DID YOU KNOW ?
Jim Morrison & Blue Lady
After "Light My Fire" hit the top of the charts in 1967, DOORS' popularity soared virtually overnight. The founder and president of Elektra Records, Jac Holzman, was so delighted with the first hit of his new colts that he offered to reward the members of the group with the gift they desired. Manzarek and Krieger requested state-of-the-art reel-to-reel tape recorders. John Densmore chose a horse and Jim Morrison, in search of thrills, opted for mechanical power...
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Morrison had no particular request, not being very materialistic in nature, until he saw the Shelby Mustang GT350 belonging to his hairdresser, Jay Sebring. (If Sebring's name sounds familiar, it's because he, too, met an untimely death.
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In 1969 he was murdered, along with actress Sharon Tate, by the "Manson family".) Holzman not only agreed to buy a Shelby from Morrison, but he ordered a specific model, a GT500 sporting a splendid painting "Nightmist Blue". Far from Ford's entry-level model, the vehicle is equipped with a 355 horsepower V8, coupled to a four-speed manual transmission. Only some 2000 models of this type left the workshops of Carroll Shelby.
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By all accounts, Morrison was very fond of the car and drove it relatively rough, so rough that it was often in the shop for repairs, both cosmetic and mechanical. Babe Hill said, for example, that Morrison had fun going up the main Californian streets at full speed in the opposite direction of traffic...
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Thanks to "HWY: An American Pastoral", a medium-length film imagined by Jim Morrison, in which he stages himself as a serial killer hitchhiker, we can see him driving the one he nicknamed "Blue Lady ".
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So what happened to "The Blue Lady"?
The most popular explanation is that one night, Morrison driving recklessly hit a telephone pole on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. After inspecting the damage, he went to the Whiskey A-Go-Go and partied the night away. When Morrison returned, the car abandoned in the middle of traffic was no longer there. Then there's this other version that: Morrison parked the car at Los Angeles International Airport while the DOORS were on tour, when he came back the car was supposedly impounded. There is also speculation that the car was sold and resold several times - with owners unaware of its history - before it was finally scrapped in the 1980s.
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Whatever the true story of this legendary "Pony Car", if anyone knows where Morrison's Shelby is, they haven't spoken yet... We hope, of course, that the vehicle will be found one day . On a note of hope, the 1968 "Highland Green" Mustang GT driven by Steve McQueen in "Bullitt" has been missing for decades, and many assumed it was wrecked. Eventually, it resurfaced in January 2018, and two years later sold for $3.74 million...
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Turns out a Dutch DOORS fan known as 'The Dutch Guy' has been investigating for the past few months in an attempt to figure out what may have happened to Morrison's car, here's what he found :
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Based on the vehicle registration number: VRD389, he would have found no less than 12 advertisements in local Los Angeles newspapers for a Shelby GT500, the last of which was dated October 13, 1971! Surprisingly, the first ad he says he found dates from February 2, 1969 and includes the telephone number of the DOORS office, so the car seemed to be for sale before "HWY" was made but would not have found a buyer. !
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The ad indicates several items corresponding to Morrison's famous car, namely: a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 355hp, 428ci, V8 Police Interceptor, interior color Parchment (White), Registration: VRD389, with a specific dark blue paint from 1967 (named "Night mist Blue").
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All ads point to a certain Ray Wolff of "Hi-Performance Motors Inc Inglewood" (employee of Caroll Shelby), It's likely Wolff himself or the company may have bought the car after Jim then tried to sell it with these announcements, however, it is unclear whether Wolff actually sold the car or reused the parts for motor racing.
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The mileage in the advertisements is reduced from 14,000 to 15,000, which gives the impression that the car was still driving in 1971.
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It is therefore almost certain that Ray Wolff had the car after Jim left for Paris, VRD389 being a unique registration number, if it was used on another vehicle it was then a fraudulent use. The wine (Vehicle Identification Number) is 67402F2U00939, but it could very well also be an unknown Ford wine if it turns out to have been deleted and/or modified.
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"The Dutch Guy" insists on the fact that all these tracks can only be hypotheses. Nevertheless, it could still be that Ray Wolff was the person behind the destruction of the vehicle, for an unknown reason, probably after an accident or after having reused parts, because no announcement was published again by the following.
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We also learn via this fan that the "Shelby America Automobile Club" would work on its side to search for the legendary sports car.
It seems relatively certain for "The Dutch Guy" that all leads uncovered to date lead to this Ray Wolff, the phone numbers are one with the adverts referenced and Wolff has announced the sale of the car until the 13th October 1971 in the LA Times.
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So....unless Ray fraudulently listed a 1967 GT 500 with license plate VRD389 (known to belong to Jim Morrison), this is indisputable proof that Jim Morrison's 1967 GT500 existed still and was roadworthy and drivable three months after Jim's death in July 1971.
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The main question around this mythical car still remains unanswered, where is the "Blue Lady"?
*Link to the original English video of "The Dutch Guy":
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