Two guys in a T

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Two guys in a T
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 12:42 am:

I just came across this on Google images. Yessiree, Bub.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Richard Wolf on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 05:53 am:

Sure looks like John Wayne on left.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Robbie Price on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 05:54 am:

Looks like Gabby Hayes on the right.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Doolittle on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 07:13 am:

That "persnickety female" horse behind them looks like Gabby's horse Blossom.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By john kuehn on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:36 am:

Thats one of Wayne's early westerns made in the late 30's or maybe 40's.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Tomaso - Milton,WA on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 10:16 am:

Riveted steering gear case and early quadrant.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Green - So Cal on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 11:43 am:

Here's a couple of guys you might know...

TwoTars


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Terry Horlick in Penn Valley, CA on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 12:02 pm:

Mike, I can't remember ever seeing another shot of Mr. Arthur Stanley Jefferson "Laurel" and Mr. Norvell "Oliver" Hardy behind a windshield. The studio always removed the glass to make the photography easier.

That is a very interesting photograph. Both actors are wearing heavy overcoats, but Mr. Hardy doesn't have his signature necktie on.

TH


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Green - So Cal on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 12:17 pm:

Here's another:

Laurel & Hardy


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 07:09 pm:

The movie from which the above "still" was taken is entitled "Big Business" with Stan and Ollie selling Christmas trees in southern California during the off-season. I started collecting L & H movies in 1962 from Blackhawk films here in Davenport, Iowa. Believe it or not, I still have this standard 8mm movie that I bought in 1963 for $7.77. I used to cut lawns in the neighborhood and pool my weekly allowance and money shamelessly begged from my grandparents to buy yet another L & H movie. Those were the days! Our poor Model T's really suffered at the hands of the script writers in those Hal Roach movies, usually biting the dust somehow in the last scene. The above still doesn't show what ultimately happened to L & H's Model T pickup truck at the hands of Jimmy Finlayson. It wasn't pretty if you love Model T's!
A very funny movie from an era when life in this country still made sense.
Marshall


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 07:16 pm:

Oops! 'Sorry. The hat tipping "still" is probably from "The Finishing Touch", not "Big Business". The previous L & H laughing still is what I was referencing, which is unquestionably from "Big Business." "The Finishing Touch" was equally hilarious and every bit as methodically "tit for tat" destructive as "Big Business", although without the obligatory Model T destruction final scene. Both movies from 1928 are a "must" for L & H fans. How come we can't make movies like this anymore and why is there no longer an audience in this country for such films, to be read: "dumb-o-graphics".
M.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 07:58 pm:

Marshall, it's a different world now. When I was ten I enjoyed going to a matinee at the Lomita Theater for 25¢. For that quarter I got two features, a comedy short or two (Stooges, Charlie Chase, etc.) a western or adventure serial episode, and several cartoons. A couple years ago I griped to Bill Warren, who owns the Warren Theater chain, that I still feel cheated when I go to a movie and there's no cartoon. This is a guy who is in the theater business because he loves the way movies used to be. His theaters are the modern equivalent of the old time movie palaces, with lots of neon, lavish decor, and even a curtain going up at the start of the show. He told me that a few years ago he tried running a cartoon before the start of each feature, and found two problems. One was a shortage of suitable films. The other was the flood of complaints from people who objected to waiting through a cartoon before the feature started! In some ways today's world is better than the one where I lived sixty years ago. But in other ways it's definitely, depressingly, worse.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:10 pm:

Hi, Steve. Good post, although I'd like to see an itemized list of why you think today's world is better than the one our grandparents created for themselves and us. Aside from advances in medicine, I'm hard-pressed to find many improvements in the QUALITY of life. Inventions such as the compter/the Internet have not really improved our lives. They've just expanded the avenues for the transmission of stupid ideas, misinformation and ways for thieves to swindle trusting people through scams. Nope, Grandpa's day was definitely better. We have gone backwards in our progression as a species. And it won't get better in our lifetimes.
Marshall


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Danial - Veneta OR US Earth Solar System on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:24 pm:

Grandpa's day was better only if you were white, male and a land-owner.

But I get what you're saying, Marshall. I know it sounds cliche'd but even when I was a kid (60s, early 70s) it seemed like things were a little less hurried and harried and people had a more time to just chat over coffee.

And as much as I really love the internet for the tool and entertainment portion of my life it has become, I think there is such a thing as too much information. Particularly when so little information on the net has been vetted for accuracy.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Hycner on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:25 pm:


Laurel & Hardy definitely destroyed a lot of cars in their movies....


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:37 pm:

Final scene from "Hog Wild". Hal Roach studios had a bunch of modified Model T's for L & H movies that included ones sawn in half ("Busy Bodies"), scrunched up like in this picture ("Hog Wild"), squeezed together sideways ("Two Tars"), bent into a semi-circle ("County Hospital"?), and ready to burst apart at the blast of a shotgun ("Double Whoopee"), among others. "Two Tars" in the second half of the 1/2 hour film is probably the funniest L & H movie for my money. What happens to a ton of 1920's cars stuck in a country traffic jam is beyond description and partially explains why original, undamaged cars are so hard to find today! :-)
Marshall


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Kirk Peterson on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:41 pm:

Ollie says to Stan
Give me the wheel!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:48 pm:

...And he does - literally, long before the Three Stooges (pick from any number of their films) or W.C. Fields ("The BanK Dick") stole that bit. I suspect L & H weren't the first to use this gag, either.
M.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Monday, November 26, 2012 - 09:53 pm:

Terry Horlick -
Check out "Another Perfect Day", where a neighbor throws a Model T jack through the windshield of L & H's 1923-25 Touring. It's definitely glass in there that shatters. But you are otherwise correct - glass inside the windshield frame created reflections,. glare and the possibility for real injuries. So it was removed, unless needed for a special effect such as seen in "The Perfect Day". Another great L & H film, by the way, with the Model T sinking into a watery road repair, complete with five passengers. They don't make 'em like that anymore... Sigh.
Marshall


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Green - So Cal on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 11:24 am:

Here's a better print of the still above:

L&H


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 12:08 pm:

And believe it or not, this car drove away after the streetcar in front pulled forward. As a kid, I was never sure whether it actually moved under its own power (doubtful) or was pulled by an unseen wire or cable. Sound effects make it appear that the engine is running, but the tell-tale transmission whine in low gear is absent. I vote for a cable or wire pulling the car forward.
I wonder what ever happened to those specially-modified Model T's like this that belonged to the Hal Roach Studios. Surely they are still around today and weren't donated to WII scrap metal drives!?! I don't recall seeing these cars in any other comedies of the era or later. Stashed away in a private collection somewhere perhaps?
Marshall


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Kopsky, Lytle TX on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 01:31 pm:

Here's another Movie T. I think this is John Wayne also. It appears to have a couple of A axles too.




Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Henry Petrino in Modesto, CA on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 02:02 pm:

Ken,

That is in fact John Wayne. I've seen the movie, but can't remember the name of it. A while back someone posted a picture of that same T rig. I THINK (if I remember correctly) it's a TT with some sort of extender kit that adds the rearmost axle.

Seeing it move in the movie is a kick! It looks like a beached whale ready to roll over.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ken Kopsky, Lytle TX on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 02:15 pm:

Yeah, I don't recall the movie either. I was on the computer and the movie was on Encore Westerns for background noise. :-) I happened to see the truck and started recording the movie via the computer. I took a few snips of it but deleted the rest.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Spaziano, Bellflower, CA. on Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 02:49 pm:

That "T" above that has been "squeezed" between two Los Angeles Railway (narrow gage) streetcars still exists.

It currently resides at the Peterson Automobile Museum in Los Angeles. It spent many years at the Movieland Wax Museum just down the road from Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park.

That museum is now defunct and I assume that when the props were sold off, that car went to the Peterson. I'm not sure but, I believe the two events were in close proximity of each other. The closing of "Movieland" and the opening of "The Peterson" that is.

Whatever the case, at least it still exists.

Mike.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Marshall V. Daut on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - 05:59 am:

Good input, Mike. Thanks. That accounts for one of those special movie T's! Where are the rest, I wonder?
By the way, speaking of movie cars, the Model "A" DeLuxe Phaeton with striped seat covers seen in Humphrey Bogart's "Dark Passage" has been found in the hands of a West Coast collector. It has since been restored by an owner, but its authenticity has been established by the DeLuxe Phaeton Club. Only 7,000 or so DeLuxe Phaetons were made in 1930 and 1931 out of a total of 5 million Model "A's", so they're quite rare, especially since their bodies had a wooden structure, which rotted away over the years, resulting in the cars being junked. Lots of them went to South America in right-hand drive form. They are highly sought there and shipped back to the United States, but are invariably beaten to death and require a great deal of body work.
Marshall


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