The Lou Baney Tapes

People send me vintage footage all of the time. Ripping this footage and uploading it to our servers takes a big time commitment, so I stack the footage I get and put sticky notes on each one that includes the source and information about the clip. When I find some time, I get down to business and make digital magic. I decided to do that this morning with some mysterious footage.

It’s mysterious, because my sticky note went missing. I have no idea who sent this to me… All I know is that these clips were found hidden away in a box stuffed into Lou Baney’s son’s garage. If you are out there, gifter of wonderful vintage footage, let us know – you deserve credit and a thanks!

Anyway, prepare to be awed… The first chapter of this video was taken at Bakersfield and features what they are calling the “First Hemi Cuda” with Tom McEwen at the wheel. There is also some great digger action from some huge names. Put simple, it’s wonderful.

And as great as that strip action is, I like the second chapter even better. Don “The Beachcomber” Johnson used to have famous beach parties every year at his Malibu beach house and apparently, Baney thought it worthy of some time behind a camera. He couldn’t have been more right. There is something so charming about watching Don Prudhomme, Jerry Bivens, Ken Stafford, Jim Busby, Bruce Wheeler, Jim Kelly, Terry Cook, and their families enjoy each other’s company and the ocean – away from the race track. It’s really personal.

The final chapter covers the 1964 Winternationals. It’s your basic vintage drag footage, but somehow the colors seem more saturated than most. Quite literally, this was the golden age.

If you don’t have 15 minutes for this, you don’t have 15 minutes.

Enjoy: