Johnny Dark Movie Book

35 The Customized Willys Aero and Johnny Dark Published in UndiscoveredClassics.com, April 25, 2011 By Derek Redmond There ’ s nothing better in this world than making new friends – and that ’ s exactly what happened when good friend Glenn Brummer sent in a link to a fabulous website run by Derek Redmond that included great infor- mation about the movie Johnny Dark. For Derek to be so interested in a facet of this movie must be a good sign. Watch out Derek …. I bet a new friend (or crazy research professor) is heading your way! From time to time, those of you who are Johnny Dark aficionados have asked about the beginning scenes showing “ mysterious ” cars on a proving track of some sort. In one of the last stories I wrote concerning Johnny Dark, I shared with you the confirmation that the initial scenes of the movie were shot at Packard Motor Car ’ s famous oval testing track in Detroit – as well as Packard ’ s 2.5 mile proving grounds. Derek ’ s research took the initial scenes of the movie to an entirely new level. His interest is in the history of the CJ - 3B civilian Jeeps of the 1950's and 1960's which includes research into the Willys and Kaiser com- panies too. No doubt our separate interests would eventually meet, since both Kaiser and Willys had ties to fiberglass sports cars (Kaiser Darrin fiberglass sports cars and the initial prototypes for the Willys based Woodill Wildfire sports cars too.) With great clarity and focus, Derek looked at the initial cars used in the “ Proving Grounds ” scenes and ex- plored what they were and how they had been modified. But instead of letting me go into detail, let ’ s allow Derek to tell the story. Off we go gang …. I pass the torch to Derek and his story about the true background of the "Fielding" cars in Johnny Dark. Aero Wills and Johnny Dark I heard years ago that there was a Jeep CJ - 3B in Johnny Dark, the legendary 1954 film about sports car racing. This sounded very promising, but since the film is not in release on home video, it took me a long time to get my hands on a copy. As it turns out, the CJ - 3B appearance is very brief, but there is another sur- prise of interest to Willys fans.