Voodoo Magic: Jerry Gardner's Voodoo Special

67 And many others. Each of these venues showcased production cars, foreign cars, concept cars, and handcrafted cars. The handcrafted cars were nearly always the stars – designed and built by talented individuals across America. “ America ’ s Motoramas ” set the standard for show cars. The GM Motorama The GM Motorama was first held in 1949 and again in1950. In 1953 it returned annually until 1956 and started again in 1959 where it ran through 1961 making a total of nine GM Motorama shows during this twelve - year period. Although the GM Motorama traveled to different locations, it showed only GM products. Even though cars built by individuals or small fabrication shops could not appear at GM ’ s Motorama, they were welcomed and celebrated at “ America ’ s Motorama ” shows often taking top prizes – as Denny Larsen ’ s Sorrell SR100 did at the Petersen Motorama in 1955. These multiple theme shows across the country rivaled GM ’ s Motorama in both press and local significance. People came to these shows to see what Americans had designed – and most of the handcrafted show cars on display could be bought or built by the public. Because fiberglass bodies had to have a mold, more bodies could easily be made. One person ’ s dream could be another person ’ s reality. And while GM ’ s Motorama show was famous, so too were the young “ rock stars ” – handcrafted sports cars – of the TV and media world: • In TV • In Hollywood films • In The News/Newsreel Hand built cars appeared on over 100 magazine covers in this era – more than the Corvette did during this same timeframe. Production Numbers It is difficult to accurately measure proper production numbers for these rare cars. Records were often not retained and decades have passed without proper attribution. In a letter written in 1977 from John Bond, owner and editor of Road & Track magazine in the 1950s and 1960s to Ray Scroggins about handcrafted cars, Bond estimated that nearly a 1000 handcrafted specials individually and collectively were built in the 1950s. Using this figure, it is estimated that less than half of these cars remain today. Article Continued on Next Page