Re: [CR] Bicycles as Movie Props

(Example: Framebuilders:Doug Fattic)

In-Reply-To: <249DDD9704676C49AE6169AE3D2D9F4ECDB94F@Exchange-SVR>
References: <249DDD9704676C49AE6169AE3D2D9F4ECDB94F@Exchange-SVR>
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:12:31 -0800
From: "Steve Valladolid" <svalladolid@gmail.com>
To: John Hurley <JHurley@jdabrams.com>
Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR] Bicycles as Movie Props


Several nice looking touring bikes in M. Hulot's Holiday. Just caught that again last night here in town.

-Steve Valladolid San Diego, CA

On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 4:15 PM, John Hurley <JHurley@jdabrams.com> wrote:
> I'm sure you are all familiar with bike ogling syndrome. Driving down
> the road, minding your own business, you suddenly jerk your head around
> and come close to wrecking your car trying to get a better look at some
> vintage bicycle on the roadside. Or walking to lunch you risk your life
> sprinting across a busy street to check out an interesting-looking
> machine parked on the opposite side.
>
> The Syndrome sometimes hits me while watching an old movie. This
> weekend the kids were watching the 1939 classic, "The Wizard of Oz". As
> the odious Almira Gulch pedaled her bike up to Dorothy's uncle's farm,
> all I could think was, "Wow, what a cool bike!" I wonder what brand it
> was, whether such models would actually have been found in Kansas back
> then, how the props department decided on it, where they obtained it,
> and what eventually became of it. Seems it would be a real collector's
> item today.
>
> Another favorite is the Selznick/Hitchcock classic, "Rebecca", from
> 1940. Certain scenes are richly populated with bicycles the likes of
> which I seriously doubt were readily available in California department
> stores back then. Too bad the bikes were just props, which the camera
> did not linger over. Such is usually the case, which may serve the film
> okay, but it drives me nuts wondering what kind of vintage iron I'm
> looking at. Unfortunately, no one seems interested in bicycles as movie
> trivia, so you never pick up any info on it from the commentaries or
> documentaries.
>
> One more film I'll mention is "The Great Escape". What was that bike
> that James Coburn's character rode to freedom? I think the frame was a
> bit small for him.
>
> John Hurley
> Austin, Texas, USA