Motion Pictures Two Lane Blacktop Revisited

As the story goes ,,after TLB made the rounds of all the movie theaters ,,Dennis Wilson drowned ,not in a Surfing Accedent as was first reported ,,but diving off the back of his Yacht in the dock ,to retrieve stuff he'd thrown overboard while drunk the day before,,he was going thru a bad devorce ,,and living on the Yacht full time ,,
the Movie was taken off the show circuit for years because of a dispute over royalties between the Beach Boys Band and the Studio ,then ,,in the late '70's early '80's ,,it was rented out to A&E Late Nite Movies to help pay the legal bills ,,I recorded it on VHS offa A&E Late Nite in 1980 ,still have the VHS tape complete with commercials ,,
Then ,,all was settled about 6-8 years ago ,and the Movie re-released on VHS ,,then DVD ,,a Collectors Tin DVD with a TLB puter 55 key chain and booklet was released and now another collectors tin with two DVDs ,one the movie ,,the other a directors/studio description video of all the background stuff ,,
all ar being sold on Amazon . com ,,or ,,of coarse eBay ,,

 

Heres the pic.........what I meant was the steering wheel was a early one (go figure) but I also believe it was 4 hole not 3 and those are all over

 

Meatball; you mean the steering wheel in the movie was a 4 hole ?? or that one in the pic i posted ??,,i've watched the movie more times than i can count and in all the in car shots ,the steering wheel is a 3 hole ,,

 

I thought in some shots it was a 4 hole........if you look at the wheel in the B&W pic on page 1 it looks like a 4 hole as close as the outer holes are.I could be wrong.

 

Ok, so I have always heard that the TLB and American Graffiti '55's were one and the dame but does anyone know if they used all three cars from TLB to be in AG? Was the ag car that was rolled a Tlb car?

Aslo, connman, you said that most people didnt care for the movie. It is one of most worn dvds in my collection. to me the star is the '55. I do however find it a little frustrating that they were so right on in some ways and so far off in others. and the scene where GTO leaves the Gas station and does a burn out and it isnt on screen pisses me off to no end.

 

Notice in that B & W pic ,,the camera is aimed at James' face ,,the steering wheel coulda been put on there for James' comfert ,,but it didn't apear in any of the movie shots ,,BTW; that B&W pic in your post IS the no 2camera car ,,notice the AC Compressor ,,they put A C in that car for the comfert of the actors and the in car film crew,,also ,,notice the single four carb with the dummy carb on a flat plate above,,so it would show thru the scoop in the in car shots,,but the single carb was put on the no. 2 car so James could drive it easier ,,in the far off speed shots ,and at the drag races ,,a stunt driver drove the No 1 '55 with the L-88 dual quad/tunnel ram motor ,,the No.2 car had a LS-5 454 ,,back then ,,the No 1 car ran in the middle tens at the track ,,pretty fast for a 1971 street driver ,,

 

the ending of TLB was to be a wreck of the 55 kinda a easyrider thing but the decided it didnt work,it was in post production they came up with the idea of the melting film,word is they had filmed a couple of endings..........the crash car had sperate brake controls to help roll it however it didnt work so well so they had to refilm the crash in AG the next day..........

 

yeah I know.(see post 20).......I hauled the cars (AG 32 and the 55) to a lot of west coast car shows for rick about 10 years ago when Ruth got the backup car finish for rick in AG trim to go with the 32..............I need to go thru my pics and files of pics I just cant scan them at this point...

 

There were three '55's built for TLB ,,the no 3 car WAS gonna be a rollover car in TLB ,,BUT ,,they changed their mind ,,,in Grafitti ,they used the No 1 car and the No 3 car WASused as the roll over car ,,BUT,,the No 2 TLB camera car was sold after TLB was done ,,and never apeared in Grafitti ,,it was sold to a Studio employee whose son repainted it white with red n yellow graphics and drove it to hi school ,then it sold several times and ended up painted black ,in Canada ,,where Walt traced it a bought it to restore back to TLB movie condition ,, the original fiberglass doors were found in a junk yard in California ,,Walt spent 'bout 20 years tracking everything to get it all back together ,,

 

The TLB No 1 car that appeared in Grafitti is still around ,,,back east ,,but it's a gold plated ,crushed velvet mess of a hardly running show car ,,,nuthing like it was in Grafitti anymore ,,However,,there is talk about IT being restored back to Grifitti movie trim ,,??? we'll see i guess

 

Awesome! A/C compressor for the primadonna rockstar actors! I'd want it too if I was a big star. Probably an ounce of cocaine in the glove box as well.

 

Meatball; I'm sorry ,,I scimmed right over Post #20 ,,,,i was doing sumthin else i guess ,,

 

I believe the rollover car in American Graffitti was a hardtop with a 2x4 stuck in ther to look like a post car. I am not a movie producer, so this is just conjecture...

 

Cocaine in the glove box??? more like "POT" ,,lol,,it is interesting how they hid the AC vents inside so they wouldn't show on camera ,,Lotsa Movie trickery in that moveie ,,,like the gas filler cap in the trunk ,,not real ,,it was mounted right over the frame ,,so no filler hose could ever hook up to it ,,but ,,it was a prettykool deal ,,

 

The coke would have been for Warren Oates, he was pretty high strung, I imagine J.T. was down with the P.O.T. Damn hippies!

 

Richard; No ,the roll over car WAS a two door post ,,It was the FIRE car that was a hardtop with the piece a wood to make it look like a post car ,,that car was bought at the local junk yard to be burned ,,the TLB no 3 car was not burned ,,but pretty well damaged in the roll over ,was sold to the junk yard and parted out ,,

 

Richard: I'm not sayin' what i was smokin' when i watched TLB at the drive-in in '71 ,,i was a Beat Nik ,,not a Hippie YET !! lol,,lol,lol,

 

I read somewhere he was on Heroin throughout the movie. (off screen of course.)

Not that it really matters...

Movie is great.

 

The No 3 car was used in One Scene in TLB ,,where they spun the '55 around in the gravel at Deals Gap, Tenn,,to go back to the resturant where GTO and the Girl was ,,

 

# 3 (roll over car) was used as a roundy round car according to guys I knew in the area ....................

 

has James Taylor even seen the movie yet? maybe in the last year or so, maybe.

 

Meatball; that would make sum sense ,,it was already kinda banged up ,but i heard that the LS-5 454 in it was bought by a film crew member ,,so with a small block in it ,,it woulda made a good "Dirt Baller" car,,it didn't have the one piece glass front like the no 1 and 2 car had ,,PLUS ,,it had a 12 point roll cage instead of the 4 point the other two had ,,

 

budd; Not sureabout that ,,but when he saw the TLB 55 at his Tanglewood Park concert ,,he crawled all over it like it was an old girl friend ,,and pretty well knew it was the real deal ,

 

Monte Hellman, Warren Oates, James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, Laurie Bird, I seriously doubt ANY of them EVER got high!

I'm poppin in my copy of TLB and crashin'. 'Night all.

 

Ditto!

 

Thanks for clarifying guys. I always have a dilema as to what I would do if I actually owned one of the originals, Ag trim or TLb trim, tough call. Either way it's a winner in my book.

 

Munster; I agree with that ,,there are a lot of TLB and AG clones out there ,,some are dead on ,,some not ,,but most look pretty good ,,BUT ,,there would be nuthin' like having an Original ,,those only come along ONCE ,,,

 

The most corect Grafitti clone/tribute '55 ,,Rick Fagari bought it after a guy built it ,then had Richard Ruth ,,the builder of all three TLB '55's ,,redo the front straight axle to the way it was done for the originals ,plus the custom hedders ,and a few other things ,,Rick owns the Original AG '32 Coupe that was in the AG Movie ,,shown here are both on display ,,

 

OH MY GAWD-----KAAY!!!!!!!!! What a blast from the past. The Mighty 1090!!!!!!!!!!

 

Go to www.lakelandraceway.com for some really cool pictures of the racing scenes at Memphis.