George Barris Dead.

[DMCVegas]

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2015/11/george_barris_las_king_of.php

For anyone not familiar with who he is, this article from the Los Angeles Times will give you a good idea:

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/04/local/me-custom4

[Nicholas R]

As far as I'm concerned, he gets credit for one car; the original Batmobile. Thats it. Everything else is just him trying to take credit for and get a piece of the action, on things that others created.

[mluder]

As far as I'm concerned, he gets credit for one car; the original Batmobile. Thats it. Everything else is just him trying to take credit for and get a piece of the action, on things that others created.

Gotta agree with Nick on this one... Barris did two things. Created the original Batmobile and tried to take credit for every other Hollywood car.
Still... Sorry to see him go.

Cheers
Steven

[Jimmyvonviggle]

He was a likeable personality. What bugs me is how little "creation" he did on the batmobile.

[DMCVegas]

As far as I'm concerned, he gets credit for one car; the original Batmobile. Thats it. Everything else is just him trying to take credit for and get a piece of the action, on things that others created.


He was a likeable personality. What bugs me is how little "creation" he did on the batmobile.

Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of creativity that went into that "Batmobile" Design.

http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2014/11/27/4aa47b7f-1a34-458b-8caf-6ef532f8979c.jpg

The only real customized "work" that went into the Lincoln Futurua was the arch between the driver and passenger seats, the intake on the hood, and the piece that split the front grille. Beyond the paint job, most of the customization work was either hacking bits off, or just bolting on things. The iconic design should really be credited to Ghia instead.

Barris though really made his living off of taking the credit for other people's work, though was as careful as he could be to only "imply" that he was involved most of the time. I say most of the time because there are some indeed some instances where he was caught outright lying.

http://twolaneblacktop.yuku.com/topic/1878/Hollywood-Star-Cars-Museum-Questionables-and-Fakes

Going back to that link in my first post as well, you can clearly see some great examples of his fraud, as well as Universal's threat of legal action with their Cease and Desist letter.

There is even a story of a DeLorean owner who has a nice tale of when they refused to help Barris commit fraud at a car show by allowing their car to be billed as "screen used", he threatened to have Universal proceed with legal action against them for having an unlicensed replica.

[David T]

Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of creativity that went into that "Batmobile" Design.

http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2014/11/27/4aa47b7f-1a34-458b-8caf-6ef532f8979c.jpg

The only real customized "work" that went into the Lincoln Futurua was the arch between the driver and passenger seats, the intake on the hood, and the piece that split the front grille. Beyond the paint job, most of the customization work was either hacking bits off, or just bolting on things. The iconic design should really be credited to Ghia instead.

Barris though really made his living off of taking the credit for other people's work, though was as careful as he could be to only "imply" that he was involved most of the time. I say most of the time because there are some indeed some instances where he was caught outright lying.

http://twolaneblacktop.yuku.com/topic/1878/Hollywood-Star-Cars-Museum-Questionables-and-Fakes

Going back to that link in my first post as well, you can clearly see some great examples of his fraud, as well as Universal's threat of legal action with their Cease and Desist letter.

There is even a story of a DeLorean owner who has a nice tale of when they refused to help Barris commit fraud at a car show by allowing their car to be billed as "screen used", he threatened to have Universal proceed with legal action against them for having an unlicensed replica.

Barris was involved in at least one case of fraud where he implied a car was something it wasn't. He used his celebrity status to say and do things that weren't true. What a surprise, today it is a common occurrence. Barris got called on it and lost. Because he touched one of the BTTF cars he claimed credit for ALL of them. At the time he started he was considered a genius, today he would get a season with a reality show maybe.

[DMCVegas]

Barris was involved in at least one case of fraud where he implied a car was something it wasn't. He used his celebrity status to say and do things that weren't true. What a surprise, today it is a common occurrence. Barris got called on it and lost. Because he touched one of the BTTF cars he claimed credit for ALL of them. At the time he started he was considered a genius, today he would get a season with a reality show maybe.

He was exonerated in a trial a few years ago where a Batmobile went up for auction, and he was in the audience. It was "assumed" that his presence, and especially his inaction to dispute the providence of the car, was an endorsement, but the judge dismissed it.

Now I don't know if it's the same car or not from this auction that was the one he got busted for. But with that one, if memory serves, there was a private party that purchased a Batmobile from a museum that was displaying it. They stated that it was THE Batmobile from the original TV show. The guy bought it, had it shipped to him, and that is when he discovered that it wasn't real. I can't remember the model nor specific year, but it had a chassis tag indicating that it was built in the early 70's. From there lawsuits ensued, and the museum deflected back to Barris because they were only marketing the car as such based upon what they were told by him.

I don't think that Barris would go very far today at all, which is why he never got his own show to begin with. In today's society, the mass communication and quick archival reference ability of the Internet is just too great for someone like him to escape from. Look at the controversies that have surrounded some of the "Reality" TV shows, and as soon as they came to light just how quickly the shows themselves got canceled. Those were all people considered to be squeaky-clean before the started, unlike Barris who 15+ years ago already had the stories about him beginning to make the rounds within online communities.

Yeah, it was considered somewhat genius at the time where he was weaseling his way into franchises by either minuscule work, or working with ones that were almost defunct that only a handful of people cared about, and even less knew the truth about. Personally, I think that as he gained more attention for his misrepresentations, if not outright fraud, more and more of the community pretty much abandoned him. Sure, he always tried to ride the coattails of those who didn't know better, and his nice-guy attitude would make you feel almost guilty about speaking out about him, but lots of people had already caught on at the end. I'd be very surprised if much about him ever gets "celebrated" at all when compared to other people within both the Hollywood and Car Customizer worlds. It's probably for the best to just let him fade out than to admit that so many were either hoodwinked by him, or that they backed the wrong horse.

[RamblinDMC]

I got to meet George a few years ago. He was friends with my grandfather. They used to talk for hours together at the World of Wheels car show that was in Atlanta.

[micmak]

Wow, I had no idea about any of this. I thought he was a great creator of amazing on-screen cars. You guys are ruining my image of him!!! :(

......Mike......

[Nicholas R]

Wow, I had no idea about any of this. I thought he was a great creator of amazing on-screen cars. You guys are ruining my image of him!!! :(

......Mike......

There was a point where if you googled "George Barris," you'd get as many hits about him taking credit for others work, litigation against him, accusations from others, etc. as you would about things he actually did. Though now, all of the hits are just about his passing.

I'll never forget seeing the pictures of the Part III car where he supposedly "restored it" with rope lights and spot lights; then pretty much allowed himself to take credit for the building of the car. Good lord what a monstrosity. I've disliked him since.

Edit: I found them:


• Some type of "light rope" was draped around the car, and additional brackets with screw holes were drilled into the body.
• A spot light type device was bolted on to the top of the exhaust vents where the Mr. Fusion once resided.
• Many reflectors and plastic "junk" was mounted all over the car
• A Barris sticker was put on the front fender along with a Back to the Future sticker
• The windows were painted black so that it was difficult to see inside, in order to hide the terrible condition of the interior
• The entire interior was spray painted flat black. Yes, you read that correctly, the entire grey leather interior, carpet, console, dashboard, everything was spray painted black.
• Red duct tape was placed around the gauge binnacle, on several pieces of the interior, and on the exhaust vents at the rear of the car.
• Random wires were placed on the rear pontoons of the car where original props were at some point removed.

http://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this_files/MVC-146F.jpghttp://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this_files/MVC-147F.jpghttp://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this_files/MVC-149F.jpghttp://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this_files/MVC-177F.jpghttp://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this_files/Backlot1sm.jpghttp://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this_files/Backlot3sm.jpg
http://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this_files/InstructionsSm.jpg

Credit to: http://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this.html

[martydmc12]

Not only did Barris try to take credit for the DeLorean Time Machine, he also tried to take some credit for the DMC-12 as well.

I came across a special edition of Maxim magazine back in 2003 called, Maxim Goes to the Movies. I never picked up a copy, but I wrote down all the bullish*t that Barris spewed off about DeLorean. In retrospect, I wish I had actually purchased the magazine when I saw it.

MAXIM GOES TO THE MOVIES
Pg. 92 - by Clark Collis (with George Barris)

BACK TO THE FUTURE DELOREAN
"I worked with John DeLorean on the actual car and then he got into his little... problems. (In 1982, the auto magnate was arrested for allegedly attempting to import cocaine - he was later aquitted.) We built the cars that were used for publicity. There's a lot of gimmicky things stuck on. People say, 'What's that for?' I say, your guess is better than mine. I've never been into the future."

He worked with John DeLorean on the actual car? Give me a break.

[Timebender]

So who designed the Paddy Wagon, the Pink Panther Mobile, the Red Baron, and other cars, some of which became either model kits and Hot Wheels? Were those all Gene Winfield's and some other car customizers?

[Timebender]

Oh- Jay Orhberg on the Pink Panther, which was one of my favorite custom cars as a kid. Tom Daniel was responsible for some other iconic cars.

[Mark D]

There was a point where if you googled "George Barris," you'd get as many hits about him taking credit for others work, litigation against him, accusations from others, etc. as you would about things he actually did. Though now, all of the hits are just about his passing.

I'll never forget seeing the pictures of the Part III car where he supposedly "restored it" with rope lights and spot lights; then pretty much allowed himself to take credit for the building of the car. Good lord what a monstrosity. I've disliked him since.

Edit: I found them:

Credit to: http://www.bttf3delorean.com/Which_car_is_this.html

For some reason they also spray painted much of the interior of the car black... I never understood why.

[DMCVegas]

Oh- Jay Orhberg on the Pink Panther, which was one of my favorite custom cars as a kid. Tom Daniel was responsible for some other iconic cars.

Best quote I've found online so far is: kings never die, they just put thier crests on every car that stops to ask for directions

Most everyone else is pretty much responsible for most of what George Barris takes credit for. What I'm really curious about myself is is brother Sam. Most information about Sam Barris is consistently filtered through George. But there are somethings that just can't be disputed.

The history of Sam and George Barris is rather murky. Sam is the older one. Some accounts simply say that the family moved from Chicago to California. One story I found says that the brothers were adopted by a maternal aunt and uncle after their mother died, they adopted a new last name (which they further modified to "Barris"), and give no indication of what their father's fate was.

The story from there is pretty much that the two took a car in trade for some work, and then started to customize it. Sold it, and then got another. They also "hung around" body shops to learn a bit of the trade as well to develop the skills for both body work and paint. Later on, Sam gets drafted into the war. Now while same is away, the custom cars completely cease. None. George it says kept getting work in bodyshops, but also kept getting fired because it wanted to "kustomize" rather than repair. Which I dunno, maybe that's a nice way of saying he couldn't actually return body damage back to stock and got fired for a lack of talent.

So then Sam comes back. They go into business together, and THEN the customized cars suddenly returned. Now this is really, really odd because according to a story, Sam somehow doesn't know squat about bodywork and custom cars, and has to turn to his little brother George to teach him. Which again, conflicts with the earlier history of the custom cars.

George is really into promotion of the cars. So he does everything he can to start photographing them, writes to magazines for attention and eventually starts car shows and the like (which also makes me wonder that if all those awards the old cars won, were really just awarded by George Barris to himself). Nothing wrong with that. He's a businessman trying to hustle some advertising and find new avenues of income. I can honestly respect THAT. However...

Eventually Sam Barris gets tired of working on all these cars. He tries to transition to a career with the LAPD, but working two jobs at once gets to him, so he resigns his duty as a cop, and remains on at the shop. However, he refuses to work overtime and keeps strict hours where he leaves every day at 5:00pm. George Marries his wife Shirley, and then about a year later, Sam leaves. He's done. He packs up his family and moves up to Northern California.

At this point, the custom cars coming out of Barris' shop really seems to plummet, and again coincides with Sam parting ways with George. That is in my opinion just way too much of a coincidence. I also wonder about the marriage to Shirley which coincides rather close to Sam's leaving. Shirley has really been credited by George as pushing for the growth of the business, and of course once Sam left the real work started on getting George to license off all the cars to toy & model kit makers and focus on merchandising. As I say, things are quite murky. I don't know if perhaps Sam just got fed up with with being pushed so hard by the business and left. Perhaps he felt that family was more important, so he left the LAPD to help his brother out and it backfired. Perhaps working on cars was a really fun hobby that Sam loved, and then when he got George as a business partner, the fun hobby became a hellish nightmare of a job that he felt trapped in? Moreso if perhaps George and Shirley were looking to take the business into a bigger direction that Sam really didn't want to be apart of given the amount of work and possible friction between the two brothers.

I can't say for certain on any of this. Not only is part of this my own speculation, but the information sources I'm citing are also Barris' in most cases, and who knows how accurate any of THAT is given his own reputation. Still though, I think that some good insight into Sam Barris' life would probably provide quite a few answers about George's.