“Ready to move out…Atomic batteries to power…Turbines to speed…Let’s go!”
Anyone who grew up watching TV’s campy, pop cultural sensation Batman series of the mid-1960s will remember the oh-so-serious ignition ritual performed by Batman (Adam West) and his teen sidekick Robin (Burt Ward) as they fired up the jet engine of their awesome ride the Batmobile and rocketed out of the Batcave to fight crime. Their sleek black vehicle, with it’s jet engine, open cockpit and arsenal of Bat-gadgets became the most iconic vehicle in TV history. “I drove the world’s most famous car,” West has recalled. “It did its tricks because of my pal George Barris.”
For decades, George Barris has been Hollywood’s preeminent car customer, pimping people’s rides long before it was fashionable. Beginning with the wild hot rods he created in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s for the drag-crazed films of the era, he moved up to craft on-screen autos for filmmakers ranging from Alfred Hitchcock (North by Northwest) to Jerry Lewis (The Patsy). His first pop culture custom masterpiece was the jalopy driven by The Beverly Hillbillies, followed quickly by his unforgettable Batmobile design.
He soon was responsible for nearly every memorable movie and TV car you can think of, includingKnight Rider‘s K.I.T.T., The Dukes of Hazzard‘s General Lee, Starsky & Hutch‘s Grand Torino, The Green Hornet‘s Black Beauty, The Munsters‘ Koach and Drag-u-La, My Mother the Car, the Jurassic Park Ford Explorers, and all the way up to various vehicles for Dick Tracy, The Flintstones, The Fast and The Furious, XXX and Adam Sandler‘s upcoming The Benchwarmers. He also created tricked out personal vehicles for the stars themselves, including Elvis Presley, Redd Foxx and Jayne Mansfield. “While other kids watched TV to see the stars,” auto nut Jay Leno has said, “I watched TV to see the Barris cars.”
It’s the Batmobile that is clearly Barris’ most beloved creation. In 1966 the producers of the Batman series called Barris Kustom Industries frantically, giving him only three weeks to produce a working Batmobile based on the car that appeared in the comic books since the early 1940s. Barris took a 1955 Ford Lincoln Futura concept car that had appeared in 1959’s “It Started With a Kiss” starring Glenn Ford and Debbie, spent an entire day brainstorming ideas and then radical modified the car to include such now-famous innovations including the bat-face front grille, those incredibly sleek rear batwing fins, a flame-spewing jet turbine engine and a trio of exhaust nozzles, and an array of gimmicks including a mobile Bat-phone, Bat-radar, rear Bat-chutes, a Bat-laser and early anti-theft devices. The rest, as they say, is Bat-history.
Hollywood.com caught up with Barris at Los Angeles’ Petersen Automotive Museum, where he was preparing to auction off many of his most iconic creations and found that his engine was still racing at full throttle.
This is going to be a good summer for two of your old creations coming back to life: the Batmobile and the General Lee. What inspired you on the Batmobile? It’s truly become the ultimate iconic Hollywood car.
George Barris: “Yes, the number one car by TV Land and TV Guide is the TV Batmobile from 1966, and I was fortunate to be the creator of the car for [Batman producer] William Dozier–his show was ‘Pow!’ ‘Bang!’ ‘Wow!’ So you have to create a car that’s going to follow that theme. That’s what I had to do. I incorporated the bat-features into the fenders. The headlights became the ears, and the nose became the chain-slicers, the mouth became the front grille with gas nozzles. Then came the 15-foot bat fins, then the nozzle in the back was a jet engine, and there were rocket things, and the double cockpit that Adam and Burt jumped into-all those funny things that we had at the time. And that’s why that became such a favorite, just like the TV show. It will always be, from here to eternity. I’ll go to shows everywhere, all over the United States, and from six to 60, all the way on into 90, it will always be ‘Da-da-da-da-Da-da-da-da-Batman!’ You can’t miss on that.”
How does it feel to sit behind the wheel of that car? Do you feel like you’re a superhero?
Barris: “It’s such a thrill!”
Is it fun to see the reaction of someone sitting behind the wheel of their fantasy car, like the Batmobile or the General Lee?
Barris: “They get behind [the wheel of] anything–The Beverly Hillbillies‘ old jalopy, or jump into The Fast & Furious car with smoking tires and all that–and it just shows you that no matter what you are, if you’re 18-35 and you’re driving The Fast & The Furious like Vin Diesel, or XXX, another Vin Diesel car, it’s a part of your life. And it’s real. The car’s real. You can drive it, you can see it. If you sit in the Starsky & Hutch car where Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson sat, how can you do better than that?”
What new projects are coming up for you?
Barris: “We’re really excited about Adam Sandler’s movie The Benchwarmers. It’s really an exciting movie that has a lot of my movie and TV cars in it. Working with Sandler is absolutely a thrill. I’ve never worked with such a group. We’ve got Jon Lovitz, we’ve got Rob Schneider, David Spade and that group of great guys that we’re doing this film with. We’re building NASCAR cars for them and everything. They’re wonderful to work with. They’re just like John Q. Public–as is Jay Leno. There’s a guy that we all really appreciate, because he is a car guy. Jay Leno would come to Bob’s Drive-In on Friday when we have a cruise night, and he’ll come in with his Stanley Steamer, roll up, greet the guys, sign autographs, take photos. ‘How ya doin’? Thank you, I’ll see you guys next week!’ John Schneider from The Dukes of Hazzard, we’ve worked on cars with him and his family. Every Christmas we get together with him and reminisce about bench racing with the cars that we did. That’s the kind of guy we appreciate, to share that with our entertainment community, and help us communicate the idea: Cars ARE stars, just the same as they are.”
Do you hear from the new generation of Hollywood car designers, the people who’ve created subsequent versions of the Batmobile for the movies or your other cars? Do they talk about your influence?
Barris: “We hear that. They say “George, you’re the legend, you’re the icon. You started this back in the ’40s.’ And it makes you feel good because we were able to slide them into a profession that is enjoyed by everybody. That’s the main facet that we honor. You get them enjoying automobiles, and then they don’t get into drugs or other bad stuff, because cars become more important, and they keep us occupied.”
Are there any car or cars in your collection that you’ll NEVER part with?
Barris: “The Number One Batmobile, the Monkee-mobile and the Munsters’ Koach will all be donated to the Petersen Automotive Museum. It’ll be a permanent display, all the time, so the people that come here to Los Angeles will always enjoy a part of it. We started with Petersen in 1948, and we feel that the Robert E. Petersen Foundation is the place where they should be.”
Do you have a favorite among all your car creations?
Barris: “I get asked that all the time. They say ‘What is your favorite?’ That’s like asking a family of ten which child they like the best. I’m stuck with maybe 10,000, and each one is different. How can you say the Beverly Hillbillies truck is better than the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee, or the General Lee is better than the Starsky & Hutch Grand Tornino, or the Smokey & the Bandit Firebird, or whatever you want to say from the movies we’ve been doing for the last 30 to 40 years. Your favorite is when you are able to take a car and entertain the audience, and show them that that car is also a star. And that’s satisfying.”
