Army musician vet Barry Newman dead at 92
Actor Barry Newman died recently at the tender young age of 92.
Let’s step into the Professor Peabody’s ‘Way-Back Machine’ and go all the way back to the 1970s. The late ’60s and early ’70s were a luminous time for car guys in movies – who can forget Frank Bullitt’s famous chase? But a lot of folks don’t remember a movie that was essentially a four STATE car chase, called “Vanishing Point.” What McQueen did for fast-back Mustangs, Barry Newman did for an infamous white ’70 440 Challenger R/T. Its driver, Kowalski (never a first name, just ‘Kowalski’, was a burnt-out Army hero vet car courier who shuttled cars between Denver and the West Coast. On his latest run, on too-little sleep and a bunch of weirdness-inducing amphetamines, he attempts to make it from Denver to the coast in record time – but attracts too much law-enforcement attention along the way. Combine the Corey Loftin* car stunts, a film noir mood, and some good ‘before-their-time’ great guest stars (possibly only the second movie you will have seen with Cleavon Little in a starring role), and you have a combination well worth watching.
After graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in anthropology in 1952, Newman was drafted into the Army, and having learned saxophone and clarinet in high school, he was assigned to the 3rd Army Band in Atlanta.
Gotta have a military connection somewhere to justify putting ’em up here, right? Newman also had fairly popular TV show called “Petrocelli” and quite a few other TV/movie appearances over the years.
* Corey Loftin is well worth looking up – started stunt work after he got out of the Marines and probably did more stunt work than any man alive for over 60 years in film.
Category: We Remember
IMO the finest muscle car ever made.
But… as a mopar man there might be some bias in there. Pretty pissed that they’re switching to electric 🤦🏻♂️
Back when cars were cars, men were men, women were women and gas was 15 cents a gallon. It was the last great year for cars before everything changed.
Vanishing point is a great movie. Not simply because the beautiful Gilda Texter took a most memorable motorcycle ride. The movie has a heavy existentialist vibe. The antihero lays it on the line, not for any great noble cause, but simply to drive.
True story, Even though the movie caused a heavy promotion of the Dodge Challenger, Dodge was so angry at the depiction of the car being used to run away from the police and the drug use in the film, they crushed up all the cars used in the movie, so none of them now exist. Most of them were damaged anyway so they took them out of that insurance loss.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D9Agks7xI2nI&ved=2ahUKEwjs1NGqn6z_AhXrMEQIHWgiCgQQwqsBegQIHhAB&usg=AOvVaw0A3fDc6SRbA_bw1qaf89ro
If I’ve done this correctly, are you this much of a mopar man? One needs to be a serious fan to restore what he started with.
I read somewhere this car brought like 165000 at auction.
Just like the Army to take a guy with a 4 year degree and just have him play music.
There used to be a tv station when I grew up in the 80s that was a independent and they used to just show all sorts of movies back to back on Sat and Sun. Pretty sure I saw Vanishing Point one of those days. Movie made no sense to 12 y/o me. But hey, it had a cool car in it so I just watched it.
TV-38 Boston for me, they rotated ARMY weekend, Planet of the Apes, Kung Fu and science fiction every weekend.
WSBK.
I remember them growing up, watching Red Sox and Bruins games.
The Movie Loft, Saturday morning cartoons, and The Three Stooges on Sunday.
“Vanishing Point.”
Was and is a good movie and if you have the DVD, it should have 2 version, US and Foreign, the second version adds more context to an already good flick!
RIP
Don’t think I’ve seen Vanishing Point but might need to look into it. The classic car/truck films of the ’60s and ’70s were mostly released before I was born, but it’s hard to argue that they’re classics. From Convoy to The French Connection and the original Gone in 60 Seconds, there’s something about car chases during the practical effects era, before everything became CGI.
Military musicians get a lot of hate. I’d often take up for them when fellow NCOs talked smack. I will admit, the normal bands were…lacking…sometimes. I was working in the Marne Advocacy Resource Center back in 2015 and hearing the 3ID Band rehearse was near torture. Similarly, the Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCOE) Band was adequate, but during one graduation I heard the E-5 Drum Major cussing at his Musicians. I was a platoon or two away, so if I heard him, I’m sure the audience did.
Having had the honor of being in The Old Guard, and later the Military District of Washington, I had the privilege of working closely with US Army Premier Bands like The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, The US Army Band, and The US Army Field Band. All are excellent at what they do.
Godspeed, Fare Well, and Rest Easy, Good Sir. Had it pounded in my head several times by Old Soldiers that EVERY MOS in the Military was important.
Saw Vanishing Point right before my enlistment in ’71 at the Drive In with GF. She couldn’t understand why I seemed to be more interested in the Motion Picture than I was in making out with her. I figured that the make out session wouldn’t have a Happy Ending, but thought the movie might. We know now how THAT all worked out. I did relieve a little frustration by taking my ’61 Ford Galaxy 2 door hardtop with the 390 police interceptor engine package out onto the still under construction I-75. Still regret selling that ride the day before I reported for Induction.
If you want to watch it again, I found it on the Archive.
https://archive.org/details/vanishingpointh.264aac
I’m downloading it to add to my collection. Didn’t remember Cleavon Little as the DJ.
Saw Vanishing Point at the drive in.
Rest in Peace Barry Newman.
Oh, and an update sure to break Ed’s heart – Cynthia Weil, 82, one of the songwriters of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” died as well.
That turns my heart to ice, man.
I saw that meself, David. But I checked the DA Form 6 and it wasn’t my day to be “that guy”.
Regarding Cynthia Weil… she also wrote or co-wrote most of Paul Revere And The Raiders hits… “Hungry” being my favorite by them. A few hits for Dolly Parton. Lionel Ritchie’s “Running With The Night”… great video too. A few hits for ‘The Drifters’… “On Broadway” being my particular favorite that’s be done over the years by literally dozens of others. A few for ‘The Crystals’, B.J. Thomas, Gene Pitney, Linda Ronstadt, The Animals and others by ‘The Righteous Brothers’ besides the one already mentioned here. She was one hell of a songwriter along with husband Barry Mann.
Regarding Cynthia Weil… she also wrote or co-wrote most of Paul Revere And The Raiders hits… “Hungry” being my favorite by them. A few hits for Dolly Parton. Lionel Ritchie’s “Running With The Night”… great video too. A few hits for ‘The Drifters’… “On Broadway” being my particular favorite that’s be done over the years by literally dozens of others. A few for ‘The Crystals’, B.J. Thomas, Gene Pitney, Linda Ronstadt, The Animals and others by ‘The Righteous Brothers’ besides the one already mentioned here. She was one hell of a songwriter along with husband Barry Mann.
Only us really Cool Sexy people have Anthropology degrees.
In fact, I INVENTED “Cool”.
And you people are on the same thread with me…
You learn the fundamentals of reading music around the 4th grade, if you are interested. By the time you get to high school, at least back in my era, you were probably pretty good at it. Granted that there were not so many melodious parts for baritone horn, tuba, trombone, there were abundant tunes for trumpet, clarinet, saxophone and such.
I started playing along with records in early 60s, have a good ear, and had the Army offered me a deal to play music I would have leapt at the opportunity.
Instead, I was a 73C20 and liked the MOS.
That movie was weird but he did Ok as an actor. Not so sure if a 440 of that era could match the ordinary cruise speed for a helicopter, at least not for sustained operations.
Ah heck, I’ve flown some Cessna 150s “in reverse” over the ground but don’t think that I got 115 mph without a tail wind.
Time for rack-ops.
A few articles suggest the typical popo chopper of the time could hit 120 or so…that R/T may not even have opened the secondaries on its carb by that speed. The strength of police vehicles is usually not their speed, but that radio under the dash. Two things you couldn’t outrun in those days – the .357 and Motorola.
Ah heck, I thought that manifold vacuum was what opened the secondaries though I do recall seeing mechanical linkage on a variety of engines.
Back in the 60s when new cars were delivered to dealer lots, the keys were in the ignition or on the floor mat and there was a very small amount of fuel in the tank but it could not be easier to steal one. I’d go to the lots on Sunday afternoons and crank up the hot stuff just to hear them run. Never took for a joy ride, that was a sure way to reform school if you were not “connected”.