What name and model was the European car?
I know it wasn't a Volkswagen. Can anybody tell me?
sharehmmm...I think it was the "Edam", eh?
shareor Edan....just drop the S from Sedan....
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MovieChat Forums > The Abbott and Costello Show (1957) Discussion > What name and model was the European car...
I know your post is over 3 years old, but if you revisit this site occasionally...
Just saw the episode referred to this morning on ME. As the plot goes, there was something rather confusing to me, a lifelong resident of the Flint, Michigan area.
Lou wins a brand new European car, which looks like a modified version of a standard early 50s American car. That car we are told is a lemon. Bud sells it, with the thought that they could go to Flint, Michigan to get Lou a new car.
We know the pair is normally broke or close to broke. Why it wouldn't be cheaper to get a car from a dealer in Los Angeles where they live is beyond me. But they are suddenly IN Flint--transportation to Michigan was unexplained. We see them close the deal on a car that looks much like a Volkswagen, complete with an engine in the rear. We never hear the name of the make. I am almost certain that there was no VW dealer in the Flint area until several years after this show was made.
I guess we were supposed to think it was an American car. The vehicle shown was obviously modified to keep it from being an identifiable American make. At the time, more automobiles were made in Flint each year than any city in the country. The joke was that there were, driving around our city, only three types of cars--Buicks, Chevys (the two kinds we made) and "foreign cars"--which included Fords, Dodges, etc. It is true that anything not made by GM was not welcomed by people stopping at area auto plants. In at least one plant I know of, they would not let you drive into the parking lot, past the guard if you had a "foreign" car.
Had they consulted me (Unborn though I was) I would have suggested they re-write the script to have Lou winning a brand new car--only to learn the catch--he has to pick it up at the factory in Flint, Michigan. Then the pair somehow find a way to get there and they could do the main part of the plot--which really came after they picked up the car in Flint, as they actually filmed it.
Lou wins a brand new European car, which looks like a modified version of a standard early 50s American car.It was actually a late '40s Chrysler Corp. product, most likely a '48 Plymouth. The front end was modified a bit--they took off a lot of the chrome and put in part of a grille from what looks like a late '40s or early '50s Mercury. In fact, I think this is an actual picture of it that I found on a custom-car site.
https://www.google.com/search?q=renault+2cv&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=637&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI9cnh4ZrOxwIVi1GICh0aKQKg#tbm=isch&q=1948plymouth&imgrc=AltDvN1fz9FSaM%3A
We see them close the deal on a car that looks much like a Volkswagen, complete with an engine in the rear. We never hear the name of the make. I am almost certain that there was no VW dealer in the Flint area until several years after this show was made.That car, unlike the original "EDAM", actually was a foreign car. It was a Renault 4CV, made in France. It was a very popular car in France at the time and was used a lot for taxis and in some cities even police cars. It was sold in the US, but it never really caught on here. Here's a shot of one:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Renault_4CV_BW_1.JPG
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