Dean Martin and his Stutz Blackhawks - You Want Fries with That?

A Stutz Blackhawk owned by Dean Martin was in the news recently when Bing Crosby's grandson, Philip Crosby Jr., claimed Dean damaged it driving through a McDonald's drive thru in Santa Monica, California buying food for him. Crosby told the anecdote to media outlets while promoting his involvement with the Bing Crosby estate. He didn't personally remember the incident as he was only four- or five-years-old at the time in happened in either 1976 or 1977.

Story goes that one-day Phillip, his mother and Martin were out in Martin's Stutz when young Phil complained he was hungry. Martin found an open McDonald's with a drive thru but had difficulty maneuvering the very wide car through it. Philip didn't elaborate on the extent of the damage, but he did intimate it was rather severe. 

Phillip's mother, Peggy, met Dean Martin shortly after divo0rcing Phil's father in 1972. Despite the twenty-three-year age gap, they dated for a number of years. Phillip Crosby Sr. was the third son born to Bing Crosby and his first wife, Dixie Lee. 

                                     

Before we drive up to the next window, what in the name of Ronald McDonald was, or is, a Stutz Blackhawk? 

To being with, the Stutz Motor Car Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, was the result of the 1913 merger of the Ideal Motor Car Company and Stutz Auto Parts Company. Stutz specialized in building expensive sports and luxury cars like this 1914 Stutz Bearcat. The low-volume manufacturer built less than 40,000 cars before going out of business in 1937. 

Fast forward to December 1963 to when famed automobile designer Virgil Exner wrote an article for Esquire magazine imagining what dormant automobile brands like Stutz, Pierce-Arrow and Duesenberg would look like as "modern cars". New York investment banker James O'Donnel, who had always wanted to get into the car business, helped bankroll Exner's vision. 

The, umm, end result...was the Stutz Blackhawk which debuted at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan in January 1970. Keep in mind that at the time, the 1930's, what some refer to as the "Golden Age of the Automobile", was only forty-years hence. Nostalgia is nothing new. It's also never been inexpensive. 

At $27,000 each, Blackhawks were the most expensive cars in the world at the time and deep pocketed celebrities bought them in droves. Dean Martin bought three, fellow Rat Packers Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra had theirs. Elvis Presley purportedly had five and was allegedly seen driving one the day he died. Evil Knievel, Johnny Cash, Lucille Ball, Robert Goulet, Jerry Lewis, Tom Jones, Billy Joel, Elton John bought them, even the Shah of Iran couldn't resist its, ahem, charms. If you're familiar with Liberace, should come as no surprise he had one. 

Blackhawks cost so much because they were hand built by artisans and craftsman at Carrozeria Pardane in Modena, Italy; those guys don't work cheap. They began by using the chassis of a 1971 Pontiac Grand Prix. The Grand Prix' were shipped overseas where Pardane removed their bodies and interior and hand built new ones. 

While there's a familial resemblance to the exterior of the Pontiac Grand Prix' the Blackhawk was based on, the interior was so completely overhauled that it has no likeness to the injection molded plastic insides the Grand Prix donor would have had. Disparate parts from different manufacturers were used to help make it "luxurious". 

The door handles, seats and gauges were from Maserati, the rear glass from Ferrari and the switch gear was supposedly custom made in France. The stereo was built by the Leer Jet corporation; the interior gold is 24K gold plating, the dashboard is solid wood. The trunk is lined with mink; the carpet is real fur. The wheels were the first 17-inch rims ever fitted to a production car, Firestone making specific tires for them as well. Most surviving Blackhawks today have aftermarket wheels because there are no tires made today that fit the tall but narrow rims. (This Stutz Blackhawk interior is not from a Blackhawk owned by Dean Martin as the shot above was. I used for illustrative purposes.)

All Blackhawks were made with side pipes, but they were ornamental. The pipes making an already very wide car even more so, no doubt making it difficult for a driver of a Blackhawk to nestle closely to the clown face at a drive thru. This 1972 Blackhawk is the one Martin sold to Buck Owens in 1974; given the timeline of the incident, this couldn't be the "drive thru" Blackhawk. Most likely it's the one Martin is standing next to in the faded older photos.

Nor is it this 1974 Blackhawk Martin wrecked while driving, sorry, "drunky" sometime in the mid-1970's. After this accident, Martin transferred the DRUNKY plates to his Rolls-Royce. 

The car Phillip Crosby Jr. is referring is probably this 1976 Blackhawk, sold recently at auction for an undisclosed amount. We see on this car the ornamental side pipes are even more of an appendage than on the '72. The "exhaust pipe" is all but tucked under the door reducing ground clearance significantly. 

All Blackhawks came from the factory with a plaque on the dash denoting their original owner, here's the one from the '76 Blackhawk. "Umm, sorry about your car, Mr. Martin. Would you like fries with that?"