Studebaker Museum in South Bend revives Fozzie Bear ‘Muppet Movie’ car

SOUTH BEND — The Studebaker Nationwide Museum harbors a bullet-nosed motor vehicle that Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem — that woolly-headed band of textile rockers in “The Muppet Movie” — once gave a psychedelic paint occupation. 

In the 1979 film, Fozzie Bear drives off in his uncle’s freshly painted jalopy, telling the band, “I never know how to thank you guys.” 

To which passenger Kermit the Frog provides, “I do not know why to thank you guys.” 

But the garish flashes of brilliant blue, orange and yellow have due to the fact light to dingy grey. The motor is caught, seized up from the lengthy-ago Hollywood modifications that hid a small human driver in the trunk.  

Now the museum has begun a $175,000 crowdsourcing marketing campaign to restore the 1951 Studebaker Commander to its movie glory. That, in turn, would enable the vehicle to be loaned out to others museums and taken to car shows. 

Archivist Andrew Beckman claimed the car is in “pretty rough form.” It experienced been sitting for many years in a studio’s outdoor great deal when, in 2004, the museum obtained it as a present from the Studebaker Drivers Club’s Orange Empire Chapter in California.  

It has viewed only some gentle cleansing, stabilizing and changed headlights since it moved to South Bend, while it has been on general public display at the museum most of the time — just one of the most popular reveals, even in current months. 

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This Studebaker played a crucial job in Kermit and Fozzie’s road journey throughout the United States, on their way to Hollywood to chase dreams of building it big in display company, meeting a menagerie of Muppet characters and human stars along the way.  

Muppets creator Jim Henson had brought his furry creations to “Sesame Street” in 1969 and to “The Muppet Show” from 1976 to 1981, but this marked their movie debut while introducing effects like a bear driving a car and Muppets walking on their personal ft. 

It was also an iconic film for young children.  

Beckman was a boy at time. If it would have been any other kids’ film, he would have experienced to ask his mothers and fathers to go to the flicks. But he recollects how his dad, who owned five or six Studebakers at the time and a few dozen above the several years, suggested using him to see the flick “mainly because it had a Studebaker in it.”  

Kermit and Fozzie sing the song “Movin’ Ideal Along” inside of the but-to-be-painted car as we see several photographs of it cruising throughout The united states. Then Fozzie states, “Ah, a bear in his purely natural habitat, a Studebaker.” 

At one more position, the car or truck operates into a further outdated beater vehicle headed straight toward Fozzie and Kermit, pushed by the Muppet Gonzo. Gonzo’s car finishes up upside down on top rated of Fozzie’s car. Fozzie pulls into a employed parking large amount at Kermit’s urging, who indicates they could swap these vehicles for a better jalopy. 

“What, trade in my uncle’s Studebaker?” Fozzie protests, just just before they fulfill a sleazy salesman performed by Milton Berle.  

Renewed curiosity in Muppets, the automobile

The museum has preferred to restore the car or truck given that 2004, but it’s a priority now, Beckman reported, because there has been renewed curiosity in the Muppets and the automobile alone.

A “Muppets Now” series debuted on the Disney+ channel in 2020. And the vehicle was among numerous props from “The Muppet Movie” that were highlighted in a 2020 episode of the show “Prop Society,” also on Disney+. 

There were actually two Studebaker Commanders used for filming — one for extensive shots where puppeteers weren’t needed and this 1, to clearly show the Muppets driving on the road (nicely, with a puppeteer concealed down below the dashboard). Beckman explained he hasn’t read of the other car’s whereabouts. 

Most of the flashy paint from the film wore off after years in the out of doors factors. Beckman reported the filmmakers had used poster paint, which he’s observed on prop cars from other movies. The paint could be washed off, and it didn’t mirror light or mirror illustrations or photos of the crew back into the movie camera. 

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“They necessary it to appear fantastic for the shoot,” Beckman said. “What occurred beyond that was not their worry. Any Hollywood prop is like that. They surely weren’t considering about what would materialize 20 several years from now.”  

The restoration undertaking will analyze the movie and nonetheless photographs to match the movie’s paint job (as the film’s story goes, the paint scheme was camouflage so that the motor vehicle would blend in with a certain soda billboard). This time, though, a additional strong paint will be used. 

“We want to make it appear as appropriately as achievable but also use elements that are stable,” Beckman said. 

Also, the museum aims to restore the motor so that it can be safely driven — not automatically on open up roads but for positioning it at auto shows where it could be an “attractive piece.”  

Under the trunk, the gasoline tank experienced been taken out and changed by a compact can under the engine hood. That designed room in the trunk for a seat, steering wheel and controls for a hidden human, one of limited stature, who would see the street by means of a digital camera. The digicam appeared through a hole in the bullet nose where by the “bullet” was eliminated. 

The restoration will nonetheless show the unique fixtures in the trunk, which currently are on show, but, for safer handling, Beckman said the actual steering wheel and controls will return to the driver’s seat.   

Restorers will also need to tend to the headliner on the ceiling  and to seats that are badly deteriorated. 

Beckman reported the task would take several months and be done by LaVine Restorations, a enterprise in Nappanee that specializes in antique and typical vehicle restorations and that has labored on a number of of the museum’s vehicles. 

Around a number of decades, a donation box at the show has helped to yield $9,095 in donations to restore the auto.  

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Why was a 1951 Commander picked out for the film? According to a 1979 posting in the Studebaker Motorists Club magazine, Beckman explained, movie director James Frawley had seen one, felt it was the appropriate seem and insisted that it be utilised.  

The journal experienced also quoted screenwriter Jerry Juhl as stating that he believed the 1951 Commander was the “goofiest” wanting automobile ever produced. And for a Muppets film, that meant it was the appropriate automobile. 

Back again in 1951, Beckman claimed, the Commander was significant mainly because it marked Studebaker’s very first-at any time V8 engine. It also was the second year for the bullet-nose design and style. A excellent vendor, it was the more effective and more upscale of the two types that the organization provided that calendar year, alongside the Winner, which experienced a V6 motor.  

Now, could it be that the car’s “rough shape” is simply because some Hollywood studio let a bear drive it? 

In fact, as Fozzie drives in a single scene, he leans around and buries his head into the map that Kermit is learning. The auto swerves out of regulate. 

“Fozzie, the place did you master to travel?” Kermit asks. 

Fozzie replies, “I took a correspondence system.” 

How to donate 

Find a backlink to the GoFundMe web page to restore “The Muppet Movie” car at the Studebaker Countrywide Museum at studebakermuseum.org. Also obtain updates on social media: @StudebakerMuseum on Facebook and Instagram, and @StudebakerMus on Twitter. The museum, at 201 Chapin St., South Bend, can also be reached at 574-235-9714.