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excuse my dust 1951 movie


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Never heard of it, had to look it up. Looks like a funny movie, will have to watch it soon.

 

The movie is set in 1895 and tells the tale of a small town inventor of a new fangled horseless carriage. He enters it in a race. I take it from that, that the horseless carriage features in some action scenes. Almost certainly the car or cars, were made in the studio's prop department. Even if they had suitable cars, they would not have stood up and been reliable enough for a movie shooting schedule.

 

Will watch the movie over the weekend and get back to you.

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I would agree with Rusty. They probably had a shop fabricate several "prop cars". I don't think there is an owner that would allow his antique cars to be put thru that abuse.

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Along the line of styling of a Locomobile with the flat front and tiller, but as stated, probably a prop guy's rendition of the average horseless carriage made just for the movie.

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The Excuse My Dust car is a Sears Motor Buggy, probably a Model G ...   http://searsmotorbuggy.com/

 

The movie is available and worthwhile family viewing. Excuse My Dust | WB Shop

 

Three & maybe four Sears were bought and one was lost in the river. Three of those still survive today and are listed in the Sears Motor Buggy Registry.

 

Texas Sears Guy

G. Sandy Rose

 

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Don,

          I was searching through some of my stuff and found this undated article, written by Richard Kelley, which covers some of the history of Pacific Auto Rentals who supplied many cars to the movie industry.

    Here is a direct quote from that article:

 

    "The antique section in the catalog shows a 1904 Olds curved dash, a stately 1910 Cadillac town car, a 1910 Rio roadster and a 1912 Winton touring. Although there was a 1902 Holsman Motor Surrey, a high wheeler which had a rope drive from its under-the-seat engine to the four foot rear wheels in the catalog. P.A.R.'s oldest vehicle wasn't a factory product at all. It was a curious looking little steamer that had been built in 1892 in Akron, Ohio, by circus performer Achille Philion as an attention getter, and it was the only one ever built. The Philion appeared in several movies including Red Skelton's 1951 comedy Excuse My Dust. Today it can be seen at the National Automotive Museum in Reno."

 

    This is the picture that accompanied the article.

Regards, Greg

 

SIA-PacificAutoRental_02_2000.jpg

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It has been a LONG time since I saw the "excuse My Dust" movie., But I remember that I loved it when I did see it! ( both times!) However, I was always a Red Skelton fan, even though most of his movies didn't showcase his real talents very well, I thought this one worked very well for him. 

As I have said before, I was a strange kid. I wanted to own, restore, and drive antique automobiles since I was about five years old. Just loved the old things. On my Grandmother's bookcase, was some sort of a farmer's almanac and resource guide from about 1910. In it, was an advertisement for the Sears Automobile. I was about ten when I discovered that, and when we would visit my grandparent's place, I would usually look at that advertisement in that book (wish I had that book, some "adult" probably threw it out).

From that point on, I have wanted and read about Sears high-wheel automobiles. By the time I saw "Excuse My Dust"? I knew what the car was in the movie. I also noticed several things about it, or should I say "them". The Sears was in one way unlike most automobiles of that configuration. The hand crank for starting the car was on the FRONT of the car, whereas most high-wheel cars crank from one (and in a few cases, either) side of the car.  At least one of the Sears cars used for the movie, was a good and proper Sears. It clearly could be seen that the hand crank was in the front, where it is supposed to be. At least one of the cars, was modified (I did not then know how much?). It did NOT have the crank in the front (I noticed that detail the second time I saw the movie, I was maybe sixteen at the time). At least two of the cars had a fake hand crank installed on the side of the body, for Red Skelton to spin when he was supposed to be starting the car.

A couple years ago, one of the cars was offered for sale on eBad. It was a mostly correct Sears, with a few minor changes for the movie. The seller gave quite a lot of details concerning the car, what was correct, and what wasn't, and its role in the film.

 

About a year ago, I was in Reno, and went through the old Harrah's collection. The Philion was still there, and as nice as I remembered from seeing it when Harrah was alive.

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Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. The Sears car has always seemed strange to me because it came out when the Model T did but was really primitive solid rubber tires air cooled engine. But I think it would be fun to own one of these cars any way. The more I read about these old cars the more confusing it gets with number of companys entering the market back then. We were told that Europe started it all but Roper built a steam car and motorcycle in the U.S.A. in the 1860's. We are told that Ford started the first mass produced peoples car but the Dodge Brothers invested $60,000 of their own money tooling up and on raw materials to build the engine, transmission, frame, axels for the first model A while Ford spent nothing. These early cars are really interesting. It's nice to know that so many share this interest.

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The Model T Ford wasn't anywhere near as popular in its first years as it later became. We tend to think of it in the context of the 20s... from about 1908 to at least 1912 it was just another light, relatively inexpensive car. It wasn't even all that inexpensive at first - that also came later. In 1951 the Sears auto was only about 45 years old and practically no one was collecting old cars. It would have had almost zero value - or at least such a low value that buying 3 or 4 to use in a movie wouldn't have been outrageous and wouldn't have cost much. I don't imagine they would have thought any more about damaging it that I'd think today about wrecking several 1970s cars to make a movie.

 

Also, there were a lot of people still alive that clearly remembered events in 1895...

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"...In 1951 the Sears auto was only about 45 years old and practically no one was collecting old cars. "  REALLY?

 

Many folks were collecting and restoring old cars, then and earlier, hence,  AACA, VMCCA, HCCA, & Glidden Tours, to attest to the brass era and pre-war era hobby. A very rich & interesting history in those organizations!

 

As to the variety of Sears parts, in the movie, Red's character was an inventor trying different things... and things were "tricked out" for effect.

 

In Sept 1950. my granddad received a letter from a California man who had just sold his Sears to MGM, and was hunting tow more Sears for MGM. Restoration of my granddad's Sears coincided with the open of "Excuse My Dust", and he displayed the car at his local theater.

 

Today, there are about 240 known Sears Motor Buggies... many are still driven and shown at shows. In fact, there is planned @ the Old Car Festival this September, a Sears Gathering that is likely to have 15-20 Sears in attendance.

 

Honking a bulb horn!

 

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TXSearsGuy, Boy. You really know how to hurt a guy. I have wished for years to attend the OCF, but finances and distance have made it out of my reach. This year it is IMPOSSIBLE for me! Bad enough that there will hopefully be more model K Fords running together there this year than have been in one place in nearly a century. Now I hear that more running Sears Autobuggies might be there also! Criminy!

 

All kidding aside. That does sound WONDERFUL!

The estimate of 240 Sears autobuggies still in existence surprises me a bit. How reliable is that number? I have visited the Sears website several times the past few years, it is very good, better than a lot of the small niche websites for specific marques.

For whatever it is worth, I have come close to getting a Sears a few times. One fellow simply wanted a bit too much for the pile of pieces he had (and the engine was a broken mess). A couple were just out of reach financially. And another fellow went and died between offer and acceptance (he said he would take it, but the son wanted much more and held onto two cars for a couple more years before taking what I had offered from someone else for the one I could afford).

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Wayne:

Sell your wife, kids, dogs, and whatever will bring $$.  The Old Car Festival is worth every dime that travel may cost. My first time, in 2009, I was like a deer in the headlights... just astounded by being with 8 other Sears Motor Buggies, and about 800 pre-war cars driving around Greenfield Village. People were met... friends were made!

 

Update on Sears in the Registry, as of March 2018... 242... but at least two more have been located since then.

Sandy

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  • 1 month later...

Well, for what it is worth, the Old Car Festival is over for another year, and I didn't go (as I knew I couldn't this year).

However, early reports were that it was a wonderful success! Hampered somewhat by the weather. Early reports say at least eight Sears Autobuggies were there! I have already seen one photo showing at least five of the cars in a review group photo. There appear to be a few others behind what can clearly be seen. I would imagine the weather cut into the plans of a few that may have been planning to attend.

 

Also, the four model K Fords all made it! They all braved the weather, and their cars all performed very well! (Or so I have been told!) I have already seen a video of the four model K Fords passing through the review area! A spectacular sight it was to behold!

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On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 6:03 PM, TXSearsGuy said:

"...In 1951 the Sears auto was only about 45 years old and practically no one was collecting old cars. "  REALLY?

 

Many folks were collecting and restoring old cars, then and earlier, hence,  AACA, VMCCA, HCCA, & Glidden Tours, to attest to the brass era and pre-war era hobby. A very rich & interesting history in those organizations!

 

As to the variety of Sears parts, in the movie, Red's character was an inventor trying different things... and things were "tricked out" for effect.

 

In Sept 1950. my granddad received a letter from a California man who had just sold his Sears to MGM, and was hunting tow more Sears for MGM. Restoration of my granddad's Sears coincided with the open of "Excuse My Dust", and he displayed the car at his local theater.

 

Today, there are about 240 known Sears Motor Buggies... many are still driven and shown at shows. In fact, there is planned @ the Old Car Festival this September, a Sears Gathering that is likely to have 15-20 Sears in attendance.

 

Honking a bulb horn!

 

I love these really-old cars, for sure, and I have been around them for as long as I can remember. Indeed, I was riding around in my parents' antique cars at least as early as 1957. In respect to my life experience, I actually agree with JV Puleo when he said "...practically no one was collecting old cars." COMPARATIVELY speaking, that is actually true! Certainly there were some clubs and restorers then, but NOTHING like it became 25 or 30 years later.

 

In the late 1950's and early 1960's when we gathered at a shopping center prior to heading out on an AACA tour, people looked at us like we were total weirdo's. MOST people seemed to see old cars as "mildly interesting oddities," worth only a passing glance. MOST people then called our cars, "Jalopies" and "Flivvers," and asked questions like, "What do you even DO with that thing? Surely you don't drive it on the ROAD??!" I recall people honking and shouting angrily when they could finally pass our slower-moving cars on tour, yelling things like,"Get that thing off the road!" etc. I distinctly recall going to demolition derbies and other events where cars were smashed up, when Model A's, Dodges, and other cars of the 1920's were destroyed wantonly. We collectors were a tiny, almost infinitesimal percentage of the population. 

 

I recall my parents groaning and wailing when they saw beautiful antique cars smashed in tv shows and movies, but MOST people couldn't care less back then. 

 

 

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The movie was based on the 1943 book "Excuse My Dust", by Bellamy Partridge. 

 I have this book and it's one of my favorites. From what I understand, it's quite different from the film, which I haven't seen yet, but it's well worth picking up if you come across a copy. Partridge also wrote "Fill 'Er Up" and a few other books about the early cars. 

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I watched this old film last week with my wife and cousin, and we enjoyed parts of it. The cars were certainly cool. But I have to admit, in spite of the fact that my family always loved Red Skelton back in the day, movies have come a LONG way since then. Whew. 

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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 years later...

Stumbled across this thread today while searching for some information on a Sears Motor Buggy that I have purchased. It was owned by MGM Studio and is supposed to be the Sears driven by Red Skelton in the movie 'Excuse My Dust"  I have owned several antique cars but the oldest was a 1922 Model T Touring and current have a 1931 Ford Model A Slant Window Sedan so this is a whole new thing for me

Sears Motor.jpg

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