FINAL CHAPTER
Ok here is the final chapter. Let me pick up where I left off. Van had agreed to come and see the Beauty and we had talked several times prior to his visit. It worked out really cool, because a new network had started up and they were airing Batman and the Green Hornet series. It was called FX. They also had a collectable show airing that was really cool and they would visit peoples collection. They also had a show called Back Chat. Well they happened to be in Los Angeles and I had already had a couple of appearances on the Back Chat show on FX and they wanted me on the collectible show to show my collection. Of course I was not prepared and did not have my entire collection laid out, but I had a great warehouse where I stored the Black Beauty and I had painted the room Green and laid green carpet. I called Van and asked if he wanted to be on the show and at the same time visit the Black Beauty. He agreed and they (FX)were excited. This airing can be seen in the Black Beauty DVD I offer if you have not seen it. Anyhow the show shot the 5 minutes segment with Van coming out of the Black Beauty. One of the questions they asked was who restored the Blck Beauty or something to that effect and I said "the guy" who orignally had built the Black Beauty restored it. When you watch the footage you will see my eyes wondered, because I was not gonna mention his name, yet it was important everyone knows he did in fact restore the car. This does bring up an interesting part of the story Dean or some fan not sure which or both had made claims I never got the car back, nor had I paid my bill in full , things of that nature. This filming and airing proves I did get the Black Beauty back and was proud to disply her and get every bit of exposure I could.
A side note here, so I am going to veer off the story of the Black Beauty for a moment. Van and I had a great time together. We had such a good friendship that I ended up representing him for about 1 year at differant shows in the USA. I got to tour with Batman and his agent Fred. I like to tell the story of being in New Jersey sitting down to dinner, we had Adam West and his agent, Julie Newmar and her agent, Van and me, the drummer from Kiss and his girlfirend and I think there was 1 other super hero there but the name slips me. Anyhow I did not have a camera, but the OJ trial was on everyones lips at that time. Julie lived right around the corner and said she knew OJ. The funny part of the story is nobody would ever believe Batman, Green Hornet, Catwoman and the drummer for kiss were sitting around the dinner table discussing OJ. It was 1 moment I will never forget. Anyhow the friendship with Van stayed strong and eventually we ended up at Wende Wagners house one day. Wow Miss Case. I do have footage of that day. Wende was a writer and painter. I discussed writer a book and she was thrilled with the idea. We spent alot of time together gettting material ready. We went to a dinner in Malibu and Wende said dont look now there is Charlie over in the corner, it was Charles Bronson. How cool. Anyhow I have the footage from that day with Van and Wende goofing around and sharing stories it was very cool. Wende gave me slide of a painting she did. It was a one only painting she sold at a auction in Malibu, but I have the slide here and I am going to offer prints of it in the near future.
Wende untimely death hit us all very hard. In my opinion it is why Van, the last surving star of the Green Hornet stopped touring. He never got over it and pretty much everything fell apart from there. I was not representing him at that time, a hot shot guy came along and wined and dined Van and Van decided to go with the new guy. He had more time and experiance then I did so it was good move, but the guy put a wedge between me and Van and we were never the same.
Anyhow back to the Beauty. I had decided to file the trademarks for the Black Beauty and to also sue Dean Jeffries to get my money back, that he, in my opinion "fraudulently obtained" for lack of a better choice of words. I knew I was souring this relationship forever, but it was not right and I was gonna make it right. I also filed the trademark to protect the Beauty has no mark had ever been taken out to protect it.
On the other page On posted the first page of the first agreement. On this page here is the agreement number 2. Read the opening paragraphs
IIn
the 1st paragraph Dean explains the 1st contract and then
explains extra work
You will notice Dean had the Black Beauty from Nov 1992 till Feb 1994.Read Note A and Note B and Line # 51 on how Dean explained the reasons for the over charges.I want you to look closly at this last page of the new contract Dean Jeffries made up and to draw you own conclusions. Read #51 "spent over 150 hours of doing all kinds of detail throughout the car" Dean made the original contract with a total price of $35,000. Dean included detailing the car in the orignal contract. So what he was trying to say now is even though he had agreed to a total price of $35,000 and dotted all the I's and crossed the T's, he now felt he spent an addtional 150 hours and wanted more money, completly disregarding our first signed contract. And this new amount was never approved by me and can you imagine if you took your car somewhere to get serviced and you went over the costs upfront, but when you went to pick it up the bill was now $6200 higher?
Read on Note A "There are alot more items and alot more hours put into this vechicle that are not on the above list" That is the most vague statement I can ever imagine. Dean Jeffries was a professional in his business, and on top of the 150 extra hours, he now says there is alot more then that, but isn't specific.
Read On Note B "Besides all the extra work I performed way over and above the written agreement we had on Nov 7th 1992 there is hours and hours of extra labor.... BUT- because we are going to be working together in displaying the vehicle from now on the balance is only $15,000. Not the $7,500 I knew I owed. So he was being gracious and only charging me $10,000 more then we had agreed to 2 years ago, why? because we were going to work together on displaying the Beauty. Not on your life. I really did not want to sign this, because it meant I was agreeing to part of agreement I did not agree too! This had nothing to do with the restoration or our original agreement but I had to or I would not get the Beauty out of there. I at least got to point out to Jerrfies some of the other claims he made in items 1 through 50 of this new agreement, I had really already paid for. I was being double billed. So he deducted another $1292.95 and brought my total owed to pick up the Beauty, $13,700. So I filed suit to recover the overpayment that was never agreed too. For some reason the Attorney beleived it to be $11,200 and I do not remember why, unless it included attorney fees.
Most of you have probably never been involved with a real courtroom case. Especially one in Los Angeles courtroom. It is nothing like on TV, not even close. Oh well maybe close. Remember OJ ? That is exactly what Los Angeles court rooms are like a joke. This Judge never once listened to any of the testimony. He was busy talking to his staff and doing other work. In fact he even intrupted my hearing to rule on another case, right in the middle of the case during testimony. When we were done, Dean had said alot of things that were not true and I am sure if you ask him, and fans have and he says the same about me. But the proof was in the written agreements. But in the end, the Judge said, are you guys all through? He called both Lawyers in the backroom and told my lawyer, go tell the kid I will award $2500 now or he can await my decision. I asked my attorney, what did that meant and he said "take it or leave it". I passed on the offer and took my chances the judge would reconsider. I was wrong. I was awarded $ 0. I had my day and court and I lost. So be it. I knew I had forever soured any hope of a relasionship with Dean Jeffries, but he was wrong and that just isn't right. In the end, it would have been probably better to have done nothing, but it was a matter of principal and I am a big stickler for principal and being trulthful.
Well, I gathered myself and my thoughts and said to myself lets see how I can recoup some of my investment. Remeber this was a labor of love and I still know it was the right thing t do, but I really needed the $60,000 I had put into the project. I started getting alot of calls on the car, even good ole George Barris called me regarding a commercial. Interesting it was a gentleman named Nate Truman or his brother which he worked at Universal and was trying to find me to see the car. He fiqured George would know, and I had made contact with Barris and Barris had my phone number. Nate did get hold of me before Barris, warned me he would be calling and they did get to see the Beauty and take pictures for a project they were doing (which I believe is now completed) Barris called and try to get involved with the project so he could once again take credit for something , instead of just passing my name on. I will admit after dealing with Jeffries, I thought long and hard about forming an alliance with George. What a great way to get back at Jeffries. I listened to George's proposal and spent alot of time talking to him about his involement with the Black Beauty. I believed half of what he said and in the end, I decided I would go it alone. I had enough of these prima donnas
Next was the trademarking the Black Beauty. I hired another trademark lawyer. He researched it and said it was available. I asked him to go back and check again, look under Green Hornet. He did and nothing on the Black Beauty. Wow could all this time have went by and nobody ever tradmarked the Black Beauty, even the Green Hornet Inc? I forked over about $2300 and got the letters below:
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If you check the dates on when Green Hornet filed a trademark on the Beauty it was around the same time. Someone tipped them off and they applied for the mark also but they were denied, intially. Around that time, they had sold the rights to the Green Hornet movie to Universal. This included all the toys and related items which promoted the show. I was doing shows with Van Williams and sometimes just the Black Beauty herself. I remember at one show, someone had said Tom (forget his last name) of Praying mantis had snapped up some shots of my car and commented he wanted to make Johnny Lightnings of the Black Beauty. I did not think much of it, felt i was secure in with my mark. When I got wind the cars were being produced I went to hire another trademark attorney. A more seasoned one. Here is the interesting thing about finding a trademark attorney in California to go after a major studio. Every attorney I called told me it would be a conflict because at one point or another they had worked for Universal defending a case. If a atorney works previously for a person or company they cannot represent you against them, conflict of interest it is called. I could not find a attorney who did not work for them. What a great way to protect yourself against a lawsuit. I did finally find one, in Beverly Hills and he said, "Great Case" they will have to cut you in. Give me $10,000 and I will go after them. Here we go again. I paid it. After letters went back and forth we got a apology letter from Playin Mantis, but they also referred me to Universal Studios. Universal it seems claimed they had the rights to the car. Universal then referred me to the Green Hornet Inc. If you remeber there was a studebaker Green Hornet released from Johnny Lightning. This was in place of the Black Beauty until that issue was resolved. About 3 months of more letters back and forth between Universal, and The Green Hornet Inc I was served with papers, being sued by the Green Hornet for infrigement. When I discussed our case with this great trademark attorney from Beverly Hills as he looked everything over, he now said Loeb n Loeb is the biggest Law firm in the world. They will put on a great defense and in the end it will come down to 12 Los Angeles jurors who could not get out of jury duty. He wanted $40,000 more and no guarantees. Well so much for that. I fired him and started talking with Green Hornet inc myself. When you defend yourself it is know as in Pro Per. Below is the letter to the court and one to me regarding a agreement we had reached.
Notice a copy was sent to Goerge Trendle Jr, son of the famous
inventor and writer of the Green Hornet. I won't go into details of
the settlement, but if you look at any Green Honret toy priot to
1999, no mention of the Black Beauty protected. Anything after it
specifically mentions the Black Beauty. I in turn was given a few
things and I will let it go at that. But for a moment in time, I
owned the Black Beauty and the tradmark for her.
Now here comes a twist to the story, before the letters started flying and I had to hire a attorney I got a call from Universal. They said they were unaware of the Black Beauty and my ownership and wanted me to come and talk with them, nothing formal, no attorneys etc. So I went to the big building in Universal City, overlooking Dean Jeffries shop on the other side of the fwy. They greeted me and they were great and as friendly as could be. They told me, that the head of thier Japan Universal company was in town. He would like to see the Black Beauty. He was big Bruce Lee fan. I said sure. We end our meeting and the next day I get a call asking what time they could come by. We make arrangements and they come as scheduled. 4 representives and the president of Universal Japan (goes by another name I cant remember the name) show up . They were great, acting like kids around the car, taking pictures. Finally they want to discuss business. They want to know how much would I would want to send the car to go on tour in Japan for 3 months? All costs paid and even a trip for me and the mrs. I told them $30,000. They said fine. I said I do have 1 condition. The car must be insured for $350,000 and if the car was not returned by a certain agreed date, I would be paid in full. They seemed puzzled at that request, but would call me tomorrow. Instead I get a call from Universal Hollywood again and they expressed displeasure with my request and said it was insulting. I said, Let me borrow the Miami Vice Ferrari for for $30,000 and I will bring it back to you in 3 months ok? They said I knew that could not be arranged. I said no different with me, I may be a small fry, but that car is not leaving the USA without the Insurance Binder, That was the last I heard from them. At this point is when I received the lawsuit from Green Hornet Inc, represented by Lobe and Lobe. I had beat the big guys to the rights, but the pocket book was no match.
Another interesting tidbit, after the settlement Playin Mantis contacted me and asked for a pictures of Black Beauty to use to design the car. I had sent then several photographs of the Beauty. They said they would send me a case of cars and never did. They did violate my rights though giveb to me in the settlement. They used a picture of my car on the Johnny Lightning car released. Check it out and see. I just was not up for another fight, nor did I have the money. At least they could have mentioned something about it but they never did.
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One more document from the Trademark filing |
I had a great time discovering and restoring the Black Beauty and forever being a part of her history. There was a point when I was very frustrated that not more people were interested in paying to have the Beauty come to a show and she had 100's of visitors to the little museum I created. I had people from every corner of the world come and see her. There was many who did not. It was hard to know who you could trust and who you could not. I wanted everyone to share and so I agreed to sell her. I dont regret the sale, I just regret the person who purchase it. He along with others started rumors and trying to discredit me. It is the reason for this site and this story to be told. The buyer finally sold the Beauty to the peterson museum in Los Angeles, where she will be forever on display and everyone will get to enjoy her as much as I did, Sadly there is no mention of me at the museum, but the true fans and friends who got to see her in person while in my she was in my possesion know the true story and the end that is all the matters.
I hope this clears up my side of the story. It was very frustrating being the David in this Goliath story. Nobody cared about the Black Beauty all these years until I found her. Then when I tried to protect what I had found, it was not meant to be. Everyone wanted in then. Since finding this Beauty, the other supposive Beauty was discovered and bought by another collector who trains guard dogs. I knew where it was for a long time, and people have asked why I did not jump at buying it, to own the another Beauty. After what I went through I did not really care as much as I thought I did anymore. It really left a bad taste in my mouth. Especially with all the things Jeffries was saying and the guy who bought my car had been spreading untrue and unfounded stories.
I did my part and the Beauty has now found a great home for all to enjoy and I am at peace with that.
I do hope my grand kids will tell the story someday of how I found the Black Beauty
Now if I could just find Britt Reids regular car..................
God Bless
&
God Bless our Troops
Dan "JR" Goodman
