‘With a near-$100m budget, the producers rented 2000 classics to get Tarantino’s desired street-scene realism’
I’ve long had a grim fascination with the grisly side of LA. It started with my first glimpse of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon; after being nourished by James Ellroy books (fiction blended skilfully with fact), YouTube has furthered my education in this darkly intriguing part of America. My favourite source is the Dearly Departed Tours channel, which delights in digging up tidbits about the golden era of Tinseltown: how its most famous inhabitants met their demise or became scandal-sheet fodder. It recently aired an insider’s look at Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a film that will keep old-car lovers happy even if they can’t follow the plot. DDT ’s Scott Michaels was an advisor on this fictional drama about a fading star and his stunt double, spun around the all too real events at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills on 8-9 August 1969.
The murder of actress Sharon Tate (and her unlucky guests) by the Manson ‘family’ not only shocked the world, but also seemed to strip the hippy-dippy ’60s of its innocence. Once Upon a Time looks and feels very authentic, with an accuracy seldom found in UK period dramas when it comes to cars: with a near-$100m budget, the producers rented 2000 classics to attain Tarantino’s desired street-scene realism.
It’s not perfect: the black Porsche 911 targa Sportomatic driven by Jay Sebring (and Tate) was a 1973 rather than a 1969 car. And Tate’s husband, Roman Polanski, is known to have had a Ferrari, but is shown driving an MG TD of all things. Sebring was Steve McQueen’s hair stylist, and the actor was expected to join the party that evening; he encountered the usual extramarital distractions and never turned up.
Brad Pitt’s stuntman drives a Karmann Ghia, because the director had fond memories of touring ’60s LA in one with his grandfather. Brad drives his with tail-tweaking panache, but something about the way the VW sounded – and went – didn’t add up. Sure enough, it was fitted with a 2.5-litre Subaru lump for shooting plus an auto, in case Brad couldn’t drive ‘stick’.
No such artistic licence was permitted with the felons’ transport: the 1959 Ford Galaxie that deposited the Manson family on Cielo Drive to perpetrate their wicked deeds had to be spot-on. The actual car still exists and Tarantino had the opportunity to use the 500 hardtop in the film, but rejected this level of hyper-realism as “too creepy”
