Famous TV Cars Ticketed for Museum

For years, fans of the customized cars--such as the Batmobile--used in movies and television shows through the decades have begged their creator, George Barris, to let them catch a glimpse of the collection.

Next week, fans from Southern California and across the country will be able to readily admire the collection of more than 40 of the world-famous cars.

But they will have to go to Tennessee to do it.

Today the cars will be loaded onto trucks at Barris’ Kustom Industries on Riverside Drive for a five-day trip to Gatlinburg, where they will be featured when the Star Cars Museum holds its grand opening Wednesday.

“Everybody would come here and say, ‘We want to see your cars. We want to see your cars,’ ” Barris said Thursday. But he said his studio was too small to hold tours. “My inspiration was to have a museum so they could see them.”

A car museum featuring his very own work was probably inevitable for the longtime Hollywood customizer.

Barris’ fascination with cars began as a 7-year-old Sacramento youngster, he said. His family had moved from Chicago a few years earlier and had expected him to eventually help run the family’s Greek restaurant. But Barris instead starting fiddling with car models--even winning contests by age 9.

He moved to the Los Angeles area in 1945 and opened his first shop in Lynwood. In 1961 he moved to a bigger facility in North Hollywood.

Since then, Barris has worked with writers, producers and directors in Hollywood to design cars for numerous movies and television shows. His projects include “The Dukes of Hazzard” Dodge Charger, the “Knightrider” talking car and the Ford that carried “Starsky and Hutch.”

Next week Barris will be joined in Gatlinburg by stars including John Schneider of “The Dukes of Hazzard” and Burt Reynolds of “Cannonball Run” for the museum’s opening.

He chose that city because the region is second in tourism only to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, Barris said.

He said he is also negotiating with Universal Studios for a similar museum here, with the cars alternating between the two sites.