Official CABE “Genuine Pee-Wee Herman Bike” Claim Counter!

[cyclingday]

Good stuff!
Thanks for the recollections, Charlie!
Even though, I’ve been off and on in the hobby over the years, I grew up in the area and ended up working my entire adult life for the City of Newport Beach.
So, I was always out and about, and remember a lot of your recollections.
Mike was always my guy at the shop, so I always just went straight to him, whenever I stopped by for something.
One thing that I had heard, but never really knew for sure, was that Gertrude and Henry got into the hobby/business of old bikes, because they used to run the Police Auctions for the City of Newport Beach.
So they got curious when they saw all these old bikes running through the auctions.
Is there any truth to that story?
Also, that they originally lived in the old house that would become, Le Biarritz, then later the Chicken Coup?
Urban myth? or the way it was?

P.S. Just to keep things Pee Wee related,
We saw the Big Adventure at the Mesa Theatre on Newport Blvd. when it first opened.
By that time in my life, I thought the whole adventure was pretty ridiculous, but I have to admit it was funny, and it was about a kook trying to recover his stolen, classic balloon tire bicycle.
So, what’s not to love about that?
But, like you, I never saw the movie again after that.
I knew it was time for me to retire, when they started hiring all these young guys that grew up watching Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Lol!
I would always tell them, that show had nothing on Captain Kangaroo and
Mr. Green Jeans.

 

[Pedal Pusher Charlie]

Good stuff!
Thanks for the recollections, Charlie!
Even though, I’ve been off and on in the hobby over the years, I grew up in the area and ended up working my entire adult life for the City of Newport Beach.
So, I was always out and about, and remember a lot of your recollections.
Mike was always my guy at the shop, so I always just went straight to him, whenever I stopped by for something.
One thing that I had heard, but never really knew for sure, was that Gertrude and Henry got into the hobby/business of old bikes, because they used to run the Police Auctions for the City of Newport Beach.
So they got curious when they saw all these old bikes running through the auctions.
Is there any truth to that story?
Also, that they originally lived in the old house that would become, Le Biarritz, then later the Chicken Coup?
Urban myth? or the way it was?

P.S. Just to keep things Pee Wee related,
We saw the Big Adventure at the Mesa Theatre on Newport Blvd. when it first opened.
By that time in my life, I thought the whole adventure was pretty ridiculous, but I have to admit it was funny, and it was about a kook trying to recover his stolen, classic balloon tire bicycle.
So, what’s not to love about that?
But, like you, I never saw the movie again after that.
I knew it was time for me to retire, when they started hiring all these young guys that grew up watching Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Lol!
I would always tell them, that show had nothing on Captain Kangaroo and
Mr. Green Jeans.

Hi Marty,

Maybe it was Captain Kangaroo who got so many excited about bikes. . .

You have interesting questions. . . Gertrude never said anything to me about running the police auctions, and David Vorgang didn't think that they did either. However, Mike scored a few bikes at the auctions once in a while. Gertrude and Mike were rare in their shared obsession for the bikes yet I never really asked what got that started or maybe I forgot. The shop may have just been a necessary consequence of a passion that resulted in too many bikes and needing to get rid of some. I asked David and he thought that Mike was first interested in the bikes, which probably got his mom involved. When we get in touch with Mike, he can set that straight and add much more.

Henry was an excellent artist and loved antique paintings but didn’t seem to be interested in the bikes. When he came to the shop, it was to see Gertrude, and he would call out, "Schatzi!" till he found her. Usually, he would entertain us with some story or maybe a joke he told before and sing, and he could sing, filling the shop with passages from his favorite operas–I mean that every time he visited, it was a concert! Anyone who was in the Pedal Pusher when Henry broke into song will never forget it!

I have pictures of an early swapmeet Gertrude had across from Hoag Hospital by Old Newport and Westminister Ave. I think it is the current location of The Chicken Coop. I am not certain, but I think they may have had a garage for storage up there not a home. David said that they moved into their oceanfront Balboa home in 1962. On warm evenings you would often see Gertrude and Henry or their sons greeting and visiting with the locals as they walked or pedaled past on the boardwalk. It was a perfect location for such a well-known and loved Newport family.

I did not know that you worked for the city of Newport Beach. You chose a great location for a lifetime career!

All the best,
Charlie

 

[KansasJack]

Here’s the bike I built years ago. There was a bunch of us about ten years ago on the Replica Prop Forum website who helped each other find parts and details of the movie bikes. It was a fun time. I ended up making fiberglass molds of the saddle bags and silicone molds of the tiger siren and probably ended up making about fifteen of the tiger sirens before my molds finally deteriorated.

 

[rockabillyjay]

I tend to go down the rabbit hole on things like this

I also collect movie props so this is right up my alley.

I’ve been doing some digging and these are the publicly shown real bikes that I know of..please add pics and info if I missed any:

1- Gusset Bike. This was found in SoCal missing a bunch of parts. Has had reinforcement gussets added to the frame. Maybe the bike that jumps off the house in the final chase?

2-eBay bike. This showed up on eBay with a crazy low buy it now and was scooped up in a couple hours. Haven’t seen it since the auction

3-Hollywood museum. Supposedly donated by Pee Wee himself

4-Heritage Auction bike. This was unsold at Heritage Auctions. I think this is the bike Pee Wee steals when dressed as a nun

5-Ohio Museum bike. This was purchased off eBay in 2008 (I bid but lost!). This is the bike that shoots the oil slick out of the bags.

Interesting that none of these bikes have opening saddlebags. Pee Wee supposedly had two..maybe he had the one shown at the start of the movie and the chain lock scene

 

[catfish]

I tend to go down the rabbit hole on things like this

I also collect movie props so this is right up my alley.

I’ve been doing some digging and these are the publicly shown real bikes that I know of..please add pics and info if I missed any:

1- Gusset Bike. This was found in SoCal missing a bunch of parts. Has had reinforcement gussets added to the frame. Maybe the bike that jumps off the house in the final chase?

2-eBay bike. This showed up on eBay with a crazy low buy it now and was scooped up in a couple hours. Haven’t seen it since the auction

3-Hollywood museum. Supposedly donated by Pee Wee himself

4-Heritage Auction bike. This was unsold at Heritage Auctions. I think this is the bike Pee Wee steals when dressed as a nun

5-Ohio Museum bike. This was purchased off eBay in 2008 (I bid but lost!). This is the bike that shoots the oil slick out of the bags.

View attachment 1944929

Great info!!!

 

[YenkoStingerMaxx]

I heard that Larry McNeely worked on some of the bikes for the film with Mike and Gertrude Vorgang. Anyone know if the bike that Craig Morrow owns is one of the originals used in the film?

 

[rockabillyjay]

I heard that Larry McNeely worked on some of the bikes for the film with Mike and Gertrude Vorgang. Anyone know if the bike that Craig Morrow owns is one of the originals used in the film?

Are you talking about the one at the bicycle haven museum? That one looks to be a replica..or at least the bags certainly are

 

[YenkoStingerMaxx]

Are you talking about the one at the bicycle haven museum? That one looks to be a replica

Yes.

 

[rockabillyjay]

I've been doing a lot of digging on these bikes. Charlie has been a huge help (thank you Charlie!) and I've been able to speak with the Propmaster as well as several people that worked at the prop house that outfitted the bikes. Here's what I've found out so far ( and I am still digging )

Pedal Pusher- 12 bikes

Prop Master -14 bikes

underlined bikes known to exist today

1-Pee Wee (house)

2-Pee Wee (Storage)

3-Tim Burton (from Pee Wee/unconfirmed)

4- Danny Elfman (from Pee Wee/unconfirmed)

5- Hollywood Museum (nun bike)

6- Ebay

7- Heritage

8-Ohio Museum (Oil Slick bike)

9-Gusset Bike

10- (Tour De France – no tank or accessories)

11- (Poster Bike- I don’t think this was ever used as it was Pee Wee’s personal bike)

12- Hero bike (only opening bags..one of Pee Wees current bikes?)

13- Tarzan-unique straight bar frame

14-Clown bike (destroyed-prewar frame)





The beginning.



The poster bike was purchased from Pedal Pusher in Newport Beach. This is the bike that inspired the movie and appears on the cover of the script. It is also the bike that appears on the poster but has been airbrushed several times to appear as the bike does on screen.



Later once movie is under production, they order 12 more identical bikes from Pedal Pusher. Details from Charlie Churchill who worked there at the time of the builds:



-Bikes were powder coated by Olympic powder

-Slight variances in seats (some Schwinn, some plain messiger) posts (some Schwinn some Wald) and wheels ( some CMC, some Femco, some generic)

-all have large Wald bars, Union pedals, “donkey” grips

-not sure on if bikes had pinstripes or not, or if they did not sure if it was tape or paint

-Thinks some had tanks

-Had Schwinn racks and Schwinn chainguards

-Those without built in kickstands used Greenfeild stands

-Used mostly delta super rocket rays because they had a lot in stock (didn’t sell well due to them not being original equipment on any bikes)

-production came back and got additional parts from Pedal Pusher (mudflaps, bells, streamers, mirrors)



Bikes delivered to production.





Bikes delivered to prop house. Bikes are outfitted for screen there.



-fiberglass tanks

-vac formed bags

-skirts

-chainguards

-center part

-tank badges

-cast persons siren

- Tiger siren

-black box on bars with buttons

-brake lever/shift lever

-bar sleeve/coupler

Employee of prop house who did the bags and guards says he would be surprised if they made much more than 4 sets of bags (6 sets known. Heritage, ohio, ebay, hero, clown, tarzan)



“Most of the accessories on the bike were fabricated by the shop. The saddle bags, chain guard, wheel skirts and so on. I worked on the saddle bags and I think the chain guard making patterns and vacuum forming parts. But like I said, it was a long time ago and when your working on the films (unless it's a big name director or a sequel) you don't really pay much attention because it's just another job. Some are fun and some are not. The main reason I remember anything about it, is the prop master, Steve Levine, wanted everything to be perfect. 14 (*sets of bags) sounds way high. I don't remember, but I'd surprised if it was more than 3 or 4.The tooling wouldn't look like anything special, don't think it was marked, so it's most likely gone."


Prop master Steven Levine:

• Was delivered bare frames (* bikes without tanks/accessories)
• Had one prototype of each part to make copies
• Had 14 bikes total but none fully outfitted at the same time due to budget
• Would rob parts of one bike to complete another

“I was delivered all the frames only, plus one prototype of each part. The rest we had molds made of and outfitted as many bikes as we could, sometimes needing to rob one bike of parts to put on another bike. I had 14 bikes in total but none were ever fully outfitted at the same time due to Warner Bros. constantly busting my balls over the budget. Frankly the studio made my job a lot harder than it had to be. The bikes were all used for different situations like for stunts, jumps, mounted on trailers, etc. I hope that gives you some insight.”


Photo of the original unaltered pic of the poster bike:

 

[YenkoStingerMaxx]

Craig Morrow at Bicycle Heaven in Pittsburgh claims to have one of the Prop Master bikes. If it's a replica, then it's pretty dead on compared to the originals. I wonder if any of the Pedal Pusher bikes are still around today.