Sonny and Cher's Mustangs?!?!?

1

19simmons65

New Member
Apr 2, 2005
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Upper Marlboro, MD
#1
I found this image in a Motor Trend magazine.

http://www.simmonsproperties.net/mustang/sonny.gif

This delightfully cheesy mid-1960s publicity shot show the Fab Couple with their George Barris "Kustomized" Mustang convertibles. they were typical Barris movie/television pics for the day: loud pain with shading around the body lines, grilles made out of hardware-store materials, and tacked-on, nonfunctional scoops (of sorts) on the hoods. Barris gave the interiors a makeover featuring flamboyant fabrics and wild colors. The Pontiac-style split nose was an interesting design touch. The cars must've been provided by Ford; note the manufacturer license plates.

Who is Barris and why did he destroy two mustangs?

Regie
 
#2
The Sonny and Cher Mustangs were even made into a model by AMT, but yes, they were absolutely hideous, as were most all of George Barris' cars. George Barris and his late brother Sam built some of the smoothest custom cars ever in the '50's such as Nick Matranga's '40 Merc , the famed Ala Kart roadster pickup and The Hirohata '50 Merc. My thinking is that these were creations purely of Sam Barris, since after his death the cars became putrid and tasteless. Lots of movie cars like the Batmobile, the Munster Koach and such were commisioned by studios, as well as certain celebrities had their cars modified there. We all know how tastefully built movie cars are and how knowledgeable about cars movie stars are about their rides, then as now. Barris is also a con man and an outright liar. He claims to have built the American Graffiti '55 Chevy and the Starsky and Hutch Gran Torino from the recent movie, and these cars were recently auctioned off to apparently unsuspecting people with to much money at a private fleecing, I mean auction, in Hollywood.
 
#4
sonny and cher

I actually saw the Sonny and Cher Mustangs at the Fabulous Fords Forever show a few years ago. I had seen the pictures before but in person you just sort of stand there shaking your head. I believe the seats were uppolstered with some sort of animal skin print.

For more on the Barris cars go to www.barris.com

Brad
 
#5
Missed the lottery again this week!

I was born with good taste, unfortunately I lack the necessary funds to endulge it. Unlike Mr and Mrs. Cher who had the funds but.....yada....yada....yada.

I've only ever seen a hood scoop / intake (if you could call it that) on early Hot Wheel cars.

Interesting comment about the Barris brothers, that Sam was the creative genius and George merely continued the legacy albeit in a different direction.

When the lottery reached $50M I'm back in!
 
#6
That's true about Sam, he also possesed all the talent when it came to doing the work. I was checking out his site and found another car he's claiming credit for, the MonkeeMobile, which was built by Dean Jeffries, start to finish. I have and old Rod & Custom magazine that had the build up in it, and Barris' or face is nowhere in the pictures. The Starsky and Hutch Gran Torinos were featured in HOT ROD magazine a few months ago, and they showed the builder and the cars in that issue, and no, it wasn't Barris. What a shyster.
 
#7
This all comes as a big surprise to me, as I'd grown up respecting the Barris brothers' work, all of their 50's stuff is just gorgeous, and I thought that the later stuff was just bad 60's and 70's taste, not due to George not having the design flair of his brother.

To hear that George is sullying the Barris name by passing off other's work as his own saddens me - what a come down.
 
#9
limey66 said:
This all comes as a big surprise to me, as I'd grown up respecting the Barris brothers' work, all of their 50's stuff is just gorgeous, and I thought that the later stuff was just bad 60's and 70's taste, not due to George not having the design flair of his brother.

To hear that George is sullying the Barris name by passing off other's work as his own saddens me - what a come down.
Click to expand...
You aren't the only one who's disappointed by that behavior. I grew up reading my Dad's collection of old (they were new then) issues of Car Craft, Rod & Custom, and Hot Rod. I though the early stuff by Barris and Roth and many others was outstanding and simply worshipped guys like that. I was always more of a Roth fan, but still think the Matranga '40 Merc is the smoothest custom ever. It really sucks to know the truth sometimes, but on the flip side, I got to meet Ed "Big Daddy" Roth a few years ago and found him to be unbelieveably nice, and truly worthy of hero status. He built some of the wildest cars ever, even if they weren't much more than full size model cars incapable of being driven. My personal favorite Roth car was the Mysterion, I bought a model of the car several years ago but still haven't built it. Remember the "Yellow Fang" top fuel dragster Roth built? There were some neat cars around in those days built by some real creative men.
 
#10
The Monkeemobile used to sit in front of Dean Jeffries' shop on Cahuenga Blvd, visible from the Hollywood freeway. I used to look for it every time we went into Hollywood or downtown L.A. in the laste 60s and early 70s.

I think George Barris' low point was when he made stuff like the Bob Hope caricature golf cart.
 
#11
You got that right! Several years ago, before the present "one day, outdoor car shows" that we have today became so popular, the only car shows I ever saw were the ISCA "World of Wheels", indoor, week-long car shows. They were basically a showcase of nicely finished, but totally useless cars, like the Bob Hope cart. Remember all the '70's show cars? The Milk Truck C-Cab, the '55 Nomad Bunny Coach and The Red Baron? They were everywhere, and at the time, I thought they looked great, but as I got older I realized that a car you couldn't drive wasn't a whole lot of fun, just like the current crop of rigid custom Harleys. Neat to look at though...
 
#12
This thing about Barris not building the cars sounds a lot like Boyd not building the cars. Wasn't Barris's company so busy making movie cars that they had to farm the work out? That would explain the ambiguity of who built them as well as why some cars so out of square and some seem perfect.
 
#13
Not really. Boyd's cars may not be built by Boyd, but they are built in his shop, with his approval on pretty much everything. Barris had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the American Graffiti '55, the Starsky and Hutch cars, the Monkeemobile or many of the other cars he claims credit for. He's committing fraud, pure and simple. The American Graffiti '55, for example, was originally built by Richard Ruth for Two Lane Blacktop. There were three car built and one of those cars was painted black and turned into the AG '55. It is in New Jersey these days. The other was sold to a street racer Canada, and was recently restored as the Two Lane Blacktop '55. The third car was an interior shot only car and was the car wrecked at the end of American Graffiti. Yet Barris recently sold a '55 at his auction and boasted it was "THE" American Graffiti '55. That's fraud and he knows it. As for Barris hiring out other cars, no chance. Barris having Dean Jeffries build a car for him would be the same as Ford hiring GM to build Mustangs, they are competitors, and both have built movie cars. Add that to the fact I have a magazine clearly showing Jeffries himself turning a '67 GTO into the Monkeymobile and I gotta think Barris is a liar when he claims to have built it. Same with the Green Hornet car. I saw the car in the Peterson Museum last year, and if I remember right, Jefferies name was on it. Barris did build the Beverly Hillbillies truck, though. That's something to hang his hat on.
 
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