Adam

Yes now I remember that car in the Burton movie; but for some reason, I think it was the "horn" head rests, I remember it being a 450SL.

And westphxman, thanks for spotting Julie Andrews in an SL in that movie, haven't seen it for such a long time. Remember she was bitchy-great in it and laughing so hard at Dudley Moore I thought I would pee. Wonder how it holds up today? When Blake Edwards was funny, he was FUNNY.

I know it wasn't a movie but who could forget Remington Steel with Peirce Brosnan and some brunette I can't remember? I think it was a red one and was in shot alot.

Don't remember the show that well but the brunette was Stephanie Zimbalist, daughter of Ephram Zimbalist Jr guy from tv show on the FBI.

Some films impress me, most of course are hyped junk and nothing in them do I care about or ever see, even 107’s.

However, as a boy I checked out some of what real-deal real stars actually drove every day. One of the things that impressed me when I first became interested in the character of the man, was why James Stewart, whom I figured could afford a more flamboyant car, always seemed to come over in his forest green 70 or 71 or so Volvo.

It was his wife Gloria who drove the red SL. Mr. Stewart was the real thing sort of guy. He flew a tour in B-25’s during the war, and had terrific mechanical aptitude, something I really respected for a fine artist with such great command of the moment, and such powerful and reflective viewpoint in bigger affairs.

Mr. Stewart faced German machines seeking to knock him out, and he confronted and killed Germans seeking to do the same to him, and he did his part to win that truly devastating war, and then keep the peace.

Mr. Stewart did his own maintenance on his Swedish Volvo, but I feel he definitely realized when discretion was the better part of valor when it came to maintaining that 107.

Mark, very cool that you knew a bit of J. Stewart. I too, met him once at a Director's Guild memorial for Frank Capra and he was being driven in a late 70's or early 80's Mercedes sedan, (green as I recall) like a 280 d or something. A few years after that, he would annually read passages from the Bible at a Christmas pageant at Bev Hills Presbyterian church and one night I had him sign an 8 by 10 of him in flyer's WWII uniform. He was extremely pleased that a chick as young as me knew of his pretty much unsung WWII heroics. This was like '95 or so. World is worse off without the likes of that man, cool that you remembered him.

Aim,

It was around this group that I would experience amazing moments, or latent effects of insouciance and wonder in my formative years. My grandmother spoke to me about what she termed ”the gift of grace”. A gathering of this group of old friends was an occasion of sublime effects that stunned me into realities I was normally unprepared to come up to speed about. Something happened with this group on fast-track creative energy levels I never consistently grasped. However, here and there, I felt I could own at least some understanding.

These people really were big in sweeping and gracious ways. They appeared adept at creating big effects with only a few words, or what seemed like the very power of their decision. They could make magic that was real to me, that I got to feel I could apply in not well understood bits and pieces as I grew up.

I asked too few questions and I never confronted the depths of their viewpoints with anywhere near a mature or curious-enough viewpoint of my own. Regardless, I learned and observed at least a piece of their collective ability. These lights had been hanging out together for many, many years; they were so close and each seemed to feel so safe and comfortable at those times.

It eventually became obvious to my spiritually “solid” static-principle scientific sort of ignorant viewpoint about life that the whole subject of “co-incidence” really had to be separated into that of mere statistical coincidence, and that of co-incidence which had to be too statistically improbable, so had to be deemed “no mere-coincidence”.

This gets into philosophy and perception, and so much of various realities can never be properly understood unless it is also real to the listener. It helps to understand that absolute “solids” really do not exist, and that realities can become altered well before anything actually takes a form. These people seemed to have weird “touchless” effects on outcomes which could not be understood with a more solid static-universe set of principles sort of mindset.

However, wherever someone seems to be willing to take certain leaps of faith so as to suspend judgment long enough to experience things of creative wonder, things can happen faster than otherwise imaginable. I came to feel what is really meant by “star quality”; it by no means has anything whatsoever to do with the forced-upon formula constructs of marketing hypsters pushing soulless performers and product out for mass market consumption, only to leave us sort of empty.

The real world is not so bleak, or canned. Not feeding us the real food of real lights that we are nonetheless paying for in entertainment is the crime. While the creative medium is overrun by avarice pandering to the lowest common denominator, real stars always shine-through; hopefully to affect us all.

It may be easy to criticize all sorts of possible magic and coincidence, but one must still wonder, sometimes…no matter how seemingly banal. For example, what really are the odds that my post above, with at that time a 344 post rating gets seen and responded to within 12 hours by yourself with at the time a 343 rating, who has also been touched personally by Mr. Stewart’s presence?

There really are so many interesting little coincidences in life that we pay no attention to. We take so much in life for granted, yet magic of our very own making really does exist all around us. The film products of real stars help to remind all of us to feel that much more wonder, and maybe take that much less for granted, and never forget what in life is the most real.

Just bought a 76 450SL for my wife that was driven by the character Beth Davenport in the Rockford Files. Used to be Red on Red - now White exterior.

hellooooooooooo linda carter in wonder woman,the season when it happens in the seventies,but then again its not a movie but still hot

Firestormer Mark

Didn't expect such eloquence on our SL site but I agree totally... no such thing as coincidence...

Did you service Gloria Stewart's car or just know about it? I remember Stewart took his time to finally get married and when he did, he stayed married and was pretty much lost when she passed on, dying soon thereafter.

Mr. Stewart and his wife were frequent visitors to my grandmother's home, where I was raised.

Gloria was more demonstrative than he in a lot of ways. Mr. Stewart had some hearing loss. He could hear her when she spoke in her normally robust voice. For him, I think his world got a lot quieter and less interesting without her energy and sort of dominant presence.

I recently saw Leslie Nielsen drive a pale SL in an old episode of Columbo.

Thanks to Mark and Aim for launching my pleasant recollection of a chance encounter with James Stewart. He was attending his 55th college reunion in 1987 at Princeton, where I was a student at the time. He was graceful then as he was in his films.

Rich Mayer
82 500 SL

Alright, it's not the movies, but what do you all think of the new Mercedes commercials with various people posing next to their Benzes? Cool commercials, but no 107's that I can see! What's the deal?

Movies:

1) Beverly Hills Cop I - Red 380 SL driven poorly by the daughter of the cop (Axle's friend) who was shot;

2) Jackie Brown - Black on Black on Black on Black ;-) - 87-89 560 SL

I am just about to buy a 560 SL.
So the other night, I was watching a Jim Belushi film: K9. He plays a detective with a canine partner. They go to a car dealership owned by one of the bad guys. They hop into a car on the showroom floor. The owner comes up and says: "That is a Mercedes 560 SL. Either get out of the car or give me seventy thousand dollars." Jim babbles something and then the dealer comes back with: "Hey, it's a Babe-mobile!".

Yea, right! And mostly babe's drive'um... unless they're ole guys over 55

Just saw (on Tivo) a movie on the Hallmark Channel. Jack Lemmon was the star & the movie was "A Long Way Home". The 500 was driven (and slightly wrecked) with Jack in the passanger seat while trying to get away from the bad boys.
It was a good movie & even without the car, think you may enjoy it.

Just spotted a blue one in Slap Shot. Paul Newman and another guy are walking along when a SL honks the horn. It is one of the other guys rich (married) groupies.

Johnno

Had to rent the dvd of A BEAUTIFUL MIND last night and I saw an early seventies SL with Euro bumpers cruise behind Russell Crowe and his old nemesis from Princeton as they walked across campus. White, couldn't see the interior.

Are you really really certain that you saw a white SL with Euro bumpers, or were you just thinking that you did