The Green Hornet Black Beauty was never a pile of fiberglass props. Dean Jeffries turned a big Chrysler-built luxury sedan into a rolling arsenal for the 1966 TV series, and he built only two of them. One of those cars now belongs to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
The show itself lasted just one season. Even so, the long black Imperial outlived it by decades. Van Williams played Britt Reid, and a young Bruce Lee played Kato, his chauffeur.
That pairing made the car a co-star. It also left the two real cars with a complicated history, because unofficial copies later joined the originals on the show circuit.
Why the Green Hornet Black Beauty started as an Imperial
According to the Imperial Club’s history of the car, the studio wanted a car to rival the Batmobile that was “a little more realistic.” Jeffries picked a 1966 Imperial Crown as the base. The club page calls it “very possibly Chrysler’s first prominent TV/Movie car.”
There was a rivalry behind that choice, too. RM Sotheby’s lot notes say Jeffries had narrowly lost the Batmobile job to George Barris because of time constraints. As a result, the Hornet commission was his chance to answer.
Time was short again, however. Petrolicious, in a series made with the Petersen, reports that barely four weeks passed between the producers’ call in mid-April and May 11. That was the day Jeffries delivered the first car to ABC. The same piece puts his commission at $50,000.
What Jeffries changed on the Imperial
The conversion went far beyond paint. A 2014 DrivingLine tour of the Petersen’s Vault describes the work on the museum’s car. Jeffries painted it black and stripped the chrome trim. He also stretched the roof about 8 inches beyond the C-pillar so the car looked even longer.
Similarly, the front end changed just as much. DrivingLine lists a lengthened center section, a deleted bumper, a metal bar grille, modified headlights and extended front corners. Together, those changes gave a stately sedan a menacing face.
Then came the gadgets. The Imperial Club lists front and rear rocket banks, plus gas, oil, water and smoke cannons. It also names rotating headlights, four green and two white, along with rotating license plates and a closed-circuit TV system.
Two working cars, not one
The headline number comes straight from the club’s account. “He created only two cars for the show,” the Imperial Club says, and it adds that both were fully functional. Meanwhile, DrivingLine notes a split in their duties. The museum’s car worked on the TV show, while the second car mostly made car-show and promotional appearances.
Some features never reached the screen at all. Petrolicious says twin brooms behind the rear wheels could sweep away tire tracks. In addition, a hidden C-pillar compartment held the “Hornet’s Sting” and other weapons. Neither appeared on camera because ABC cancelled the show early.
After all, the run was brief. According to Street Muscle’s 2016 list of top TV cars, the series ran one season of 26 episodes. The same feature gives the car’s license plate as V194 and describes a surveillance scanner that rose from under the trunk lid.
Petrolicious says Bruce Lee spent most of his screen time in the car. He earned $500 a week on the show.
The Petersen’s car and the second Black Beauty
Black Beauty 1 is the museum’s car. The Imperial Club says the Petersen bought it in December 2003 “for a little over $192,000.” By contrast, DrivingLine’s 2014 feature places the purchase just after Jeffries restored the car in 1993. Both accounts agree that the museum owns it today.
Visitors can’t simply walk up to it, though. DrivingLine says the car lives in the Vault, a section below the main museum that is open only by guided tour. A working switch panel in the back seat still operates its tricks, according to the same article.
Meanwhile, the second car went east. The Imperial Club reported in 2008 that Black Beauty 2 was finishing its restoration in South Carolina. Street Muscle later described it as completely restored and owned by a private collector there. Petrolicious adds that its owner, Karl Kirchner, needed about a year just to finish the wiring.
Barris copies and movie cars
The two originals soon had company. The Imperial Club says George Barris built three replicas for touring car shows “without Jeffries or the studios approval.”
One of those exhibition cars later crossed the block. RM Sotheby’s listed it at Fort Lauderdale in 2013 with a $70,000 to $90,000 estimate, and it did not sell. The lot notes say Dick Dean built it at the Barris shop after working with Jeffries on Beauty 1 and 2. It had earlier sold at a May 2005 Bonhams & Butterfields auction held at the Petersen.
Hollywood came back for more in 2011. Street Muscle says that year’s Green Hornet movie used 29 production Imperial Crowns, and 26 of them were destroyed during filming. Only three survived. Still, the TV originals number just two, and the Petersen’s Black Beauty 1 sits in its Vault, the car Jeffries delivered to ABC on May 11.
More from Fast Lane Only
