The Last American Hero
Great story by J.S. Lamb (“The Ghosts Of Daytona”).*
Good to see you mentioned Junior Johnson. A moonshiner’s son, Junior honed his driving skills on the back roads of Wilkes County, North Carolina. Junior got his lead foot running bootleg whiskey from his daddy’s still, evading government agents, red-blooded rascality like that.
Tom Wolfe immortalized Johnson in typical over-the-top style in Esquire (March 1965). Wolfe’s essay, “The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!” inspired a slew of movies featuring classic cars with monsters under the hood.
Like Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) with James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, Laurie Bird and Warren Oates. Directed by Monte Hellman. Written by Rudy Wurlitzer and Will Corry. Esquire called it the first movie worth reading. The magazine published the screenplay in its April 1971 issue, now a collector’s item.
The real stars of this movie were a 1955 Chevy two-door sedan and a 1970 Pontiac GTO. Spoiler: The primer-gray Chevy with the big-block engine beats the Orbit Orange GTO.
Vanishing Point (1971) starred Barry Newman and a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum. And then of course there was The Last American Hero (1973).
The movie was a fictionalized version of Johnson’s story, based on Wolfe’s article. It starred Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine** and a rogue’s gallery of muscle cars. Wheels with a serious drool factor. Like Mustangs, Cudas and Plymouth Road Runners.
Oh, and that ’55 Chevy in Two-Lane Blacktop? It sold for $159,500 in 2015.
They don’t make them like that anymore.
*The Cauldron won’t let me use an image as part of my response, so I have to post this as a separate story. Sorry about that.
**Valerie Perrine played Montana Wildhack, Billy Pilgrim’s muse, in Slaughterhouse-Five (1972).
