Right now, WKTV staff and volunteers are busily preparing to entertain the Wyoming and Kentwood community with two big productions of “DreamWheels” live on the red carpet next Friday, August 21st and Saturday, August 22nd!
As the 2015 Metro Cruise inches ever closer to 28th Street, WKTV is in high gear producing the only red carpet classic car show in the country. Producer Tom Norton says that classic car collectors from Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are bringing a total of 40 rare vehicles to be featured on the show. You don’t have to be an avid car lover to enjoy a show with stars like these:
The 1956 Continental Mark II, presented by Mike Hurley, was built by the Ford Motor Company to be the most luxurious and elegant American car of its time. It sold for around $10,000, Hurley tells us, which was the equivalent of a new Rolls Royce or two Cadillacs! Owners included a cross section of the richest families in America and the Shah of Iran.
This 1963 Studebaker Avanti R-1 is a Raymond Loewy design which means no car ever looked like it at that time or since. According to its third owner, Robert Hawley, it embodies Mid-Century Modernism.
“Whether you like the styling or not, the fact that it can be polarizing makes it interesting,” says Hawley. “With its wedge shape, coke bottle hips, curved glass, offset hood relief, grill-less face, contoured wheel openings and designed trim pieces there is always something to delight the eye.”
Hawley’s Avanti is one of two cars ever ordered with working AC and its unique colors.
See these cars and many more during WKTV’s live production of “DreamWheels!” It all takes place outside in the old Klingman’s parking lot across from Rogers Plaza. The show goes live on Friday, August 21 from 8 to 10 p.m. and again with new cars on Saturday, August 22 from 4 to 6 p.m. There will be a crosswalk between Rogers Plaza and the old Klingman’s for easy access. Best of all – admission is free!
