BLACK BEAUTY RIDES AGAIN\'Green Hornet' fan restores limousine from old TV show.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer Batman cruised the streets of Gotham in a jet-powered Batmobile. James Bond drove an Aston-Martin sports car sprouting machine guns from its bumper. But one 1960s fantasy crime-fighter went a step farther: a four-door limousine, driven by a karate-chopping chauffeur, with rocket launchers front and rear, a TV camera that could see four miles away, and brooms behind the rear wheels to sweep away Verb 1. sweep away - eliminate completely and without a trace; "The old values have been wiped out" wipe out destroy, destruct - do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of; "The fire destroyed the house" 2. tire tracks. The Green Hornet Green Hornet has several meanings:
J.R. Goodman has been a fan since boyhood of the 1966-67 television series about a newspaper publisher who led a secret life as a masked crime fighter. He happened onto the customized 1966 Chrysler Imperial
The Chrysler Imperial, introduced in 1926, was the company's top of the range vehicle for much of its history. by chance, when he sold a boat to a man who used to work for 20th Century Fox, which produced the series. "The guy just started talking about cars, and I said, 'Funny thing, I'm looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the car from "The Green Hornet,' " recalled Goodman, a Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, resident who is general manager of the Hardin Sea Ray boat dealership in Palmdale. "He said, 'Oh, I've got that car,' kind of nonchalantly non·cha·lant adj. Seeming to be coolly unconcerned or indifferent. See Synonyms at cool. [French, from Old French, present participle of nonchaloir, to be unconcerned : non-, . I almost fell off my chair. "I still believe it was some kind of fate I found it," said Goodman, 34, who is president of the Green Hornet fan club, handles autograph requests and fan mail for "Hornet hornet: see wasp. " star Van Williams, and has appeared on the FX cable channel, which airs the old series. "Nobody knew where it was." Just a youngster when the series did its initial 26-episode run, Goodman became a fan from reruns in 1973, because of Kato, the chauffeur, played by the late, great martial-arts star Bruce Lee. "I collected anything and everything that had to do with Bruce Lee, and that included The Green Hornet," Goodman said. He collected Green Hornet bubble-gum cards, Green Hornet Silly Putty, a Green Hornet wallet, Green Hornet Creepy Crawlers, a Green Hornet lunch box. His mother saved them all, and made Goodman take them with him after he moved away from home. When Goodman found the car in late 1992, it was no longer either black or beautiful. It was rusting, its gadgets were gone - partially a result of a run-in between its previous owner and the police, Goodman said. "They were driving around on the road and playing with everything," Goodman explained. "They got a ticket. The ticket was a fix-it ticket. It said seal everything up and put a bumper on it." Hollywood car customizer Dean Jeffries, who built the car for the series, put it back into the shape it was for the series - fake rocket launchers hidden behind moving panels front and rear, green headlights, pretend machine gun in the protruding pro·trude v. pro·trud·ed, pro·trud·ing, pro·trudes v.tr. To push or thrust outward. v.intr. To jut out; project. See Synonyms at bulge. grill, television scanner in the trunk lid, brooms that hang down behind the wheels to brush away to remove, as with a brush or brushing motion. See also: Brush tracks. Goodman said he and his partner, Jim Vallely, who also works at the boat dealership, have spent $60,000 altogether on the car. The car now travels around California for shows, with Williams signing autographs. Goodman doesn't drive it, for fear of fender-benders with surprised motorists. "They see this thing coming down the road, and they don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what it is, and they're not paying attention," he says. Besides the Black Beauty, little else remains from the series. Kato's hat and suspenders sold for $4,600 last year, but other props - like the Hornet's mask and costume - have disappeared. "There's absolutely nothing left of the show. That why this is such a prize," Goodman said. CAPTION(S): PHOTO Photo (1--color) J.R. Goodman shows off the Black Beauty driven by karate-chopping chauffeur Bruce Lee in the "Green Hornet" TV series of 1966-67. (2--color) The Black Beauty is equipped with a broom to sweep away tire tracks, rocket launchers and a hose to shoot out oil. Jeff Goldwater/Daily News |
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