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The Great Escape


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During the filming of John Sturges' classic The Great Escape (1963), the actors stayed in hotels in Munich and commuted daily to the Bavaria Film studio, located on the outskirts of the city.

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Some actors had a driver who drove them to the studio in the morning, others preferred to drive their own cars. Steve McQueen was one of them.

One day, the Munich police set up a speed checkpoint on the route taken by the film crew. Routine procedure.

But what a surprise the police had when they stopped most of the stars of the film and a good number of members of the technical team, all of whom were driving above the speed limit!

Steve McQueen was naturally one of the offenders.

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Arrested for clearly speeding, he was taken to the police station and received by the chief of police himself who, upon seeing the report, exclaimed:

"Herr McQueen, we've ticketed several of your colleagues today, but you're the one who takes the cake for your total disregard for speed limits!"

McQueen had apparently been going way over the speed limit, which was hardly surprising given his racing pedigree.

The star was imprisoned for half a day while the film's production team made arrangements with officials to have him released.

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17 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

 

During the filming of John Sturges' classic The Great Escape (1963), the actors stayed in hotels in Munich and commuted daily to the Bavaria Film studio, located on the outskirts of the city.

main-qimg-135272d0cc7b9e143477dcf99b673044-lq

Some actors had a driver who drove them to the studio in the morning, others preferred to drive their own cars. Steve McQueen was one of them.

One day, the Munich police set up a speed checkpoint on the route taken by the film crew. Routine procedure.

But what a surprise the police had when they stopped most of the stars of the film and a good number of members of the technical team, all of whom were driving above the speed limit!

Steve McQueen was naturally one of the offenders.

main-qimg-f882a9a98057167257e5eb8e705de6c3-lq

Arrested for clearly speeding, he was taken to the police station and received by the chief of police himself who, upon seeing the report, exclaimed:

"Herr McQueen, we've ticketed several of your colleagues today, but you're the one who takes the cake for your total disregard for speed limits!"

McQueen had apparently been going way over the speed limit, which was hardly surprising given his racing pedigree.

The star was imprisoned for half a day while the film's production team made arrangements with officials to have him released.

main-qimg-13e232731836df01639a5262460b160c-lq

What was he driving, a D Jag?

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Just now, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

What was he driving, a D Jag?


Right side driver too!!

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22 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

Steve McQueen

 

Marine (USMC)

Race car/motorcycle driver

Actor

Scofflaw extraordinaire

                and

The King of Cool

Interesting service history..  from Wikipedia…

 

Quote

In 1947, after receiving permission from his mother (since he was not yet 18 years old), McQueen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was sent to Parris Island for boot camp.[2]: 106 [21][22] He was promoted to private first class and assigned to an armored unit.[7] He initially struggled with conforming to the discipline of the service and was demoted to private seven times. He took an unauthorized absence, failing to return after a weekend pass expired. He was caught by the shore patrol while staying with a girlfriend (Barbara Ross) for two weeks. After resisting arrest, he was sentenced to 41 days in the brig.[7]

After this, McQueen resolved to focus his energies on self-improvement and embraced the Marines' discipline. He saved the lives of five other Marines during an Arctic exercise, pulling them from a tank before it broke through ice into the sea.[7][23] He was assigned to the honor guard responsible for guarding the presidential yacht of U.S. President Harry S. Truman.[7]

McQueen served until 1950, when he was honorably discharged.[2]: 106 [21][22] He later said he had enjoyed his time in the Marines.[24] He remembered his period with the Marines as a formative time in his life, saying, "The Marines made a man out of me. I learned how to get along with others, and I had a platform to jump off of."[25]

 

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Just now, Texas Lizard said:

Are you sure they did not flip negative?????

 

Texas Lizard


Yeah! I’m sure! Look in the upper left quadrant of the photo.  There’s a street sign there and it reads correctly.

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3 hours ago, Texas Lizard said:

Are you sure they did not flip negative?????

 

Texas Lizard

Probably not.  Lots of people drove British cars with right hand drive in those days.  I had a MGA 1600 and a Auston Healy 100-6, both with right hand drives.  A frat brother built a Lotus 7 from a 'kit' and  I knew two Morgan drivers with right hand controls.

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I saw a show with his son Chad talking about his dad. As far as the exotic cars he said that many of the cars his dad had were the most rare and exotic models offered by the automakers. Not just your average Ferrari, etc. Highly sought-after years later.

 

One comment was that his dad was gone a lot making movies. They didn't do things like play catch or other common father son activities. But he added, "it was way cooler then that".  Motorcycles, dune buggies, shooting. 

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