CRUISIN’ FOR A CURE

Priscilla — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:42:00 +0000

This morning we headed out to the Orange County Fairgrounds for the Cruisin For A Cure Car Show benefiting prostate cancer. This is a one day event to raise awareness of prostate cancer and encourage early detection. Free PSA tests are available and ALL the money raised goes to prostate cancer research. It is the #2 killer of men, surpassed only by heart disease. My husband is a prostate cancer survivor on top of heart disease which resulted in his undergoing a quadruple bypass in 2001 and, two years later, receiving an implanted cardiac defibrillator.

Besides about 3,000 cool cars from every era, there is food, live entertainment, and great people watching.
Winner: Best Hair (left) Winner: Survivor (right)

BTW, Blue is the color of prostate cancer; I found out this week when Marcy at The Glamourous Life Association was raging about everything pink, which, I think we all know, is the color of breast cancer. Makes sense… continue the ingrained societal stereotypes.

Back to the car show… A unique thing about this show is that owners actually drive their cars on a route through the show so you get the benefit of some rumbling and revving sound effects and the smell of high octane exhaust!

In the air-conditioned buildings were the primo show cars. Here are a few:

My favorite: the Cadillac Brougham. Only 400 were built and the Brougham was generally owned by movie stars, wealthy industrialists, and a “gangster or two” because it sold for a whopping $23,000 in comparison to a Rolls Royce Saloon priced at $9,000. Look closely at the glove compartment which opens up to reveal a tray with stainless steel shot glasses, a gold cigarette case, a woman’s compact, and a tissue dispenser – all standard equipment in the 1957 Cadillac Brougham.

Also on display were custom movie cars, among them: the infamous DeLorean from the movie Back to the Future, the Batmobile from the 1960s Batman TV show and KITT, the talking black Pontiac TransAm from the 1980s hit show Knight Rider; both designed by George Barris, the renowned King of the Kustomizers.

Which brings me to the highlight of the day…drumroll… me with George Barris (Photo 1), George Barris signing his book for me with an inscription telling my husband to buy me a car (Photo 2) , and George Barris telling me the story of when Michael Jackson brought his car to him saying his car was hurt, then proceeded to run across the street to the CVS to buy band-aids which he put on the car’s boo-boos – true story – see page 87 of his book, Barris CARS of the STARS, there’s a picture of the car with band-aids all over it. (Clicking on the book title will take you to my Amazon store.) George has customized cars for a list of Hollywood stars from the ’60′s, 70′s, and beyond – Elvis, Ann-Margret, Bo-Derek, James Caan, Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Bob Hope, John Travolta, Clint Eastwood.

I’ve wanted a classic car for a long time, in particular, a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, preferably convertible – but we should have bought one of those 15-20 years ago – even the hardtops are upwards of $60K so a convertible would mean we would have to tell our daughter we spent her college fund. Now, I’m telling my husband that a later model, say the early 60s is fine, AND it doesn’t have to be a Chevy – that way we have a lot more options! Big of me, right?

Here’s one we thought was really classy – its a 1962 Oldsmobile Starfire. Who needs a Mercedes?

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Post tags: cancer survivor, classic cars, Cruisin for a Cure, George Barris, muscle cars, prostate cancer

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CRUISIN’ FOR A CURE