Saturday, August 04, 2007

Universal Studios, August 1968

This little girl is standing in front of a kooky old car that is trying as hard as it can to be GROOVY! You bet your sweet bippy. It's like Ken Kesey's famous psychedelic schoolbus in miniature. As the sign indicates, this automobile was used in the motion picture version of Bob Fosse's "Sweet Charity", which would not be released until nearly a year after this photo was taken.


In case you were curious (I was), here's a brief synopsis from Amazon.com:

"Bob Fosse made his film directorial debut with this movie version of his Broadway hit, which was based on Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. Shirley MacLaine is terrific as the proverbial hooker with the heart of gold, one who is convinced that she will find the right man if she just turns enough tricks." Sock it to me!

A number of hit songs were written for Sweet Charity, including "Hey Big Spender" and "If They Could See Me Now".

3 comments:

  1. Great photo, Major. The car is strangely reminiscent of John Lennon's Rolls Royce Phantom V that he had custom painted in 1967. Below is a link on that car and it's interesting history. John and Yoko donated it to pay off the IRS and it has now found it's way to a museum in Canada!

    Keep up the great work.

    http://beatles.ncf.ca/rolls.html

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  2. Anonymous12:37 PM

    I can dig the head space man, the car's too groovy! Something you'd expect the Cattanooga Cats to pile into.

    Katella Gate

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  3. Dear Major Pepperidge. I am from Wyoming and one of my nieces is an Imagineer. I am so proud of her! I am writing a book on Topanga Canyon 1968 - 1972. The good old days, as we old Canyon types remember them, if we can remember them at all. I happen to remember quite a bit, so I thought I should get it down on paper. I'm trying to describe a trip via the Ventura Freeway and, I think, the Hollywood Freeway from Topanga to Micheltorena Street - way out Sunset. I know one landmark was the Capitol Records Building - the round one, you know. And I believe we would have passed by Universal studios irst, before we went over the hill. The trip is at night. Would Universal have been all lit up in those days? This all takes place in April of 1968. Was it opened as a theme park by then? Or was it still just a movie studio? If it was a theme park, how can I find out what attractions it had back then. The action in this part of my book all takes place on the day after Martin Luther King was killed. What a horroble day that was. My book is not centered around that theme, but rather the doings of us old hippies up in Topanga. Did you ever go to the Corral? Do you have any photos of Topanga in those days? Sorry to run on so, but I just couldn't resist asking you all these questions. I like your blog and will check it out some more. I'm also a big animation fan. Years ago, Tommy Smothers' office was right next to the very first computer animation company, and I made them give me the tour (I was at Tommy's on business) they could do seven colors and thought that was pretty hot. I still like the old hand-amination the best. Analog vs. digital, I guess.... music, too. I am continually amazed at the onrushing of technology. I think Google is one of God's greatest gifts to mankind - sort of like fire or the wheel. I just hope we can all learn to use it well instead of poorly. So - enough blather.
    Thanks for your great blog.
    Shannon Forbes. You can write me back at forbes82604(at)aol(dot)com if you care to. I hope I'm not making a big mistake by putting my address here. I'll take the chance.
    Peace. S.F.

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