If I had the time...and my family wasn't with me!--and I was out in greater L.A., I'd like to see the house used in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?". At some point I'd like to visit New Orleans (never been there), and while in the area, see the house from the movie "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte"--probably my favorite movie since I was a kid. That house is called "Houmas House" and does give tours.
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I thought the house in Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte got demolished when the county re-routed the highway, because that area had the narrowest spot in the river for them to build a bridge? :P
Don't want to give away an important part of the movie, but I've heard that on the Houmas House tour, they point out, upstairs, where Bette Davis, well, you know, the cement planter.
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That's it. You'd probably like the street (Bushnell Ave, South Pasadena) where that house and others from BTTF are located. It looks exactly like 1955 Hill Valley, almost nothing has changed since the movie was shot. Lorraine's house is just a couple doors down from Biff's, and George McFly's house is just several doors down from that.
There were a few I wanted to see but couldn't - the house on "ALF" has been torn down, the "Malcolm in the Middle" house is also gone, I couldn't locate the house used as the model home in "Arrested Development" (it's a real house with a fake backdrop), and couldn't locate the "Incredible Shrinking Woman" neighborhood. I also forgot to find the "Double Indemnity" house - that movie featuring a LaSalle, IIRC.
Thanks for posting the 'Baby Jane' house. Love that movie! First really creepy 'psychological' movie I remember seeing...maybe 'Psycho' was, but I actually like Robert Aldrich's '...Jane' and '...Charlotte' better. I really like '..Charlotte'.
You had mentioned earlier that I should rent a new Impala, as you did. I haven't had a rental car all this year as I work home three weeks out of four, and either drive myself or ride with a couple other guys to our offices either two or five hours away (we alternate offices as well as who drives). So my rental car days are over...unless I just spring for it myself! Too much tuition $$ going out now.
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I think I might have seen Baby Jane, never seen Charlotte though. As you might have noticed, most of what I posted is 80s material, stuff from my childhood. I'm a big BTTF fan, and I like many movies of that period in general. Another one I'd like to find are some locations for the underrated "Moving Violations", but I find almost nothing for it online.
Just renting a car for the heck of it would be wasteful, unless you were thinking of buying a specific car. But I can say, the 2014 Impala was a nice competent machine - it'll need the 6 though, it's a big car, can't imagine it with a 4.
I'll have to see if I can see that flick somehow; I've never heard of it but by '85 I'd been out of college five years, working a lot, travelling a lot, moved twice, blah blah blah!
About vacations...I'm rather weird by 'average' standards (LOL). I hate beach vacations--I get bored. I love U.S. history starting at about the Civil War 'til now. I've long been fascinated by the JFK assassination since I can foggily remember it (although I'll admit that TV programming on it reached saturation level lately, I'll also admit it's the most TV I've watched in years! One or two on the Nat Geo Channel were excellent--especially one which focused on his last 24 hours in vivid color footage and current-day interviews with people who met him that trip, and didn't focus on the assassination itself--some other programs were OK, some poor).
A good vacation for me always includes places of historical or pop culture reference...I'd enjoy New Orleans and the 'Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte' house and the National WWII Museum; Dallas and Dealey Plaza (did it while there on work once; would love to get back); Gettysburg; of course, South Bend, etc. Sadly, those trips don't usually line up with what my family wants.
I had to laugh...good friends of mine (in fact, with the 2005 big Benz) were in Dallas this past summer. I asked if they went to Dealey Plaza. They said no. They went to Southfork though. They saw where JR was shot, but not JFK.
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"Moving Violations" was a pretty funny movie. One scene I always remember was an old lady in a 1968 or so Impala, picking up Clara Peller (Where's the Beef?!) at the airport. Well, the driver couldn't see very well, and got mixed up, ending up out on the runway. She pulls up behind a jet that's about to take off, and starts laying into the horn and yelling "Damn Buses!!"
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find. I remember seeing on cable back in the 80's, at my grandparents'. And, it was on a few years ago, on some cable station.
BTW, there's another movie, called "Moving Violation", made around 1976 I think, that was also pretty cool. I think it was a Roger Corman cheapie. Not a comedy, but more of a chase movie. Involved a pair of drifters who witness a corrupt local yokel sheriff shoot his deputy, when he wants in on the take. He frames them for the murder, and the thing is basically one chase after another. For a low budget movie, the stunt work was pretty cool I thought. In fact, I've always wondered if some of the stunts were an inspiration for "Smokey and the Bandit". There were a couple similar scenes, including one where a police car drives under a truck and loses its roof. and one where they slam an airbag-equipped Olds into a cinder block wall, to make the airbag deploy. I think it was a '75 Delta hardtop sedan, but can't remember for sure. In Smokey and the Bandit, they ran an airbag-equipped '74 Olds into one of the LeMans police cars, but it wasn't enough to pop the airbags. However, that car was used in a crash test video years later, and the airbags did deploy.
As for movie locations, about my only claim to fame is that when I was in California in 1992, I found where they shot Steven Spielberg's "Duel", and put my '91 Civic rental car in some of the same poses as Dennis Weaver's Valiant. I've been saying it for years now, but I need to find those pics, and scan them in sometime.
Oh, and this is obscure I know, but I found the place that they passed off as the Richland Chemical Plant in the 1983 NBC sci-fi miniseries, "V". It's in Long Beach, and called the Haynes Steam Plant. I didn't go looking for it specifically, but was visiting some friends in Long Beach, happened to drive by it, and kept thinking, damn that place looks familiar! http://kennethjohnson.us/images/Plant.jpg
I think the DVD is out of print now (glad I bought mine when it was easily found) - maybe not something to buy unless you are into low budget 80s comedy, but it does seem to pop up on TV now and then. It's somewhat a car related movie, focusing on a driving school.
I am not a beach fan either. I'm kind of like you in that I like to see odd sites, and hit the road a bit, too. A good museum is attractive as well - the Sinsheim museum in Germany has an amazing WW2 selection, as well as planes, trains, and automobiles (it is Thanksgiving, after all )
The Impala is here - I also remember the old lady getting into the K-car NYer and being kissed by a dog, thinking it was her friend.
I thought of "Duel" when I was in CA, as there seemed to be a lot of scary looking old semis around. Funny about the "familiar" thing - a couple years ago when visiting a friend in GA, we went north through the touristy town of Helen, and there was a place that looked just like a scene from Smokey and the Bandit. Turns out, it was:
I remember Helen, GA. I lived in Norcross (NE side of Atlanta) from '83 to '85. It was growing unbelievably then, and I'm told I wouldn't recognize it now. The new mall there when I lived there, Gwinett Place, I hear is like a flea market now.
As I get older, I'm way-less tolerant of non-stop traffic and crowds. I think I'd probably be miserable there now though, thought it was fun at age 25. "Less is more" and all that.
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Atlanta is an interesting place - like any other I guess, it has big pros and cons. My friend lived there for a few years, but came back west when he could - wages and job advancement were just not enough for him there, even though his house cost a fraction of what a garden shed in a demilitarized zone would cost here. And the traffic/crowds here are much worse, not to mention 8 months of dreary weather. But when one is younger, money talks, I suppose. I visited him a few times - I liked the fast traffic, the smooth sparkly granite roads, the huge amount of decent affordable restaurants.
Saw a few odd cars this morning - an immaculate maybe 92-93 Bonneville SSEi, a pristine maybe 86-87 Accord hatch, and the star - a creme colored MB ponton cabrio, couldn't see if it was a 220S or SE - it was in traffic. I was fueling my car, heard an old car and looked up, and there it was. Wide whites, off white top, obvious restoration.
And for movie locations, here's an easy one - imagine an AMC Eagle parked here:
Stopped by the AZ MVD to take care of business and what should I see parked out front mixed in with all the usual Sonatas, Civics and F150s but a white over red '56 Chevrolet Bel Air H/T coupe and it was in beautiful shape with perfect chrome and smooth glossy paint.
It wore a V on the front of the hood which (IIRC) means it was V8 powered (it had twin tailpipes).
The only imperfections I could see was perhaps a very slight waviness on the side panels and chromed 60s style Tor-Q Thrust spoke wheels. Otherwise Chevies don't come any nicer even in a place like AZ that has lots of nice old cars.
Did you ever notice back then how Ford convertible roofs seemed to stay taut on the Interstate while GM ones seemed top puff up a bit? I wonder what that was all about.
I love me a good, mostly-stock '55 or '56 Chevy. I normally say I don't like real mainstream stuff, but I'm a big hypocrite on those two years' Chevys! It's easy to see why they sold so well I think.
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It may have been the top folding mechanism. By the early 1970s, GM went to a "scissors top" that folded in a manner as not to eat up too much rear seat room. Ford may have still used the traditional top mechanism.
I could see more folks interested in history here than other pages. Today, of course, is the 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The next day the U.S. entered WWII and we lost 400K U.S. servicemen in four years.
I read an article in the Akron (OH) Beacon-Journal today that there are 2,000-2,500 Pearl Harbor survivors in the country today. I would not have guessed that many.
The Greatest Generation in my mind, for certain.
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I believe that more than 2,500 Navy survivors are still alive today. Each battleship had 1,000-2000 sailors and there were approximately 8 battleships plus numerous other ships. This was a major naval base whuch should should have had 30,000+ Navy personnel at the time of the attack. Pacific operations were transfered from San Deigo to Pearl Harbor before the attack.
I always wondered why the men running the radar station did not have anyone to call in case of an emergency. What was the point of having the station with no emergency plans? The British had radars and emergency plans two years earlier. General Bill Mitchell warned Congress of an attack on a Sunday morning more then ten years earlier. I am not one for conspiracy theories but too many things do not make sense here. I guess we were just lucky the aircraft carriers were out at sea at that time.
Who are we kidding? How many of them even still drive?
I guess I should've figured this, but the story I read this morning of searching for survivors, was incredibly bleak...stuff I couldn't even repeat here.
I remember in the late '80's, on I-71 north of Cincinnati, a mid-eighties Cadillac Brougham blew by us with a "Pearl Harbor Survivor" license plate. My Dad even noticed from the passenger seat. We were all pretty impressed.
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jljac, have you ever seen the color video of Honolulu on the day Japan surrendered? It moves me like few things do. It's on youtube, an easy find. I posted it here several months back, but not a single comment was made about it. It's clear, color, full of old cars and trucks, and really shows the sentiment of that day there.
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When I was younger, my dad knew a guy with "Pearl Harbor Survivor" plates. His car was a then-new Accord wagon. The guy was very impressed with the refinement of the engine, and the overall build quality. The 90s Accords were above the pack back then.
Around the same time, an old family friend had a husband who had been at Normandy. He was very gregarious (just passed on a few years ago), and really liked my fintail. He'd told stores of having a Dauphine that he really liked, and I think of driving a MB ponton diesel. I think he had a Ford Ranger by the mid 90s, though.
I bet quite a few of that era still drive. My grandmother is of that age, and just stopped driving this year.
A Dauphine that was liked by the owner? He was a gregarious guy! LOL
I'm from a small town of course, but I'd never heard a good thing about a Dauphine, either by a guy who had sold a couple or a guy who owned one (former mayor of our town).
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He was a personality. I remember him talking about driving it to Alaska, back in the day. That took guts. Thinking back, in the late 80s, his wife bought a Mitsubishi Precis, the Hyundai Excel clone. Maybe not a brand I'd expect to be shopped by those from WW2. Then again, my WW2 vet grandfather had both VW and Toyota in his garage at various times (along with a larger American car, usually a Chrysler or GM, I think his last Ford was a 57).
My family had a couple of Dauphines. They were great little cars, much faster, roomier and more comfortable than a VW, and they got great gas mileage, too. They were better than the Bug in every way except (see below)......
What was wrong with them was that the French insisted on bringing their own people to the USA to run things. Pretty soon, the parts distribution and dealer networks were all screwed up.
Like with the Corvair, just a few engineering tweeks would have made the Dauphine a winner. They actually outsold VW in the U.S. for a short time.
But owner's soured with 6 volt electrics (in USA winters!) and a few bonehead design features---like putting both the radiator cap and gas cap side by side in the engine bay. Can you guess what happened?
Geez, I don't even remember those cars. I remember the B-210. My uncle had the chintzy "HoneyBee" version of it...ugh.
The town I lived in until Sept. 1980 never had a foreign car dealership, other than Subaru with Pontiac for a couple years in the early '70's 'til the Pontiac dealer dropped it, and the Studebaker dealer sold Mercedes 'til the mid-sixties, and also Simca and Sunbeam--this in a non-suburban town of under 9,000. He closed for good in Dec. 1968.
Today there is a Ford dealer in the town limits, and a Mopar/Jeep dealer on the outskirts, and that's it. VW, Datsun, Toyota, etc. were never sold there. There was an excellent Chev-Cadillac dealer there under the same family ownership for 55 years, but after that family sold it, it went through multiple owners in a few years and sadly, closed.
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Not many, if any, left like that anymore. Price is optimistic, to be nice. But for something maybe just shy of 3K, someone would probably go for it. Too bad it isn't a B210.
The only Datsun of that general era I thought was nice (I didn't even like the Z's), was the 510. The parents of a girl I liked in high school had a 510 wagon; seemed very practical. Kind of a pastel turquoise color. Her Dad was an agricultural salesman of some sort; it had a license plate frame that said "Eat More Eggs". LOL
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the original 510s are still on the race track! Perhaps the greatest "early" Japanese car of all time with no signs of fading into obscurity. They won the Trans Am 2.5 in '71 and '72, and still race in Production and B Sedan, and of course club racing. Voted in the "Top 100 Cars of the Century" by Road & Track.
And still sneered at by some vintage race groups because it's a cheap little car racing against pricey iron.
PS: Nissan still sells 'go fast' parts for this car. What they lack in power they make up for in handling, so they do okay out there.
Britain had radar, but I suspect not much experience of it outside home waters - they were tied up a bit over here. Pretty much at the same time as Pearl Harbour (about a day later I think) we lost the two battleships King George V and Prince of Wales to Japanese planes off Malaya, (they didn't declare war on us either) and soon afterwards lost Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong etc too. Radar at home didn't help over there.
The famous Battle of Britain took place in 1940 and 1941. When their radar detected planes coming, the information was relayed to fighter command.
On December 7, 1941, our radar in Hawaii detected the hundreds of planes coming from the North, but there was no system in place to relay that information. As Homer Simpson says. "D'oh." But one has to wonder if we were really so stupid not to have known that a radar station is useless unless the information is sent somewhere so that something can be done about it.
On December 7, 1941, our radar in Hawaii detected the hundreds of planes coming from the North, but there was no system in place to relay that information...useless unless the information is sent somewhere so that something can be done about it.
In tin foil hat community, there are theories that FDR ignored all the warnings and that he even had direct knowledge of the attack plans in order to get involved in the war. At the time, the US was very isolationist and the general consensus of the population was to let Europe and Asia deal with the issue.
Took my old car out in the freezing/subfreezing sunshine today - didn't see many oldies, but I saw, of all things, a decent looking 60s Ford Econoline - a rare sight in any weather. I also saw the late 60s Eldo I see from time to time in my area, parked at a gas station garage.
At the garage where I store my car, some pipes in the ceiling broke, and some people will come back to dirty cars from it. Most of the oldies are covered, but the dark blue 64 Pontiac convertible I showed earlier was getting wet. Luckily, the fintail's spot was on the dry side. It gave me a chance to see what lives there - there's the Pontiac, the Toronado, a 94-96 Impala, an Avanti II, a 66 or so Continental convertible, a Lotus Esprit, a Rolls Shadow, something under a cover I haven't snooped yet, and my car. Odd assortment.
Who are we kidding? How many of them even still drive?
Probably very few. One of my neighbors got re-married a few years ago, to a WWII vet. We were chatting one day, and the subject of military service came up. I was surprised when he said he was a WWII vet, because I didn't think he was that old. He asked how old I thought he was and I said I dunno, 70's? Well, turns out he was 85! So, pretty well-preserved I guess!
This was in early 2012 so he'd be around 87 now. That would put him at the age of 15 when the Pearl Harbor bombing happened.
Oh, on the subject of older people dying off in general...I took my grandmother to a couple of her high school reunions in the early 2000's. She was class of 1942. I took her in 2003 and 2004, which would have been when most of the attendees would have been around 81-82. After that, Grandmom stopped getting notices of upcoming reunions, so we just presumed that too many people had passed on, or gotten too old and feeble, to keep pulling these things together.
However, I did a web search, and it looks like there was a reunion in 2010. One thing I remember, about the two reunions I went to, was that it was just about all women there. Very few men. My grandmother also says that when she used to go to her senior citizens' events, they were mostly women, and whenever a new man would show up, the women would descend on him like a swarm of locusts. So, I guess the old adage of women outliving men tends to hold true.
One thing I remember, about the two reunions I went to, was that it was just about all women there. Very few men. My grandmother also says that when she used to go to her senior citizens' events, they were mostly women, and whenever a new man would show up, the women would descend on him like a swarm of locusts. So, I guess the old adage of women outliving men tends to hold true.
I attend the Memorial and Veterans Day event in our town and there is always a ceremony at the memorial in the local cemetery. Walking past the headstones, I always chuckle a bit at how many of this are like this:
Charles M Anyman B: 1901 1968
Wilhelmina H Anyman B: 1903 1989
Men died much earlier in years past because they were often out doing hard work and living hard (drinking and smoking). Women often stayed home and although they worked hard as well, the health sins were much different.
Mid-1980s downsized dark green Jeep Wagoneer with the woodgrain, alloy wheels and nice thick white stripe tires at the Fort Washington toll plaza of the PA Turnpike. It appeared to be in really nice condition.
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Sherriff: "No ma'am, they have to build it to meet up with the road on the other side"!
http://www.houmashouse.com/
Don't want to give away an important part of the movie, but I've heard that on the Houmas House tour, they point out, upstairs, where Bette Davis, well, you know, the cement planter.
Looks like the Baby Jane house is virtually unchanged
There were a few I wanted to see but couldn't - the house on "ALF" has been torn down, the "Malcolm in the Middle" house is also gone, I couldn't locate the house used as the model home in "Arrested Development" (it's a real house with a fake backdrop), and couldn't locate the "Incredible Shrinking Woman" neighborhood. I also forgot to find the "Double Indemnity" house - that movie featuring a LaSalle, IIRC.
You had mentioned earlier that I should rent a new Impala, as you did. I haven't had a rental car all this year as I work home three weeks out of four, and either drive myself or ride with a couple other guys to our offices either two or five hours away (we alternate offices as well as who drives). So my rental car days are over...unless I just spring for it myself! Too much tuition $$ going out now.
Just renting a car for the heck of it would be wasteful, unless you were thinking of buying a specific car. But I can say, the 2014 Impala was a nice competent machine - it'll need the 6 though, it's a big car, can't imagine it with a 4.
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Quite a few interesting cars, too
About vacations...I'm rather weird by 'average' standards (LOL). I hate beach vacations--I get bored. I love U.S. history starting at about the Civil War 'til now. I've long been fascinated by the JFK assassination since I can foggily remember it (although I'll admit that TV programming on it reached saturation level lately, I'll also admit it's the most TV I've watched in years! One or two on the Nat Geo Channel were excellent--especially one which focused on his last 24 hours in vivid color footage and current-day interviews with people who met him that trip, and didn't focus on the assassination itself--some other programs were OK, some poor).
A good vacation for me always includes places of historical or pop culture reference...I'd enjoy New Orleans and the 'Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte' house and the National WWII Museum; Dallas and Dealey Plaza (did it while there on work once; would love to get back); Gettysburg; of course, South Bend, etc. Sadly, those trips don't usually line up with what my family wants.
I had to laugh...good friends of mine (in fact, with the 2005 big Benz) were in Dallas this past summer. I asked if they went to Dealey Plaza. They said no. They went to Southfork though. They saw where JR was shot, but not JFK.
I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find. I remember seeing on cable back in the 80's, at my grandparents'. And, it was on a few years ago, on some cable station.
BTW, there's another movie, called "Moving Violation", made around 1976 I think, that was also pretty cool. I think it was a Roger Corman cheapie. Not a comedy, but more of a chase movie. Involved a pair of drifters who witness a corrupt local yokel sheriff shoot his deputy, when he wants in on the take. He frames them for the murder, and the thing is basically one chase after another. For a low budget movie, the stunt work was pretty cool I thought. In fact, I've always wondered if some of the stunts were an inspiration for "Smokey and the Bandit". There were a couple similar scenes, including one where a police car drives under a truck and loses its roof. and one where they slam an airbag-equipped Olds into a cinder block wall, to make the airbag deploy. I think it was a '75 Delta hardtop sedan, but can't remember for sure. In Smokey and the Bandit, they ran an airbag-equipped '74 Olds into one of the LeMans police cars, but it wasn't enough to pop the airbags. However, that car was used in a crash test video years later, and the airbags did deploy.
As for movie locations, about my only claim to fame is that when I was in California in 1992, I found where they shot Steven Spielberg's "Duel", and put my '91 Civic rental car in some of the same poses as Dennis Weaver's Valiant. I've been saying it for years now, but I need to find those pics, and scan them in sometime.
Oh, and this is obscure I know, but I found the place that they passed off as the Richland Chemical Plant in the 1983 NBC sci-fi miniseries, "V". It's in Long Beach, and called the Haynes Steam Plant. I didn't go looking for it specifically, but was visiting some friends in Long Beach, happened to drive by it, and kept thinking, damn that place looks familiar! http://kennethjohnson.us/images/Plant.jpg
I am not a beach fan either. I'm kind of like you in that I like to see odd sites, and hit the road a bit, too. A good museum is attractive as well - the Sinsheim museum in Germany has an amazing WW2 selection, as well as planes, trains, and automobiles (it is Thanksgiving, after all
I thought of "Duel" when I was in CA, as there seemed to be a lot of scary looking old semis around. Funny about the "familiar" thing - a couple years ago when visiting a friend in GA, we went north through the touristy town of Helen, and there was a place that looked just like a scene from Smokey and the Bandit. Turns out, it was:
http://atlantatimemachine.com/smokey/36.htm
As I get older, I'm way-less tolerant of non-stop traffic and crowds. I think I'd probably be miserable there now though, thought it was fun at age 25. "Less is more" and all that.
Saw a few odd cars this morning - an immaculate maybe 92-93 Bonneville SSEi, a pristine maybe 86-87 Accord hatch, and the star - a creme colored MB ponton cabrio, couldn't see if it was a 220S or SE - it was in traffic. I was fueling my car, heard an old car and looked up, and there it was. Wide whites, off white top, obvious restoration.
And for movie locations, here's an easy one - imagine an AMC Eagle parked here:
It wore a V on the front of the hood which (IIRC) means it was V8 powered (it had twin tailpipes).
The only imperfections I could see was perhaps a very slight waviness on the side panels and chromed 60s style Tor-Q Thrust spoke wheels. Otherwise Chevies don't come any nicer even in a place like AZ that has lots of nice old cars.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I read an article in the Akron (OH) Beacon-Journal today that there are 2,000-2,500 Pearl Harbor survivors in the country today. I would not have guessed that many.
The Greatest Generation in my mind, for certain.
I always wondered why the men running the radar station did not have anyone to call in case of an emergency. What was the point of having the station with no emergency plans? The British had radars and emergency plans two years earlier. General Bill Mitchell warned Congress of an attack on a Sunday morning more then ten years earlier. I am not one for conspiracy theories but too many things do not make sense here. I guess we were just lucky the aircraft carriers were out at sea at that time.
Who are we kidding? How many of them even still drive?
I guess I should've figured this, but the story I read this morning of searching for survivors, was incredibly bleak...stuff I couldn't even repeat here.
I remember in the late '80's, on I-71 north of Cincinnati, a mid-eighties Cadillac Brougham blew by us with a "Pearl Harbor Survivor" license plate. My Dad even noticed from the passenger seat. We were all pretty impressed.
Around the same time, an old family friend had a husband who had been at Normandy. He was very gregarious (just passed on a few years ago), and really liked my fintail. He'd told stores of having a Dauphine that he really liked, and I think of driving a MB ponton diesel. I think he had a Ford Ranger by the mid 90s, though.
I bet quite a few of that era still drive. My grandmother is of that age, and just stopped driving this year.
I'm from a small town of course, but I'd never heard a good thing about a Dauphine, either by a guy who had sold a couple or a guy who owned one (former mayor of our town).
What was wrong with them was that the French insisted on bringing their own people to the USA to run things. Pretty soon, the parts distribution and dealer networks were all screwed up.
Like with the Corvair, just a few engineering tweeks would have made the Dauphine a winner. They actually outsold VW in the U.S. for a short time.
But owner's soured with 6 volt electrics (in USA winters!) and a few bonehead design features---like putting both the radiator cap and gas cap side by side in the engine bay. Can you guess what happened?
Price is crazy, of course.
The town I lived in until Sept. 1980 never had a foreign car dealership, other than Subaru with Pontiac for a couple years in the early '70's 'til the Pontiac dealer dropped it, and the Studebaker dealer sold Mercedes 'til the mid-sixties, and also Simca and Sunbeam--this in a non-suburban town of under 9,000. He closed for good in Dec. 1968.
Today there is a Ford dealer in the town limits, and a Mopar/Jeep dealer on the outskirts, and that's it. VW, Datsun, Toyota, etc. were never sold there. There was an excellent Chev-Cadillac dealer there under the same family ownership for 55 years, but after that family sold it, it went through multiple owners in a few years and sadly, closed.
We liked them because my brother worked summers in the Renault parts depot
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
And still sneered at by some vintage race groups because it's a cheap little car racing against pricey iron.
PS: Nissan still sells 'go fast' parts for this car. What they lack in power they make up for in handling, so they do okay out there.
On December 7, 1941, our radar in Hawaii detected the hundreds of planes coming from the North, but there was no system in place to relay that information. As Homer Simpson says. "D'oh." But one has to wonder if we were really so stupid not to have known that a radar station is useless unless the information is sent somewhere so that something can be done about it.
In tin foil hat community, there are theories that FDR ignored all the warnings and that he even had direct knowledge of the attack plans in order to get involved in the war. At the time, the US was very isolationist and the general consensus of the population was to let Europe and Asia deal with the issue.
At the garage where I store my car, some pipes in the ceiling broke, and some people will come back to dirty cars from it. Most of the oldies are covered, but the dark blue 64 Pontiac convertible I showed earlier was getting wet. Luckily, the fintail's spot was on the dry side. It gave me a chance to see what lives there - there's the Pontiac, the Toronado, a 94-96 Impala, an Avanti II, a 66 or so Continental convertible, a Lotus Esprit, a Rolls Shadow, something under a cover I haven't snooped yet, and my car. Odd assortment.
I had to look it up to see what it was. This?
Suicide doors.
What color is it?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Probably very few. One of my neighbors got re-married a few years ago, to a WWII vet. We were chatting one day, and the subject of military service came up. I was surprised when he said he was a WWII vet, because I didn't think he was that old. He asked how old I thought he was and I said I dunno, 70's? Well, turns out he was 85! So, pretty well-preserved I guess!
This was in early 2012 so he'd be around 87 now. That would put him at the age of 15 when the Pearl Harbor bombing happened.
Incidentally, on Saturday I took a friend who's visiting the area from San Francisco to the Baltimore Inner Harbor, and we went on board the USS Taney, the last floating ship that fought in Pearl Harbor.
Oh, on the subject of older people dying off in general...I took my grandmother to a couple of her high school reunions in the early 2000's. She was class of 1942. I took her in 2003 and 2004, which would have been when most of the attendees would have been around 81-82. After that, Grandmom stopped getting notices of upcoming reunions, so we just presumed that too many people had passed on, or gotten too old and feeble, to keep pulling these things together.
However, I did a web search, and it looks like there was a reunion in 2010. One thing I remember, about the two reunions I went to, was that it was just about all women there. Very few men. My grandmother also says that when she used to go to her senior citizens' events, they were mostly women, and whenever a new man would show up, the women would descend on him like a swarm of locusts. So, I guess the old adage of women outliving men tends to hold true.
I attend the Memorial and Veterans Day event in our town and there is always a ceremony at the memorial in the local cemetery. Walking past the headstones, I always chuckle a bit at how many of this are like this:
Charles M Anyman
B: 1901
Wilhelmina H Anyman
B: 1903
Men died much earlier in years past because they were often out doing hard work and living hard (drinking and smoking). Women often stayed home and although they worked hard as well, the health sins were much different.