By John Pecorelli
www.hollywood.com
Next time you’re in Hollywood, cruise the Paramount Studios main entrance at 5555 Melrose and check the traffic coming and going. Before security runs you off, you’ll witness an astounding amount of toplessness. No, not another Kate Winslet flick–we’re talking automobilia here, we’re talking convertibles.
Yes, the ‘vert is as Hollywood as platinum blondes and saline implants. And why not? Southern California has the perfect climate. Sloshing around soggy Portland, Oregon, in a James Dean-style 550A Spyder doesn’t make much sense – but take that baby out on the Pacific Coast Highway and you look almost organic, like part of the natural landscape.
And you look hot too. What better way to flaunt your physical wares on the road than with an open-air car? You’re absolutely on display, baby. Jennifer Tilly told Mitsubishi MotorSales of America, Inc. that she’s been hit on a number of times by men driving convertible–and she ended up going out with one. Rapper/actor Coolio said that if he were a car, he’d be most aroused by a convertible. Driving one of these babies can make you an aphrodisiac on wheels, at least according to P.J. O’Rourke: “There are a number of mechanical devices that increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the [Mercedes-Benz] 380SL convertible.”
The convertible provides sun, style, and sex–everything Los Angeles conveys to the world at large. And it’s been that way from the start. Let’s check some Hollywood drop-top history.
Remember the classic scene of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly side by side in an Alpine Sunbeam, high in the mountains above Monte Carlo in To Catch A Thief. Well, that’s the movies for ya. In real life, Cary Grant never would’ve driven such a twee little thing – he preferred big, rough, late-‘20s Packards called Phaetons; 20 feet long, 4500 pounds, 20-odd-gallon tank, and a turning radius that put you in the next county. Phaetons were convertibles only by default – damn near everything was a convertible back then! The reign of the hardtops was still in the distance, way off in a future that would bring disasters such as the Great Depression, World War II, and–eventually–the Chrysler minivan.
In any case, Grant wasn’t the only Hollywood he-man enamored with Packard ragtops–Clark Gable had a fleet of the damn things: a ’32 Twin Six, a ’34 Twelve LeBaron, and a ’38 Darrin Victoria. Grant also revved about in a convertible Duesenbergs (’34 J), a Jag (a ’40 XK120), and a Mercedes (300 SC Cabriolet).
Think that’s extreme? Compared to some of today’s celebrity car buffs, Grant’s collection was lean. Think of Porsche-obsessed Jerry Seinfeld and his 60-odd cars. He doesn’t even drive them–parked as they are in a Santa Monica airplane hangar. The coolest of the bunch? A ’48 356 Porsche Roadster, a very rare, very phallic-looking racing model whose only interior instrument was a speedometer.
Then there’s Jay Leno, whose devotion to automotive history actually borders on the pathological. Seventy-five (75!) vehicles occupy his 43,000-foot Burbank warehouse. “Most people in my business have 35 women and one car,” the long-married Leno has said. “I have one woman and 35 cars. It's cheaper.” That’s 75, Jay, not 35– and props for that amazing 1930 Duesenberg Phaeton; Cary Grant would be proud.
Along with Cary Grant and Clark Gable, Jean Harlow prowled the streets of Tinsel Town (sometimes with Jersey mob boss kingpin Abner “Longy” Zwillman in toe) in her own convertible: a powerful Cadillac V-16.
The trend waned throughout the ‘30s, a byproduct of the Depression. But flash was back in force following the war: Jayne Mansfield could be seen tooling around in either in pink Jag convertible or a pink Caddie convertible, while Marilyn Monroe preferred a red, hot ‘55 Lincoln Capri. Of course, rock and rollers were making Hollywood inroads by the mid-decade, and Elvis Presley picked up a ’56 Eldorado with early royalties. Presley would take his Eldorado fetish well into the 1960s, too, ending up with two more: a ’62 and a ‘65. By decade’s end, the TV show “Route 66” glorified the prowess of George Maharis and Martin Milner’s topless ‘Vette, and the ‘60s saw convertible sales at an all-time high: 500,000 by mid-decade.
But some nasty times were approaching: The 1970s, “decade of shame,” as one Hot Rod magazine writer dubbed it. Fast cars, flashy cars, buff-engined cars, cool cars – all went extinct due to the energy crisis and government safety concerns; in their place appeared powerless, doorstop-styled things that clogged up the PCH like so much tin flotsam. The Pacer. The Gremlin. Le Car. The convertible Beetle (gasp). The only known person to drive a ‘vert in that ghastly era was wacko writer Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing documents a jaunt to Vegas in a ’71 Caprice ragtop). Dark days indeed.
But as the Presocratic philosophers were fond of saying, all is cyclical, and by the early 1980s (and Mitsubishi’s introduction of the Miata, incidentally), Hollywood started buying up topless tin like never before. “Miami Vice” championed Ferrari 365/GTB/4 Daytona Spyders and ‘63 Cadillac DeVille convertibles, and by 1983 when Tom Cruise proclaimed “Porsche. There is no substitute” in Risky Business, it was all over. (However, Cruise himself pilots a Mercedes 500 SL convertible given to him by Paramount Studios for his work in The Firm). Now everybody’s making convertibles–and everybody’s driving them.
And throughout the ‘80s and into the ‘90s, convertibles of all makes have retained their sex appeal to celebrities: gangsta rap inventor Ice T has himself a fine Acura NSX, while gangsta-dater Jennifer Lopez goes for a Mercedes ragtop. Meanwhile, Johnny Depp’s got a Porsche C4 Cabriolet, and Kathy Bates was robbed on Sunset and Vine last year in a ’98 Jaguar convertible. It’s a veritable cornucopia of toplessness out there! And with the affordable models like the VW Cabriolet (18K) or the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GS (21K), everyone’s getting in on the act, not just the Hollywood elite. That’s part of the appeal. As Ken Vose, author of The Convertible (Chronicle Books), writes, “Driving a convertible means more than just freedom of movement. It’s also the freedom to enjoy the great outdoors on equal footing with the richest of the rich. Put the top down on your beat-up-mobile, and the sun on your face is identical to that shining on the guy over there in the Lamborghini Diablo.”
But wait. Stop your dancing. Off with the party hats. The convertible’s reign appears yet threatened again–this time not by smaller, more fuel-efficient econocars, but by the opposite: massive, petrol-thirsty SUVs. These beasts are ubiquitous in Hollywood, and it has to be chewing into the convertible market. Case in point: Sharon Stone recently traded in her boss ’97 Aston Martin DB7 topless for a Lexus LX470–a glorified monster truck.
Well, we’ll just see how many people hit on Sharon Stone now.
The San Diego Automotive Museum (619) 231-2886 will host the retrospective “Southern California Convertibles” from October 6th through January 31st, 2001.
Match game:
Test your knowledge of vintage and new convertible prices (courtesy Symbolic Motors, La Jolla):
1: 1997 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster (229K)
2: 1949 Ford Custom line convertible (19K)
3: 2000 Bentley Azure (340K)
4: 2000 Mercedes SL 600 (125K)
5: 1954 Jaguar XK 120 Roadster (59K)