348, you didn't get carried away in the slightest, it's cool to see the vehicles from the shows I watched as a kid. Thanks for posting all the cool pictures!
Movies & Television: Police, Fire & EMS Vehicles
- Thread starter LRGJr72
- Start date
My favourite movie and TV emergency vehicles were from the the 1968-1972 period:
Schaefer Superior/Cadillac ambulances (c. 1967-1970) with single red two beam rotary beacons (Tripp Lite?) and B&M Super Chief sirens.
San Francisco PD patrol cars (1969-1971 Ford galaxies) - black with white doors; single red steady burn light on driver's side, spotlight in the middle, speaker on the passenger's side, and two red blinking lights at the center rear position of the car roof.
Schaefer Superior/Cadillac ambulances (c. 1967-1970) with single red two beam rotary beacons (Tripp Lite?) and B&M Super Chief sirens.
San Francisco PD patrol cars (1969-1971 Ford galaxies) - black with white doors; single red steady burn light on driver's side, spotlight in the middle, speaker on the passenger's side, and two red blinking lights at the center rear position of the car roof.
I would even venture that these cars and TV shows eventually triggered some vocations for a few members around here.... :undecided:
Watching "Space Cowboys". In the beginning blac and white segment, after Frank and Hawk's jet crashes, a rescue vehicle and a jeep are seen headed for the crash. The vehicle is marked "RESCUE" and has what looks like a high speed Model 17 on it.
Watching "The Right Stuff". Near the end, after Chuck Yeager's NF-104 crashes, an ambulance is headed to the scene. Roof rack has an electronic siren speaker, a set of Hadley(?) air horns, and a 4 bulb beacon, North American?
Watching "The Right Stuff". Near the end, after Chuck Yeager's NF-104 crashes, an ambulance is headed to the scene. Roof rack has an electronic siren speaker, a set of Hadley(?) air horns, and a 4 bulb beacon, North American?
Did the ambulance in The Right Stuff look something like this?
I found this Schaefer Ambulance Company photo of a fleet similar to what you described
I also found this San Francisco Police 1970 Ford Galaxie set up similar to how you described.
This 1962 Ford Custom has the siren speaker on the passenger side and no beacon.
Here is a 1972 Ford Custom 500 from San Francisco PD with an interesting warning light set up.
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Yep, that's close, but the cars I saw had no beacon and there was a chrome speaker (probably a Federal SA-24) on the passenger's side. I saw the cars on McMillan and Wife and Ironside.
There are a couple pics of the lone wolf truck in a thread on here, a member had inquired about it to build a replica
You hit that nail on the head. Back in the '60s Emergency! was largely responsible for numerous paramedic services being established in this country along with a lot of guys who would've remained EMTs that also became paramedics. I got my first EMT certification in 1974 when Emergency! was still relatively new.
Schaefer and Goodhew were the two most well-known ambulance services in and around Los Angeles. Scahefer remains in service to this day, but Goodhew was acquired by AMR a few years ago.
While I never got to meet him in person, I had the opportunity to talk to "Papa Walt" Schaefer on the phone a number of times back in the early '70s when my standby service was getting off the ground.
Did the ambulance in The Right Stuff look something like this?
rightstuffambulance3.5204.jpg
i344819.jpg
Dat's it!! Ridley is riding shotgun.
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Some of the San Francisco cars I've seen on TV had a single red light facing front with an amber facing rear and the single SA type speaker like you mention. What you might've liked was the episode on Emergency! where Roy and Johnny were in San Francisco, and in one sequence they rode with a Batt. chief to a fire. The car only had a single red spotlight and a nice-sounding underhood doubletone siren. Did you get the PM I sent?
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Not me, Rescue 8 got me started. Got my Red Cross Advanced First Aid card in 1969, running with volunteer squad outside Philly. Man, I was 'almost' a doctor!!
EMT in 1978, IV Tech in 1981, Cardiac tech in 1984, paramedic in 1987. Still at it!!
I'm sure you mean "Back in the 70's" as Emergency started in 1972.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXOdL7YJRNs#t=172
If the video does start at 2:51, then just jump ahead.
If the video does start at 2:51, then just jump ahead.
Aintry County Sheriff from the movie "Deliverance" (1972). The patrol cars all had "amber" Beacon Rays.
That was a typo on my part. I did mean '70s.
I loved watching Rescue 8 back in the late '50s. I've seen the original panel that was used in the show. My first EMT cert. came in '74, but in Texas for many years you could get by with a Red Cross card to be ambulance personnel. My first First Aid card was in 1960 at the age of 15, which I used at Ellis Funeral Home here in Midland and from '63 to '66 at Rix Funeral Home in Odessa, and Chapel of the Roses Funeral Home, Odessa, until they ceased ambulance operations in '67. Made the move to Lubbock in '68 where I got my first Advanced First Aid card later that year. In 1969 I received my first First Aid Instructor's certificate. That spring my REACT team had begun providing first aid at the local race track, using the old track ambulance, a '60 Chevy wagon. After having worked all through the Lubbock tornado in May of '70 the track gave us the old ambulance, which freed us up to work events outside that track. In 1971 I was given a '63 Pontiac Consort ambulance by the late Joe Summers of Summers Coach in Duncanville (ever see their place, Hi-LO?). In '72 the REACT team totally "folded", but with the Pontiac I continued to serve not only the original race track but the drag strip strip which opened either in '72 or '73 as Metro-Alert Ambulance In 1973 we got the first-ever ECA (Emergency Care Attendant) classes in Lubbock, followed by the first EMT classes in late '73 for which only employees of Lubbock County EMS were allowed to attend; but in '74 the rest of us got to go through the class. The interesting thing is despite the availability of ECA, EMT and then Paramedic classes c.1975, Texas allowed the use of Red Cross certification until the early-to-mid '80s. And it was until '83 or so that Texas required 18 as the minimum certification age. Prior to then we had EMTs and ECAs as young as 15. And before you raise your eyebrows over that one....some of "my" 15-year-old ECAs and EMTs outperformed a lot of the adult EMTs we had. At one time Lubbock had two or three private ambulance companies, including ours. We shut down in 1991 when I returned to Midland, and since then for some reason, no one has been able to successfully compete with AID Ambulance in Lubbock in the private sector. AID opened in August of '68 as one of two ambulance services. The other was Henderson Funeral Home, which ceased ambulance ops in 1972.That left AID as the sole emergency provider until Lubbock EMS opened. We were never considered competition to AID because we never did anything other than our standby services for sporting events; but we did so all over West Texas, going as far east as Dallas and northeast to the Childress area. I was totally away from EMS from '91 until 2003 when I re-started my standby service here in Midland. That went fine until November of 2004 (next Monday will be 10 yrs) when I suffered a severe MI when I was about to conclude my first-ever paramedic class. After recovering from 5 bypasses I went back to work with the standby service; but the one race facility that we were working closed suddenly in the summer of 2005, and decided then that enough was enough and graciously retired my standby service.
Yep, that's the one.
I've seen the Goodhew Superiors, but I like the Schaefer ones more.
This Dodge van appeared in a lot of TV shows and movies. As I've mentioned before, I always thought that "Kojak" was taped/filmed in NYC, but that van has been in a couple of episodes along with a couple of the ambulances used on Emergency!.
love the triple lightbar
Goodhew for the most part kept their ambulances in traditional colors, but Schaefer's company colors were always the white and "rootbeer" colors.
I think I found another sighting of the same 1969 Cadillac F & B ambulance on Charlie's Angels. You can't see the mechanical siren because of the angle but if you look at the housing for the forward facing sealed beam red lights above the cab, they have the accent piece that runs down the side of the raised roof. The F & B ambulance in CHiP's has the same housing for the sealed beam lights. The Cadillac ambulance in Mother, Jugs & Speed does not have the same housing for the forward facing red sealed beam lights above the roof. The mechanical siren is also different when you compare the CHiP's photo and the Mother, Jugs & Speed photo. What do you think?
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These are two different cars. You can tell the difference by the tunnel lights. The car with the Q on top is a Superior Cadillac. Not sure about the one with the Super Chief.I think I found another sighting of the same 1969 Cadillac F & B ambulance on Charlie's Angels. You can't see the mechanical siren because of the angle but if you look at the housing for the forward facing sealed beam red lights above the cab, they have the accent piece that runs down the side of the raised roof. The F & B ambulance in CHiP's has the same housing for the sealed beam lights. The Cadillac ambulance in Mother, Jugs & Speed does not have the same housing for the forward facing red sealed beam lights above the roof. The mechanical siren is also different when you compare the CHiP's photo and the Mother, Jugs & Speed photo. What do you think?
69 Cadi charlies angels.jpg
chips Cadi.jpg
mjs.jpg
My favorite ending scene with a Visibar. ( Dubbed in Spanish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eUyatlPMQ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eUyatlPMQ0
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Very awesome to see such a variety of vehicles from so many different movies and tv shows, an very interesting to see the history as well.
A bit different from what has been posted, this truck has not been on any tv shows or movies (yet), but it has been on tv. I am certain many of you have seen it:
The cool part for me is that this ladder truck belonged to a local fire department that bordered former fire departments of mine. I had operated on scene with it many times, so it's neat to have a connection with a "famous" truck.
A bit different from what has been posted, this truck has not been on any tv shows or movies (yet), but it has been on tv. I am certain many of you have seen it:
The cool part for me is that this ladder truck belonged to a local fire department that bordered former fire departments of mine. I had operated on scene with it many times, so it's neat to have a connection with a "famous" truck.
The Mother Jugs and Speed pro-car ambo is 1971-1973 era Superior.
The Charlie's Angels / CHiPs pro-car ambo is a 1969-1970 era Superior.
Same builder, two different body styles.
The Charlie's Angels / CHiPs pro-car ambo is a 1969-1970 era Superior.
Same builder, two different body styles.
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Memories, memories! When this show appeared locally in Lubbock, the theater that showed it "borrowed" one of my ambulances...a '66 Olds...to advertise the movie. The red ambulance sat in front of the theater with posters all over it. During the movie's run there all ambulance personnel were allowed to see the movie for free, provided that they come in uniform and in an ambulance.
Anyone else remember what "F&B" stood for?
San Francisco Fire Department responding in The Towering Inferno (1974)
That's cool. What I liked was the TV commercials for "Roundup" herbicide. They used an old '63 International TravelAll ambulance that belonged to Metropolitan Ambulance in Amarillo. Metropolitan's owner, LaWayne Guengerich was a good friend of mine when I had my ambulance service in Lubbock. In 1969 after the International was retired he gave us the old truck and we used it for a couple of years.
Nice. Back when the movie first came out, we were one of the few ambulance services still using coach-type ambulances. In fact we retired our last Pontiac Consort in '84 when the state started requiring high top vehicles. I used to get a kick out of kids hollering "Ghostbusters" when we'd drive by in one of our big Oldsmobile ambulances or one of the Consorts.
Fish and Bine... Sounded better than just Fishbine. lol...
You're right. The movie ambulance doesn't have those accented sealed beam housings. "Wailer" indicates they're two different rigs. He's probably right. I wonder if both versions are seen in the movie. How else would you explain the F&B livery on the rig seen on the shows?I think I found another sighting of the same 1969 Cadillac F & B ambulance on Charlie's Angels. You can't see the mechanical siren because of the angle but if you look at the housing for the forward facing sealed beam red lights above the cab, they have the accent piece that runs down the side of the raised roof. The F & B ambulance in CHiP's has the same housing for the sealed beam lights. The Cadillac ambulance in Mother, Jugs & Speed does not have the same housing for the forward facing red sealed beam lights above the roof. The mechanical siren is also different when you compare the CHiP's photo and the Mother, Jugs & Speed photo. What do you think?
69 Cadi charlies angels.jpg
chips Cadi.jpg
mjs.jpg
"Rescue 1" beat me to it.... "Fish and Bine."
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