HERE IS THE STORY OF HOW I FOUND, RESTORED AND OWNED #1 BLACK BEAUTY
In 1992 my mother phoned me and told me she need some room in the shed and either I come and pick up my Bruce Lee and Green Hornet collectibles or she was going to throw them out. Now I want you to remember this was the same mother who threw out all my baseball cards and basketball cards from the 60's and 70's, because she thought they were worthless. I took her and this phone call serious. I was however rather curious though, what was in there? I had all but forgotten about my collection sometime around 1976. I had gotten my license and found girls, who needed the Green Hornet, Kato and Bruce Lee. But in 1992 I was real curious on what my mother had saved all these years. What I found was a treasure box. Every card, poster, toy, book, picture I had collected from the 70's was there, even my trusty Green Hornet Lunchbox, battered and with a few battle scars, but was there none the less. I remember like it was yesterday, when I started go through the stuff and saw the picutre of the Black Beauty, (I had become some what of a car nut). Oh yes, I had been to Cars of the Stars, owned by George Barris, on Hollywood blvd
and saw what I thought was
the Black Beauty, though it looked differant. I had gone to Movieland
Wax Museum in Anaheim and seen the cars there too, but I wondered,
what ever happened to the Black Beauty that was on the
show.................
Being in the boat business in California, the 2 biggest buyers of boats are construction workers and people who work in the film industry. So I have met my share of movie people. I even got to work on a couple of Bruce Lee bios, and a few shows like Super Dave Osborn, among others. But the most important part of the story is that I have sold boats to 100's of people in movie and TV industry and surly one of them most know what has happened to the Black Beauty? I started asking everyone I came in contact with, anyone who had anything to do with the industry. I was truly on a mission. About year and 1/2 year later, a gentleman named Ed comes in to sell his boat on consignment and to possibly buy another boat. Ed and I had became friends through another customer of mine. One day Ed started to tell me stories of working on movies and about cars on sets. I was chomping at the bit, to ask about the Beauty. Then Ed said something , that floored me. "When I was at Fox in the 60's I was the transportation director"..... Oh no, I said and I stopped him in mid sentence, "Ed I am looking for a car from Fox, the Black Beauty from the Green Hornet show". He looked rather strange at me and said, "really? I own the Black Beauty. You could have pushed me over with a feather. I said, "Ed do not bullshit me" and he said "no really I own it". A little back ground at this point. Ed was divorced and though he was the legal owner of the Beauty it was registered in his mothers name who lived in Santa Monica. The Beauty however was in the possession of his ex-wife. Her property was Ed's old home and had big building to house the many cars he owned. Ed told me the car was in his warehouse. I then said, I am sure it is not for sale, but I would love to see it. He said it was years since he looked at it, was sure it was not in the best shape, but he would call me when I could come over and see the Beauty.
Weeks went by and soon 2 months had passed. I started calling ED once a week and by now was getting put off on a regular basis. I still had Ed's boat on consignment and finally figured to use my leverage and so I called ED and left him a message and said he needed to come and pick up his boat, I could not sell it. I got a call about 5 minutes later from ED and he said you really want to see this car dont you ? I said if you dont have it, just say so I am ok with that. He said the car will be out his house in 3 days and I could come and see her. I could not sleep, it was really weird, but at this point I was also prepared it could be a clone or something or that there would be really wrong with the car. Also how could I be sure it was the real Black Beauty. On the 3rd day, about 1 o clock in the afternoon, ED called and said , "come on over, the car is here". I raced out of the boat store and into my truck and the 5 mile journey seemd to take forever. When I pulled in the drive way, they were just unloading her from the flatbed.
Well I was excited and disappointed at the same time. She looked like a Black Beauty, but something wasn't quite right. I was looking her over and Ed said one of the tires was flat and he was going to get it fixed. She had the right 3 wheels anyway. I felt this Beauty must have been a 2nd car, a stunt car maybe, or maybe the one Black Beauty I had seen at Barris Hollywood Cars of the Stars show. Then it hit me, there was no Green Lights. There were only 2 headlights and no 4 Green lights !! Bummer. But I had some pictures from a Green Hornet episode guide by James Van Hise. In these guide was some great shots of the Beauty. And there was a shot of the front dash phone and there was a little red light next to where the phone was suppose to be. Well this beauty had a place for the phone and it was missing, but lo and behold, the little red light was right were it was suppose to be. There was a picture of the rear desk, and sure enough this beauty had it. There was a picture of a control panel short of, on the passenger rear door, that had a flip up cover hiding the panel, and sure enough this beauty had that also. So I was feeling pretty good about what I was seeing, though the Green Lights had me baffled and the fact there was only 2 headlights and not 4 meant it was different then the show car, but I was still interested and asked the question. Ed how much do you want for her? He said you really want to buy it, even in this shape? I said how much? he said $5,000 and I said "Sold" and we shook on it. I wanted to take her home right then and there, but ed said let me fix the tire and I will have it dropped off at the boat store tomorrow. I did not sleep a wink that night and I was so afraid to tell a soul until I had the car and the title in my hand. The next day about 10am, she arrived and here is the first pictures of the Beauty after she arrived.
No really this is the
Black Beauty Where are the Green
Lights ???
You will notice in this middle picture, Green Lights. Here is a really cool part to the story. The beauty arrives and I am looking her over. My sales men and tech guys come over and are looking her over and dont really know what to make of her, they really thought I had flipped, a couple of them asked, "you paid $5,000 for this"??. The picture on the right was after the a new battery was put in and I fired her up, believe it or not she started right up after a few cranks, no knocking, no smoking , purred. As I was looking under the hood, I noticed a funny bar running from one side of the beauty to the other just in front of the radiator, and it looked like a brace was holding it and it would not allow it to swival, but it would move about a 1/4 inch or so. Then I saw a bolt that was holding everything from moving, I removed the bolt, the weight on the bar allowed it to swival freely and it squeeked and moved all by itself and what do you think happened? The Green Lights exposed themselves !! They were on a swival so you could have the regular lights or the green lights when you wanted. Something never revealed on the show, nor in any writings of the Black Beauty up to that point. I had actually found the real Black Beauty and with that I knew I had it. I was screamng like a little girl. The middle picture was taken right after I figured it out, all 4 of the green lenses were there covering the regular headlights. The picture on the left was before I knew. The next thing I did was take her across the street to the 76 gas station, with a full service dept and asked for a transmission service, a oil and filter service, a tune up, all the hoses and belts changed. She would be ready tomorrow he said. I picked her up, and drove her home, she ran like a dream. The pictures below are of the first drive home, in front of my house. Most of the people in my neighborhood, thought I had flipped also, driving this car. They had no idea what she was or just how famous of a car she was.........
The Beauty only had 17,000 miles on her and ran like a new car. Sure there was the obvious items that had to be replaced and she was in some need of body work for sure, but the real challenge was who would restore her? The natural choice was to call the builder of the Hornet's rolling arsenal, Dean Jeffries. Now alot of people thought it was George Barris who built her, but not this time, George had nothing to do with the construction of The Black Beauty. Though he takes credit for everything, I was not an expert, but I quickly found out Dean Jeffries, noted for building the Monkees car and Manta Ray used in Beach Blanket Baby, was also the builder of the famed Black Beauty. George sometime later, came in possesion of the number 2 car built for the show. The number 2 car is differant in so many ways, most notable she does not have revolving headlights. The number 2 car had a divider between the front and rear seats, the grills were different, and some other minor differances.Dean was contracted to build one complete working car and a option on the a second car. George, somehow later after the show was cancelled came to possess car #2,then turned it into this terrible mess you in the picutre at the top of this page. Here is another shot
THIS IS THE NUMBER 2
BLACK BEAUTY WHICH BARRIS GOT A HOLD OF AND NOW RESIDES IN A
FANS HANDS IN N CAROLINA EVEN HAS THE SAME
WHEELS AND MISSING FRONT ROCKET DOORS
TODAY
When I finally decided to contact Dean Jeffries, I made the call to him and it was really sweet since his shop was a little more then 20 minutes away in Universal City we were almost neighbors,
Dean seemed to be a little taken back by the fact I had bought the Beauty. He quized me, asked for my name and phone number and then hung up. What the heck just happened? I called Dean backed and asked did I say something wrong and he said, ok how much do you want for the Beauty? I said it was not for sale and he said, why are you calling me then, and I said I thought you would want to be the person to restore the car? He said he probably wounld want the job but he would think about it and get back to me. It seems he was also aware of where the Beauty was. Ed was divorced, the car was at his old house and for some reason the registration of the Beauty was in his mothers or mother in laws name. The last time the Beauty was registered, was 1982. The Ex-wifes boyfriend, I was told through Ed, was a drug addict and knew about the Beauty and had called Dean and offered to seell her to him for $1500. Dean said he would get back to him, I dont know if Dean ever saw the Balc Beauty or to what extenet the conversation went, but at almost the exact moment, I was dealing with Ed. The reason for the delay, his Ex had told Ed the car was sold and he thought it was, had it not been for my persistence, this story would have a different ending. So when I did not hesitate in buying her and Dean did, Dean felt I had stolen the car from under his nose. I had no idea any of this was going on till after the fact. Shame on him for not buying it for 1500 when it was first offered. Dean did call some weeks later and I went and met with him. When he realized I had no idea of his conversations or his dealings with the car, our conversation went back to the initial reason I called , to have him rebuild her. He stated he was real busy, but I could bring the Beauty by his shop in a month or so. This worked out great as I needed and wanted to do so of the easier restoration parts myself. I first started with the wheels.
Here is the finished
product At the time this was
the only shot I had of the wheels that was clear enough to
paint them correctly. Notice Van is wearing the Kato
mask The receipt for
refinishing the wheels and painting
them
