He’s known as the King of the Kustomizers.
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Unless you’re an automotive aficionado or a car geek, you probably don’t know the name George Barris. But if you’ve watched television or gone to the movies in the last 50 years, you have seen one of his cars.
For a half century, when Hollywood directors or television producers were looking for a unique set of wheels – a car that will wow the audience or define a character – George is on their speed-dial.
George is the featured co-sponsor along with the Exchange Club of Culver City of this year’s seventh annual Cruising’ Back to the Fifties Car Show, Saturday in Downtown Culver City, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Along with many of his best known kustom kars, George will be there rocking’ and grooving’ as he has since the car show first rolled into Culver City seven years ago.
George built Bruce Wayne’s signature ride for the 1960’s television kitsch classic Batman. Without his hillbilly jalopy, Jed and Granny never would have made the Beverly Hills social scene. In a comic coup d gras, it was George who made audiences giggle when they saw the Frankenstein-esque Herman Munster cruising the burbs in a casket converted in to a roadster dubbed the Drag-U-La.
George and his brother Sam were born in Chicago in the 1920s. As children, following the deaths of their parents, they were sent to live with relatives in Roseville, just outside Sacramento. At a young age, George became fascinated with model aircraft. He pursued the hobby seriously in his teenage years, winning dozens of competitions for his models.
In gratitude for their help working in the family restaurant, the boys were given a rundown 1925 Buick. After restoring it to running condition, the brothers experimented with changing its appearance. This became the Barris Brothers’ first custom car. They quickly sold it at a profit to buy another car they could customize, and their career was born.
Before ever graduating from high school, their passion had grown into a profitable business. To promote their creations and to buld their market, the brothers founded the Kustoms Car Club. It was the first use of the spelling “kustom,” a term that has remained associated with Barris throughout his storied career.
In the ‘50s, They Arrived
With the outbreak of World War II, Sam enlisted in the Navy while George headed south for the lights of Hollywood. After being discharged, Sam joined his brother where the two build their kustom cars for private buyers.
The unique designs of the Barris Brothers brought them to the attention of movie executives and stars. The Barris boys not only created kustom wheels for Hollywood’s elite, they started making prop cars for the movies. One of their first cars appeared in 1958’s “High School Confidential,” featuring bombshell Mamie Van Doren, former child actor Jackie Coogan, Shakespearean John Drew Barrymore and a cameo by rocker bad boy Jerry Lee Lewis whose single by the same name topped the charts.
Shortly after their automotive movie debut, the boys came to the attention of magazine mogul Robert E. Peterson, founder and publisher of Hot Rod and Motor Trend. Peterson was especially enamored of George, inviting him to write how-to articles for would-be do-it-yourself car customizers.
Although Sam’s talent equaled his brother George, he decided to leave the business in the late 1950s. Sam’s custom cars had won numerous awards, and frequently appeared in movies from the era, usually in the background of ‘50s diner scenes.
A Soaring Career
As the ‘50s’ roadsters gave way to the modern lines of the 1960s, George’s television and film career really took off. In addition to adapting stunt vehicles designed to crash during car chases – like the soft aluminum fenders for a Ford police car that smashed into the rear of a Mercedes Benz convertible driven by Cary Grant in “North by Northwest” – George’s cars made countless movie appearances.
In 1960, George loaned some of his customs for the “future” scenes in the film adaptation of H. G. Wells' “The Time Machine.” Other Barris-built film cars included the modified Dodge Charger for “Thunder Alley” and a Plymouth Barracuda for 1966’s “Fireball 500,” starring Frankie Avalon, Mousekateer turned America’s Sweetheart Annette Funicello and heart-throb Fabian. Barris supplied the futuristic “Supervan” for a film of the same name, a gadget-filled Mercury station wagon for “The Silencers,” and a sinister rework of a Lincoln Continental Mark III for “The Car.”
Barris’s automotive imagination seemed to know no limits, and he was never shy about commercializing his designs. George even designed a drivable guitar-shaped car with a complete sound system for Vox amplifiers and a roadster in the shape of a V-8 juice can.
Celebrities from Bob Hope and Bing Crosby to Ann-Margaret, Glen Campbell and even Sir Elton John, commissioned him to build novelty golf carts. He even modified 25 Austin Mini Mokes — an early type of beach buggy— for a record contest involving the Beach Boys.
So great was his influence on California’s car culture, George became a legend unto himself. Barris was even the literary subject of the title story in author Tom Wolfe's first collection of essays entitled “The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.”
Now in his mid-80s, the diminutive Barris is as impish and playfully energetic as a leprechaun. His curled locks may be grayer, but the characteristic twinkle in his eyes hasn’t dimmed, especially when it comes to kustom cars.
If you have your own roadster or kustum kar, bring it. George and his friends will be handing out trophies for best in klass. Online registration for exhibitors is available at http://www.culvercitycarshow.com/ or on the day of the show at the National Guard Armory on Culver Boulevard, starting at dawn, 5:30.
Festivities begin at 8:30 a.m. with the live music kicking off at 10. Admission is free for the whole family. There’s plenty of parking in the city-owned parking structures Downtown, adjacent to the event. Look for George and keep your ears peeled. You will be able to hear the roar of revving roadsters and kustom classics from all over town.
You don’t want to miss the show or George. They’re both American classics.
