Today's "wind 'em-up"

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Check this out...

1926 HUDSON

Bad enough what was done to the vehicle , but the lame reasoning behind the "crime" is even worse... :mad: :confused:

Today's "sales-speak" vocabulary word is "sympathethically restored".

Edited January 12, 2010 by Steve Moskowitz
Remove wording that is not allowed (see edit history)

[jrbartlett]

How could something so distorted in form be called "sympathetically restored?"

[Steve Moskowitz]

Remember Gents, please be careful about attacking any business or person on this site. Thanks

This car is not my cup of tea either and I found the description a bit confusing. It will be interesting to see what the car will bring and how much action it gets. Hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, a girl ONCE told me I was ok looking so see, there you go....

Edited January 12, 2010 by Steve Moskowitz (see edit history)

[Paul Dobbin]

While this is now an "Auction Car, I hate to see everybody jump all over the folks who built it. Let's really consider the alternatives and the reasoning behind it.

#1 It was junk.

#2 It was a 4 door sedan (lowest value on the list)

#3 It needed a $50,000 restoration to be a $20,000 car.

#4 Early race cars were made from stuff like this. They couldn't increase the horsepower enopugh to make the 4 door sedan fast so the decreased the weight by 30% getting the same increase in performace as increased horsepower would provide.

#5. All the Hudson's that were such great race cars in the teens & 20's were made like this. Just look at who won the most Great American Races 20 years ago and 80 years ago.

#6. This is a finished usable car of great interest to some people.

#7. If they didn't do this, the steel would now be a couple of Hyundia's.

#8. If we all liked the same thing, Baskin Robbins wouldn't need 31 flavors.

#9. It's still a 1926 Hudson and we're a multi marque Antique Car Club.

#10. If we all bashed what you like ________ (fill in your brand), we'd never attract any new members. (Which is problem for us)

I liked what they did and could enjoy it any AACA Car Show, but I wouldn't go to the auction and buy it. Maybe we should all try to enjoy what others do, even if it's not our favorite flavor.

[msmazcol]

Here, here Paul.

Thanks

[Guest mercflyer]

Thread created for reaction? Heres mine.

[F&J]

If I am reading the auction description correcty??? That car IS the actual remains of the actual car used in the Grapes of Wrath movie??? Well, I think they chose the wrong thing to do...

If it is the real movie car, and as it said: "the body metal was pristine" but the wood was bad... I would have to think it would have been very profitable and REWARDING to put it back to the movie version. After all, if you want to build a racer or speedster, why not start with the myriad of unwanted, bad wood, sedans out there...that do not have such a famous history??

Or did I miss something that says it is "similar" to the grapes of wrath car ?

[JFranklin]

It was a converted truck in the movie. Rent it and see. Maybe our cars will see another era as it was in the thirties again.

Edited January 13, 2010 by JFranklin (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

Its lovely, look at the lines in that bodywork! Has that 100MPH look just parked there! It takes a skilled craftsman, a small of team of them to turn out a restoration loke that. Jane Fonda may have been conceived in it.

[rocketraider]

Can't remember if it was here or another forum that someone said last year-

"B-J is the only place I've ever seen a man wearing a full-length fur coat."

Edited January 13, 2010 by West Peterson (see edit history)

[Guest cben09]

Glenn,,,,When it gets anywhere near o to -20f and the daily driver happens to be a touring car or Open drive town car,,,,You wont leave home without a FULL length racoon coat,,,I still have it,,,Was new for the winter of 1912,,I bought it from the original owner in 1951,,needs full restoration,,,May get it out tomorrow,,,9;30 pm,,its +3 right now and sinking,,,Cheers Ben [in SOUTHERN Maine ] haha

[Restorer32]

Saddens me to see the original movie car/truck destroyed. Grapes of Wrath pretty much chronicles my great grandparents life during the Depression, though they wandered thru the East rather than the West. I would have thought the original vehicle would have had some value to collectors of movie props. If they are trying to increase the value of this speedster by linking it to the movie I think it's a stretch. I have no problem with what they did, just wish they had started with a different car. Next you'll tell me the Beverly Hillbillies car has been restored to original and will be featured at Pebble Beach!

[West Peterson]

Jeff

I agree with you and Steve, they can do what they want, and it may not be everyone's cup of tea. You hit the nail on the head, though, it's quite a stretch to link it to the movie car now. I would have thought it would have much more value and interest as a static display no matter what condition it was in.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Sorry if I crossed a line with respect to forum rules !

I was just so outraged by the listing description and attitude, perhaps more-so than by what was actually done to the vehicle.

To continue to make an association between this "racer" and the Oakie truck from TGOW is ridiculous.

Even though TGOW is technically a work of fiction, if this Hudson was indeed one of the cars from the John Ford movie, then a piece of American history has been DESTROYED. And to what end? For someone to "flip it" at a profit ?

I hope they lose lots of money on it.

I certainly don't recall any racers / speedsters in the movie... perhaps they exist in the "director's cut" ?

Sorry about my indignation - I just couldn't let this one go quietly into the night...

De Soto Frank

( Perhaps the John Steinbeck Trust will get wind of this and file an injunction preventing the seller for associating this vehicle with Mr. Steinbeck's story ! )

Edited January 13, 2010 by DeSoto Frank (see edit history)

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Saddens me to see the original movie car/truck destroyed. Grapes of Wrath pretty much chronicles my great grandparents life during the Depression, though they wandered thru the East rather than the West. I would have thought the original vehicle would have had some value to collectors of movie props. If they are trying to increase the value of this speedster by linking it to the movie I think it's a stretch. I have no problem with what they did, just wish they had started with a different car. Next you'll tell me the Beverly Hillbillies car has been restored to original and will be featured at Pebble Beach!

Yes, right alongside the "1928 Porter" from "My Mother the Car" !

( Actually the Olds from "the Beverly Hillbillies" has some parallels with TGOW - poor farming family from the heartland heads to California for a better life, in a converted jalopy truck with all their worldly possesions tied-on, including Grandma!...

At least the Clampett's Olds has been shown more respect ! )

Edited January 13, 2010 by DeSoto Frank (see edit history)

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

While this is now an "Auction Car, I hate to see everybody jump all over the folks who built it. Let's really consider the alternatives and the reasoning behind it.

#1 It was junk.

#2 It was a 4 door sedan (lowest value on the list)

#3 It needed a $50,000 restoration to be a $20,000 car.

#4 Early race cars were made from stuff like this. They couldn't increase the horsepower enopugh to make the 4 door sedan fast so the decreased the weight by 30% getting the same increase in performace as increased horsepower would provide.

#5. All the Hudson's that were such great race cars in the teens & 20's were made like this. Just look at who won the most Great American Races 20 years ago and 80 years ago.

#6. This is a finished usable car of great interest to some people.

#7. If they didn't do this, the steel would now be a couple of Hyundia's.

#8. If we all liked the same thing, Baskin Robbins wouldn't need 31 flavors.

#9. It's still a 1926 Hudson and we're a multi marque Antique Car Club.

#10. If we all bashed what you like ________ (fill in your brand), we'd never attract any new members. (Which is problem for us)

I liked what they did and could enjoy it any AACA Car Show, but I wouldn't go to the auction and buy it. Maybe we should all try to enjoy what others do, even if it's not our favorite flavor.

Paul,

Point taken, but this was not "just any" '26 Hudson sedan. If it is indeed one of the "Joad family vehicles" from the 1939 movie "The Grapes of Wrath", this car/truck represented a very significant piece of American history and literature.

If you're not familiar with John Steinbeck's story, I would seriously recommend reading the book and definitely watching the movie sometime; it 's a great story, and a great movie - John Ford directing, starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, and other Hollywood greats...

If the Hudson's aluminum sheet-metal was as intact as the auction listing suggests, I don't think it would have been anymore labor-intensive to re-wood that square Hudson body and replicate the "Oakie" truck body than it was to convert it into a racer.

Again, this is my own opinion, but I feel this was an irresponsible direction to go with this car; especially since the sellers insist on continuing to connect it with the film. It now bears no resemblence to ANY vehicle in the film.

[boblichty]

Paul Dobbin pretty much sumed it up up. It could have ended up in black primer with a Chevy Small block in it too. As one of the others noted it was pretty well cut up in the movie so it must have been really bad by the time the racer was built from it.

rocketraider! The last place I say a man wearing a full-length fur coat was at Hershey in 1974...it was Tom Barrett, and his wife had matching ones, it was at least 70 that year. And yes, that would be Tom Barret as in Barrett-Jackson. You always knew when he was around.

Same year Bill Harrah had on a pair of light yellow pants, white shirt and white shoes and this was back in the mud days. He was so blessed he could walk all day at Hershey, with white shoes on and not get them dirty, In the mean time the Hershey mud would suck my boots right off my feet. LOL.

[1937hd45]

Years ago a 6-4 tall customer walked in the shop with a full length racoon coat, very impressive. Starting in the fall he would collect "volunteers" from the local roads, place them in a copper washboiler in his trunk for delivery to the local taxidermist for processing. Took over two years of collecting, but made for a comfortable ride in his 1934 Packard

[earl e rizer]

I don't think "restored" is the proper description for this car. "Re-configured" or totally modified is a better way to describe. Or perhaps "Gow job", or Pre-war Hot Rodded?

[Paul Dobbin]

<TABLE border=0 width=900><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">The Story says:

<TABLE border=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" colSpan=2>the story of the Joad Family driving to California in their 14 year old, highly modified Hudson Super Six with all of the family possessions to find a better life. At productions end, the Hudson's original sedan body was reunited with the chassis and placed in storage awaiting restoration. Found in December of 2008, Gary Wales took on the daunting task of restoring this very famous movie car. The termites had reduced the original Biddle & Smart alloy coach body into a shell of its former self, the alloy metal of the body was still in pristine condition as well as the chassis. It was decided to abandon the original movie configuration, truck body added after the original car was cut behind the front door and removed, as it was cost prohibitive and just not practical to return it as used in the movie. It was sympathetically restored to a period racecar using as many of the original components as possible, even to the extent that the complete front end of the car to the doors was retained and all four original door skins were reused in making the new doors including all hinges, locks and hardware. Less than 8000 original miles on this 84 year old automobile. </TD></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap; HEIGHT: 100%; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top"> </TD><TD style="HEIGHT: 100%; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" colSpan=2> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

For those who object to what Gary Wales did, What would you restore it to?

A stock factory Hudson?

Or the highly modified Movie car?

I know Gary Wales and his 1936 Bentley Speedster that he beat me with in the 1984 Great American Race and would expect this Hudson to be as nice. You know that Brewster made a fortune modifying coachwork for the carriage trade in this period, all modified cars. The running gear is all original in the Hudson.

Movie cars are mostly modified cars, the Great Lesley that Tony Curtis drove in the Grat Race was a fake, as Professor Fate's Hannibal 8. Even Herbie, all 25 if them were modified cars.

Let's just enjoy them as vintage special interest cars.

</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 100%; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" colSpan=2></TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 100%; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" colSpan=2>

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[F&J]

For those who object to what Gary Wales did, What would you restore it to?

A stock factory Hudson?

Or the highly modified Movie car?

Ok, you asked. I would without hesitation, go with it's last known configuration...which was the movie car.

The ad sounds like hype in my opinion. I just can't believe that the movie company "put it back to a sedan". Maybe they tossed the cut off back into the bed, but why on earth would a profit minded business bother to "Re-unite" the body back to stock, on a then outdated old car. This "reunite" wording sounds just like the trendy sales pitches on some online auctions.

[MCHinson]

Anybody has a right to do what they want to a car that they own. If that is what he wanted to do to it, he can do it.

As for me, I have heard of a boat tailed speedster before, but never an airplane tailed speedster. The tail on that thing just looks weird to me.

If you want to restore a movie car to its movie condition, I would get it. If you want to take a car and modify it, I can even understand that. But why you would want to take a movie car and totally modify it to something else and then use "it was a famous movie car" to market it.... I don't get it.

I wouldn't bid on that thing even if I did have way more more dollars than sense.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

I remember reading somewhere that famed race car driver Nicki Lauda was one of the few men in the world who could wear a full length fur coat - and belong in it. Not quite the era but I agree with the writer's observation - a man's man for sure!

I guess one advantage of a vintage speedster (authentic) or touring car would be the ability to obtain said coat - cool, if you can pull it off!!

RE the big circus, best ignored, more spectacle than part of the hobby, IMHO.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

<TABLE border=0 width=900><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top">The Story says:

<TABLE border=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" colSpan=2>the story of the Joad Family driving to California in their 14 year old, highly modified Hudson Super Six with all of the family possessions to find a better life. At productions end, the Hudson's original sedan body was reunited with the chassis and placed in storage awaiting restoration. Found in December of 2008, Gary Wales took on the daunting task of restoring this very famous movie car. The termites had reduced the original Biddle & Smart alloy coach body into a shell of its former self, the alloy metal of the body was still in pristine condition as well as the chassis. It was decided to abandon the original movie configuration, truck body added after the original car was cut behind the front door and removed, as it was cost prohibitive and just not practical to return it as used in the movie. It was sympathetically restored to a period racecar using as many of the original components as possible, even to the extent that the complete front end of the car to the doors was retained and all four original door skins were reused in making the new doors including all hinges, locks and hardware. Less than 8000 original miles on this 84 year old automobile. </TD></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: right; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; WHITE-SPACE: nowrap; HEIGHT: 100%; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top"></TD><TD style="HEIGHT: 100%; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" colSpan=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

For those who object to what Gary Wales did, What would you restore it to?

A stock factory Hudson?

Or the highly modified Movie car?

I know Gary Wales and his 1936 Bentley Speedster that he beat me with in the 1984 Great American Race and would expect this Hudson to be as nice. You know that Brewster made a fortune modifying coachwork for the carriage trade in this period, all modified cars. The running gear is all original in the Hudson.

Movie cars are mostly modified cars, the Great Lesley that Tony Curtis drove in the Grat Race was a fake, as Professor Fate's Hannibal 8. Even Herbie, all 25 if them were modified cars.

Let's just enjoy them as vintage special interest cars.

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Paul,

Well, I guess we'll have to "Agree to disagree" on this.

Perhaps I'm being unfair to Mr. Wales, this may not have been his idea, but that of a client with a thick wallet...

What's done to the car is done.

I still maintain that to continue to try to make such a strong association between this Hudson in its present form and "The Grapes of Wrath" is a flimsy marketing ploy, at best... but then, that never stopped the folks on Madison Avenue ( "Marketeers").

I would argue that such a "famous vehicle" belongs to "everyone" who either reads or sees "The Grapes of Wrath", or who suffered through the Dustbowl saga; it's a piece of American culture / history.

The Joad's "truck" is as significant as Henry Ford's "Quadracycle", Horatio _____'s Winton from the first cross-country auto trip, the Model T, Bonnie and Clyde's '34 Ford, Marshall Teague's "Fabulous Hudson Hornet", the Lincoln that carried JFK through Dallas, the "Further" bus, the VW bug, the Lunar Rover... these are all vehicles that defined/were defined by a certain era or event(s).

As for "highly modified movie vehicles", Steinbeck is very detailed in the Joad's "shopping" for a used car, which kind to buy, why, the unscrupulous nature of the used car lot owner, and the blow-by-blow process of changing the Hudson sedan into the truck, down to "blocking the rear springs" so they wouldn't break from being overloaded. Steinbeck vividly describes the Joads cutting through the Hudson's skin with a hammer and cold chisel...

Steinbeck didn't invent this.... this is what folks really did, trying to survive....

The notion of "re-inventing" the Joad truck into a racer is frivolous at best...

"What would I restore it to? " If it was indeed the Joad truck from the movie, then I would restore it to the "movie version", complete with all the Joad's household effects.

While we're at it, why don't we go to Philly, and "sympathetically restore" that crack in the Liberty Bell ?

Edited January 14, 2010 by DeSoto Frank (see edit history)

[Guest AlK]

Hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, a girl ONCE told me I was ok looking so see, there you go....

Hey Steve, what breed of seeing eye dog did she have?????(smile)

[West Peterson]

Frank

Those are exactly my thoughts. This was not "just a vehicle" in the movie, it played a key role in the whole movie, and, as you pointed out, its description was highly detailed in Steinbeck's writings. It would have been a very cool attraction in a diorama setting in the Petersen, National or AACA museum.

I suppose that because of how dilapidated it was, it wouldn't be that difficult to reverse what has been done if/when a future owner decides that its value is in its association with TGOW. Perhaps its body pieces are still available.

[Paul Dobbin]

Frank is correct with his statement

"The Joad's "truck" is as significant as Henry Ford's "Quadracycle", Horatio _____'s Winton from the first cross-country auto trip, the Model T, Bonnie and Clyde's '34 Ford, Marshall Teague's "Fabulous Hudson Hornet", the Lincoln that carried JFK through Dallas, the "Further" bus, the VW bug, the Lunar Rover... these are all vehicles that defined/were defined by a certain era or event(s)."

Howerver this was a movie replicar, and all the others you mentioned are real cars! The story was fiction, not a documentary. Does that make every replica significant?

How about all the fiberglass Auburns speedsters, Shay Model A's, VW based

MGTD's, Porsche Speedsters, 1901 Merry Oldsmobiles, 32 Ford Streetrods and the dozens of 1934 Fords shot full of holes for carnival displays depicting Bonnie & Clyde Death Cars, all the Cobra replicas, etc., etc.

All interesting but NOT REAL. Many people are even restoring replicas now because they've been around for over 25 years. I've even owned a few but they were never as good the real thing.

If we were to restore the Hudson to its movie roll condition, would we restore it to its condition at the beginning of the movie or the end? The 1908 Thomas Flyer (a real car) was restored to race end condition. I bet if they made a movie about it now it would get a modern engine & brakes. The Hudson didn't. It's still a replica race car, made froma replica movie car.

We agree to disagree, and that's why we have so many different passions within this hobby. That keeps me interested and keeps AACA Shows from being all exhibits of identical vehicles. We have a lot more flavors than Baskins-Robbins.

[Dynaflash8]

It is still lost to "history", but worse than that I've notice here in Florida at these "Cruise-in's" that the averager "looker person" doesn't even know the cars weren't made that way. Since I can't sell my stock 1939 Buick, I guess I should modify it? I bought it to save it from a street rodder, and it looks like I'm holding the bag. Where has the hobby gone?

[TG57Roadmaster]

And this ersatz racer Hudson relates to the AACA in what way, exactly? Of all the "recreation" cars discussed so far in this well-informed thread, the only one that's AACA-qualified is the Shay's Model A; the rest are just sideshow freaks.

I'll never understand the supposed cachet of Star Cars, as in the last forty years of involvement in the hobby, I've seen about half a dozen each of the Bonnie & Clyde '34 Ford, Miss Daisy's '55 Fleetwood, Herbie's Beetle, the Rainman '49 Roadmaster, the Batmobile and so on. And these were all purportedly the real deal, with papers to prove it! The '55 & '49 would be welcome at any AACA show, as they're unmodified, the others would not.

You can see the one and only Hannibal 8 at the Petersen, along with many others, but you won't see the subject Hudson at any AACA Meet, except maybe in a Car Corral, Flea Market or Auction. And that's as it should be.

Although the body is a bit too precious on the '26, the owner/restorer has every right to do whatever he wishes to the car. Personally, I think those Hudson sedans of the era are quite attractive for what they are, and a Biddle & Smart example would be AACA-ready, and might even qualify for CCCA consideration.

The only issue I have is the confused lineage to the Joad Family Car, and the manufactured hype surrounding all of it. Although I'm sure the work was very well-performed, to me it's just another resale red car, worth hardly more than a prolonged glance.

But I'm just one guy with one opinion in a very large hobby/biz;

to each his own.

TG

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

"However this was a movie replicar, and all the others you mentioned are real cars! The story was fiction, not a documentary. "

While Steinbeck's novel was/is technically "fiction", it was very much based on actual events and circumstances, and in fact was a cry against what Steinbeck felt was a social injustice blossoming from a prolonged natural disaster ( the prolonged drought and resultant "Dustbowl" in the American mid-West.) . Most "Okies" were good, honest, hard-working Citizens who lost their farms and families due drought, crop-failure, foreclosure, and bankruptcy. Many of them struck-out for California (along "the Mother Road", old US 66), hearing it described as a veritable "Land of Plenty", with good land, favorable climate, and work for everybody.

Along their way, these Americans were generally treated with derision, suspicion, and scorn.

It rarely got better when they reached greener pastures. They were generally resented and discriminated against. This is bluntly pointed-out in both the book and the film.

( There were quite a few other films of the era that had an edge of social conciousness about them, such as "My Man Godfrey", "Mr. Dees Goes to Town", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "The Forgotten Man"... "The Grapes of Wrath" was the pinnacle of the "social injustice" films of the era.)

Their story is analagous to refugees we see fleeing poverty and persecution in "third-world countries"... except that these were our own American brothers and sisters...

While the specific names and events in Steinbeck's novel maybe fictious, the story was most definitely based on actual events and circumstances, and the creation of trucks from passenger cars was certainly not uncommon prior to the 1950's.

If the seller's intent was to capitalize on this Hudson's association with John Ford's film, then it would make sense that it would have been maintained in it's "as-filmed" appearance.

I would cry "foul" just as loudly if the Joad truck was restored back to the original sedan as it left the Hudson factory...

I'm sure there are plenty of other rotting Hudson Super-Six sedans out there that could have been racer-ized... I think it was a mistake to choose this particular one as the foundation for such a project.

The marketing strategy continues to baffle me.

In the meantime, I will see if I kind scrounge-up some pictures of "real" Okie cars/trucks...

Edited January 15, 2010 by DeSoto Frank (see edit history)

[F&J]

Dynaflash8's last post may seem like it has nothing to do with this dicussion, but after thinking about it, it may be the answer.

We are talking about a famous classic big screen movie in which a car was modified to what the director/producer had in his mind. Props are very crucial in any great movie. That movie is and always will be a classic, but the folks that were alive and saw the first release, or can identify with that era, are dwindling.

Lets compare the 1973 big screen movie; "American Graffitti".. a movie about a certain small window of time based on the year 1962. It was, to some, the last gasp of the age of teen innocence, as the US and the world went through so much trauma since that year. That movie stuck a chord with those that lived the era. That movie also launched many careers for then unknown actors/actresses.

The 32 Ford coupe in that movie already was a California hotrod when the studio found it, but the car was totally and completely changed to fit the teenage memories of the producer. The car was modified to the exact moment in time as far as details....just as the the Grapes of Wrath car was.

If you compare the people who are into the hobby, and also are movie fans, I can see how a ancient classic movie like Grapes of Wrath is likely not anywhere near as popular or well known in these times than compared to American Graffitti.

So, if a person was to take the Graffitti coupe and make something totally different out of it, the outrage would be intense.

just my opinion.

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

"So, if a person was to take the Graffitti coupe and make something totally different out of it, the outrage would be intense."

F&J,

Thanks for providing a more contemporary analogy... I was looking for one( or more), but the only one that came to mind was the De Lorean from the "Back to the Future" franchise, whose inclusion I did not think would help my case

Cars such as "The Lesley Special", Professor Fate's "Hannibal Eight", and "Herbie the Love Bug" and so-on are definitely "fantasy cars"... and are not quite in the same league as the Joad truck.

Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang is somewhat legitimate, in that Ian Fleming based his fictional car on a true race car of the same name, belonging to a Count Zabrowsky.

Of course, Fleming endowed his car with "special super powers".

Yes, Steinbeck wrote fiction, but it was well-grounded in fact, not unlike James Michener's novels, such as "Tales of the South Pacific" and "Centennial".

"The Grapes of Wrath" made quite an impact on me, even though it's been thirty-plus years since reading it as an assignment in HS English class, and at least twenty-five years since I last saw the movie.

[Dynaflash8]

If somebody found Topper's 1938 Buick custom roadster with the fin on the back, and restored it exactly like it was for the movie, I'd have no problem with that. The car was modified by the movie's at a time when it was highly plentiful and among thousands of brethern cars. If somebody took a 1938 Buick convertible today and customized it to look like the Topper car, but it wasn't the real Topper car, I would be horrified, for the '38 Buick convertible in stock condition is a piece of real history, just as the ONE Topper car is a piece of history. These cars are dwindling at the rate of WWII veterans and to destroy one now is, in my opinion, awful - as in outrage.

[West Peterson]

If somebody found Topper's 1938 Buick custom roadster with the fin on the back, and restored it exactly like it was for the movie, I'd have no problem with that. The car was modified by the movie's at a time when it was highly plentiful and among thousands of brethern cars. If somebody took a 1938 Buick convertible today and customized it to look like the Topper car, but it wasn't the real Topper car, I would be horrified, for the '38 Buick convertible in stock condition is a piece of real history, just as the ONE Topper car is a piece of history. These cars are dwindling at the rate of WWII veterans and to destroy one now is, in my opinion, awful - as in outrage.

That car has been restored... as the Topper car, I believe. I'll try and find a photo.

[West Peterson]

I take that back... it may have been restored as it was used by Gilmore.

[TG57Roadmaster]

Link to the Gilmore (Topper) Buick...

TG

[padgett]

a) at best it is a "tribute" car, possibly a "replica"

every car has a history

c) have never seen "just one" movie car unless it was really low buck. There are always several (example: the "General Lee" with a VW chassis). Further often a car used in one movie would be reconfigured and used in another (the several 55 Chevvies used in TLB and American Graffitti are an example. Show cars have the same issue.

d) There are those who would add value for any vehicle associated with popular people or events but at the time, they were just cars. If a hole needed to be cut, door removed, or a strut welded on for a camera, it was done and a different car was used for shots of the other side.

e) Something about a sucker born every minute ?

[LINC400]

It seems ridiculous to me to try to be selling this car by hyping it as the car from TGOW when it looks nothing like the car used in the movie. You would not buy the dress from Gone With the Wind if they shortened the skirt to knee length and dyed it hot pink, or the staircase replica from Titanic if they painted it purple and sawed off the carvings and used steel banisters instead. The point of owning a movie prop is to have what was used in the movie.

If it could not be restored to movie condition, then I would like to have seen it restored with its original body. This racer configuration has nothing to do with the history of the car, which they want to hype to sell it. Personally I do not see how changing it this drastically in appearance was supposed to be easier than just restoring what was there. Didn't they have to fabricate that whole goofy tail section? That was easier than putting on a wood truck bed?? If they wanted to make a race car, they should have done it with a car that did not have this car's history.

Edited January 15, 2010 by LINC400 (see edit history)

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

How significant was the Joad's truck ?

Steinbeck's own words make it pretty clear:

"The house was dead, and the fields were dead; but this truck was the active thing, the living principle. The ancient Hudson, with bent and scarred radiator screen, with grease in the dusty globules at the worn edges of every moving part, with hub caps gone and caps of red dust in other places – this was the new hearth, the living center of the family; half passenger car and half truck, high-sided and clumsy."

What was the Joad family confronted with, in their little town of Sallisaw, Oklahoma ?

"A day went by and the wind increased, steady, unbroken by the gusts. The dust from the roads fluffed up and spread out and fell on the weeds beside the fields, and fell into the fields a little way. Now the wind grew strong and hard and it worked at the rain crust in the corn fields. Little by little the sky was darkened by the mixing dust, and the wind felt over the earth, loosened the dust, and carried it away. The wind grew stronger. The rain crust broke and the dust lifted up out of the fields and drove gray plumes into the air like sluggish smoke. The corn threshed the wind and made a dry, rushing sound. The finest dust did not settle back to earth now, but disappeared into the darkening sky […] The dawn came, but no day. In the gray sky a red sun appeared, a dim red circle that gave a little light, like dusk; and as that day advanced, the dusk slipped back toward darkness. "

Some images from the film:

Edited January 15, 2010 by DeSoto Frank (see edit history)

[Guest DeSoto Frank]

Things didn't necessarily get easier as they made their way West...