1975 Artists' Soapbox Derby

Gopod bless Mayor Mike Haeg for uploading this incredible video of a 1975 artists' soapbox derby in San Francisco. It's like Maker Faire 35 years ago!

I stumbled across and purchased an actual print of this film back in SF while working on a project for the SF MOMA. Amanda Pope did a great job capturing the spirit of creativity and the event itself. I wonder where all of these cars are today?

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

Hey anyone wanna do this with pinewood derby cars in LA?
Anonymous

Is that the same David Best of Burnign Man Temples fame?
lakata

I’m pretty sure I met the guy that built the Banana car, in 1997 on the way back from Burning Man (at a rest stop on Hwy 80). The guy told us that he built the car for some silly race a long time ago and decided to bring it out of storage to this crazy party in the desert! Where else could you reuse a car like that? (besides the Berkeley Art Car parade of course :)
- lakata
  
  Yeah, Terry Axelson is the originator of the Banana Car, which is the same one that went to Burning Man AND the Art Car Festival in Berkeley:
  
  http://www.artcarfest.com/vehicles/banana.html
ndp

These machines seem like the forerunners of the Kinetic Sculpture Race machines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_sculpture_race
snsr

Awesome
Anonymous

That made me cry….
Anonymous

Penis car: 0:45
HPHovercraft

“Move off the pavement, or I’ll tell everyone you dyed your hair…”

I wasn’t in any particularly dire need of a belly laugh this afternoon, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Anonymous

Curious if anyone knows/remembers where the event was held? Am not recognizing from any of the early shots…
- Anonymous
  
  I’m not sure where it was held but my guess is those roads are in McLaren Park.
kentkb

San Francisco has always been a DiY Make this City. Remember when we made that Gold Rush?
Real fun movie, we should do it again.
a former student

Don’t know where the cars went, but Amanda Pope teaches at USC Cinema/Television (and she is awesome). So great to see some of her early work!
Anonymous

I could swear I saw the Banana one just last year at the Art Car Parade in berkeley.