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“He really had a thing for model cars” or “He really must have made a lot of money on the TV cars…”Ī bittersweet feeling swept over me as I realized that George Barris’ entire life was documented in a thousand different ways. A lady easily old enough to be a grandmother squeals in delight when she sees a late-era poster of “The Monkees” in a bin.Īrmchair experts rattle off historical stats and refer to Barris as a mythical “He…” Motorheads, pickers, faded starlets and Hollywood sycophants rush the gate at 8:00 am and flood the building in staggered shifts. The still innocent era of “Farrah’s Foxy Vette” and “Donnie and Marie’s Custom Van.” Rumor has it that all the really cool stuff was claimed long ago by family members and this was the “best of the rest,” as they say. I was more interested in the “deep cut” ’70s stuff laying around. Most of the sale items look to be overstock of models, toy cars and other merchandise he designed and licensed over the years, although there were treasures to be found.Īny really famous stuff (Hirohata Merc, A la Kart, Batmobile etc,) was snatched up fast.

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With his passing, this store full of the flotsam and jetsumof his life, is all the more fascinating. Television, movies, magazines, comics, model car franchising (AMT and Revell come to mind,) as well as almost every other medium you can think of. With the internet still decades away, Barris employed every trick in the book with his quiver of old school media tools. Gray hair is the order of the day and like me, I suspect most are grown-up car guys that built the models and collected the cavalcade of products Barris schlepped way back when. We are the kids–who’s parent’s purchases–paid for the building we stand in front of today. I’m in line with mostly 50-something folks that were kids when Barris was at his peak. Then I look at the lozenge shaped cars parked up and down the street and wonder how we got to where we are today. The days of stars and TV cars are long gone, but I can see a Batmobile replica inside the storefront window as I wait. His early work mirrors the post-war optimism of the day and his later work, especially the ’60s and ’70s kustoms, document an iteration of American pop culture and an entertainment industry in Los Angeles that has long since faded away. Through the years, they exactly reflected the transformation of America in the Sixties, morphing from mop-top lads to world-weary men with their innocence stripped away. It’s been said that icons mirror the time in which they lived.Ī good case study would be the Beatles.

Barnum of the industry, creating a brand and legacy of coolness that’s still known around the world. Not only were Barris and his brother Sam responsible for some of the most memorable kustom kars during the golden age of the automobile, George was the P.T. Today is the “Garage Sale” at the brick and mortar store and who knows what treasures are hidden inside. Sixties poet Jim Morrison’s morose musings volley around in my head as I wait outside George Barris Enterprises’ storefront, straddling the difference between North Hollywood and Toluca Lake, in what’s left of Los Angeles.