Studebaker Geography Question: Where Is This Cliff?

[DEEPNHOCK]

After watching some of these vintage videos, I noticed one thing...

Studebaker loved to shove vehicles off of a cliff to help sell their designs.
Horse drawn wagons (sans horses, of course)... Composite wood/steel cars, steel cars, etc...
(9:17 for you impatient types)

My question for you Google Earth sleuths is this.....
Where is that quarry?
Is it on the proving grounds site?
Inquiring minds (mine) want to know!
Jeff

[BobPalma]

'Not sure about the quarry location, Jeff, but right at 6:59 in the video, at the end of the 1933 Indianapolis 500, I think I saw Dick Quinn trying to interview a Studebaker driver from the race! BP

[Studebaker Wheel]

Just doing my job. Somewhere around here I still have my pit pass.

[jclary]

Gee whiz Jeff! I am a Vietnam veteran, and I know guys like me are known for "flash-backs." However, this post caused an entirely different type and very unexpected traumatic flashback. First...a little background. The first memory I have of a Studebaker was when I was in the first grade, 1951. Our family of eight would not own a car of any type until 1953, but even as a first-grader, I loved that airplane look of the '51. (I now own one.) Although 24 years would pass before I bought my first Studebaker, I admired them.

That brings me to today's "flash-back." It was probably around 1956 or later. We had finally gotten a TV. I was watching the original series of Superman. In this particular episode, the bad guys were attempting to get away from Superman and the car they were driving was a 1955 Studebaker sedan. Dang it!...The Studebaker went off a cliff! I was horrified! I didn't care one bit about the fate of the bad guys. However, at that time, that car was newer than any car we owned! What a waste!

Anybody else remember that?

[Roscomacaw]

I don't recall that episode, but DANG! - the loss of that valuable center grille!

[Chris_Dresbach]

Well, it's definitely not the Proving Ground. I've seen that video before and have been to the PG a few times. The land out there is rugged, but not THAT bad! There are only a hand full of pitts around here. One across the road from me, but it wasn't around back then. The other is in Elkhart. My best educated guess as to the location in the video is probably some remote location out west.

[jclary]

I don't recall that episode, but DANG! - the loss of that valuable center grille!

I can't remember much about the episode or the storyline. I am spending the day kinda playing internet troll because of today's weather. Here, we have freezing rain, sleet, and flurries. I tried to do a search to see if there was anything on the series. There's too much stuff to sift through. Even though I don't have much of anything better to do...I am not skillful enough to conduct a successful search.

Sorry Jeff, if I have driven your thread off a cliff.

[Mr. Bill]

John: I believe you are referring to the next to the last episode of the series. The episode is entitled "The Perils of Superman" and originally aired April 21, 1958. Basically this episode involved the bad guy of the week seeing that Perry White, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olson met their demise in different ways but at basically the same time. The thinking was Superman can't be in three different places all at one time. Perry White was tied down and set up to be run into a saw, Lois Lane was tied to train tracks, and Jimmy Olson was sent out driving somewhere in the mountains but unknown to him, acid had been poured onto the steering gear of his car. That car was a 1947-49 Studebaker four door and is the one I remember going over the cliff when the steering mechanism finally failed. Of course, Superman managed to outwit the villain and everyone was saved.

"The Adventures of Superman" was a favorite of mine as a youngster because even back then, I loved the Nash, Kaiser, and Packard automobiles the show used. Beginning in 1955, Chrysler products were used exclusively to the end. Lois Lane drove a 1955 Belvedere convertible with power windows and I remember several 1957 Desoto, Imperial, and Plymouth models as well.

Other than the just mentioned 1947-49 Studebaker and a 1953 or 54 Studebaker used in an earlier season when that particular car was new, I don't recall any other Studebakers in the Superman series.


Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC

[jclary]

Thanks, Mr. Bill. Good to know that mine is not the only brain filled with useless trivia.

Now, in an attempt to get this thread back to the original topic. After further examination of the film...I don't think you would have to go out west to find a cliff like that. A trek to the south into coal mining Kentucky, or southeast to southern Pennsylvania, or West Virginia. Those long horizontal shale looking rock formations are similar to some I have seen in those areas. If you drive north to the upper peninsula of Michigan...there are possibilities. My guess is the southern region, but within a reasonable distance.

[JBOYLE]

That brings me to today's "flash-back." It was probably around 1956 or later. We had finally gotten a TV. I was watching the original series of Superman. In this particular episode, the bad guys were attempting to get away from Superman and the car they were driving was a 1955 Studebaker sedan. Dang it!...The Studebaker went off a cliff! I was horrified! I didn't care one bit about the fate of the bad guys. However, at that time, that car was newer than any car we owned! What a waste!

Anybody else remember that?

There is a good chance that any film may have been supplied by Studebaker.
If they were in a habit of sending cars off a cliff for PR purposes, it's possible some of that film found its way to the Superman producers.
It gave them a "free" stunt.
The Superman show, like most others of that period (especially one that was syndicated...not on one of the big networks)...was pretty low budget.
An example: In one episode Clark Kent is flying a Beech Bonanza...but there isn't paint on the engine cowl to match the stripes on the fuselage...I'm guessing a junkyard plane was patched together for studio shots.

It would be interesting to know if Jimmy Olsen got into the same model of car that went over the cliff.
We've all seen films where details like that weren't matched.
But if the car really was a late 40s car, by the time of the show was filmed, it would have been awfully cheap....so it could have been original footage or taken from another TV series or film.

[Mr. Bill]

As I recall, no shot of Jimmy getting in the car, just it driving up a steep road and then a cut to Jimmy behind the wheel with the typical 50's background projection. It is a Studebaker of this same vintage that he is sitting in and once the steering gear fails, the wheel just spins around and eventually comes off in his hand. And, it's a Studebaker wheel.

Following is a shot of the car breaking through the guardrail, crashing to the ground below, and followed by a scene of the car now burning. I believe JBoyle is right - by 1957-58, the Studebaker was just a cheap used car the producers bought for the purpose of filming a brief scene and then crashing and burning it. The film all matches and furthermore, since Superman was in color since 1955, all of these scenes are in color and of the same apparent quality and clearness. It is usually very easy to detect (at least, for this time period) stock footage or film acquired from other sources.

Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC

[jclary]

The film all matches and furthermore, since Superman was in color since 1955, all of these scenes are in color..........

Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC

This only worked if you had a color TV. Furthermore, if I recall correctly, NBC was the only broadcaster available with color. Somehow, they had exclusive rights to color for years. It was sometime in the late sixties before any of my family had a color TV.

[Ron Dame]

Where?

My best guess on location: Somewhere in California, where the movie people are. Then again, it may be Boston. Probably Clavin Quarry. Yep, Cliff Clavin.

1934 construction still looks like a bunch of dead people to me, but fewer disconnected parts to haul off. I wonder how a '53 would do? A '66? Best bet, don't drive your Studebaker over a cliff, even when you can't get the back brake drums off!

[JBOYLE]

NBC was the only broadcaster available with color. Somehow, they had exclusive rights to color for years.

NBC was owned by RCA, an early (but not the only) maker of color TVs. That is why NBC had many programs (Bonanza and Disney's Wonderful World of Color to name two) in color.
I don't know if color technolgy could be patented or legally limited to one network.
But it wouldn't be in RCA's best interests to limit color TV to one network, ultimately it was in the business of selling color TVs. The more color programs out there, the more they'd sell.
I do know ABC didn't go to a complete color schedule until 1966-67.
tThe first seasons of I Dream of Jeannie (65-66, NBC) and The Man from UNCLE (64-65, NBC) were both in B&W

My family got our first one in early 1967 at the cost of $500, a lot of money back then..about half a month's wage.

[jlmccuan]

Perhaps near the strip cuts around Terre Haute or Linton?