CO : Roy dixon car #55

[sigmfsk]

Most info from:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/5328-sold-1976-monaco-jump-car-bluesmobile-virginia/


Here's the car in question:




Note that the car is a brougham (corner tips on rear taillight trim).

-------------

Roy Dixon is Dan Aykroyd's brother-in-law. And he has a track-record of selling a high-value "blues-brothers related item" given to him from Dan:

> Roy Dixon will auction off “Elwood’s Motorcycle” in a live auction
> at Blues House 2006 to raise money for the Fraternal Order of
> Police Ole Fredericktown Chapter #12...
> Dan rode the bike at the head of all the House of Blues opening
> processions. The bike is a certified police bike, blue lights and all
> with a Blues Brothers Shield on front. Features include motor
> work by Bartel’s of California. Fast/loud/historical. After the 1999
> Apple Blossom festival, Dan Aykroyd gave this bike to Roy Dixon
> as a birthday present. A certificate of authenticity signed by Dan
> Aykroyd goes with the bike.
winchesterblueshouse.com/news/

I don't know if Roy Dixon is involved in this crazy story, other than having his name bandied around by the seller of this car.

-------------

The story on this car, if I understand correctly, is that the car is claimed to be car #55 from the movie.
You know, this guy:


And that the car was a gift from John Landis to Dan.
Dan gave it to Roy.
Roy repainted it as a blumo.
Dan wrote a note to Bill Gates attesting to it's authenticity.
Roy gave the car and note to BBC member Blu-Mo76.
Blu-Mo76 was selling it.

Summary, in Steam's words:
> So Dan meets his future wife on the set of Dr. Detroit...Dan gets
> engaged to Donna and says to her brother, "How would you like
> a piece of movie history?" And Roy says, "Sure, I'm gonna
> destroy the history of this car and paint it like a Bluesmobile!"
> And then proceeds to put a dash between the "P" and the "1."

Included with this car was a note that Dan wrote to Bill Gates:
(seriously, I'm not making this up)

Interesting tidbits:
- no signature
- no date
- Dan calls his brother-in-law his brother
- Dan says that it was the vehicle that he and John rode around Martha's vineyard together (Huey points out this was actually a Polara).

BBC member Blu-Mo76 claims that:
- it has a 360 motor
- it has a blue stripe on the sides of the car under the black paint
- it was the second vehicle in the June 2004 "Apple Blossom Festival" in Winchester, Va

[sigmfsk]

Here:
www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/forum/topic/3653-original-bluesmobile/page__view__findpost__p__92083
BLUMO2K writes:

> one of the times i met dan aykroyd, i showed him a pic of steve
> [beshekas] and myself from the CEVS and he pointed to it and said,
> " that was john's best friend." dan also told me then that roy dixon
> had car 55 and it had been repainted as a BLUMO and was at the
> restraunt in Georgia.

Now we just need some aliens in the story to make it complete.

[sigmfsk]

On my goodness. Allpar, how could you.

From Hemmings:
> The 1974 Dodge Monaco Bluesmobile from Blues Brothers...
> Allpar reports that of 13 used, eight were destroyed, and three of
> the remainder are accounted for, on in private hands, one at
> Disney’s “House of Blues,” and one at Universal’s Famous Fast Cars.
from
blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2009/12/01/save-these-cars-hollywood-california-part-ii/

Hemmings provides this link to allpar:
www.allpar.com/history/dodge/bluesmobile.html

which says:
---------------------
Don S. Weir wrote:

I am a close friend of Roy Dixon, Dan's brother in law, and I have a "Blue Mo" as it is called by Dan and Roy and other people that are associated with this car.

According to Dan, this car was one of many actually used in filming and is one of three still known to exist. It was given to Dan by John Landis after completion of the filming of the movie. Dan claims that this car was the one that John Candy (Patrol Officer Burton Mercer) rode while penetrating the side of a semi-trailer in one of the scenes in the movie. At that time it was configured in Illinois State Police colors. Dan reportedly drove it in Manhattan for two years with all the markings, red light bar and fake police plates.

In 1986, he gave this car to Roy, who painted the body as a Bluesmobile; as it was Ellwood's personal car it was considered a "Bluesmobile."

I have tried to verify and document all of this but had no luck in doing so. I did obtain a title for the car but it would be nice to know more.

This car is a Dodge Monaco. I was also given a 1979 St. Regis which was also allegedly connected with the movie. This car was allegedly given to John Landis, (or someone in production), by Cam Benty, who was associated with Car Craft magazine or a similar magazine and was used in some form in promoting the movie. It was allegedly driven in the “cannonball run” or another cross country race from Boston to Santa Barbara but in my research I could not find it listed anywhere nor could I find anything on Cam Bently.

Roy claims that Cam Benty came to Virginia in the late 1980s and took pictures of both of these cars for a special article in his magazine to be titled "In Search of The Blues" but again, I have not been able to find any info at all to verify that so I do have doubts about some of these claims.

I also want to mention that the Dodge Monaco is not in great shape but I drove the car in the Apple Blossom Parade in Winchester, Virginia several years ago, and at least this piece of Mopar history has not been sent to the scrap yard!
---------------------

It looks like Don Weir and Roy Dixon are somehow connected.

Here's where Don made a flyer for
> Hillbilly Heaven Flyer Promoting The Roy Dixon, Jr. Show & The
> Conway Twitty, Jr. Band
www.norvapics.com/images_lorton_hillbillyheaven.php


> I have a "Blue Mo" as it is called by Dan...
hehehe, a Blue Mo.

> I have tried to verify and document all of this but had no luck in
> doing so.
I guess he gave up on the Bill Gates note.


I wonder if Dan knows or cares about any of this. The whole thing just sounds nutty.

[Steam McQueen]

Nov 23, 2012 18:45:43 GMT -5 sigmfsk said:

I wonder if Dan knows or cares about any of this.

Heh, I doubt he cares. I'll bet he enjoys any sort of mystique associated with the Bluesmobile, that's why he gives cryptic and contradictory answers on the subject.

[sigmfsk]

Nov 24, 2012 2:48:40 GMT -5 Steam McQueen said:

Nov 23, 2012 18:45:43 GMT -5 sigmfsk said:

I wonder if Dan knows or cares about any of this.

Heh, I doubt he cares. I'll bet he enjoys any sort of mystique associated with the Bluesmobile, that's why he gives cryptic and contradictory answers on the subject.

Steam, I think that makes the most sense.
Dan is just having fun. I'd tend to think we could ignore all his answers on this subject, with the possible exception of talking with Huey, as presumably they'd be close enough that he wouldn't be pulling a joke on Huey and Dan was just being honest and straightforward when he said he didn't know of any original blumos.

[sigmfsk]

> Several replicas have been built by collectors, but one original is known to
> exist, and is owned by the brother-in-law of Dan Aykroyd.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0080455/trivia

Wowsers. I guess when a rumor gets rolling, it just keeps going.