I knew Richie Valens had the 1958 Convertible, but I didn't know Frankie Avalon had a 1959???
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Jon didn't you know that all the " cool guys " drove TBirdsDano Calgary,Alberta Canada
Thunderbird Registry
58HT #33317
60 HT (Sold ) -
Ritchie Valens
It's very confusing what Squarebird was associated with Ritchie Valens. I know the movie had a light-blue '59 convertible and the Monogram model kit was a '58 convertible (I guess they didn't want to change the '58,which they had produced years earlier, into a '59), but the only pictures I have seen of Ritchie accompanied by a Squarebird (2 pictures) it was a '58 hardtop. According to various websites he did not even own the T-bird but it belonged to his manager.
Other singers who had T-Birds were Dion and Cliff Richards.Comment
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Richie Valens received his 1958 Tbird convert as a gift from the Deltone Record company. Years ago I was involve in a thread posted on the Squarebirds@yahoo group and in June of 1998 Alan Tast wrote me with his reply;
"Valens' car was a '58: supposedly it had been found and restored by a family in Alabama or a neighboring state, and was shown at the 1993 VTCI International Convention in Bloomington, MN. The owner noted that they had chatted with Valens' family about the car's lineage in their quest to determine the history of the ragtop.
When "La Bamba" was made in the late '80s, the transportation people assigned to the production probably were having a hard time finding a blue '58 convertible in southern California that matched the specifications of Valens' car. Ergo, the next-best thing would be to use something that looked close, i.e. '59, which is more plentiful (in relative terms) than a '58. So, they did the best that they could when assembling their props and such. It should also be considered that when it comes to "little" details like if it's a '58 or '59, many movie producers/ directors could care less, as long as they can tell the story: I'm sure they probably didn't know the difference between them, either. ;-)"
Also in June 1998 Jim Cockerman of Jimstbirds wrote me;
"The 1959 Thunderbird that was supposedly used in the movie La Bamba was bought in Texas and was driven back to North Carolina with no problems. The car now resides in Gastonia, North Carolina. Since the purchase of the car, an air conditioning system has been installed by Jim's T-Bird Parts and Service in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has also kept up the maintenance on this beautiful car. The car has also appeared at the Charlotte Auto Fair on different occasions. "Comment
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Ritchie Valens
Well after a rather extensive search of the web I was able to come up with 3 more pictures of Ritchie Valens with a Squarebird. Along with the other 2 pictures previously mentioned these too were of a 1958 Squarebird hardtop. These pictures, however, are in color and one of them shows Ritchie grinning from ear-to-ear sitting behind the wheel of the monarch blue (medium blue) Squarebird hardtop. This convinces me that it was a hardtop and not a convertible that he owned or had access to.
Regarding his family's recollection of the car reminds me of the time a few years back when I was visiting Memphis; I called Ernie Barrasso, the guy who sold Elvis his '62 Sports Roadster, and we had a good chat about that sale; only problem was he kept refering to it as a Landau! It just goes to show that our memories can get distorted with the passage of time.
Regarding the convertible that was supposedly Ritchie's, it wouldn't be the first time that I've heard of a '58 hardtop being chopped to make it into a convertible.
I would love to see some solid evidence that Ritchie had a '58 convertible since I own a Squarebird convertible myself; but, until such time, I'm sticking with the hardtop evidence.Comment
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Ritchie Valens
Certainly would be nice to hear from both John Rotella and Alan Tast on this issue as to the VIN# of the Valens' bird. Perhaps John has this car and VIN in his registry, or maybe Alan had recorded the VIN back in 1993 at the Bloomington, MN show. Without the VIN we'll probably never know.Comment
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Ritchie Valens
According to the Nov-Dec, 1993 VTCI issue of the Thunderbird Scoop dealing with the International Convention that took place in September of that year it states that the '58 convertible "may have been purchased new by the late Ritchie Valens. Car's history traces back to Los Angeles area just after singer's death". This doesn't sound very convincing to me.Comment
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Ritchie Valens
Great research on your part! Would you suppose anybody at VTCI might have logged in all the VIN#s of the entered birds? Might be kinda fun, that is if someone was inclined to do anymore research, to write VTCI for this info and try and access the CA DMV records for that supposed VIN# and see if the purchase led back to an original State of CA purchase by Deltone Records. California will provide data searches for motor vehicles, but don't have any idea how far back they go.
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Would you suppose anybody at VTCI might have logged in all the VIN#s of the entered birds? Might be kinda fun, that is if someone was inclined to do anymore research, to write VTCI for this info and try and access the CA DMV records for that supposed VIN# and see if the purchase led back to an original State of CA purchase by Deltone Records. California will provide data searches for motor vehicles, but don't have any idea how far back they go.
As for Frankie Avalon, those who were VTCI members in the early '90s may remember a color back cover shot of a silver '60 sunroof with Avalon standing up in it. I'll let the owner's son tell the story about that one (hints - it was for a Sonic drive-in restaurant commercial and the photo shoot was done in Kansas City).Alan H. Tast AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Technical Director/Past President, Vintage Thunderbird Club Int'l.
Author, "Thunderbird 1955-1966" & "Thunderbird 50 Years"Comment
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