You missed it.

Auction: The George Barris Collection of Kustom Television and Movie Cars and Other Properties

Saturday 14 May 2005
Petersen Automotive Museum
6060 Wilshire Boulevard (at Fairfax)

Los Angeles 90036

Viewing 12-13 May 2005

Among custom car builders George Barris is an icon.  More famous than his name alone is his work that is immediately recognized by generations of Americans and by movie and television fans worldwide.  Perhaps best known for the ‘Batmobile’ he created in 1966 for the television program Batman, Barris has played a seminal role in American pop-culture through his automotive creations made for the entertainment industry.

Who among us doesn’t know ‘The General Lee’, made for the hit television series The Dukes of Hazard, or the ‘The Munster Koach’ built for The Munsters television series?  Other notable creations included ‘KITT’ from the television hit Knight Rider, and Ma and Pa Clampett’s Jalopy from The Beverly Hillbillies.

In addition to the Barris Collection, this sale will also include for the collector car enthusiast many of the most exciting Kustoms, Hot Rods and Muscle cars ever built.

Just Above Sunset did not bid on any of these, but, along with our columnist Bob Patterson, we dropped by the viewing, as they prepped these cars for sale.

And a note on the Beach Boys and that 1965 song “(I wish they all could be) California Girls” –

Good vibrations for Hawthorne

Randy Lewis, The Los Angeles Times, May 14, 2005

Surf's up … in Hawthorne.

The landlocked city may have no surf or sand to call its own, but on Friday it will be the site for dedication of the state's newest landmark, one inextricably linked to sun-tanned bodies catching waves and reveling in the Southern California sun.

State Historical Landmark No. 1041 will go up at the corner of West 119th Street at Kornblum Avenue, the former location of the house where brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson grew up and formed the Beach Boys with cousin Mike Love and neighbor Al Jardine.

The ceremony will feature performances by Brian Wilson, children and relatives of Dennis (who drowned in 1983) and Carl (who died of cancer in 1998), as well as one-time Beach Boy guitarist David Marks and others.

The recognition for the childhood home of the quintessential Southern California rock band has a quintessential Southern California punch line: The home was demolished in the mid-'80s to make way for Interstate 105.

Listen to the Beach Boys doing California Girls (real audio) if you don’t remember.  David Lee Roth recorded it too.  So did David Hasselhoff - that fellow from Bay Watch.  Yipes.