Almost 35 years have passed since a Ford Mustang named Eleanor tore up the streets of the South Bay in the cinematic crash-fest "Gone in 60 Seconds."
The crudely crafted indie flick found a cult audience and inspired a 2000 big-budget sequel starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie and, of course, a vintage Mustang named Eleanor.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, March 04, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 39 words Type of Material: Correction
Gone in 60 Seconds: A Business article Saturday about litigation involving the 2000 movie "Gone in 60 Seconds" referred to the film as a sequel to the 1974 movie of the same name. The 2000 movie was a remake.
It also spawned the legal equivalent of a 10-car pileup that involves, among others, automotive legend Carroll Shelby and Denice Shakarian Halicki, widow of the original "Gone in 60 Seconds" director H.B. "Toby" Halicki.
Halicki, who accuses Shelby of working with a Texas company to produce unauthorized Eleanor knockoffs, claims in lawsuits that the modern-day Eleanors violate copyrights she owns.
"We believe there are many millions of dollars at stake here," says Beverly Hills attorney Allan Browne, who is representing Halicki, a 51-year-old Los Angeles resident.
The 85-year-old Shelby, who has homes in Bel-Air, Las Vegas and his native East Texas, denies wrongdoing, claiming he obtained the trademark rights to use the Eleanor name on cars in a 2002 filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
"From Shelby's point of view, all he did was use his legally recognized rights to license someone else to build these cars," says M. Neil Cummings, a Los Angeles attorney who represents Shelby.
The 1974 "Gone in 60 Seconds" is a touchstone for connoisseurs of the car-crash genre. The tale of a car thief's quest to steal 48 four-wheel gems in a few days' time, it features 93 car crashes during a single 40-minute chase scene and includes hair-raising footage shot on the Harbor Freeway and the streets of Long Beach, Torrance, Carson and other south Los Angeles County cities. The star car is Eleanor, a bright yellow souped-up Mustang of early '70s vintage that is pinched from the parking garage of the International Tower in Long Beach.
Called "a genuine primitive work of art" by a Times film critic, the movie became an unlikely box-office hit, pulling in a claimed $40 million -- more than $150 million in today's dollars.
H.B. "Toby" Halicki, who not only directed but also starred in the movie, died in 1989 when a stunt went awry during the filming of "Gone in 60 Seconds: 2." He had married Denice, a former model, only three months before. He left behind a multimillion-dollar estate that kept his widow and brothers fighting in court for years.
