George Barris, the legendary car customizer, died in 2015. The Barris Kustoms shop, located at 10811 Riverside drive in North Hollywood, California, has closed down now. Here's a look at George Barris, and some of the crazy cars that came out of this shop.
Full disclosure, I'm not a diehard car guy. But I am the son of one. My dad was a draftsman and engineer from a small town in Ohio, who was a serious car guy and street racer in his younger years. He owned three classic Ford T-Birds, a couple of Chevy Corvairs, and about 35 other cars and several motorcycles, before he got married. I remember riding in my dad's last old car, a '55 Ford, when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I also rode in a parade in Wadsworth, Ohio, in a T-bucket roadster with dad and his best friend Wilson, who built the car. So like a lot of kids from the late Baby Boom and Gen X era, I grew up with my dad pointing and going, "Check out that car." That love for buying, selling, modifying, and racing cars came from the early pioneers of American car culture. One of the biggest names in that world is customizer George Barris.
George Barris was born in 1925, and was the son of Greek immigrants. He and his brother Sam, a year older, loved to build balsa wood models of cars, boats, and airplanes as kids, and entered them in local contests. In high school, George and Sam were given a hand-me-down Buick in rough shape, and they customized it themselves, at a time when nobody really thought of driving cars that weren't stock. The looks and reactions from kids at school, and the fun of creating something new out of an old car, got them believing they were on to something. A few years later, George hopped in his '35 Ford and headed down to Hollywood. George set up shop in the city of Bell, and later moved to Compton boulevard. Brother Sam joined him in 1945, after completing his military service.
They customized cars for people in the hot rod and custom car world in the beginning. George also wrote tech articles and shot photos that appeared in many car magazines, particularly Petersen magazines. In 1961, his wife Shirley a new location in North Hollywood, just over the hill from Hollywood itself, but right in the middle of the Burbank, North Hollywood, and Studio City area of The Valley, where most movies and TV shows actually got made. Soon Hollywood actors and personalities, as well as the studios themselves came calling, asking for custom cars to be built.
Perhaps the most famous car George is known for is the original Batmobile, built for the 1960's Batman TV show- Bam!-Klunk!-Kaplow! George's custom cars became legendary around the world, to thousands of hot rodders and street racers, and millions of kids watching Batman, and other shows like The Munsters. Barris Kustoms built the Munster Koach, and Grandpa's Dragula for The Munsters TV show. The Dragula was a casket turned into a dragster. Barris also designed an built the Beverly Hillbillies overloaded jalopy, James Dean's Porsche Spyder, a car for the Banana Splits kids' show, they modified cars for The Dukes of Hazard, and designed and built KITT from the Knight Rider TV show, along with many, many others.
George's wife Shirley passed away in 2001, and George himself got called by a higher power to customize some cars in the afterlife in 2015. The surviving family members kept the business going since then, keeping the huge legacy of George and Barris Kustoms alive through car shows, media, and other events. They haven't customized any more cars since George's death. So now the legendary location of the shop is up for sale. Several of George's cars were donated to the Petersen museum years ago, in Los Angeles, and are on display there. The thousands of photos, posters, die cast cars, and other mementos in the Barris collection will probably wind up on display in a new location at some point. No word on that yet. For the moment, as I write this, (Sept. 4, 2021) the Barris Kustoms shop still has photos of several cars on the front, and a mock-up Batmobile, and James Dean Spyder replica, and the Munster Koach are still visible through the shop windows. So that's today's interesting location here in Crazy California 43 blog, a shop that expanded everyone's ideas of what a car or truck can be, for well over 50 years.
The Batmobile revealed- with George Barris
Motor Mavens interview with George Barris (2011?)
"Hot Rod Herman" - The Munster Coach on The Munsters
Grandpa builds and races Drag-u-la on The Munsters
Knight Rider TV show intro, featuring KITT car, built by Barris Kustoms
Grandpa's casket turned dragster, the Dragula, from The Munsters TV show. My photo of the photo on the front of their shop.
No comments:
Post a Comment