Where did they get the rods they used in the 50's and 60's movies? Did they just go buy them off the street? Did they have some company build them just for the movie? If so, what did they do with them afterwards? Or did they just rent them from the guys who owned them?
My friend told me there was a guy who lived in Riverside,Ca that owned a bunch of Mosdel T's and owned that one.I can't remember his name.I'll see if I can get more info from my friend and post it.
As far as I know they eiher got the owners to "loan" them, or contacted builders like George Barris (famously for "Hot Rod Gang" with Gene Vincent that has the Ala Kart but blink and you'd miss it and "High School Confidential")
The car is Drop-Dead GORGEOUS! I wonder if it's still alive. Any ideas as to what it is...frame, body year, fenders, etc, etc...
That's where I saw it too, back in Pittsburgh in the '70s they used to occasionally show Disney movies in the auditorium. I always thought the car was a Deuce, now I see it's a '27 T on A rails with a deuce grill. Still cool. Looks like the dog is driving the Mercedes in the third pic and the Dodge moving van has a crazy lean to it.
I thought that 'T' was tits-on-a-ritz 'til I did some more looking at it...The car was first used in the "Spin & Marty" serials on the Mickey Mouse club! (black with red flames? Baldy hub caps? Otherwise, the same) The basics were there, ('27 T body on 'A' rails, 59A mill, '39 box, '36 Ford spare tire covers for front fenders, custom made rears) but the towering '32 shell really needed trimming! Car looked 'bent'. I asked George Barris about his green '27 T once, he told me it was an 'old movie car'. I thought it was this one?
Windsheild is from? Yup, could use a TOUCH shorter grille, but not a lot. I damn sure wouldn't mind building this car...
Well, I saw the movie at the Rialto when it first came out, but I didn't notice that the grill was a bit high. Better late than never.
Here's a couple of pics of the roadster as it appeared on "The New Adventures of SPIN and MARTY" (Mickey Mouse Club Serial):
My friend told me the man who owned that car was a man with last name Schneider or snyder.He some property at the corner of Iowa and Center st in Highgrove(Riverside,Ca).He had a huge collection of Model T's.Before he passed away he sold one of the oldest Model t's in existance to Harrah's.My friend doesn't know what happened to the rest of the cars.
Seems like an odd location for the horns. There's apparently a pair on each side of the cowl, with the left pair having triangular horn mouths and the right pair having round horn mouths. Can't say I can recall seeing that sort of set up before. Either way, of course, given that the car was actually built back in the day I suppose you can't say it's not period correct.
Reviving an old thread ... thumbing thru September 1959 issue of "Hot Rod" magazine I found a letter in post entry from George Ausburn, Long Beach, Ca. He wrote that when he took his kids to the movie "Shaggy Dog" he discovered that the model T roadster was his old race car. He describes the dash as 36 Dodge, louvered hood, radius rods and the license plate light fabrication, he did on the car when he owned it. He was a member of the "Road Runners". He said he began building it in 1940 and finished it after the war. Ran 114 at the lakes. .... good read. Joe
I remember that letter the guy wrote to Hot Rod Magazine. He said when he and his kids sat down to watch the movie he started to notice similarities between the car on the screen and his old hot rod. He went on to mention things like the trunk hinges, etc. I think he said some stuff had been added, like the goofy horns, but those were probably done to make the car more "Hollywood". I was just a kid when I went to see that movie and hadn't heard that there was a hot rod in it. What a great surprise for someone like me who was a total gear head to see that car on the big screen. I couldn't absorb enough of it in the scenes it was in, and luckily, they used the car in a lot of the movie. Don
I remember this movie very well! Us "Hot Rod" kids would go to the movies just to see the cool cars1 I watched 77 Sunset Strip TV show just to catch a glimpse of Grabowski's "Kookie T" bucket, and Route 66 to see the Corvette(s).
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