...apparently was a 1946 Chrysler New Yorker 4-door sedan:
http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=42208
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_227392-Chrysler-New-Yorker-C-39-N-1946.ht ml
Judging by the amount of steel they used in those cars back then, I can see why Detroit's civilian automobile production was halted for the duration of WWII.
Maybe they needed a big car because they were expecting a lot more diamonds in the safe.
shareThey had such nice cars back then!
~~
Jim Hutton: talented gorgeous hot hunk; adorable as ElleryQueen; SEXIEST ACTOR EVER
@hobnob - I think that car was big enough to haul away the crown jewels. lol
@MrsEQ - That was a really nice car for its time, and... it'd be one helluva' nice car even today, especially for a classic car collector. Probably worth a lot of money, were it in good condition!
But I always marvel at how much steel went into those big old cars. I think if Detroit hadn't shut down auto production in WWII, the U.S. would probably have had to make do with a few less battleships, and a few less tank battalions. lol
I wouldn't mind having a ride in a car like that.
~~
Jim Hutton: talented gorgeous hot hunk; adorable as ElleryQueen; SEXIEST ACTOR EVER
In a film like this, I'd be more worried about being taken for a ride in a car like that.
On the other hand, there was plenty of room in Emmerich's similarly big car for Bob Brannom. Which brings me to another dumb thing on Emmerich's part: lugging Brannom's body around in the back seat. Suppose he'd been stopped by a cop? He should have stashed him in the trunk.
Eric, my grandfather was a car salesman and he threw a fit right after Pearl Harbor when he learned that all car production would be halted for the duration. But I guess the formula 1 Caddy = 1 aircraft carrier took precedence!
Did he have him in the back seat? I need to see the movie again to verify that. Yes, it's a stupid place to keep a dead body. Although I have seen that in one other movie, the one called"The Woman in the Window"
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Jim Hutton: talented gorgeous hot hunk; adorable as ElleryQueen; SEXIEST ACTOR EVER
@Hobnob - Interesting note about your grandfather's sudden predicament, precipitated by Pearl Harbor. Now you've piqued my curiosity: what did he do then, when auto production was halted? That could make a fascinating theme for a "war" movie: the plight of civilians in the U.S. who suddenly found there fortunes completely turned upside down, due to the war.
I don't know if you've ever seen "Tobacco Road," (1941) but there is a funny scene where some of the characters end up at a Chevrolet dealership to buy a new car. In the background on the walls you can see big sales posters proclaiming "The new 1941 Chevrolet!" or something like that. Little did movie-goers at the time realize that those would be the last "new" Chevrolets for quite a stretch!
Hey Eric -- My grandfather continued selling cars, except now they were used cars. (Or should I use that 21st-century conceit, "pre-owned"?) The demand for cars kept up, there just weren't any new ones. The other thing that made him mad was when he heard, a week after Pearl, that all tire production would cease (at the time, all rubber came from Southeast Asia and there were no synthetics). My mother said they were driving over the George Washington Bridge that night from New Jersey to New York when the news came over the radio. My grandfather got so upset she claims he damn near drove off the bridge into the Hudson!
Actually, there were about half a million 1942 cars manufactured before production was shut down after we entered the war. I remember reading someplace that the last civilian cars came off the assembly line on February 1, 1942. (I remember the date because it's my birthday -- Feb. 1, not 1942!) But the hillbillies in Tobacco Road surely didn't know that those '41s would be the last plentiful cars around until 1946!
damn near drove off the bridge into the Hudson!
One with fluid drive, no doubt.
shareRight... the one with "Hydro-Matic" transmission. lol
I do appreciate your sharing your grandparent's Pearl Harbor recollections, though. I always love to hear what other people experienced on or about that fateful day.
My grandparents had just moved into a nice new house in Seattle on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. The house overlooks Puget Sound, and has an outside light built into a rockery that is meant to illuminate the adjoining walkway at night. They were quite fond of that light, and proudly had the lamp lit the night of December 7th. But the local Air Defense Warden came by that night and sternly told them to put out that light, as Seattle (and all other West Coast cities, for that matter) were under strict blackout conditions due to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
That house still stands to this day, and I occasionally drive past it and look at that walkway and the light - still there, still shines at night. I doubt there's anybody left alive in that neighborhood who knows the Pearl Harbor connection, though....
Yes, lighting that light over Puget Sound or the Pacific would certainly be a big no-no when it came to safeguarding key approaches in the area. Boeing and other institutions might not have been too happy about such things!
My family has always had houses on Fire Island, off the south shore of Long Island (we took a beating in Sandy), and back during the war they of course had to observe strict blackout precautions. They had heavy black curtains and all outside lights were banned. Of course, as a mostly summer community, such precautions were only taken three or four months of the year. (They all lived in NYC, which was not so readily blacked out.) Even so, the area was routinely prowled by German U-Boats, and I'm sure that during any given summer day, when many people were frolicking in the surf, one or two U-Boats were a few miles out, peeking at the proceedings via periscope.
Of course, many German subs were sunk off the East Coast during the war. And the only successful landing of a sabotage party in the States came at Amagansett, Long Island, in the spring of 1942. The town is near the eastern end of the island, and the party was dropped off by raft in the pre-dawn hours one morning. As they were unloading their equipment, who should walk up but a Coast Guard shore patrolman! The leader of the Germans took him aside and gave him some money, but the guy immediately went off and reported to his superiors. (Lucky they didn't shoot him.) Eventually they were tracked to NYC, where most had already decided not to proceed with their mission. But they were all arrested and later executed anyway. Sounds a bit much, considering they did nothing and provided some useful information. So the lack of lights certainly set them down at an unfortunate place!
Now that you mention it, Hobnob, I was actually wondering how you fared during the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, because I recalled that your coordinates were fairly close to where Sandy crossed over Long Island. Glad you made it through in one piece, and lived to tell about it! I imagine you and your fellow FD personnel were quite busy during that time period?
Yes, in spite of that failed (and rather foolish IMO) attempt to land commandos/saboteurs, the German submarine threat against the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts of the U.S. was for real, and not to be taken lightly. During the early part of the war, the German U-Boat pack assigned to the U.S. eastern and southern coasts actually had a good success rate, blowing up a good number of fuel-laden tankers and a few freighters as well - with apparently no loss of their own subs. Back in 1990 I read a fascinating book on this subject, "Operation Drumbeat," by Michael Gannon, in which the U-Boat campaign against the U.S. coastline was revealed in great detail. What was shocking is that the authorities kept these sinkings pretty much out of the newspaper, for fear of creating panic, "for the sake of morale" as they put it. And yet many of these burning/exploding tankers were clearly visible to people living on or near the U.S. coast. So it wasn't exactly a secret that the U-boats were operating near by.
And I guess for that matter the Japanese submarine threat against the U.S. West Coast was for real, too, and not to be scoffed at. You may recall the Steven Spielberg film "1941," in which the public's fear of and hysteria over an imagined Japanese invasion of the West Coast was soundly parodied. And yet, the fear back then wasn't entirely misplaced: although not immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese actually did attack the West Coast at least in a few places, including a light house on the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia; an Army fort near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon; and an oil storage facility right outside Santa Barbara, California. Several tankers and freighters were torpedoed as well. One stricken ship, the S.S. Absoroka, actually served as a photo op for Jane Russell:
http://tinyurl.com/awvgkeo (scroll down to view picture of Jane standing in hole of torpedoed freighter).
*I commented previously on this very subject on the "1941" board: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078723/board/nest/184678606?p=1
Yes, Eric, we did get hit squarely by Sandy. My wife and I were actually in England when it hit and got back four days later not knowing quite what to expect. Our house on the Long Island mainland was fine -- we even had power -- but Fire Island was devastated. Fortunately our house there was just in the right spot that it escaped any damage, but we were decidedly in the minority. Our community was less badly harmed than some others but like the others we had flooding from the bay and washovers from the ocean, sand and water inundating many homes. In other towns some houses were lost entirely and others so wrecked they'll have to be torn down. It'll take a couple of years to put things back and it will never be the same again. Since the island's dune system has been mostly destroyed we're especially vulnerable until it's rebuilt, which won't be for another year at the earliest.
U-boats and hurricanes. Quite a ways from getaway cars!
Hey, sorry to hear that your area got hit by Sandy. That's rough, for sure.
~~
Jim Hutton: talented gorgeous hot hunk; adorable as ElleryQueen; SEXIEST ACTOR EVER
Sad to hear about Fire Island taking it on the chin like that, hobnob. I saw some gruesome photos of the wreckage in the storm's aftermath. That's a tough ticket, as they say. It will be hard to rebuild - and probably impossible to rebuild in some instances - and it will never be the same as it was. Have you ever seen the film "Last Summer" (1969)? That was filmed on and around Fire Island. I have always loved the way that film displayed that dreamy, idyllic beach setting in the lazy days of a New England summer. One of the best "summer" movies out there. I've seen it several times. Next time I see it I guess it will have more somber meaning.
But yeah, I guess I've strayed from the topic at hand, submarines and all. Sorry for veering off the deep end (no pun intended).
Thanks, Eric (and you, too, MrsElleryQueen!).
I do know the movie Last Summer. In fact, I saw it when it came out and had no idea where it was filmed until I saw it. I was stunned, to say the least! It's fascinating for me to see it now since much of the island has changed over the past 44 years -- even absent Sandy. None of the movie was filmed in the town where I live -- there are around 20 totally distinct communities on the island, occupying about 10 miles of the island's 32-mile length. In fact, it was shot in various places, most of them not linked together, plus a little on the mainland of Long Island, and out in the Great South Bay. But it was a pretty good movie, though it seems a bit dated and naive today. Interesting that of the four leads, three (Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison and Richard Thomas) went on to solid careers, while the one exception (Cathy Burns) was the one who received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for the film. It's also curious that Davison received his Oscar nomination for another film shot on Fire Island, 1990's Longtime Companion.
I've been looking everywhere for a 1972 film called Irish Whiskey Rebellion, a rather silly title about rum-running on Fire Island during Prohibition. It was a low-budget thing though it had a good cast (William Devane, Anna Meara, Richard Mulligan), but it was filmed in my village, called Saltaire. It used to turn up on late-night TV here in NY into the early 80s but has since disappeared from the planet. Never on home video of any kind.
Don't worry -- we're all equally responsible for the interesting drift of this thread. But it may be time for us to hop in our big getaway cars and zoom back onto the topic!
I was hoping that TCM would air Last Summer again soon, now that Hurricane Sandy has left its mark on Fire Island. I'll be looking for it.
"Saltaire" is just a really cool name for a beach community. I like it! As for finding Irish Whiskey Rebellion from 1972 - boy that's a tough one. Have you tried any "offshore" sites or maybe doing a bittorrent download? Yes, I know those sites can be "dangerous" but sometimes it's the only option.
I would imagine the salt air of those oceanfront communities would wreak havoc on those big old steel cars of the 40's, like the big getaway car in TAJ. (There... back on topic! lol)
Actually, you're right -- that's just what the salt air does to vehicles out there. But there aren't really many cars as such on Fire Island. It's accessible only by permit (year-round resident, of whom there are few, or contractor), and there are no roads and certainly no highways...just sand tracks between communities, and narrow concrete walks or boardwalks in those. One community cannot even accommodate any car or truck because it has no walks wide enough, and some others have virtually no vehicle access. Regular cars are basically non-existent. It's mainly pick-ups and cartage vehicles, jeeps, SUVs, that sort of thing, with a few Subarus and the like added. You're required to have a four- or all-wheel-drive vehicle, and this really is a necessity.
Saltaire is named after a town in northern England, on the Salt River. (Nothing to do with the ocean.) A few years ago I was in email contact with Lord Salt, who wanted to visit the village, but it never came off. Then it turns out my wife, who's English, knows the guy and wants to drop in on him in the House of Lords next time we're in London! One more place I can be thrown out of.
Irish Whiskey Rebellion isn't available anywhere that I can find. A friend is also looking and has likewise come up empty-handed. I suspect that's one that's lost forever...or buried, more like it, under the sand, like a case of bootleg whiskey after Sandy.
Fire Island is truly a fascinating stretch of real estate. I love looking at it via satellite images, such as on Wikimapia. I didn't even really know that much about Fire Island until the recent hurricane (Sandy) piqued my interest in that area. It's surprising that there is such a limitation on car access, but I guess that's probably a good thing - keeps the place from turning into a tourist mecca/traffic jam in the summer, as happens with so many other seaside areas. I'm curious, do many people own or use horses on Fire Island? I think it would be a cool place to get around in via horseback, especially since you'd have very few cars to contend with.
"Lord Salt"... love it! I guess when Lord Salt gets old, he'll be known as an Old Salt!
That movie you are looking for sounds interesting, especially if it prominently features Fire Island as a filming location. I do hope you can find it. Let us know how your search goes. In the meantime, I'll see if I can find it on any "offshore" site.
And when he dies, he'll become The Salt of the Earth....
If you look at FI on satellite, you can zero in on my town. I can tell you where to look for my house, but would like to do so only via PM. Let me know if you're interested.
No one rides horses on the island, but there were horses there not too many years ago. The National Park Service used to keep a horse or two at its HQ, but not for a number of years. And a long-time year-rounder, who died a few years ago, had several steeds in a corral just behind the dunes, about two miles east of me. I remember back in 1985, a hurricane called Gloria hit, and I was at home watching local TV news coverage during the day. Two of the stations were in telephone contact with people who had stayed on the island, one of whom was in a house right near this guy's place. They spoke with this man every two hours, and one time, when the anchor asked him if anything had happened since they last talked, the guy said that an hour before he had heard a noise outside, opened the door (this in the midst of 110 MPH winds), and found a horse standing on his front porch. The news people couldn't believe this, and asked him what happened next. He told them he thought the horse wanted to come in, but since he didn't want a horse in his house during a hurricane, he gave him a bowl of milk outside and let him stay on the porch. The news guys were laughing hysterically. My then girlfirend, who was an equestrian, later said to me that horses don't drink milk, but all I could say was that this one apparently did. Turns out the owner had released them from their corral so they could survive the storm, and all of them did.
By the way, I posted a review of "Turn Right at Machu Picchu" a few days ago on the Secret of the Incas site, all thanks to you, so take a peek (or is it peak) if you care to.
The Salt of the Earth.... Good one, I like it!
Great story about that horse caught in Hurricane Gloria. And funny, too! And, what's this, did Gloria track directly over Fire Island??: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gloria_1985_track.png Sure looks like it, from that photo. That storm must have made a mess, too...
Definitely PM me the coordinates of your house on Fire Island. I like to use Wikimapia for all that aerial travelling that I'll probably never actually do in person.
Fantastic review of TRAMP on the SOTI boards. Glad you enjoyed the book, and I'm glad to have sent it to someone who has a decidedly keen interest towards that topic. I could have donated it to my local library, but I think you were a much better recipient.
Yeah, but Gloria didn't do too much damage -- nothing lasting like this last one.
This man who owned the horses had a small shack he used in summer, near his regular house and in front of the corral, which was just behind the dunes along the ocean. Anyway, Gloria knocked down two walls of this shack, causing the roof to fall onto the floor. A few days later a friend and I walked down to survey the damage, and when this man (a surgeon) saw the shack, with two shelves of foods and condiments (ketchup and so on) still perfectly intact on one of the remaining walls, he was so awed by this that he walked onto the fallen roof to get a close-up shot. Immediately off in the distance we heard an obviously drunken voice shouting, "Get the f--- off my goddamn house, you stupid son of a bitch! What the f--- do you think you're doing, you piece of s---!" The owner was sitting on the deck of a nearby house drinking what appeared to be screwdrivers. My doctor friend withdrew, embarrassed but astonished. The owner got the shack fixed up within two weeks, but in early November, when I walked down to vote during a day of very high winds and seas, I went up to look at the place, just in time to see a huge wave crash down upon it and wreck it a second time, carrying away the same walls and, of course, causing the roof to fall down. But he rebuilt it yet again. Never found out whether the ketchup survived the second storm.
Saw that you'd been over to SOTI. I'll PM you my FI coordinates as soon as I get my wife to figure this stuff out -- she's much better at that sort of thing than I am! Take care.
just in time to see a huge wave crash down upon it and wreck it a second time
Well, FI isn't that tight a community -- around 20 separate towns of varying sizes, and with no cars and the difficulty of traveling between places, one mile on FI is like 10 in "the States" (as we sometimes refer to everywhere else; either that or "America".) There are thousands who live part-time there during summer, plus thousands more who visit annually. So we could have been anyone. I knew this guy and he was an old-time islander who'd lived there all his life, and the relative isolation of the place for many decades did cause the evolution of a mental state known locally as "beach brains". I guess he was in his sixties then. He died several years ago. Now, we have fewer such characters about, which is something of a loss, if you understand.
Until a bridge was built connecting the island's extreme western end to the mainland in 1965, even the possession of a "big, big getaway car" wouldn't have gotten you very far! (Just to sort of get back on track -- or on the road.)
"beach brains"
"The Aleutian Stare." Never heard that one. I like it -- though it sounds kind of frightening to actually see.
There is a road -- a sand one -- east of the Lighthouse, but no regular roads. Some communities have a one-car-width sidewalk running west-to-east (we do) which constitute the closest thing to a partial road system. Courtesy is that vehicles bound off-island have to yield way to those coming on.
The photo you looked at is pre-storm, I'd assume. The storm surge was so great that the island was almost cut in two between the Lighthouse and the State Park. It was cut in two about 15 miles to the east, a new inlet that's still there and which they're debating about closing. If not, there will be two Fire Islands. But the dunes have been virtually eviscerated all along the State Park and well past the Lighthouse. Most of them are flattened, with the sand washed over the foliage, which is now all dead thanks to the inundation of salt water.
Most tourists are kept on the bay -- they cross over by ferry, across the Great South Bay. The pun is even more apt!
Yes... the satellite image on Wikimapia is a dated photo (pre-storm). But I have seen other current photos that show the positively ugly damage you speak of. It looks like it's going to be a helluva task to restore the beachfront and replenish the protective dunes. Curious, but will there be any Federal funds available to accomplish this?
Yes -- now. The House has passed the remaining storm relief funds, and hopefully the Senate soon will. Many communities, though not all, have participated in beach restoration and management projects in recent years, which makes them eligible for FEMA funds to restore much if not all of what was destroyed. We'll have to fund around 25% ourselves. (The previous projects were all self-funded -- no tax dollars from anyone, anywhere.) The main thing now is that the new inlet I mentioned needs to be closed, and there's a big bureaucratic fight going on about it. I was at a meeting in NYC tonight of an islandwide organization of which I'm a Vice President, and that was one of the most urgently discussed problems. We shall see, and meanwhile keep pressing for action. Our two US Senators support us, but the National Park Service (FI is a national park) opposes "artificial" restorative action.
shareWe'll have to fund around 25% ourselves.
Historically, the State of New York, and the NPS, have followed a "let-Nature-take-its-course" philosophy, if you could call it that, regarding shoreline protection anywhere in NYS. NY is the only coastal state (including Great Lakes states) which not only does not have a regular program of well-funded beach protection, but which follows policies actually inimical to shoreline safety. (Contrast this to New Jersey, for one.) Now we've seen the consequences.
Of course, when it comes to saving their own areas, well, that's entirely different. In the past, NYS has spent millions trucking sand onto its state parks, even as it washes away almost immediately during storms, to prop up and protect their facilities. No letting Nature take its course in that case. But they hadn't done anything lately, and as a result their entire shore park system has been devastated. So now they're looking more sympathetically on the rest of us.
The bills are heavy, no doubt. One problem is that many people think of FI as a haven for millionaires, so why should their taxes pay to save some rich guy's second home? Unfortunately most people on the island are anything but millionaires, and some of the poorest live there year-round. Here again, the massive flooding that hit the south shore of LI suddenly awakened thousands of people to the critical importance of FI as a barrier island keeping the worst storm surge away. The fact that things were bad even with it has made people realize that they need it and have to maintain and upgrade its physical status. So out of destruction comes some hope. But it'll still be a while before full restoration work can begin -- next fall at the earliest, maybe not for a year or two after that. Meanwhile we're teetering on the brink.
I just don't know what else I can add to the discussion other than to wish you and your fellow islanders all the best, be strong, and hang together. Looks like you're in for a tough slog. It's definitely going to be a community effort.
No, we've gotten way off topic here, haven't we? But thanks for your good wishes. Now, maybe back to that car....
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
Yes, we have indeed gotten off topic, but at least we've all broadened our horizons a bit. No fault there!
Now, back to my original post: I have more than once had occasion to utilize that site that I listed, http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=42208, with which one can search for identities of cars (make, model, year) seen in many popular movies. True, it's far from perfect. It's user powered, whereby users supply the car info, and that info might not always be accurate. Also, it's not complete in the sense that it doesn't have all the movies ever made in its data base, or car data for all movies. In fact, I've noticed that there are some notable absences. But hey, it's a start.
There's a similar site that lists guns and other weapons used in films: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/High_Sierra.
Useful sites when one is seeking the right gun to shoot out the proper tire.
shareSorry to veer off topic again, but just thought I'd mention that the film I spoke of earlier in the thread - Last Summer - will be aired on TCM on February 6th. Check your local listings for correct date and time. I will definitely want to see it again after our discussion of Fire Island.
Hey Eric, are you sure that's the right film? I checked my TCM Guide and it has a movie called Last Summer Won't Happen (1968) airing at 3:30 AM Feb. 6 (in the guide it's listed under the Feb. 5 programming), and nothing on the 6th. Last Summer also isn't listed anywhere in the guide.
I never heard of this '68 film, which is a documentary on the anit-war movement, and quite frankly I think you're right and the guide is wrong (this does sometimes happen, even though it's TCM's own magazine), especially since Last Summer was an Oscar nominee (for Best Supporting Actress), and February is their 31 Days of Oscar salute. I'll check it out.
I don't know where the confusion or discrepancy is coming from, Hobs. I checked again - checked both my cable provider's on-board TV Guide, as well as the TCM schedule available on the TCM website, and both of them list Last Summer (the 1969 film with Barbara Hershey and Richard Thomas, scenes filmed on or near Fire Island) as being aired on February 6th (12:30 AM West Coast time; the East Coast air time is 3:30 AM, on Feb 6th).
Check this TCM link and see if it doesn't show the movie being listed at 3:30 AM on the 6th: http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.html?tz=est&sdate=2013-02-05
Let me know!
No, as I said, I thought you were right. Even the TCM guide makes mistakes (which it shouldn't, really), but where they got this other title from beats me. I checked out the other film, and it does exist, but its IMDb site has virtually nothing on it.
I also checked the Last Summer site, where they normally post a film's next broadcast a couple of weeks ahead of time, and saw nothing about its being shown. (Nothing on the other film's site, either.) This is yet another bizarre, rather stupid really, screw-up on the part of the TCM staff.
Last week I posted a thread on the site of Moby Dick, about an idiocy uttered by Ben Mankiewicz in the film's introduction, thanks to the increasing incompetence of the TCM staff. Read it; you might get a laugh.
Oh, also, check out my SOTI thread on the book you sent me. I made a post a few days ago, bookmarked with a changed thread title. You might be interested -- especially as, ultimately, you're responsible, my friend!
Well, I hope that link I posted is correct. As of tonight (I checked both that TCM link as well as my TV's on-board TV Guide), the air date of February 6th still holds. 12:30 AM West Coast time, 3:30 AM East Coast time.
I enjoyed your post on the Moby Dick board. Good catch!! That was a whale of a mistake! TCM should hire you as a fact checker!
The Asphalt Dick?
shareI had an uncle who kept a late '40's Mercury going for decades. That big, black sedan really stood out among the aqua, green and blue card of the ensuing decades.
share