The King of Kustomizers

An interview with
George Barris.

Hollywood Legend George Barris was honored at the 51st Detroit Autorama with a Lifetime Achievement Award in February, 2003.  He was kind enough to spend time with us and talk about his work creating some of the most famous cars in television and movie history.

Joe:  Welcome back to Detroit.  Do you feel a connection to Detroit, considering it's the Motor City?

George:  Well, very much so, because many years ago I started with AMT in Troy, Michigan building the first models pertaining to our original custom and hot rod cars.  So Detroit became kind of like a second home. 

Joe: I believe the Batmobile also made one of its first public appearances in Dearborn, Michigan.

George:  Yes, the first Motorama that came out here many years ago.  Of course the original Batmobile started off as an experimental Lincoln Futura. So it was easy really coming from Ford Motor Company and became the inspiration for me to build the Batmobile because it had the character and the lines that I wanted to work with so we were fortunate to have that car.

 Joe:  I understand that replicas were made from the original Batmobile.  Which one is behind us here today? 

George:  This is #3.  We had to build 5 cars. And this is the exhibition car that goes out on tours along with the fact that it was the backup car.  And then we wanted to be able to ... then we had the stunt car,  we had the principal car then we had the other cars. 

Joe:  Does it amaze you that people react to these cars like they are meeting a celebrity? 

George:  Well, we found out that in the period of time that I really started building cars in the 50’s for the movie industry with Hot Rod Girl, Hot Rod Gang and everything, the film industry for the big screen, then in the 60’s transferred to the small screen in every home in the USA.  So now we became a family-type of an event…and The Munsters was the big star of that in '64 with that little hot rod with the funny family, and then Batman came in with the pow, wow, wang……then people realized ... and they said 'Well, y’know … cars are like stars, they do perform.  They do stunts.'  Knight Rider would jump and fly.  The Dodge Charger from Dukes of Hazzard ... they became very important, so that way they learned a lot ... that they became the stars as much as the (actors)….in fact, we had more fan mail on The Munsters at Universal than the stars.

Joe: Was your involvement with films in Hollywood a gradual transition from custom car building? 

George:  Actually, coming from a little small town in Northern California,  I came to Los Angeles with my real hot custom car and people liked it you know?  Then the celebrities started coming in, Lionel Hampton, Liberace…these various stars that actually escalated the fact that the movie industry liked the cars and the more stars liked the cars and that’s what really made the big change. 

Joe:  What was your first famous car, the Beverly Hillbillies truck? 

George:  Well, I felt that actually the Munster Koach on TV became the identity right off from there. The Beverly Hillbillies was very popular.  It was the longest show we had on t.v. and to find any car from the Ozarks in Southern California was kinda hard and I was driving down the 10 freeway and I go by a little town, Fontana in the San Bernadino area, and there was a feed store and this old car was whacked in half and was sitting there, a 1922 Oldsmobile, and I took pictures of that and I run back to the studio and I said, 'Hey guys, let’s make this.'  And the director said, 'That’s great George, but one thing you’ll have to do.'  I said, 'What was that?'  'You gotta put the rocking chair up there in the back for Granny.' Because she sat on the rocking chair, so that was kind of a fun project. 

Joe:  And after The Munsters, there was the Batmobile. 

George:  Yes, the Batmobile, then of course The Monkees was very popular.  My young artist, Dean Jeffries, who worked with us on all the stripings, created the first Monkeemobile for us to be able to put on film. The Green Hornet was another one that followed right up on it.  Then you go from that, you go from the crimefighters to what?  The Flintstones, which is a total opposite.  Y’know, here we got a car that’s in the Bedrock city and don’t have any power, we got big cement rollers for wheels and all that and I actually went into the Big Bear mountain to pull logs that we pulled the molds out of to make the car so that we would have that Flintstones car. 

Joe:  A lot of your cars are built on existing cars.  Is it more difficult to build a car from scratch, like the Flintstones car? 

George:  Well, it’s not really (difficult) because through all the engineering equipment we have now, we can form ... we actually take foam, we shape the foam, we form the body, we pull the mold, we pull the part, put in the power ... we’re pretty well organized now because we’re experienced and we do have the formality.  Even next week we start a new movie which is a reproduction of the old series Starsky & Hutch and it’s gonna be very interesting because the team (includes) Ben Stiller, so you know we’re gotta have a lot of fun with that Ford Torino with Ben Stiller in Starsky & Hutch.  It gives you an idea of the lot of fun that we have. 

Joe:  You've worked with many Hollywood legends:  Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley.  Can you share some of the experiences you’ve had with these legends? 

George:  Well, like Frank Sinatra ... we all called them the Rat Pack, because it was Frank and Dean and Sammy and the whole group, and for me to build cars for that whole group was interesting because each one of them had everything in the world they could have, but then we had to make cars that they like, with the dual gears and the Chryslers and some experimental cars and it was a fun project because each one of them liked what each one had.  Of course Elvis was really a car guy.  He liked lots of cars.  Cadillac was his favorite.  We did the first '57 that was pink, then we did the limousine and right on through ... some of the buses.  So Cadillac was the inspiration for Elvis as well as many, many other stars. 

Joe:  Can you tell us the story of Elvis' Gold Cadillac convertible? 

George:  We created the gold Cadillac convertible that we designed together, because I spent a lot of time with Elvis and Priscilla and then in building the car along with the cosmetic company, he had licensed, we completed the car but regretfully, of course, he passed away before we could finish it.  The car goes on tours and everything.  (Barris completed the car and unveiled it in 1987.) 

Same way with Marilyn Monroe.  We created a car for Warner Bros. for her, which was a Lincoln and it was the same process, but she passed away before we could get the car delivered,  but she also worked in conjunction.  Women work on these cars.  Surprising, you’ll find out that Zsa Zsa Gabor ... we built a big Rolls Royce limousine for her. She got in her coveralls and climbed in the back seat where we had no upholstery or anything, and she sits there and she says, 'Well, I want my gold makeup here.  I want a gold comb.  I want a gold mirror and gold brushes, and over here I want you to put my wine (cabinet) with gold goblets and gold things for my guests.'  And then in the seats we had imbedded her initials in all jewelry: diamonds and rubies and sapphires. So she was a lot of fun to do work with. 

Joe:  Did you ever meet Marilyn Monroe? 

George:  I met Marilyn one time at the studio when we started this Lincoln for her and she was a very interesting young lady because ... more so, very intelligent, humorous and humble.  She didn’t like to drive a lot of cars, she had a Chrysler 300 ... was the only one she drove, otherwise, she liked to be living in different areas.  And then the Lincoln we did for Warner Bros that she was going to drive was another car. 

Joe:  Speaking of legends, I understand that James Dean visited your shop. 

George:  Well, I started out with Jimmy in Rebel Without a Cause 'cause I had the scenes,  what we called the chicken scenes, where we had a race with the Mercury and everything.  And he was a real car guy, loved them, and we did more car bench driving than anybody.  At the studio, we’d sit there and work out ideas and everything.  From there he wanted to race, so we got a little Triumph. From there he went into a Porsche Speedster and then when he got the Spyder, which was more interesting but very powerful, and I was there the day that we left in Sherman Oaks and we loaded the car and he said, 'No, no, no, I want to drive it.' And we said, 'Jimmy, you don’t want to really drive it, you’re going 350 miles to a race.'  He says, 'Nah, I want to drive it.'  .It was fate that he would go and get on the road, and receive a ticket, and got into a little town where he got his little apple and coke and then when he got on 41 and 46 and the sun was coming down... Turnipseed (the driver of the other car) didn’t really see the car and made the left turn in front of him and regretfully there was no protection in that car at that period of time.  But you know what? When we raced at those times, we would drive off the road, into the race track, run the race track, and a lot of drivers that did drive in Palm Springs and around didn’t like to ride with Jimmy because they say, well, 'He’s a daredevil.'  I says,  'No, no.'   Jimmy says, 'I’m out here to win.  I’m not here to drive around the track.'  And that’s one of the reasons why he became a good racer.  He was like Paul Newman, and the Smothers Brothers and James Garner  They were car racers and they were fun to be with.

Joe:  Do you remember who detailed his Porsche Spyder? 

George:  I did all the paint work.  Johnny VonNewman had it delivered.    Then we put the name Little Bastard on the back and the reason why is because ...  even with George Stevens, when (Dean) did a movie, he was not traditional, he would not follow directions.  If he did a movie, he wanted to BE the part, not act the part, and that what’s good about him as an actor, because it was the main part of his life.  Doing Rebel without a Cause, he was a natural because he was like a militant. He was great. 

Joe:  Today you are as busy as ever.  Are movies like The Fast & The Furious and xXx keeping you busy? 

George:  Very much so.  The whole transition of the 50’s, with us racing in the streets with hot rods and fast-fendered 40s now have moved into these little tuner cars and it’s moving now into our domestics.  The Chrysler, the Neons, and Mopars have become very popular.  We’re using ‘em in The Fast & The Furious 2.  We got the Viper in there and everything.  So we found out that the little exciting street racers of today makes it stimulating for the young 18 to 36 year old kids that are buying cars.  Of course the Vin Diesel xXx GTO Pontiac was a fun thing because in doing that movie, being a James Bond secret agent, he didn’t want an Aston Martin.  He says, 'I want a performance car' and we made the choice of the 1967 Pontiac because that was a true performance car and to follow up with the big engine and everything.  And even today with the new GTO coming out by General Motors. 

Joe:  Was is it like to have your work permanently displayed in museums? 

George:  Well, that was one thing we found out, that the public enjoyed seeing the cars and seeing them on the screen and they’d say, well,  'Where’s the Green Hornet?'  or 'Where’s the Beverly Hillbillies?' or 'Where’s the Knight Rider car?' …and that’s when we started restoring them. And I have a museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee; also in Atlanta, Georgia; Daytona Beach, Florida. We’re opening up in Long Island in New York, and then at the Peterson Museum in Los Angeles.  We do have a great array of the movie cars and we did find out it was important to become historical and a collector for people, because as you can see here in the auditorium in the Autorama, we do have a very good selection of fast movie and t.v. cars, as well as, what we call, K for Kustoms.  When I first started, I felt that "customs", with a C, means there’s a lot of customs:  custom furniture, custom this and custom that,  and as long as I’m going to do a car, and I’m going to change a car, I gotta change the name.  So that’s why I put a K for Kustoms instead of C.

Joe:  How many cars here today represent your work? 

George:  We have about 35 automobiles from all the various collectors all over the United States that came here especially for this show, because I’m very fortunate to have a tribute for the Builder of the Year (and a) Lifetime Achievement Award and I’m really honored of that fact.  And my many, many friends brought their cars over here to be a part of it.

 Joe:  I understand you also collect models and toy cars.

George:  Well we found out also, along with the museums and people liking to see the car, they also finally realized that the miniatures become very important for the (collector.)  So the world’s largest manufacture of automobiles is really the toy companies.  I mean, from the Mattel Hot Wheels and the Johnny Lightnings and the Racing Champion ERTLs.  Where I started here in Troy with AMT now has transferred over to the Racing Champions and to the die-cast with The Munsters.  And there are just big collectors of The Monkees, Fireball 500s ... many of the cars we did way back in that period of the 50s and 60s (are popular with) collectors of the small miniatures as well as collectors of the large size.

Joe:  I understand  you also have a rather extensive toy Batmobile collection.

George:  I think I’m the largest collector of miniature toys, both in the cars and I also collected the action figures, the figures that went with the cars. It’s kind of a vast collection. 

Joe:  What do you hope you'll be remembered for when it’s all said and done? 

George:  Well, I think mostly I enjoy that we were able to pioneer something into this industry that many of our enthusiasts, fans, and even just anybody watching t.v., that we created something for this world and it’s going to be enjoyed forever.  Because this car industry is like the wheel, it just keeps rolling.  And each decade I say,  'Well what’s going to be next decade?' and it just never stops.  So that is what I feel is my (biggest) achievement is:  that it made people happy, they’re entertained and it brings fun and enjoyment into their lives.