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The moral of
the story is “Count your fingers after any Hollywood deal.”
I still do not know how the property people found me. There had
been some talk in the 300 community that Michael Mann was looking for
a “C” convert for the production of “Red Dragon”
filming in Florida during 1985. This production was eventually
released as “Manhunter” and had about 15 seconds of a
300C visible in a fuzzy dream sequence. That car was supplied by
Phil Nixon of Vero Beach, Florida and later communication with him
indicated he was not too happy with the production people.
After
searching the country and my finding them several substitutes, they
settled on offering me the deal for the “Crime Story” car
for Lt. Mike Torello of the “CPD MCU” (Chicago Police
Department Major Crime Unit). I sold them a 100% pure ’57 300C
convert with a mint dash, passable interior and 30 years of Chicago
rust. They bought it for $14,000 and gave me a right of first
refusal to buy it back for $9,000 at the end of Chicago production in
October 1986. They wanted a sales agreement, so they could control
use of the car and alleviate liability problems of a lease or rental
deal. That was the plan.
That is NOT
how it went.
They wanted a
’57 300C convert because the lead writer of the series was an
ex-cop and the series was going to be as authentic to detail in every
way. (The pilot script also had on manifest a “1963 Buck
Rodgers” … which was a reference to a T-bird dashboard!)
A crisis in this cop’s life occurred because in 1958 there
arose a question of how could a $4,000 per year cop afford a $6,000
car? Such as was explained to me the series was to follow, in
flashback, the purchase of the car and the subsequent brouhaha when
the Mob moved in to remove him. The original plot was to be set in
Chicago in 1963, with flashbacks to the 1950’s until the cop,
Mike Torello, was jailed in 1965. This was to take place in the
first six episodes. Then production was to move to Las Vegas and the
‘70s as “Mike Torello” was cleared and became a
Justice Dept. “Fed” (and drove a Charger).
Unfortunately, market research after the first three episodes showed
that viewership was based on the cars, the songs and the nostalgia of
the sixties. If you want the real story, go rent and view the most
recent movies “Casino” and “Heat” as they are
what “Crime Story” was all about. I should mention here
that all of the people in “Crime Story” are real, the
events all occurred and only some liberty was taken with time
sequence in the scripting of the plot. Names were changed to protect
the guilty and ward off lawsuits. I have kept a clipping file of the
principals as they each die off or are otherwise set free …
some are still in the rackets … including some cast members!
They came for
my car at 10:30 PM on April 21, 1986. It showed up for production on
May 20, 1986. Creative Studios & Automobile Specialties of
Chicago did a re-chrome, bondo, repaint (Du-Lux “wet”
paint” and vinyl interior, resto job on the car in 30 days!
They replaced my near-new 235 R70 14” Goodyear wide whites with
Remington F-70’s. Chuck Adamson, the real cop, owned a Parade
Green 300. Michael Mann, however, wanted a BLACK car with RED
interior since that had worked so well in “Miami Vise”.
So, my WHITE car went BLACK and the BRAND-NEW TAN interior got
sprayed RED, along with the DASH, STEERING WHEEL and all SIDE PANELS
of the interior. During rebirth, they also lost my MINT BOOT. For
production, they installed rear brake lock out valve, air shocks from
a Peterbilt and welded tow bar mounts onto the frame. They also
fungoed the power seat and did some other bad moves I will later
relate. I had disconnected the speedometer because the bearing was
making noise. It remained so during the entire two-year production.
I have no idea of the miles put on the car, but I do know it was
flat-bedded from point to point. It had 37,000 miles on the odometer
when I bought it in 1976. When I finally tuned it, in the 1980’s,
to go to a Detroit WPC Meet. I replaced the ORIGINAL rotor and cap!
Came October
of 1986. I called the producer (third one) to get my car back. I
was informed of the decision to move production to Vegas and stay
stuck in the 60’s and to stick with my 300C. Verbally, my buy
back was set to “end of production” and I started to
check things out. They had offered me a part as a bartender, but
there was no way I could invest the time needed. (Most of the
shooting was being done from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM to avoid “street”
interference). In fact, I never made it down to production while
they were in Chicago. Through friends, I started out finding how to
get my car back. To shorten the story considerably I discovered the
following: 1) They never transferred my Illinois title. 2) A very
good friend turned out to be the Controller of the money company that
New World Productions was run by. 3) An old college friend still has
LOTS of pull in NBC. When the end came in 1988, they were getting
testy about me getting my car back. I later heard Michael Mann had
been seen driving around L.A. not Vegas. This was interesting, as
liability wise, I owned the car. After securing my Illinois title
and being given some inside info about the show NOT being renewed, I
quickly arranged to pick up the car in Los Vegas on June 23, 1988 …
for $6,750.
I never
revealed the title situation to them. When they found out from me
two days before they found out from New World and from NBC that the
party was over, I guess they decided not to mess around. I should
have held out for free return, but that could have muddied my
options. I paid them for my own car … and never brought out
the fact the car was “stolen”! After flying to Vegas, I
assessed the damages. The right front eyebolt was missing for the
tow bar mount (as was part of the frame!) They replaced my new
correct white w/tan roof with a Plymouth white w/black roof. Tension
from a 2-inch shorter roof broke both roof rails at the header. The
transmission was rebuilt in Los Vegas, with low-speed governor, no
cooler connections and torque converter cover was missing (…
after fixing speedo found 65 MPH read 90 MPH!). During “jumping”
maneuvers the windshield got separated from the top of the frame.
The right door skin got replaced by a hammer-hand. While left in the
desert, the seals in the lift mechanism shrunk and now leak. And my
mint supple dash is now like everybody else’s. The spare tire
was missing, but I did find the dash mirror in the trunk. I didn’t
find any of the six pairs of taillight lenses I left with the car in
1986.
The car was
in the production warehouse southeast of town. Nineteen other cars
were in front of me and the building had only a loading dock exit.
They had two 100’ by 400’ units. One for sets and the
other for “props”. We found one charged battery to start
and move all the cars, but only after a 10-car transporter was
secured to do the job. One poor, weary production person was out
there to straighten out the mess, with the only phone at the empty
Thunderbird Motel, 5 miles away! After two days, we were on the road
back to Elmhurst, Illinois. Without the help of local Las Vegas 300C
owner, Clarence Bacon, the task would have been a whole lot rougher.
We had noticed the generator belt squealing and tightened it up. I
noticed the radio was dead and there were no interior lights. In the
middle of the Utah desert at about 90 MPH, I found out why – no
later I found out! When the pulley snapped off the generator in
Utah, I knew something was amiss. Not trusting the battery in Las
Vegas, I bought a new Die-Hard. I proceeded on the journey with wife
Cathy (after all it is HER 300) and sons Brian (then 11) and Dan
(then 7 years old). We stopped at every auto parts place along the
way. To every pimple-picking kid behind the counter, I had to
explain g-e-n-e-r-a-t-o-r not alternator. I might as well have
spoken Urdu. In Grand Junction, Colorado we stayed the night and
bought another Die-Hard and a charger. I also called ahead to 300
club member, Chuck Clark, in Littleton, Colorado, to see if he knew
any 300 people who had a generator in stock? (I had brought all my
rosters with me)! No generators existed west of the Rockies! We
traveled the Continental Divide on battery power alone. A rainstorm
in Denver almost stopped the car when I turned the wipers on. We
located a generator in Golden, Colorado and got it installed. ZAP!
I polarized the regulator and boy, did it charge the battery! I got
the first wiggle that I had seen on the ammeter. Thanks, and
goodbye, we are on the road again, ten minutes at street speed to the
motel and I notice the ammeter is pinned and smoke is coming from the
new 300D generator, which I eventually had rebuilt and sent back.
(It came from a ‘58 300D FI car). I never paid any attention
to the wiring. Seems it is an old ”movie” trick to
ground the field and short the regulator, so it doesn’t. This
results in FULL OUTPUT to the battery so the start-up, start-stop of
production doesn’t run the battery down (remember flat-bedded
everywhere). I found this out in Elmhurst days later – after I
paid attention to the color of the wires.
We made it
home on battery power alone, driving by daylight, no radio (burned
out) and using no electricity but to start and run. I had two
batteries and charged one and swapped every night. We left Vegas on
the 23rd and got home on the 27th. I had
replaced the plugs in Vegas, where two were fouled and all were
cruddy. It ran beautifully and only ran out of gas once in Nebraska.
No gauges and I pushed it a bit too close, running out of gas 2
miles from the next planned stop. It was running about 15 MPG
(remember no odometer)! I have done very little to the car. Huge
chunks of paint had chipped off the trunk. I painted the trunk after
filling a bullet dent on the rear edge. The car has been driven 500
to a 1,000 mile a year, since her return in ’88. I repainted
and did work to my other 300C convert so HIS is white and HER is the
gloomy black. Son Brian is now in college and son Dan will soon also
be needing his tuition. I haven’t been fully employed since
shortly after the return of the car and have been in labor court
action until last year. Thus, the current sale of 3N572063,
originally delivered in Aurora, Illinois, bought in 1959 by a
used-car dealer on the south side of Chicago for his wife (only with
a roof down , street dragging for 12 years , night only – hence
dash condition – the “Terror of Tollman Ave.”)
bought by me in 1976 with original Bluestreaks and all, used by New
World Productions under Michael Mann from 4/21/86 to 6/23/88 for
“Crime Story” television cop Mike Torello (actor Dennis
Farina) and for one episode with actress Julia Roberts in broadcast
2/21/87 (I have her script, it was one of the goodies I found in the
trunk. It has coaching notes on it for her and Debra Sandland who
played her mother in an episode about cop father abusing daughter.
He died!
There is part
of the story.
The car now
needs a water pump, a roof and could use the carbs rebuilt. The body
needs freshening and the quandary is whether to return it to white and
original or keep its funky personality car. The TV show was a
moderate success and underappreciated at the time. It had an immense
impact on exposure for the Chrysler 300 and the late eighties brought
a soaring demand for our relatively unknown cars. Hollywood took
notice and thus when Robert Redford did “Quiz show” in
1994 the setting of the film was established by the Chrysler 300
reference. I had several offers for the car immediately after and
during production. We opted not to sell then because we knew
something like this Brute would never be available to us again. The
car has been to Iola twice and to many Chicago area shows. When
George Berg was in town, we would have three ’57 converts and a
D coupe together. Many Chicago collectors thought 300’s were
common, not realizing they kept seeing the same cars over and over
again! On August 1, 1996, I replaced the second 1966 Die-Hard. The
kid at Sears informed me “ … the diodes are bad …”!
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