buhdge

Saturday morning in North Hollywood, California, a wearied Sprague Brother wakes up early to get ready for his visit to the shop of famous “King of the Kustomizers,” George Barris. For those of you who are unaware, Barris designed and built the Batmobile, Munsters Koach, Dragula, Beverly Hillbillies Truck, Dukes of Hazzard car “General Lee,” the Knight Rider car “Kit,” and countless other vehicles used in movies and on television, etc.

The night before my visit I didn’t get much sleep as a result of my three English Springer spaniels that wanted to pant and moan all night as they appeared to know that I had to get up early. But get up early I did, and as I started getting my clothes on my thoughts ran back to the year of 1966 when I would watch the Batman series twice a week on TV in Garland, Texas. I had hoped that I would someday sit in the driver’s seat of the Batmobile but didn’t really count on that happening…
until now!

My brother and I have a good friend in Dan Moses (guitarist in the surf band Dynatones), and he is coordinating an LP for Hallmark Guitars, Bob Shade’s company. Hallmark is making a line of George Barris guitars commemorating the Batmobile and others. We, the Sprague Brothers, were put in touch with Bob Shade by Dan, and it was decided that we would write and record the songs for “Munsters Koach,” “Golden Sahara,” “Dragula,” and “Batmobile” (or “Bat-wing," as the guitar will be called). These four songs will be on the CD that Hallmark/Barris will be releasing to commemorate the project and there will be songs by other bands as well. Bob kindly arranged this visit to the nearby George Barris shop for me.

As I eased my cufflinks on and fixed my tie, I thought about all the great creations that Barris was involved with. There are so many achievements in the kustom world: the “Ala Kart,” “Fireball 500,” etc, etc.

What would it be like to meet this living legend? I was to be transported to Barris’ North Hollywood shop by my manager Art Fein (a legend himself, so he says) who lives over the hill from me in Hollywood. The phone rang and it was Art informing me that he might be late and maybe I should meet him out in front of the shop. So, I took my time getting ready, finding the CDs that I wanted to take to George and such, and then, a little later, the phone rang again: “Hey, it’s Art. I’m 10 minutes away.” Yikes!

Well, I told Art I needed a few extra minutes, and he said “What, you have to wash your hair or something?” So, I armed myself with the CDs and made way to the alley where I would meet up with the frenzied manager. Now usually I would comb my hair with grease a la the Sprague Bros look, but since I was the lone brother going that day I had decided to leave it au natural (uncombed and hanging down).

Naturally, Art showed up in a convertible with the top down. Oh well, no biggie. I’ll just spit on my hand and slick it down when we get there. This I did, and we arrived at George’s shop on time. The shop included a huge showroom and a work area in back. We shook hands with George, who was the nicest fella you could ever want to meet! His offices inside were crowded with all the toys that were associated with every project he had ever worked on. It was really impressive, and he had hundreds of unopened, huge cardboard boxes in his garage area that he said were filled with more toys! There was even an unopened Bat-bike that would put Pee Wee Herman’s bike to shame.

On the walls were pictures of George with all the celebrities he had built cars for--everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Beatles! George even made the Monkeemobile! He worked with all the major chicks, everyone from Rita Hayworth to Ursula Andress. George was talking about an idea he has to do a book of all the cars he did for rock stars. This would be a great book since there were hundreds of rockers on the 8 x 10s on the walls: Roger Daltrey, David Lee Roth, John Lennon, etc. And the best guitarist in history, Jimmy Bryant, with the “Voxmobile,” which was completely functional both as a car AND amplifier! (What a gas!)

We then entered one of the garages, where there were two of the Batmobiles George had made. What an amazing sight! Glowing in all its Bat-beauty and seemingly ready for me to jump in and go fight crime. All I needed was my utility belt, but alas all I had on me was a house key and a guitar pick. I asked if I could take some pictures with me in the driver’s seat of the original Batmobile and George kindly agreed.

There I was, finally at the Bat-wheel!

I found an original license plate under one of the Bat-floor mats that said “Bat-66.” I had to take a picture with that as well, of course. George even opened the huge garage door so my manager could get better lighting for the pics. I really appreciated George’s kindness and his taking time to show us around and answer our many questions. We discussed future appearances with George and the Sprague Brothers, and there will be an eventual CD release show when the Hallmark Guitars/George Barris project is complete. There might be a Sprague Bros/George Barris appearance in the works for next year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

If you’re lucky, George might bring the Batmobile…but don’t expect to get in the driver’s seat. That’s reserved for Batman (and that little ol’ Sprague Brother, me!)

Party on.

Go to: Frank Lee Sprague, The Hallmark Guitar Company,
George Barris