987 as the love of my life, Serge responded by saying, "Your love and my love!"

Since the Ferrari GTO will be a hot topic this week as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance will commemorate the 50th anniversary of this model, I thought it a good moment to post this excerpt of my conversation with Serge that took place in his home overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Nice.

Tomás López Rocha

2011-08-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

I met Tomás López Rocha at an Elysée Wednesday gathering where he happened to be dining with his family at the next table. What a coincidence that he had run in La Carrera Panamericana the previous year and, more surprisingly, his father had raced in all five of the original Carrera Panamericanas. I am happy to present this excerpt from an extended conversation we had in front of the camera.

Matthew Ettinger

2011-08-08T01:28:00.000-07:00

I have known Matthew since he and I were driving around together in the Breadvan and the GTO. In this excerpt from an interview I did with him recently, you will hear some inside references that are inevitable when two old friends converse. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Much of what is not shown in this excerpt is destined for inclusion in the project I am working on about the GTO.

Marc Sonnery

2011-08-06T01:36:00.001-07:00

I had the pleasure of interviewing Marc Sonnery about his book Rebel Rebel: Breadvan - the most recognizable Ferrari in the world. After visiting my former GTO on display at L'art de l'automobile, we retired to the Hôtel Georges V where Marc and I spent a relaxed hour chatting on camera. I am pleased to present this excerpt.

Brentwood, California

2011-08-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Brentwood, California in a house designed and built by the architects Buff & Hensman for my father. The Riviera Country Club was at the end of our street and we would crawl through the fence and play football on one of the fairways which were very well maintained we thought. It seemed like quite a normal place to live and the people were nice. Many of them were celebrities which was not a word I would have understood at the time--I was just aware that a lot of my friends' parents and many of my neighbors were on television and in the movies. One of my friend's parents were Hugh Marlowe (all About Eve, The Day the Earth Stood Still) and K.T. Stevens (The Rifleman, The Young and the Restless) and it seemed I was always seeing one or the other of them on Perry Mason.

Very often, I would spend weekends at Jeffrey Marlowe's house and we'd watch Twilight Zone and stay up late. Dinners there were formal with Hugh sitting at the head of the table preparing each plate and passing it around the table. Jeffrey's mom was an elegant woman and--truth be told--I had a crush on her. Hugh had a workshop that was joined with a detached garage and it was memorable for me as he had Playboy centerfolds pinned to the wall. I thought that was extraordinary and not something that would have be countenanced by my step-mother who we thought of as Cruella DeVil from 101 Dalmatians. Many, many years later as I was walking through the Hamburger Hamlet restaurant in Brentwood--an adult, one might say--I heard a voice call out my name. It was K.T. Stevens, who I hadn't seen in ages, calling me to her table to say hello and chat. I'll never forget her.

On the subject of Playboy magazine, my next door school friend was stunned that I'd never seen a copy. I was stunned that he was stunned. A day or so after that conversation had taken place, I found myself playing in front of my house as his mother arrived home in her beige Thunderbird. She stopped near me, lowered the passenger window and called to me. "This is for you," she said handing me a brand new copy of the current Playboy. I didn't know what to say but managed a "Thank you" before she continued on to her own driveway. I think I was in the sixth grade at the time.

I remember going door-to-door asking neighbors if they had seen our lost dog. One of the doors opened to reveal Jane Powell (Alcoa Theatre, The Red Skelton Hour) in a bikini. She was the first woman I'd ever seen with so few clothes on and I almost forgot why I was there. She was quite a sight for this six year-old in those pre-cable TV, pre-Internet times.

We used to play in a tree-house fortress hidden away in the hill above the country club and below Sunset Boulevard. One day, a lot of men were searching through the wooded area. In the newspaper the next day, we learned that a woman had been murdered in her house just above us and that she had been found in her bathtub barefoot. I recall wondering at the time why the fact that she was barefoot was worth mentioning.

I pass through Brentwood from time to time and will stop at the Country Mart for the roasted chicken and fries with the seasoned salt. Most of the shops that were there have gone; some have been replaced by new ones. I wonder if those growing up there today find it all as magical as I did.

Air France 447: Gary Barnhill comments

2011-08-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have had the pleasure of communicating with Gary Barnhill on the subject of Ferraris, Alfa Romeos and a particular Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing that was his along with other things that make life interesting. Gary flew the F-100C as one of the USAFE Skyblazers based on Ramstein Air Base in Germany. With his permission, I am publishing his comments on the release of the AF 447 voice tapes.

"After my comments are the cockpit voice tapes from the beginning of the problem until AF 447 crashed into the sea.

Not all pilots will read this through the same prism of experience.

Pilots with lots of aerobatic experience may read it differently than those who never pursued aerobatics after their initial training.

No airline in the world actually stalls an aircraft in pilot training, not even in the simulator. On a clear day, in daylight, the aircraft may be slowed with the nose slightly up until ONSET OF STALL BUFFET occurs, then the nose is immediately lowered and power added. Piece of cake. Hardly any altitude lost during this practice maneuver. Just don't screw it up and get into a full stall.

This multi-stystems failure occurred in pitch black of night. Apparently in cloud with no visible horizon. The pilots had NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to go on but their instruments, which were giving them false readings. If your airspeed indicator is showing too fast the natural thing to do is pull the nose up, which they apparently did and were totally flummoxed as to why this didn't slow the airspeed.

For the uninitiated, once a plane stalls (gets too slow and is no longer "flying", just falling) the pilot MUST PUT THE NOSE DOWN to gain enough airspeed to no longer be in a stalled condition. Only then can the aircraft nose be raised to avoid further descent.

Stall recovery seems so basic, but I'm not the least critical of those pilots. Their instruments had worse than failed them, their instruments were now lying to them and all their visual clues were also lost in the dark. That is, they could not see the horizon. Did not know up from down.

How about seat of the pants pilot responses? In pitch black with no visible horizon the sole physical indication of up and down is the hairs in a fluid inside your ear. But those hairs get completely fooled when they are pushed up and down plus side forces, which was likely with the a/c pitching and rolling about.

I can't help but wonder if they all were suffering from a huge case of vertigo, which would add to the confusion of spacial orientation. That is; you are right side up and you'd bet your last dollar you are upside down.

As an old aerobatic pilot; while reading the report below the little voice in my head kept saying over and over: put the nose down, put the nose down, put-the-fucking-nose-down. I'm not at all sure, had I been there, I would have put the nose down.

Some incredibly outstanding pilots, perhaps the AF 447 captain was one, might have saved this aircraft from crashing. But a failure of this magnitude must be assigned to the multiple failures that took away everything a pilot knows and is taught about flying and substituted wicked lies which totally overwhelmed the pilots. Who of us has never been overwhelmed? If not, perhaps you simply never got caught up in overwhelming circumstances."

Gary Barnhill
Corona del Mar, CA

Subject: Air France

PARIS (Reuters) - "What do you think? What do you think? What should we do?"

The 37-year-old Air France co-pilot with over 6,000 flying hours was running out of ideas as a stall alarm bellowed through the Airbus cockpit for the sixth time in exactly two minutes.

His junior colleague with two years on the job was already in despair as he battled to control the jet's speed and prevent it rocking left to right in pitch darkness over the Atlantic, on only his second Rio de Janeiro-Paris trip as an A330 pilot.

"I don't have control of the plane. I don't have control of the plane at all," the younger pilot, 32, said.

The captain was not present and it was proving hard to get him back to the cockpit, where his more than 11,000 hours of flying experience were badly needed.

"So is he coming?" the senior co-pilot muttered, according to a transcript released on Friday. Light expletives were edited out of the text here and elsewhere, according to people familiar with the probe into the mid-Atlantic crash on June 1, 2009.

The 58-year-old captain and former demonstration pilot had left 10 minutes earlier for a routine rest. In his absence the plane had begun falling at more than 200 km (125 miles) an hour.

"Hey what are you --," he said on entering the cockpit.

"What's happening? I don't know, I don't know what's happening," replied the senior co-pilot, sitting on the left.

With the benefit of black boxes hauled up 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) from the ocean floor just two months ago, investigators now say the aircraft had stopped flying properly and entered a hazardous stall, as its 3,900 square feet (362 sq meters) of wings gasped for air.

I'VE GOT A PROBLEM

The crew moved control sticks in every direction during their four-minute ordeal -- and sometimes contradicted each other as they tried to save the plane and its 228 passengers and crew. At one point they could not decide whether they were climbing or falling after flying for minutes through a wall of ice particles that blocked the aircraft speed sensors.

In total the stall alarm went off 11 times -- the last of those only overridden by a new and even more ominous direction to "pull up" as the pilots ran out of time and space to recover.

Investigators say they are still baffled as to why the pilots ignored the triple alarm -- a synthetic "stall, stall" voice, a noise like crickets and a red warning light.

They appear to be working on the theory that the pilots recovered clumsily from one problem to do with icing, only to lurch into another one -- a stall -- that proved their doom.

Air France disputes this and says instruments went haywire.

GIVE ME CONTROL

The solution to a stall is to lower the nose to grab air. Instead the junior pilot yanked back, thinking the plane was going too fast.

Pulling up reduces speed. "I've got a problem I don't have vertical speed. I don't have any indication." From behind, the captain was first to voice a dawning truth.

"I don't know but right now we're descending," he said.

Now the young pilot pushed forward and the stall receded.

His gesture lasted barely a second but may be pored over in courts for years as the aircraft's manufacturer Airbus will argue it shows the plane was responsive and able to recover.

Air France says the plane overwhelmed properly trained pilots with a blizzard of confusing signals and misled them because of a "trap" caused by erratic warnings.

The crew have not been officially named.

As the plane hurtled lower, a pattern of professional directions started to fray, replaced by a rush of questions:

"What's the altitude?"
"What do you mean what altitude?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm descending right?"

The younger pilot appeared increasingly stressed and was subjected to some backseat driving -- yet he was left to fly.

(Captain) "Get your wings horizontal"

(First co-pilot) "Level your wings"

(Second co-pilot) "That's what I'm trying to do."

Flight 447 entered its final minute at 10,000 feet, having plummeted from 38,000.

"What the -- how is it we are going down like this?" asked the junior pilot.

"See what you can do with the commands up there, the primaries and so on," the senior co-pilot said. By nine thousand feet, the situation must have been dire.

"Climb climb climb climb," ordered the senior co-pilot.

"But I have been pulling back on the stick all the way for a while," observed the younger pilot. In a stall, however, pilots point down to fix the stall first and only then climb to safety.

The captain interjected: "No, no, no, don't climb."

Senior co-pilot: "Ok give me control, give me control."
The plane was at 4,000 feet, its nose up quite sharply.

"Watch out you are pulling up," prodded the captain.

"Am I?" said the first co-pilot.
"Well you should, we are at 4,000," said the young pilot. It is not possible to tell whether the crew finally alighted on what most experts call the right solution, but now they only had one choice, which was to think about avoiding water. Both pilots pulled on their sticks as far as they could.

The computer spoke. "Sink rate. Pull up, pull up, pull up."

"Go on, the captain urged, "pull."

"We're pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling," said number 3.

The transcript showed the three men remained fully focused on trying to right the plane throughout the final four minutes. At no point did they discuss the possibility they and their passengers were about to die.

The last words that could be made out from the veteran captain were remarkably calm, reverting to cool-headed jargon. "Ten degrees pitch," he appears to have said.

Less than half a second later, the recording stopped.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Carrera photos from Tomás López Rocha

2011-07-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

These photos and note were sent to me by Tomás López Rocha who has run in the modern La Carrera Panamericana and whose father Salvador López Chavez raced in the original five Carreras from 1950-54.

Stephen,

My father with his Hudson, Porsche 550 and Porsche 356. Another shows my father and my sister with his Porsche 356.

Best regards,
Tomás

Thank you, Tomás. These are wonderful documents of the Carrera history!

Ferrari Breadvan trivia

2011-07-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here' a bit of history I'd forgotten all about: For a time when the Ferrari Breadvan belonged to Matthew, it was registered in my name. It is a long story with a happy ending but it almost caused a cataclysm of sorts in a courtroom one day.

Dino 206 photos from Serge

2011-07-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

I received these delightful Dino photos from Serge Dermanian who maintained the cars in the Ralph Lauren collection for many years along with the following note:

Stephen,

I noticed you had a picture of a Dino 206. Let me tell you that I adored this little car. I would like to make a point concerning this model, I owned the original prototype Dino 206 serial number 206. Many stories have been written, with a question mark leaving blank this serial number.

In 1970, while I owned HPC in Waltham, MA, an Italian businessman had left this car as a consignment sale. I kept this little gem in my MG showroom and someone who later drove by from Connecticut purchased the car from me. The car was red with an alloy body, leather seats with red cloth inserts, wood steering wheel and knock-off hubs. The Dino had only a few thousand miles and the warranty booklet showed that it was sold new to a young Italian lady in Rome in the summer of 1968.

Later I imported another Dino 206, yellow with an alloy body (serial number 362), black vinyl seats and knock-off hubs. I kept this car for years, until I sold it to a Connecticut physician.

There are lots of details concerning these cars, perhaps if you like it I could write some more about them.

Regards, my friend, where ever you are.

Serge Dermanian

I would like that very much, Serge!

Renedezvous Redux? Reflections on Claude Lelouch

2011-07-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Mitchell
Artwork by Chad Glass
French Translation follows English text

When Stephen Mitchell was recently introduced to Veloce Today by Wallace Wyss...

Read the article at: Veloce Today

Woman on the Beach

2011-07-15T14:38:00.001-07:00

I was shooting a dinner party scene for my movie Woman on the Beach one evening in a house in the Malibu hills overlooking the ocean. The scene showed a well-known artist played by Margareta Sjödin (who happens to be a well-known artist in real life) introducing her new romantic interest--a football player--to a circle of her cosmopolitan friends comprised of an art critic, a gallery owner, an art publisher and a publicist (played by Kathi Carey). The conversation was erudite and intentionally focused on the inner workings of the art world. It was a moment in the story where the new boyfriend is being tested to see if he could hold his own in their court.

More important than what was being said by the characters was the way it was being received--the unspoken undercurrent of opinion, pride and prejudice should be palpable and would predetermine the future of the relationship in question. After shooting all the dialogue, I had the impression that the scene was incomplete and hadn't captured the dynamic of judgment that I wanted. It was already late in the evening and I was loath to rewrite the scene. After some reflection, I came up with a solution.

I put the camera on one of the actors at the dinner table--first in a medium shot, then in close-up--and filmed a variety of reactions by asking him to smile, look to another actor for his/her reaction, show me you don't like what you heard, show me you just got stung by a remark, look surprised, etc. I then filmed each of the actors in turn getting an abundance of reactions not knowing which I would use but feeling I had more than I needed to make the scene perform its function.

I never had as much fun editing a scene as I did cutting together that dinner party. The interaction was excruciatingly revealing in a way and to an extent that dialogue could never have accomplished. That night, the Action/ReAction technique I created and refined for actors was born. Audiences became so involved with the characters in that scene that I knew the technique had to be incorporated not only in the way I would shoot movies in the future, but also in the way the actors delivered their performances to me and other directors with whom they would work.

I didn't realize it at the time but these reactions along with the other elements of the technique would be indispensable in branding actors and helping to create a demand for them not just from audiences but from those who hire actors to do the work.

7500 rpm in fifth gear

2011-07-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

A friend once asked me what was the fastest I'd ever driven a car. My answer was 7500 rpm in fifth gear. Race cars don't have speedometers and the car in question was my Ferrari GTO. I was on the way to Las Vegas and my father was riding next to me in the passenger seat. In those days, there were no posted speed limits on Nevada's highways and we were having the time of our lives.

My father and I shared a lot of great times. We spent a month together in Italy once. As I was growing up, he would take me with him into some of the hottest jazz clubs in Los Angeles years before I was of legal age to enter such places. More often than not, we were the only white faces in the crowd but the band members were all on a first-name basis with him. He showed me where to buy the best hot link sausages & sweet potato pies in Los Angeles. We went to Rams games and later Raiders games. Together, we bought and sold cars--he had his and I had mine, but we aided and abetted each other in the enterprise. Sidney was a cool guy. At a cocktail party, he asked a pre-politics Ronald Reagan what he did for a living. How cool is that?

My GTO had a tall final drive. Entering a favorite freeway on-ramp, I would be passing the fastest traffic by the time I shifted out of first gear and second put me into the flashing red lights and siren zone. I suppose someone could do the math to figure out how fast 7500 rpm in fifth might have been on the occasion, but it never occurred to me to bother. What mattered was that my father and I were enjoying an experience that would never be forgotten and that we were both extremely lucky to do so. Another of our shared experiences was that we survived a head-on collision on the Ventura freeway--a rare occurrence by anyone's standards.

Manuel Taboada of the Ferrari Em Portugal blog asked me to sum up in a few words the sensations of driving the GTO. My answer was: Every moment in the GTO was like the first lap at Le Mans. Were I asked to sum up my father, I would have to say that no one who met Sidney is ever likely to forget him.

Yesterday was his birthday and we have been without him for too long. Perhaps that is why these thoughts are with me.

[Thank you to Chad Glass for the sketch of GTO 3987 on the road to 'Vegas]

Lee Marvin

2011-07-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

If one were to ask me why I cannot get excited about Mark Wahlberg or Matt Damon as leads in films, my answer would be Lee Marvin. Lee made an indelible impression in the early days on television appearing in M Squad and The Twilight Zone and in films like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, The Professionals, The Dirty Dozen, Point Blank and The Big Red One. He was a man doing a man's job. I'll never forget the way he delivered his final line of dialogue in Don Siegel's 1964 remake of The Killers with Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes and, yes, Ronald Reagan: Lady, I haven't got the time.

I did time on the set of Paint Your Wagon directed by Joshua Logan starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood at Producers Studios (now Raleigh Studios) on Melrose Avenue. We filmed a barroom scene for about a week on a stage filled with movie smoke from pots of burning beeswax to create the saloon atmosphere. Everyone had to learn the words to the song Gold Fever and sing it--for a week. Though Jean Seberg was in the movie, I had no idea at the time who she was and I don't know if she was even on the set. I do remember Clint Eastwood as being quiet and keeping to himself taking occasional strolls to get out of his trailer when he wasn't shooting.

What I remember best is Lee Marvin. Whether he thought of Paint Your Wagon as much more than a pay day or sensed that it would come to be seen by some as one of the worst musicals ever made, we may never know. It did get him a hit song--Wand'rin' Star--which he sang in the film. Paint Your Wagon was the sixth largest success for Paramount at the time but failed to recoup its cost. In any case, Lee was not happy during the shoot and spent most of his time across the street in a dive called The Playboy. Whenever he was needed to shoot a scene, the assistant director would run across Melrose Avenue and, eventually, return with Lee Marvin in tow who would then turn in a great, effortless performance and retire, once again, to The Playboy.

On the last day of shooting, we were on golden time and near the very end of it, Josh Logan had had his fill and left the set to join Lee at The Playboy. The final shots were handled by the assistant director. After that, the production moved on to Oregon. I stayed in Los Angeles.

All I can say is that Lee Marvin made a bigger impact just walking across Melrose Avenue than many of today's actors do in their performances on the big screen. I'll leave you with this quote from Lee that I cleaned up a bit:

"You spend the first forty years of your life trying to get in this business, and the next forty years trying to get out."

Ferrari 275 GTB/C

2011-07-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Serge Dermanian sent me these photos and note in response to the Ferrari 275 GTB post. The GTB/C would be a very exciting car to own and drive. I’m sure that Serge made good use of it!

"Stephen,

I always loved the GTB's new look and this one unique, serial #6021! Yes, the original GTB/C prototype! Alloy body, yes!

I was the lucky fellow, who owned this superb Ferrari. It came with the "used cars stock" when I purchased High ¨Performance Cars of Waltham, Mass. in 1969. I had sold it to a fellow who ripped the drive shaft splines while drag racing on the streets of Boston!

The drive shaft was a simple steel rod with only a bearing holding the center support that I shimmed to line it up & prevent vibrations! That nutty owner had been jailed! He abandoned the car and the new owner asked me to restore the car. I took the engine & gear box out and the body to the body shop across the street who had to make a new nose from stock aluminum stock.

Look at the engine on my shop ready for assembly & completed before fitting back in the car. People always complained of Ferraris smoking engines. I made the factory recommended modification of replacing the soft copper bronze valve guides by shaving the guide pedestals flush to the cylinder heads (I had the bulletin from Chinetti). I also modified the clutch release bearing holder as required, installed the new style valve guides with the Teflon stem seals.

This car was what we call safely the "GTB/C prototype". I remember the floorboard was made of fiberglass. Look at the brake cooling louvers on the rear fenders. The seats were made of leather with black tweed cloth inserts. The front parking lamps had a rectangular Plexiglas covers.

My slides are dated march 1976. Hope you like this mail!

Serge Dermanian"

Serge, I enjoyed it very much!

Ferrari 275 GTB

2011-07-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

Darren Costello previously contributed to this blog in a post titled Letter to the Editor. Recently, Darren sent me some photos of a Ferrari 275 GTB--a model I've always liked--that he took at Bloomington. I thought I would share them with you here.

Hey, Stephen.

I'm quite lucky to live in an area that caters to a car guy’s needs. There are lots of opportunities to attend some rather nice car events, all relatively nearby. One in particular was the Bloomington Gold Corvette show. A few years ago they added a class for Survivor cars (all makes/models). Having grown sick of cookie cutter restorations where the cars lose all their personality and character. This is a real treat for me.

I stumbled onto this and thought of you. I couldn't find the owner to talk to but assumed this was a very original car. Still a lot to learn. I'm hoping to find more events that feature Ferrari nearby. I've been fortunate to find out about a local Ferrari dealer open house that I've been attending for the last few years so that's a start.

Hope this email finds you well,

Darren

Angie Dickinson

2011-07-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, I used to get weekly massages from Louise Long who was known as the masseuse to the stars in Hollywood. Visiting her ranch style home situated on a property in the north Valley was like entering a private enclave where the most beautiful women in film at the time could be seen wrapped in towels going into or coming out of their sessions with Louise or one of her capable assistants. I think I may have been her only male client and that was fine with me.

One day I arrived early for an appointment and was sitting outside in my Berlinetta Lusso reading a James Bond novel when this unusual, silver Alfa Romeo pulls up and parks next to me. I'd never seen one like it. After checking out the car, I noticed the driver. It was Angie Dickinson in all her glory. We exchanged smiles and I said, "Great car!" and she replied with a few words about how she loved the Alfa. That was the first time I saw that Alfa but it wasn't the last as it seemed Angie and I often booked the same time slots for our massages.

One day, as I was coming out of my session, I heard someone playing piano in Louise's living room. Whoever was playing was so good that I thought at first that the music was coming from the stereo. When I came around the corner into the living room, I saw that it was Burt Bacharach playing one of his latest hits. He was waiting for Angie who was still in a massage room.

A lifetime later, I received a phone call one afternoon from Tita Cahn the wife--now widow--of the legendary Sammy Cahn. Tita had been watching an episode of one of my (Interview) shows on cable and called to tell me how much she enjoyed watching the series. She said that she and her friend Angie Dickinson would call each other to say that (Interview) was airing and to turn on the television. Those are dedicated fans and it was very gracious of Tita to go out of her way to call and relate this to me. It was also interesting to hear that, so many years later, Angie Dickinson and I were still on the same wavelength.

Stanguellini

2011-06-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

Stanguellini is a name that is less familiar to most than, say, Ferrari, Maserati or Lamborghini but the Fiat-based cars of Vittorio Stanguellini were made in Modena from 1946 until 1966. Though Stanguellini might sound to some like one of the made-up names from the writings of Henry N. Manney III, they were real cars for the road and track and even raced at Le Mans.

The photos here were sent to me by Serge Dermanian and his note tells of his recent visit to Modena and the Stanguellini factory.

Stephen,

Last Monday, I drove to the old Stanguellini factory in Modena. Ten hours round trip to pick up an engine for an American collector who is restoring his 1957, ex-Sebring car. Great trip! What a superb building. They have kept the original factory with all tools and equipment plus one section is a museum displaying a variety of old cars. This is one of the engines I brought back to Nice with my car!

Serge

Ferrari photos from Serge Dermanian

2011-06-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

These photos and anecdote from my friend Serge Dermanian arrived in response to my post "GTO photos from Chuck Queener". For many years, Serge looked after the cars in the Ralph Lauren collection including, of course, my old GTO. His job was to drive the cars in the collection as often as he liked and to keep them in proper working order. O lucky man!

"Hello Stephen,

I remember, how I meet Chuck Queener! In 1982, I had organized a Ferrari meet, at my Waltham, MA. High Performance Cars Alfa store. I had invited Peter Sachs, who came with a surprise "gift"! Chuck Queener in person, by the road from Connecticut, driving the fabulous, famous, 1956 Paris Show car, a white Superfast. I remember replacing the spark plugs as soon as they arrived.

Look at these 2 pictures! We had a great day that ended in a nearby restaurant & a slide show of ferraris I owned!

Souvenirs..souvenirs..

Regards

Serge Dermanian"

GTO photos from Chuck Queener

2011-06-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

Chuck Queener was president of the Ferrari Owners Club in 1971 and had the pleasure--and privilege--of meeting Enzo Ferrari during a visit to the factory in Maranello. From reading my posts, one could get the impression that everyone who ever visited the factory in Maranello was given an audience with Il Drake but I assure you this was not the case as many high-powered people were denied an encounter and, though I won't mention any names here, you would be surprised to learn who they were. Chuck is well known for his incredible illustrations that have been featured in the best automotive publications.

Recently Chuck kindly sent me photos of GTO 3987. They are presented in this post and here are Chuck's notes:

"Number II (4.5”x3” print) has your name and 9810434 which I guess is/was your phone number at the time. I don’t know why I have it except it might have been for the FOC roster. The other two are Riverside after the GP with Zipper and the last one I took at a show in Orange Co. but I’m not really sure. It carries dealer plates and the guy in the hat might be Otto but I can’t remember that either."

CQ
http://queenerdesign.com/

I suspect that the third photo was taken while Otto still owned 3987 but before he sold it to William Reinhardt. It still carries dealer plates but has gone from Mecom colors to resale red. My thanks go to Chuck for passing along these photos.

Clip Joint: Duke & Freddie

2011-06-20T11:07:00.001-07:00

Clip Joint was a television series I created in response to The Larry Sanders Show starring Garry Shandling, Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor which is one of my all-time favorites along with Absolutely Fabulous and Fawlty Towers. Clip Joint was set in the studio where the real-life Duke Maltin (cousin to movie reviewer Leonard Maltin) played a fictional Duke Maltin who reviews movies--a sort of inverse reality show before the fact scripted but made to look improvised. Duke's catch-phrase was, "If the director didn't gyp you, I'm going to clip you!"

The show was meant to be a Terry Southern-esque look at the hubris and insincerity of show business and to examine the ego-centric personalties that reside and abide in that environment. The fictional show was always creating enemies amongst a wide variety of offended vested interest groups that would vehemently protest until the Howard Hughes solution was brought to bear and their protest was nullified by adding the party in question to the Clip Joint payroll as a 'consultant'.

The show was produced in three component parts--on-air show segments as seen by the fictional TV audience, direct-to-camera interviews by those working on the show and grainy, cinéma vérité footage captured as though a documentary film crew were shooting the action as it happened. If you think this sounds like The Office, you are right. A few years later, on a trip to England, I saw a show starring Ricky Gervais and thought, "Hmmm..." The US version of The Office had not yet been produced.

One of the clips seen here is a short cinéma vérité scene where Duke receives a visit from an old college buddy Freddie. Duke receives him in time-honored showbiz style. The other clip is the intro to the show and served as a promo. Only four pilot episodes were shot and though it was hard work to produce featuring ten-minute takes where I would wander through the studio with the camera on my shoulder from one cluster of actors to another catching the staged action, it was a great deal of fun. The Clip Joint theme is the work of the very talented Michael Chanslor.

Ferrari FF

2011-06-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended the unveiling of the Ferrari FF at the Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills. Marco Mattiacci, president of Ferrari North America, pulled back the fitted, red car cover to reveal a Ferrari that is not unlike the famous Breadvan of yore, at least in silhouette. The FF (Ferrari Four, as it has four seats and four wheel drive) was said to be the only one currently in the US and was striking in silver with dark blue leather. I noted how nicely the camera and lights package would fit in the back with the rear seats folded down as I go about shooting the GTO documentary. Hmmm...

A couple of familiar faces from Elysée Wednesday were present at the unveiling--Roberto Prado of the Ariadne Media Group, who graciously arranged for my invitation, and Kenny Lombino of the Ferrari Club of America. The event was well attended by people who knew what they were seeing and the talk was appreciative of the FF's specification. A Polish prince I spoke with had already placed his order.

I told Marco Mattiacci that I had been prepared not to like the FF for any number of reasons but that, upon seeing the car and getting a sense of it from behind the wheel, I think it will be a successful model for Ferrari. This put a smile on his face and I suspect that he has heard the same sentiment many times. It is truly a high performance car in a thoroughly modern idiom. I would have one.

Photo: John Evans

Matthew Ettinger

2011-06-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I sat with my friend Matthew Ettinger and talked on camera about Ferraris, the Ferrari Owners Club, meeting Enzo Ferrari and what it was like living the life of ‘free Ferrari radicals’. We easily filled an hour and could just as easily have filled two or three more. There was never a dull moment when we were enjoying our adventures together and mixing it up with his Breadvan and my GTO. Many of them we can actually talk about.

I always like hearing about people’s encounters with Enzo Ferrari. Mine was much out of the ordinary in the paddock of Monza during practice for the Italian Grand Prix. Ed Niles tells a great story of showing up at Maranello unannounced and miraculously getting an audience with Il Commendatore. Matthew tells of having lunch with Diane, his beautiful wife at the time, and a rep from Ferrari at the restaurant across the street from the factory. In walks Enzo Ferrari and guess which table he selects to sit down for lunch. That’s right, he sits right across from Diane and commences with some polite flirting. Loved the ladies did Enzo!

Matthew was president of the FOC when I joined and he arranged for some outstanding guest speakers at the monthly dinner meetings—Phil Hill, Bob Bondurant to name a couple. Even Franco Lini appeared which led directly to my meeting Enzo Ferrari months later.

Matthew now drives a Ferrari 550 Maranello for which he has nothing but high praise. Apart from the famous Breadvan, he misses his SEFAC short-wheelbase berlinettas. His two biggest regrets are selling the Breadvan and not buying my GTO. My two biggest regrets are selling my GTO and not buying his Breadvan. Now there’s a friendship!

Bleeder & Bates

2011-06-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

Working with Chad Glass on the execution of the Carrera Panamericana concept brought back memories of earlier collaborations with artists in producing posters for our projects. The repertory company was essentially a very independent, guerrilla-style film studio and one of my functions was to operate as 'Head of creative advertising' as the major studios would put it.

When I first opened the subject with Chad of working together, I told him that I wanted a bullfighting theme where the car is the bull. I felt the tradition and cultural resonance was ideal for the subject of our documentary. Chad's first rendering was more abstract than literal and captured my imagination. It set in motion a project to do a limited series of Chad's interpretation of the various elements seen in the documentary about which I won't say more at this time. However, we went with a literal representation for the official poster in the style of a traditional bullfight poster after Ron Kellogg expressed enthusiasm for the idea of a bullfighter holding a cape in front of a car. I am very happy with the result and the approval ratings have been through the roof.

Back in the day, having just made a police drama movie very much in the style of a current Michael Connelly novel, the task of creating a poster presented itself and I knew exactly what I wanted--a glossy black background accenting a shiny silver LAPD badge. I felt the visual would be potent and compelling. I wasn't particularly happy with the title Bleeder & Bates (Bleeder being a down & out prize fighter and Bates a homicide detective) which came about by default and I felt the tag line needed to do what the title ordinarily would--sell the concept. One of my favorite films during that time had been William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. and I believed that fans of that film would like Bleeder. Hence the tag line 'A fast place to live. A Harder place to die' made its way onto the poster and packaging. Add photos of a couple of guys with guns and pretty girls along with a Porsche in Martini racing colors going flat-out on Mulholland Drive and the photo gallery was complete. Having authored the concept, I now needed a graphic artist.

The first artist who was referred to me wanted $10K to execute the poster. Why that amount?, I asked him. Because the chrome aspects of the badge are impossible to get right and they are very time consuming, he told me. And if we make the badge flat silver without the chrome, reflective highlights, how much would it cost? $10K, was his reply. Taking it a step further, I asked what the price would be if we did without the badge altogether. Guess what he said--$10K. Obviously he needed $10K and I sent him on his way that he might find it (somewhere else).

I found another artist who, for $1.5K, was able to translate my concept for Bleeder into a very nice visual presentation. I especially liked the way he compressed the letters in the title font giving it extra visual tension and I thought he did an excellent job on the badge. It was exactly what I had pictured in my mind's eye. The poster seemed to please all of us who had been involved with the production. Nice, but the real test was yet to come.

At the time I was wanting to experiment with video distribution and my organization undertook that task for Bleeder & Bates. About two months later, I began getting phone calls from video outlets around the country. They wanted to order more copies of Bleeder and to know if we had other films to offer them. According to several of the outlets, Bleeder was rented every night for the first sixty days that the product was in their stores. Were they doing special promotions? The answer was no--the poster art on the packaging with its striking badge and implied To Live and Die in L.A. reference was doing the job.

I don't think the subject of poster concept and art are much dealt with in film schools but I think it should be. Defining the poster is a great way to distill the essence of a film and convey its attractive elements to the public. I also think the mental image of what the poster will ultimately look like can be both inspiring and instructional for the filmmaker as he or she is making the movie.

Carrera Panamericana poster

2011-06-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Chad Glass for his excellent work on the poster!

Carrera Panamericana at Elysée Wednesday

2011-06-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last night's gathering of Elysée Wednesday set an all-time high for a number of reasons. It was, as usual, a great mix of personalities, intellects and interests. Raphael Finn, whose father Jean-Luc Desreumaux markets magnificent vintage era racing posters, made his first appearance with us. Matthew Ettinger was first on the scene and in great form as one would expect. Richard Mitchell entertained us with his "How I spent Memorial Day" with nothing left to the imagination. Martin Mervel debriefed us on his Timeless exhibition currently at the Pacific Design Center and brought with him Roberto Prado of the Ariadne Media Group who, along with me, had an essay included in the exhibition. Jeanetta Dumouchel, Tom Gurnee and Matthew discussed Cuba, its politics and customs and poet/photographer Elena Secota brought some of her captivating moonscapes to share. Roberto explained how news gathering has devolved into an increasingly smaller number of aggregators and speculated on the future of news and journalism--quo vadis. At one point, we left the table to inspect Matthew's Ferrari 550 Maranello and Richard's turbo-charged Bentley coupe both of which looked stunning together under the lights.

The topic of conversation turned to our Carrera Panamericana documentary when Chad Glass, who was under the weather, emailed the lastest evolution of the poster he is executing for us. It looked great and stimulated a lot of conversation about the Carrera which was overheard by someone at the next table. "Are you talking about the Carrera?" he inquired. It turns out his father, Salvador López Chavez raced in all five of the original Carrera Panamericana races. Seen here is a picture of his father in his Porsche 550.

The gentleman, Tomás López Rocha, had himself raced last year in the current retro Carrera winning his class in a Ford Falcon. The lead photo in this post features me with Tomas and Matthew, who ran in the 2000 edition of the Carrera in a 1954 Lincoln that is a replica of the famous Ray Crawford Lincoln.

Paramount Studios

2011-05-30T08:05:00.001-07:00

I spent a fair amount of time on the lot at Paramount Studios. Family friend and mentor Paul Stanley offered a standing invitation to visit whenever he was directing and he did a considerable number of Mission: Impossible episodes which filmed at Paramount next to the stage where Star Trek was shot.

Of all the studio lots I frequented, Paramount was my favorite and seemed to me the most symbolic of the Hollywood Studio era--a perception no doubt reinforced by scenes from Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard in which the studio played a featured part.

One indelible memory was of Robert Evans, then head of the studio owned by Gulf-Western at the time, walking the lot impeccably dressed and showing just the right amount of cuff plus ten percent being followed by a photographer who seemed to be covering the movie mogul’s life moment by moment. A lifetime later when viewing The Kid Stays in the Picture, I realized that the constant photographer had made this fascinating documentary and Hollywood artifact possible. The amazing quantity of photographs gave the impression of watching film rather than photos. Robert was tan and handsome and should have been an actor but his inclination took him famously elsewhere.

I would sometimes have lunch in the commissary with Paul and discuss the day’s filming or cars—I had a Berlinetta Lusso then and he drove a pristine 1959 fuel-injected Corvette—and it was fun watching famous faces at nearby tables. When I was working on the lot rather than visiting Paul, I usually ate lunch at Oblath’s just outside the main gate where Norma Desmond made a grand entrance in her Hispano-Suiza. The restaurant, long-since replaced by a parking lot, served great enchiladas and I was frequently joined by a certain Joe Gray who was a good friend and cohort of Henry Miller. Joe worked in films and had been a boxer. He was many years older than I and I cannot for the life of me recall how we met though it might have been via the Sinatra connection. What I do recall was his helpfulness with regard to the business and his very amusing anecdotes about the great writer of Tropic of Cancer.

One day, as I was returning to the sound stage after lunch, I saw a very interesting car approaching along the studio alleyway. It was chocolate brown and had the throaty rumble of a tuned, six cylinder. It sounded like a Jaguar but looked decidedly Italian. The carosserie badge announced Ghia. As the car went slowly past, I recognized the driver as Ricardo Montalban. Later, I would discover that it was indeed a 1955 Jaguar XK140MC with a one-off body. Recently I saw the car in a Hemmings edition, the chocolate brown paint replaced by resale red as seen here in the photo.

I remember asking Paul for his advice on becoming a director. We were sitting in our director’s chairs chatting as the Mission: Impossible crew was setting up for the next shot. After a moment’s reflection, Paul said, “Live a full life.” I know now better than I knew then what excellent advice that was.

Ferrari GTO in Paris

2011-05-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

Someone has a wicked sense of humor!
Thank you to Tom Gurnee.

Ferrari GTO engine (3987)

2011-05-27T07:06:00.001-07:00

From my new friend Serge Dermanian who looked after the cars in the Ralph Lauren collection for many years:

"Hello again. I found this picture I took of your GTO engine, when I was in Montauk, before the car was sent to be redone at Paul Russel. Hope you will like it!"

I do like it!