H. B. Halicki
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H.B. Halicki (October 18, 1940 - August 20, 1989) also known as Toby to his friends and family. He lived the American Dream from junk cars to movie stars. He was also known to his fans as The Car Crash King.
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[edit] Toby's Early Life
Henry Blight Halicki was born in Dunkirk, New York, in 1940 and was one of thirteen children. The children all had nicknames, and his was Toby. The Halicki family was in the towing business, and Toby started to develop his fascination with cars while working in the family towing business. He started driving when his feet could barely touch the pedals and knew all about cars before he was ten years old. When he was a teenager, two of his brothers died tragically. This caused Toby to take a hard look at his own life, and he decided that there was more to life than a small town. At age 15 and unsure of what his future would hold for him, Toby decided to move to California and live with one of his uncles.
Determined to make his own way on his own terms, Toby never took a cent from his family. Even when his mother would send him checks, he would not cash them. Toby began working at a local gas station in Gardena, where he put his knowledge of cars to good use. He started his car collection at the age of 16, and it eventually ranged from 1920s vintage automobiles to lowriders and even Ferraris.
By 17, Toby owned and operated his own auto body shop. At 17 and still in High School, he signed a contract with an insurance company to detail and do minor repairs on 2,000 new cars at $25.00 a piece. Toby's stock-and-trade was as a body-and-fender man.
By 18, Toby owned and operated his own tire store with his partner Ron Light.
By 21, Toby owned and operated his own auto salvage company with his partner J.C. Agajanian Jr.. Toby also enrolled in real estate classes and began investing in commercial properties, which led to numerous land holdings and a successful junkyard business. Toby also owned one of the world's largest toy and automobile collections.
Long work hours and fulfilling strict time commitments laid the foundation for the sizable empire he created by the time he was 34 years old. In the true spirit of Toby, this was not enough.
One day a teenager came with his dad into Toby's auto body shop.
[edit] Gone In 60 Seconds
- Further information: Gone in 60 Seconds (1974 film)
For his venture into film, Halicki decided to make the film that became Gone in 60 Seconds in 1974. He wrote directed produced, and starred in the film. According to people on the set, after the mishap when a driver missed a mark and caused "Eleanor" to hit a real light post at 100mph, the first thing that Halicki said when he regained consciousness was "Did we get coverage?" To achieve the effect of cars sliding into each other when hit by the patrol car at Moran Cadillac, the filmmakers put oil under the tires of the first few cars to help them slide. When it came time to do the stunt, it worked too well and many of the agency's own Cadillacs that were for sale were badly damaged. Director H.B. Halicki had to purchase all of them.
| Gone in 60 Seconds | |
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 Gone in 60 Seconds 25th Anniversary DVD cover |
All of the police cars damaged in the film, as well as the garbage truck that overturns, were bought at city auction by director H.B. Halicki in 1972, for an average price of $200 each. They sat in an empty lot for over a year until production on the movie began in 1973.The fire trucks seen on the Vincent Thomas Bridge during the main chase were real Long Beach FD units on their way to an emergency call. The "crash" staged for the film was blocking both lanes and they could not get past until the cars were cleared. Director H.B. Halicki asked the camera crew to film them in case there was somewhere to fit the shot into the movie. There was.
Director and star H.B. Halicki drove at least two of the cars during the crash scene on the Vincent Thomas Bridge.
Nearly every civilian vehicle seen in close proximity to the main chase (especially in downtown Long Beach) was owned by director H.B. Halicki. This resulted in several of them being seen multiple times throughout the 40-minute sequence. The second "Eleanor" (that Maindrian steals from the car wash) and the white Ford that he and Stanley spend much of their time in are visible parked in one street that Maindrian turns into before hitting the boat in Long Beach. The white Ford also shows up in many other shots.
When Maindrian is first telling Atlee about the new contract, a message on the blackboard behind them is visible saying, "Sgt. Hawkins called about Vacek case" - a reference to director of photography Jack Vacek.
Parnelli Jones still owns his Big Oly Ford Bronco, and often brings it out to car shows.
1-Baker-11 is a 1970 Mercury Montego.
There was no official script for the movie, apart from several pages outlining main dialog sequences. Much of the action/dialog was improvised and made up by the cast and crew as they went along. This caused many problems for the editor, Warner E. Leighton, who never knew what footage was being dumped on him or where in the movie it belonged. In the DVD audio commentary, he described the script for the construction site portion of the main pursuit as a piece of cardboard with a circle on it. Director H.B. Halicki pointed at it and said, "That's the dust bowl. We went around it twice. There's your script."
Harold Smith's dog was actually owned by Halicki, and loaned cinematographer Jack Vacek, and called Flash. All of the hats Maindrian wears in the film also belonged to Halicki. Both Eleanors also belonged to Halicki. The red with the white top 1973 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham that Maindrian drove to the train wreck also belonged to Halicki. The black Pontiac Trans Am being cleaned in the scene where Atlee steals Lyle Waggoner's car also belonged to Vacek.
The scene in which a train derailment is observed in the film was not part of the original shooting script but it is in fact a real train that derailed and when the director heard about this he wanted to incorporate it into the film.
According to director of photography Jack Vacek, only 1-Baker-11 was supposed to crash in the final scene. The drivers of the other police cars decided to all wreck as well "for the hell of it".
The scene where the Mustang tags a car on the highway and spins into a telephone pole was a real accident. Star/director H.B. Halicki was badly hurt and filming was stopped while he recovered. The scene was left in.
[edit] H.B. Halicki Junkyard and Mercantile Company
After the movie Toby started building H.B. Halicki Junkyard and Mecantile Company with western pieces from around the world.
Toby Halicki was classified as the owner of the "World Largest Antique toy and automobile collection" consisting of over 100,000 collectible items. He handpicked every toy, car and piece in the building. Toby's first car was a 1956 Buick Century. He custom-painted it candy-apple red, highlighted by trailing and reversed scallops of yellow and orange, tipped with red. Among his other purchases, Toby bid $6,000.00 against Jerry Viring and bought both a 1949 Buick Roadmaster and 1953 Buick Skylark.
The collection was Toby's private oasis, which was away from his house. He was able to drive his cars and motorcycles in and out the hidden garage doors. He prized and loved his collection of toys, cars, guns, motorcycles, antiques.
The main room was wall to wall with memorabilia from Disney, Coca Cola, movie memorabilia, ray guns, Little Big Books, hubcaps, motorcycles, and neon signs. Inside his building (the size of a football field) his collection ranged from vintage automobiles from the 1920s, to custom low-riders, exotic Ferraris, Citroens, and Stutz. There was also a movie room for both Eleanors which were featured in Gone in 60 Seconds.
His office was a gargantuan garage displaying toy cars, real cars and all sorts of antique bric-a-brac. If you saw "Gone in Sixty Seconds" you'll recall the many pairs of aviator-style sunglasses scattered about Eleanor's dashboard. In real life, it was his Rolls Royce which received the "Toby treatment". Perhaps two items vie for the most striking feature of Toby's office: one was the way Toby could drive into the garage office and park the Rolls within spitting distance of his desk; the other was the desk itself, facing two overstuffed chairs with a chintzy fringed lamp in between, standing high on a pedestal, so that guests had to stare upward toward their host, at about a 30 degree angle.
Quirky, one might say, but so was his assistant's weekly duty of having to mix equal parts "plain" and "peanut" M&M's into a single mixture in a large bowl for Toby's pleasure. Toby would also fly around the world and transport a brand new car back every time, travelling to Monte Carlo, Italy, Germany, New Brunswick, France, and England.
[edit] Love and Marriage and Honeymoon
In 1983 someone had introduced Toby to Denice, and after six years, on May 11, 1988, Toby proposed to Denice. It took a year to design their wedding rings. While they where engaged Toby was planning on building their big old mansion house on the biggest land in Southern California. On May 11, 1989, Toby married Denice in Dunkirk, New York with both their families in attendance.
[edit] Gone In 60 Seconds 2 and Death
On August 20, 1989, Toby began to shoot Gone In 60 Seconds 2 in which both he and Denice would be the stars, in Buffalo, New York. Toby was preparing for the most dramatic stunt sequence in the film when a 160 foot-tall water tower suddenly toppled. A cable attached to the tower snapped, whipped around, and sheared off a telephone pole, which fell on him.
[edit] Aftermath
In pursuit of keeping Toby's dream alive and protecting the rights to Toby's estate, car collection, and legacy, Denice had to go through 7 trials. In 1994 the court released Toby's films to Denice, but she was unable to protect Toby's car and toy collection
[edit] Gone In Sixty Seconds (2000)
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 Gone in Sixty Seconds DVD Cover |
Denice finally set in motion the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds, by making a deal with Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer in 1995. For the next 3 years Denice worked on the project as Executive Producer. In 1999 filming began. The movie premiered on June 5, 2000.
[edit] H.B. Halicki's Movies
- Love Me Deadly (1973 film)
- Gone in 60 Seconds (1974 film)
- The Junkman (1982 film)
- The Making of the Junkman (1982 film)
- Deadline Auto Theft (1983 film)
- Rock House (1988 film)
- Gone In 60 Seconds 2 (unfinished 1989 film)
- The Times And Lifes Of H.B. 'Toby' Halicki (2003 Documentary)
