Hotrod Road Show

But the car that ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons came in and stared at for an hour and a half is this radical 1941 Ford: chopped seven inches, channeled six inches over the frame, sectioned out of the body another four inches, with a genuine Carson removable top from the 1960s; paint-shot in satin black with flames hand-done in white ice pearl. It was first customized by George Barris, who designed the Batmobile.

Read the rest of the story by Doug Elfman over at the Las Vegas review Journal

Yvonne DeCarlo became famous from her roll as Lilly Munster in the TV series, The Munsters. The series only ran for two years and spawned two movies, but the role of the sweet, yet sensible vampiress Lily introduced Yvonne to a new, younger audience and reignited her career.

Yvonne Decarlo With Munster Car

Not entirely unrecognizable from her full-tilt glam studio days, Yvonne wore green makeup and a long, black fright wig with a silver streak as the wife of Frankenstein’s monster-esque Herman Munster. In a way, (along with Carolyn Jones as Morticia on “The Addams Family,” which also ran from 1964-66) Yvonne De Carlo’s Lily may have helped to spawn early goth chic, introducing long black hair, flowing empire-waisted gowns, and bat necklaces to the mainstream public.

De Carlo’s Killer Ride
De Carlo relished the role, going so far as to have her black 1966 Jaguar sedan tricked out by Hollywood customizer George Barris with spiderweb hubcaps, gold coffin rails in place of a luggage rack, and coffin-shaped door handles. The pièce de résistance? The traditional Jaguar hood ornament was replaced with a brass wolf’s head with gleaming ruby eyes.
During the later years of her career, Yvonne used her Scream Queen status granted by “The Munsters” to propel her career towards a second wind in B-horror movies to help pay the bills. Quite often, she was cast in the role of a seemingly innocuous housewife. Lurking beneath the surface of her famous, sparkling gray eyes, Yvonne’s characters harbored a startlingly evil nature, capable of killing someone in cold blood.

Read the rest over at the Ghouls on Film blog.

This story about a Barris Kustom featured in a Hemmings listing was all over the web a few weeks ago. No matter what you think of the car, it makes a statement about a specific time in American culture. Here is the Hemmings listing:

Bugazzi

From the Hemmings listing:
1972 LINCOLN BUGAZZI
Finished in stunning 30 coats of custom, hand-rubbed Pearl lacquer with 24-carat gold leaf hand laid pin striping. Interior features include: Gold suede upholstery, Persian rugs, Italian marble, television, wet bar, and more! This Barris creation was sold new for $29,500 – nearly 3 times the cost of a Lincoln, and $10,000 more than a Rolls-Royce. It was marketed as the finest motorcar in the world to select celebrities such as Danny Thomas, Pia Maria, Enzo Stuarti, and Jack Hennesey just to name a few! With only 12 built, this unique Bugazzi is among one of the most sought after collectible motorcars of modern times. We are proud to offer this piece of motoring history to the most astute collector, investor, enthusiast, or museum who truly desires one of the greatest motorcars of all time. Buy with confidence—you will not be disappointed in this truly magnificent Barris creation!

bugazzi interior

We’ve wallowed in Bobcat inspired seventies nostalgia (or nausea), but that was just a little turd. If you really want to know what the seventies were all about you have to experience a taste of the huge wave of fine original artistic coach-crafted cars that enticed us. Perhaps the grandest (and most originally named) of them all was the Bugazzi, which contrary to a subversive and vicious rumor, had no connection whatsoever with a mere 1972 Lincoln Mark IV. And it can now be yours! The seller promises: “you will not be disappointed in this truly magnificent Barris creation!” All the gory details and pictures of its fine interior appointments follow:

bugazzi nose

Here is the info on the newest Barris DVD by the talented guys at The Mad Fabricators Society You need to buy this. See a little known side of the “King of Kustomizers”

Kustom Photography of George Barris

Well after a year of working on this DVD I finally have them done and available on DVD
Many people don’t know George the photographer.. He was a HUGE part of documenting our history all over the states and brought it all to the magazines for the world to see…

The movie is a journey through 1000’s of pictures that george shot for the mags and his own use..these are all mounted on a 14×17 sheet all hand cut out by Shirley Barrisand taped on to the sheet.. She was a trooper!!
So Brett approached me a while back and asked if I wanted to team up and put out a DVD so I started going though all the pix and was overwhelmed with all the fantastic pix.. but how do you make this into a move?? So I built a rig that allows me to mount my camera and move it forward and back and i’m able to move the sheet left and right… So once I shot that we needed Content So Ana Marco (from that mag) set us up with Larry Watson.. so we had him come to Barris and the two sat and went through all the pix and told stories about a bunch of them..(can be a DVD on its own) After that we got a hold of Brad Masterson who is renting the space next to George’s shop on Atlantic and has it set up with a bunch of old Barris Memorabilia and Pix.. George shows us around the shop then we hops into Brads Chopped Chevy and we hit some of the locations the pix were shot at.. After that we meet up with Greg Sharp from the NHRA museum and he gives us even more detail on George the photographer…Along with pictures the are in the movie the DVD will have a slide show feature that will have pix in sections Kustoms, Hot Rod, Bikes etc..that you will be a to hit play and just check out the pictures.. on-top of that the whole thing is Scored Live by the Dynotones…