70 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Tex, that's one... LOL!

[Phil Hackett]

And the building where MESAC was situated still seems to be intact, at 3737 West 104th Street in Inglewood: (Picture from Google Maps.)

 
The last time I was by the building was still for rent... about a year ago....

[Dennis David]

Nosferatu?

[John Secchi]

The guy on Mr Walker's right is Tom Pinnock, he founded the slot car section in the N.L.S.M.E and was active within E.C.R.A in its early days.

The picture was taken at St Andrews Hall in Southgate (North London) during an exhibition sometime in '64. The track I am told is the original NLondon track.

Some snappy dressers back then, what!

[oneofwos]

[TSR]

John is correct, and only a Brit would know that! 

[Cheater]

Here's a couple of more pics of early slot racing promotional activities using 1:1 racers.

 

On Nov 15, 1970, Aurora put up a $50,000 prize for the winner of a race between Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Stirling Moss, and Jackie Stewart, to be televised on the Ed Sullivan show.

 

Here's an ad for the race:

 

 

And two images showing the four drivers, made on different dates as evidenced by their clothes.

 

 

 

Don't know which, if either, was taken during the Sullivan show. The top pic looks to have been the earlier of the two, as Jackie Stewart looks younger in it to me, and has much longer hair.

 

Anyone know who won the $50,000?

[NSwanberg]

Is there a video of the Ed Sullivan race available? As I understand it the participants thought it was for $5,000 or was it announced as $5,000 rather than $50,000?? I remember watching it and I thought Stirling Moss won.

[proptop]

The look on Dan Gurney's face, in both pics... focus and concentration... ya gotta love it!

 

The wide ties, and white belt... polyester..."long" hair...

 

I still have my "Pit Row" A/FX race set and a bunch of cars from the early '70s...

[don.siegel]

Pretty sure it was Jackie Stewart, and it was billed as the best paying race ever (per minute)!

 

Will check when I get back home. 

 

Don 

[Cheater]

Tom,

 

I did some Googlin' and couldn't find anything significant on the Ed Sullivan race, either on YouTube or elsewhere.

[sub006]

Definitely two different occasions.  The tracks are not the same layout.  The upper picture appears to be in a posh hotel ballroom rather than a studio.
 
And Moss appears to be wearing a suit jacket and white shirt in the lower pic, and a dark turtleneck in the upper, while Stewart is seen in a pale suit with a patterned tie vs dark pants/solid neckwear.
 
Did the TV show even happen? You'd think there would be surviving photos of the racers with Ed! SOME enthusiast SB member must have a memory of the show, unless the slot segment was cancelled or bumped (AIR the show always had a few extra acts in case one or more didn't make it to the live studio in time).

[don.siegel]

I'm pretty sure I posted this already, but maybe it was on SF... anyway, here it is: 

 

 

 

 

and just because it happened to be on my same photobucket page, more slot racing celebrities...

 

 

[Cheater]

The earlier pic in this thread showing the Beatles posed with a Scalextric set led me to doing a little more research, which uncovered more pics and some further info.
 
The first tidbit was from qthemusic, where among the points in a list entitled "10 Things you didn't know about the Beatles," was this claim:
 
"Lennon was obsessed by his Scalextric model car racetrack. He owned 20 sets of cars and insisted on taking it with him on The Beatles 1964 British tour," and the claim seems to be supported by this image:

 

Wikipedia says that in Lennon's house at Kenwood, St. George's Hill, the attic contained "a games room used for recreation. Lennon filled it with three full sets of the model car racing game, Scalextric."

I located a number of photos all obviously from the same photo shoot, as the background and clothing prove. The photographer was the late Terence Spencer and the shoot seems to have occurred backstage at the Coventry theatre on November 17, 1963.

 

 

This image appears in the book, "The Beatles: Then There Was Music" by Tim Hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No doubt a quick candid shot led to the poor quality of this image, but the wall reflected in the mirror suggests they guys are tidying up for the same photo shoot. Note Scalextric boxes in forground.

 

 

Clearly the photographer was taking both black & white and color shots that day, and was actively marketing his images. Cover of the July 1964 issue.

 

It would be interesting to learn whether this shoot was something the photographer proposed, whether Scalextric was involved in making it happen, or if Lennon himself suggested the slot car props. If I had McCartney's email address, I ask him...

 

This image is cropped from the larger image shown above. Can any of you Scaley collectors ID the cars?

 

 

[TSR]

Pretty easy: Cooper T51 and Lotus 20.

[Mbloes]

I love the headline over the "Motion Picture" mag title - "Chubby Checker Risks Death To Wed White Girl".  LOL

[TSR]

Mike,

There were some real whack jobs in the redneck population in those days... some of them were still US senators just a few years ago in the so-called "liberal" party.

I love Chubby Checker's music, we were swinging to it in the mid-1960s...

[sub006]

Don,

 

Thanks for the MAGNIFICENT re-post of the details of a REAL event! That Ed Sullivan show may have been the most publicity a Cheetah ever had.  My Sting Ray had a bit of work done at Bill Thomas Race Cars in Anaheim back about 1969, still have the car and BTRC decals on the vent windows to this day.

[Dennis David]

We were twisting to it.

[Cheater]

Another pic snagged from Facebook... an early Märklin ad:
 

[Frank The Tank]

Due to the discussion here, I became interested in finding photos of Jimmy Clark "and" slot cars (as opposed to "Jimmy Clark slot cars"), and had no luck yesterday.  But today, by doing a search for "Fritz Jakober," I hit the jackpot.

 

Love the way they dress. Far cry from what you see today. Kinda gives the sport some class.

[sub006]

Just noticed the date of the Beatles photo session.  Apparently five days before the event that opened a void in American yourth culture they would fill about 10 weeks later.