Driving a Hard Bargain : Prices Are a Little Flat at Auction of Cars From Movies
For 20 years Scott Boses helped drive the movie industry.
When a director needed a 1960 Lincoln convertible or a 1946 Chevrolet sedan or a 1929 Ford Model A Coupe for a scene, they knew Boses could deliver.
He had a fleet of aging Dodges and Pontiacs and vintage ambulances, police cars and tiny foreign sports cars that were always available when shows like “Murder, She Wrote” or films such as “Pulp Fiction” needed an authentic look.
Boses, of West Hollywood, was a passionate car and motorcycle collector. And he financed his three warehouses of chrome-trimmed treasures by renting them out to studios by the day or the week.
But that all came to an end Saturday when he said goodby to the hybrid Oldsmobile used as Jethro’s hot rod in “The Beverly Hillbillies,” the battered Chevy pickup used in “Sanford & Son” and 135 other well-known vehicles.
Boses auctioned them off to finance his retirement.
“I hate to leave my cars,” he said after parking them one last time on the top of the garage of the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard where the sale was held. “But it’s time.”
The daylong sale attracted more than 1,000 auto buffs and nearly 300 bidders--some representing car museums across the country.
The curious peered under the hood of the ’58 Edsel Corsair used in “Back to the Future” and inspected the interiors of a ’56 Dodge Coronet featured in “Quantum Leap” and the 1969 English taxi used in “Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story.”
Boses, 48, started collecting cars before he could drive. His first was a battered 1954 Plymouth that he bought to fix up in 1962 when he was 15. Since then, he figures he bought more than 1,000--selling and trading as he went.
According to Boses, he ended up in the movie car business by accident.
He traveled in 1971 to England in hopes of buying a Bentley to bring back to Los Angeles to restore. While there, he was surprised to find that Britons were willing to “buy the Wrangler jeans and Frye boots I was wearing right off of me.”
Boses opened a store and began selling American blue jeans and soon found himself involved in a 40-shop chain in Great Britain. Branching out, he invested in 10,000 sleeveless British undershirts and marketed them here as tank tops. “That capitalized my car collecting.”
Offering up his fleet as props for films, TV shows, music videos and even clothing catalogues kept it going. “I couldn’t have amassed the collection without renting to the movie industry,” he said.
Although all of the cars were in running order, some showed their Hollywood pedigree.
“You know you’re not going to see primo cars in a movie collection,” said auction-goer Dennis Ercek, an automotive painter from El Segundo. “They just paint over dents and don’t worry about it.”
But there was still spirited bidding for vehicles such as the “Beverly Hillbillies” hot rod and the ’53 Chevy “Sanford & Son” truck. They sold for $21,000 and $8,000, respectively.
The pink ’59 Cadillac convertible featured in “Pink Cadillac,” “Weird Science,” “Wise Guys” and “Rising Sun” sold for $15,500. A one-door ’59 BMW Isetta used in numerous shows went for $4,500.
A 1924 Ford Model T open touring car used in Laurel and Hardy films sold for $12,750. The 1933 Chevrolet roadster used by W.C. Fields in “The Bank Dick” and later driven by Fields for pleasure went for $14,000.
The selling prices for most of the cars and motorcycles were surprisingly low, according to auctioneer Dan Kruse. “This is one of the toughest sales of my life. This is a nightmare,” he moaned at one point.
Boses said he has sold his Hollywood Picture Cars Co. to one of his employees, who will retain about 50 other cars for rental work. As for himself, he is headed for Clearwater, Fla.
Not by car, either. “I’m flying,” he said.
