Monday, December 01, 2008

By MIKE MOONEY
mmooney@modbee.com

last updated: May 25, 2008 07:15:54 AM

Not only was Gene Winfield there at the beginning. For many car enthusiasts, he is the beginning -- the true "Godfather" of the American street rod and customized car.

So, it's only fitting that Winfield is returning to Modesto, the city where it all began.

He's scheduled to appear at noon Saturday at the State Theater, where he will discuss his custom car work.

While there, Winfield also will sign copies of his new book, "The Legendary Custom Cars and Hot Rods of Gene Winfield."

Sunday, Winfield will be a featured guest at the Modesto Area Street Rod Association's car show, where he will make his "pro pick," selecting his favorite car of the show.

Winfield also will be selling memorabilia and signing autographs at the show that runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Modesto Junior College West Campus.

It was during the mid-1940s that Winfield first started tinkering with automobiles. At the time, he was a student at Modesto High School. Today, he remains one of the most respected, creative and sought-after custom car

designers in the world. Winfield, who will turn 81 next month, became enamored of cars early in his childhood. He's not sure what triggered his interest.

"My first car was a 1928 Ford Model 'A' coupe," Winfield said recently. "I wanted to do something to (modify) it, so I started putting stuff on it."

Though the car did not have a radio, Winfield said he even fitted it with an antenna. "At the time," he said, "it was all the rage to hang a fox tail from your antenna."

From that modest beginning, Winfield's custom car designs have earned him hundreds of awards throughout the nation and around the world.

Since the mid-1960s, Winfield's fantasy and "concept" cars have starred in dozens of movies, television shows and commercials.

His creations have been featured in TV shows such as "Star Trek," "Get Smart" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," as well as a host of theatrical movies, including the Woody Allen comedy "Sleeper," the science-fiction thrillers "Robocop" and "Blade Runner" and the time-travel comedy "Back to the Future."

And those titles just scratch the surface of Winfield's impressive list of automotive movie and TV credits.

Modesto 'native'

Born in Springfield, Mo., Winfield was not yet 2 years old when he arrived in Modesto with his family.

The year was 1929 and the Roaring '20s were about to crash headlong into what came to be known as the Great Depression.

Suddenly, times were tough.

"My father, Frank, was a butcher," Winfield said. "He built this wagon, a hamburger wagon, and took it out to the corner of Eighth and H streets.

"He called it Frank's Nickel Lunch. You could buy a hamburger or a hot dog and a soda for a nickel."

The business was a success. Later, Winfield's mother, Virginia, took over the hamburger and hot dog enterprise, changing the name to Modesto Nickel Lunch after divorcing Winfield's father.

The business grew so popular, Winfield said, it created traffic problems, prompting city officials to deny his mother the permit she needed to keep operating the cart.

"Cars would line up on one side," he said, "and people would walk up on the other side. At lunch, the line of cars would back up for a block and a half."

Virginia Winfield got around the permit problem by moving Modesto Nickel Lunch into its own building at Eighth and G streets, about a block away from where the cart had been parked.

When he was 10 years old, Winfield said he went to work as a carhop at the hamburger stand. The job gave him an early opportunity to check out the latest in automotive design.

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