Johnny Dark Movie Book

45 1953 Johnny Dark Woodill Wildfire “ Idaho Special ” Vintage Road & Racecar: May 1st, 2015 Author: Mark Brinker Who wants to be Tony Curtis in the 1950s? That man had cars and women, fast and smokin ’, in either ar- rangement of the words … if you understand what I ’ m saying. If you ’ re not old enough to remember Janet Leigh, close the door and do a Google search. Curtis married Leigh in 1951 and by then both were A - list movie stars. In 1954, Curtis played the title role in his 22nd movie, Universal International Pictures ’ Johnny Dark, cos- tarring Piper Laurie and Don Taylor. The story outline was this: Automotive engineer Johnny Dark (Curtis) surreptitiously designs a revolutionary new sports car while employed at Fielding Motors. When the stodgy company owner finds out about the secret project he isn ’ t happy and refuses to sponsor Dark ’ s car in a road race from Canada to Mexico. With assistance from the dazzling Liz Kent (Laurie) who is Fielding ’ s granddaughter, Johnny Dark takes the car, known as the Idaho Special, and enters the race against his for- mer friend and favored driver, Duke (Taylor). According to noted Johnny Dark authority and fiberglass car hunter Geoff Hacker ( www.forgottenfiberglass.com) , “ Johnny Dark represents the most ambitious American racecar movie up to its release in 1954. This is the position taken in production notes from Universal Studios published in 1954. Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie and Don Taylor were all top name movie stars at the time. Even though we now consider it a quaint movie, this was not the case at the time. The filming involved serious racing with some of the world ’ s greatest drivers, such as future World Champion Phil Hill. ” In the June 2011 installment of this column, I chronicled the history of the 1953 Bohman Special that had appeared in Johnny Dark as the “ Tiger Special ” (car #17) but had been missing for decades before being discovered by a man who had owned it for much of that time, never knowing what he had. In the movie, seven other cars raced through serpentine desert roads including the “ Antelope ” (Tatum Special, car #7), the “ Comet ” (Irwin Lancer, car #8); the “ Flying Arrow ” (Glasspar G2, car #14); the “ Lightning ” (Kurtis Sports Car, car #18); the “ Thunderbird ” (Victress S1A, car #31); and the “ Tomahawk ” (Grantham Stardust, car #44). The final mount was Johnny Dark ’ s experimental job known as the “ Idaho Special ” (car #11) which was a Woodill Wildfire.