The Lady and the Dale (2021) s01e02 Episode Script

(FLASHY MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
-(DOOR SLAMS)
-(HANDCUFFS CLICK)
CANDI MICHAEL: My parents
were released on bail,
that's what started the run
for freedom.
We rarely lived in one place
for more than two months.
CHARLES BARRETT:
My sister called me
and said, "Jerry's changing."
JERRY: Dear Vivian,
I'm not a man anymore.
But I'd walk through fire
for you and the kids.
MICHAEL:
We were all fine with it
because she was a great mom.
SPEAKER : Liz Carmichael worked
at a cutting edge company.
She could sell anything.
MICHAEL: One day she came home
talking about
this three-wheeled car,
the answer to America's
gas problem.
LIZ CARMICHAEL: General Motors?
I'll kick the shit out of them.
(TAPE RECORDER CLICKS)
G. ELIZABETH CARMICHAEL:
Then the next thing
I found very impressive
that stuck with me,
and stuck with me to the point
that I memorized it at one time,
was the poem "If--" by Kipling.
"If you can keep your head
when all about you
are losing theirs
and blaming it on you,
if you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you,
but make allowances
for their doubting too"
And it goes on and on.
There's about 15 stanzas of it,
and every one has
beautiful thoughts
and all about
self-determinationism.
Uh, I learned when I was just
a tiny little girl
that prayers don't get answered.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARMICHAEL:
Self-motivation does.
So sometimes when I feel
very drained and very low,
I'll go off by myself
and I'll look up at the stars
and I'll just kind of withdraw
into myself
and draw from
my own personal power,
but not from any belief
in the Supreme Being.
(INSECTS CHIRPING)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
(DRAMATIC MUSIC FADES) ♪
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI MICHAEL:
I knew that this was big.
We had stability.
We were staying in one place.
Bills were getting paid
on a regular basis.
We lived in a real house.
It was what I thought
was normal,
what I thought everybody else
thought was normal.
CHARLES RICHARD BARRETT:
When the Dale came along,
she quit the little stuff,
so to speak.
She really did.
The concept of the Dale car
is solid.
She was going to build a car.
-She had a winner.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
CARMICHAEL: (OVER RECORDER)
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-LESLIE KENDALL:
All through automotive history,
women have played
a supporting role
in the automobile development,
automobile marketing.
They never really rose
to the level of executive
or designer or engineer.
Liz, however, was hoping
to change all that.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
(TAPE CLICKS)
One thing that Liz had
going for her was her timing.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
KENDALL: Not only was
the gas crisis in full swing,
but the Space Race
had been won by America
a half a decade earlier.
(CROWD CHEERING)
KENDALL: And there were
all of these people
who were ready and willing
to apply their talents
to something terrestrial
like an automobile.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
GERRY MCGUINNESS:
My dad, Frank McGuinness,
all of a sudden said,
"I want you to come down
and meet Liz Carmichael
and see where I work.
They might need some people
to help render some stuff."
And I go, "Really?"
KENDALL:
Dale Clifft built a prototype.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
She seized upon that.
But then she thought,
"Well, for the public
to really go for this,
it has to have a full body.
It has to have
proper wheels too.
Just look more like a car."
MCGUINNESS:
And here, I'm a 19-year-old kid,
and I was the assistant
to the chief designer.
He would come in, I said,
"Well, what do you
want me to do?"
And he goes,
"Just start drawing.
Anything you want.
Just be original. Just do it."
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
(TAPE CLICKS)
CARMICHAEL:
(TAPE CLICKS)
NEIL ARMSTRONG:
That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
("CHANGE" BY SUNSET LOVE
PLAYING) ♪
KENDALL: Having known about cars
and having loved cars
and been interested in cars
ever since
I knew what they were
I would have my father take me
to the LA Auto Show.
By the early '70s,
cars were the longest,
the lowest, the widest
they were ever gonna get.
-(ELEPHANT TRUMPETS)
-They were also the heaviest,
and they were also
the least fuel efficient.
(GUZZLING)
Nobody was really coming up
with anything different,
except for one.
-(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
-(CAMERAS CLICKING)
And here's this three-wheeler
that's gonna use less gas,
-which is what America needs.
-(MAN 1 LAUGHS)
-MAN 2: Oh!
-MAN 3: Whoa, nice!
My God, look how yellow it is,
for crying out loud.
ANNOUNCER: And this is the Dale.
It gets 70 miles to the gallon.
It is a three-wheel vehicle
and very stable.
KENDALL:
This three-wheel configuration
was something that was extremely
unusual for an automobile,
and here it is
at the LA Auto Show.
I just remember looking
at that car and thinking,
"This is really,
really something."
It flew in the face
of tradition.
CANDI: I couldn't believe
that it was real.
At the time,
it looked like a spaceship.
The rotunda was encased
and we weren't supposed
to be in there,
but we all wanted to get in it
and we were constantly
trying to open the doors.
And my sister actually
broke a door handle off.
Of course,
we rolled it under the car
(LAUGHS) and then
got out of the rotunda.
(GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI: We stopped calling Vivian
"Mother" at that time,
and she was "Aunt Vivian."
And we didn't see
much of Liz anymore
because it was always
past our bedtime
-when she was getting home.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
CARMICHAEL: I've always
worked 16 hours a day
since I was a little girl.
As a result,
my family has been forced
to build their life around mine,
rather than mine around theirs.
(PHONE BUZZES)
-CARMICHAEL: Yes?
-RECEPTIONIST: Young lady
named Wendi on the phone.
-CARMICHAEL: Okay.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
We called the office,
between us,
at least 20 times a day.
Just 'cause
we wanted Mommy home.
CARMICHAEL:
I get home at one o'clock,
but it's quality time,
not just quantity time.
But she still made time
for the Sunday picnics.
It was always the same.
She'd start cooking
late on a Saturday night.
The potato salad and coleslaw
and bean salad,
which was delicious,
devilled eggs,
and a homemade bread.
All night long,
you'd smell the yeast,
and first thing in the morning,
she'd put it in the oven
so it'd be ready
to take to the park.
And we'd play
our idea of baseball.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-CANDI: Even Vivian played.
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
She'd smack that ball and run.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
My name is John Griffiths,
and, uh, I was hired by Liz
to build
the first running prototype
Dale three-wheel automobile.
Because up until that time,
they had nothing but show cars.
Show vehicles don't have
to operate or do anything.
They get pushed up
onto a dais and rotate,
and the salesman just talks up
as big as they can
to promote an interest
in the vehicle.
She was happy
to have me onboard,
and I looked forward to
making her dream come true.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
(TAPE CLICKS)
She said,
"We're gonna make a prototype,
and we're gonna have it
test-driven,
and we're gonna show the world
that we're contenders."
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GREG LEAS: She said,
"Build yourself a machine shop.
Money is no object."
You know, it was
the Mercedes of everything.
I had worked with
four-wheel automobiles,
and this was a three-wheel
with a motorcycle engine,
so it was all brand-new.
LEAS: Some of us
were doing things
that we'd never done before,
but
we were gonna figure that out.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
(TAPE CLICKS)
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
A PR guy who calls me,
he says, "I got--
I got a mother of five
who has invented a car."
And I said,
"Yeah, well, is she famous?"
"No. But she's going to be."
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
America in the early '70s,
it was on a run.
Anybody could be
anything they wanted to be.
I was the paparazzi.
I was very, very good at my job.
I was fascinated with
those people who were making it.
Elizabeth Carmichael was clearly
one of these people
who was making it.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
COLIN DANGAARD:
When I was interviewing her,
I became more
and more enthralled
with what she was telling me.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL: The two most
important things about me
is that I have endless energy
and I am totally,
one hundred percent, honest.
I'm smart, I'm clever,
I'm a good businesswoman.
Three years ago,
I foresaw the demand
-for low-fuel-consumption cars.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
Elizabeth Carmichael
was an original thinker.
She was way ahead of her time.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL: I'm ready
to throw down the gauntlet
against the big three
of Detroit.
Detroit failed to respond
to the need
for a more efficient, low-cost
method of transportation.
Well, I'm going
to build the public
exactly what
they're looking for.
And I'm going to knock the hell
out of Detroit doing it.
I'll run the auto industry
like a queen.
My morale,
it's like a tent revival.
-The atmosphere here
is like a religious fervor.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
I can't say "spiritual," but
there was an energy
in that place.
We're almost like a big family.
DANGAARD: They are working,
giving me every ounce
of what they have
to make this happen,
to make the Dale happen.
And it was hard to doubt that
she wasn't going to do it.
She was determined.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
DANGAARD: The story
of Elizabeth Carmichael
went out to all my newspapers.
And that was 160 publications,
uh, in 30 countries.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
I've got the best PR man
that I think ever set two feet
on the ground.
He's one hell of a man,
as evidenced by the fact
that we've made the front page
of 60 major
metropolitan dailies.
I've been on every TV network.
what everybody's
been looking for,
a small, inexpensive car that
gets up to 70 miles a gallon.
built out of plastic
REPORTER: she says
is stronger than steel.
The capability has been there
for 15 years, but
CARMICHAEL:
All the efforts of one man.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI: Everything grew so fast.
Next thing you know,
they're selling posters of her.
It was just the weirdest thing.
You're selling posters
of my mom?
And she's standing there like--
like Superman,
straddling
the Los Angeles freeway.
MARK LISCHERON: She's now gotten
so much attention
that she has
her publicity people
contact The Price is Right.
BOB BARKER:
I need a bid, Johnny.
Have you got it?
-I'll bid 10,500 dollars.
-BARKER: Ten thousand
Nobody,
none of the three contestants,
even got close to
the actual price, which was
-(BUZZER RINGS)
-(AUDIENCE GROANS)
LISCHERON: 2,000 dollars.
MCGUINNESS:
We were convinced that
this thing was gonna take off.
We're in the beginning
of Microsoft, you know,
we're at the bottom floor.
This thing is gonna go.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL: We'll build
88,000 cars the first year,
open the second facility
in mid-1976,
and then the third facility
in '77 on the east coast.
My full intention
and expectation
is to become the biggest
automobile manufacturer
in the world
in five years.
And it won't stop
with automobiles.
Henry Ford said,
"You catch things
on the rising tide,
-you're doomed to success."
-(TAPE CLICKS)
She was just brilliant.
I mean, the way she came across
and the way
she can convince you of stuff
that, you know, were
not verified about that car.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
The formula's secret.
The body was made
from a material
developed to protect
the nose cones
on American space vehicles
during reentry.
It's nine times stronger
than steel, ounce for ounce.
(METAL CLANKING)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARMICHAEL: We've already done
the preliminary testing on this.
(TAPE CLICKS)
One day, she came home
telling us about this scientist
who made
this unbreakable plastic.
And she brought home
this tumbler, a glass
that wasn't glass.
The next day,
she goes to the hardware store
and buys this sledgehammer,
and she said,
"Go ahead, break it."
Before you know it,
this is a whole
neighborhood thing.
(INDISTINCT CHEERING)
CANDI:
Kids from the surrounding houses
were all over.
And everybody is
taking their turns
with the sledgehammer,
trying to break this glass.
She was really excited about
this special kind of plastic.
She was making claims
that the plastic
was strong enough
to take a bullet.
So, uh, one of the guys,
he goes and gets, um
I think a .357 Magnum,
and we went down
to the very bottom
of the Wells Fargo,
and he brought that plastic cup
and put it in the corner,
and with Liz, aimed at it,
maybe 20 yards away. Boom.
(GUNSHOT)
(SHATTERS)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
She acted like she was convinced
that that bullet
would bounce off that plastic.
She had probably said it
so many times,
she actually believed it.
And when you spoke with her,
she was very, very,
very convincing.
CARMICHAEL: My automobile
will be the safest in the world.
I've driven
one of the prototypes
into a solid concrete wall
at 30, 40, and 50 miles an hour,
and there was only
superficial damage to the front.
All that happened to me
was that my face
got scratched a little
and I got a little bloody nose.
Liz would just say anything
at any given time,
and then worry about
backing it up later.
CARMICHAEL:
I drove into the ocean.
I got caught up in testing
and ran the son of a bitch
into the ocean.
KENDALL: What Liz didn't realize
she was doing
was risking the reputation
of everybody
that was working for her.
All these people
were in her corner
really pulling for this thing,
believing in it
as much as she said she did.
MCGUINNESS:
You're promoting something
that should've been
built first to the T,
so you could actually go up
and say, "This is it."
(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
JOHN GRIFFITHS:
The sales and the promotion
and the making of money
in the main office
is totally separate from
anything going on in that shop.
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GRIFFITHS: As the weeks went on,
I realized that we didn't have
the right equipment
or anything to make a car.
There was no master plan.
There was no schedule
to complete anything.
That's what encouraged me
to make my proposal.
I wanna become
Prototype Project Director.
So I wrote a formal letter
and told her specifically
what I wanted to do,
what I saw needed to be done.
And she said to me,
"We've already got a manager
in the shop.
-It's Frank McGuiness."
-(TELEPHONE RINGING)
We were those
dirty little buggers
that were building this thing
in the back room
while she was making
the big money
on a dream.
ANCHOR: Meanwhile,
mechanics continue to work
on the miracle machine,
correcting what they call
"minor bugs."
The miracle is in the mileage,
a promise of 70
per precious gallon.
But if you think
the manufacturers
designed this car
to meet the energy crisis,
think again.
(CHUCKLES) If in the process
I save the world, that's okay,
but my main concern
is for myself.
-REPORTER:
And you wanna be a billionaire?
-CARMICHAEL: That's right.
I know how to build a car.
I know how to build a company.
I know how to put together
the financial empire.
But the one thing that
might stop me is the government.
They've got it rigged so that
if you don't already
have millions,
you may as well forget it
on attempting to compete
with millionaires,
unless you're willing
to do it illegally.
Liz said to me, "You know,
I wanna make a lot of money.
I'll be legal, but just."
Well, what does that mean?
She would take money
from anybody
if they bought into her dream.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL: I get letters
from people who say,
"I'll come and work for you
and do anything you want
because I think
you're our last hope."
They're walking in
off the street.
Heard about the Dale,
came out here,
and they wanna see
this thing happen.
What do you do?
It was really, really hard
for her to say no
to people like that,
people that believed in her.
Just giving her the power
and the feeling she wanted,
she couldn't turn them down.
Send them out to the shop.
You only need three
or four or five people
to build a car.
You don't need a shop filled
with people walking around,
having no direction,
not being told what to do.
It's embarrassing, actually.
"Why are you here?"
They're there because they've
invested their life savings.
She told me she brought in
around 30 grand a day.
So just a ton of money
coming in.
CARMICHAEL: I don't give
one hoot in hell about ecology
or the public welfare
or the public good.
I'm in business
for only one reason,
to make Liz Carmichael
the most important person
in the automotive industry.
And there are
thousands of people
riding to cheer me on,
and they're not wealthy people,
they're poor people
who see in me the embodiment
of the very thing that
they went to school 20 years ago
or 30 years ago or 50 years ago,
and learned that
that's what America's all about,
-free enterprise.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
For Liz
entrepreneurship
isn't just a fresh start.
(HOUSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
It is the only way forward.
Imagine what it would be like
if there was no other avenue
to success.
Being a woman
attempting to revolutionize,
uh, a business industry
in the '70s,
that at that time,
if you didn't take
that strong position,
no one was gonna
give you credit.
"You don't think I'm qualified?
Well, you're wrong.
Turns out, I'm the only person
in the entire world
that's qualified."
It's ridiculous.
It's over-the-top.
But is there really
any other way
that a woman at the time
could have been successful?
It is her one chance
to set all the past aside
and do something
truly meaningful.
And no one,
no one else in the world,
is gonna give her this chance.
She just has to create it
for herself.
-(NEWS THEME PLAYING) ♪
-ANCHOR: And more violence
among striking teamsters
in Northern California
ROGER SCOTT:
KABC was pretty normal.
I mean, "normal," it's not like
the Bank of America.
It's a newsroom.
There's a lot of tension,
there's a lot of deadlines,
people raising their voices
at each other.
But that's just the way
newsrooms are.
DENNIS SMITH:
It was a very exciting time
to be a news documentary
cameraman
in the '70s in Los Angeles.
REPORTER: There's
a waterline mark over there
SMITH: Fires, floods, riots
we did everything
that you can imagine.
SCOTT: Dick Carlson was just
a regular field reporter.
He delivered stories.
I've worked with him at KGO
in San Francisco,
where he was working
as the overnight reporter.
And they'd run around
shooting police busts,
and they'd come in
at six in the morning with film.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
You'd set up the camera,
put the person to be interviewed
four or five feet
in front of the camera,
and then run around
with the microphone
and do an interview
in less than three minutes
because the film
was gonna run out.
What charge
is being placed upon--
They're, uh, being, uh, arrested
for 370 of the Penal Code.
-Is that public nuisance?
-That is a public nuisance.
-Are you a pimp?
-I am no pimp.
I'm a rock-and-roll-style
guitar player.
I'm not here to criticize
who is right or who is wrong
in calling names,
beating people over the head,
or any other reason
of harassment.
Have you ever thought
it seems sort of ludicrous
to give all the money you make,
work 50, 60 hours a week,
to turn it over to a man?
PROSTITUTE 1: No.
PROSTITUTE 2:
But when I get starving
for two and three days,
and somebody comes along,
I'm gonna take a meal off him
if it's
the only means available.
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
SCOTT: And about the same time
that I came to KABC,
Dick Carlson also came to KABC.
The news director put him
together with Pete Noyes
to do investigative work.
Some people at ABC
were skeptical about Carlson,
and they said,
"Keep an eye on him.
Don't let him go overboard."
(MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY) ♪
(QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DICK CARLSON: Pete and I were
sitting in the house trailer
next to the newsroom building.
The television was on,
and a reporter who worked for us
was talking about a new vehicle
called the Dale car.
They were touting this car
and Mrs. Carmichael.
This is in the beginning
of interest in the media
in feminism
with Gloria Steinem
and Betty Friedan
and the whole sisterhood
at work.
Well, the media loved all that.
They put her
on the front of magazines
and got her television coverage.
So Noyes and I looked at it
and said
(CHUCKLING) "That's, uh--
That sounds like BS to me."
And it did. It was too perfect.
It was a media hype.
So we thought,
"Well, let's take a look
at this more seriously."
PETE NOYES: I called up
the Dale headquarters.
"We'd like to do a story
about the Dale car,
and we'd like to interview
G. Elizabeth Carmichael
about her life and times."
So we went over there
and we were waiting
for the interview,
and I noticed
an intelligence officer
from the DA's office
sitting in the room.
His name was Frank Ronick.
So I said, "What the hell
are you doing here, Frank?"
And he said, "Well,
there's some people working here
that may be able to give me
some information
if I squeeze them a little bit,
you know?"
I said, "Oh, yeah, well,
you wanna tell me more?"
He says, "No, I can't tell you
any more about it,
but you gotta keep your eye
on this place."
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
She's got some
strange people there
working in the company.
Normally, if there was
an engineering department,
it'd be just engineers.
Well, some guy in a suit
appears one day.
LEAS: Johnny Flack
is a good example.
He was dressed to the nines
all the time.
Looked like a hit man.
You know, he looked like
somebody who could do that,
or maybe had done it.
MCGUINNESS: I remember
when I was in my office.
All of a sudden,
these three guys walk in
in these three-piece suits.
And there's
no way in the world
You're not telling me
this wasn't the Mafia.
These were shady-looking dudes.
They were always
sizing people up.
They didn't scare me, but
they would intimidate me
a little bit.
At Twentieth Century,
it was like, "Don't say nothing.
What we do here, we leave here."
And it was always emphasized
that security is huge.
Every once in a while, you'd see
a car going by real slow,
and then
they'd shut the bay door
because they were afraid
of spies from the big three.
CANDI: I do know
she was getting nervous
and there was
a bunch of money involved,
and that's why
she hired bodyguards.
Bill Miller and Jack Oliver.
To everyone else not involved
in the car company,
it was thought that
they were her drivers,
but to us, she always
called them her bodyguards.
Even though it was dangerous,
it was very exciting.
Plus, it was a lot of money.
You know, it wasn't just
your regular wages.
It was, like, double.
GRIFFITHS: Every Friday,
everyone would drive over
to the headquarters in Encino.
LEAS: Liz would set up a table,
and she had stacks of cash
lined up,
and they were all pre-counted.
They go, "Greg,"
and then come up there
and they'd hand you
the stack of cash.
(CHUCKLING) It was just crazy.
Usually, you get a check
and you go to your own bank
and do whatever.
In this instance, on Friday,
I looked down, and there was
a briefcase full of cash
and next to it,
a .357 Magnum Revolver.
It would be like going to a bank
and the teller's got
a machine gun or something
sitting right there. (LAUGHS)
It just makes you
think about things.
"What's going on here?
What could go on here?"
(PLAYFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
So, it was a big showroom.
Here was the Dale car.
Very attractive-looking,
yellow, shiny vehicle.
So we asked Mrs. Carmichael
if they could remove
the glass dome
so we could take a look
at the car.
"Oh," she said,
"Absolutely not, not possible."
The receptionist's name
was Vivian,
and Vivian told us
that she was Mrs. Carmichael's
sister-in-law.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL: My dearest friend
laying over there on the couch,
who's also my private secretary
and my sister-in-law,
is a Pisces,
and she perfectly embodies
-what a Pisces
is supposed to be.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
CARLSON: So she ushered us in,
and Mrs. Carmichael
was behind the desk.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I did a preliminary interview,
talked about her past.
(TAPE CLICKS)
CARMICHAEL:
(TAPE CLICKS)
CARLSON: We did the interview.
It was very impressive.
She's a widow, she's a graduate
automotive engineer,
she lives with her five children
and her sister-in-law,
and the first cars are gonna
roll off the assembly line
sometime soon.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: Mrs. Carmichael
then arranged for us
to go out to
the research, uh, facility,
the "R&D laboratory,"
she called it.
So, Noyes and I felt
that we were not really equipped
in any technical way
to judge the development
of an automobile.
We hired a guy
for a hundred dollars
who was a retired
automotive engineer,
and he joined us
as a sort of shadow member
of the crew.
We pulled him off
as a lighting man, ultimately.
Mrs. Carmichael took us through
along with the PR guy,
Sam Schlisman.
Mrs. Carmichael gave her normal
lucid and colorful explanation
of the things
that they were doing.
And then we went to another
parking lot of a supermarket
to talk to
the automotive engineer.
The people who are
manufacturing the car
told us that they're making all
the parts for that automobile,
the engine and so forth,
right there in that research
and development building.
How do you feel about that?
You took a look at it.
It would appear that, um,
the components we saw there,
uh, might not have been made
in that particular building.
CARLSON:
A source close to the company
said the engine was, in fact,
made by FMC
and the transmission
was from a Toyota,
both of which charges
were denied by Mrs. Carmichael,
who did refuse to say
who'd made them
on the grounds that
the secret might be stolen
by Detroit
automobile manufacturers.
Salesmen like Jay Garner
have been selling options
on the car.
That is, you put money down,
up to 1900 dollars,
and you'll get one of the first
ones off the assembly line
if and when it's built.
Do you get a lot of people who
are willing to write out a check
for 1900, 1500, 1000,
whatever it is?
Yes.
They're very enthused
about the automobile.
They wanna put money down
to be sure to have an automobile
uh, when they come out
because we're limited
to the number of automobiles
we're gonna be
in production with.
CARLSON:
Now, these people, the money is
refundable on demand
-at any time, is that correct?
-JAY GARNER: That is correct.
CARLSON: Is that written into
the contract or something?
Yes. We will put it in there.
-CARLSON:
Is it standardly in there?
-No.
-CARLSON:
Oh, it's not in the contract?
-No.
(JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NARRATOR: Securities law.
MARK MACCARLEY: People are
flocking to the Twentieth
Century Motor Car Company
to make deposits.
If you decide you wanna buy
a brand-new car
and it's still a concept car,
the manufacturer is required
to put that money away
in a safe account.
These deposits were not put in
any sort of escrow account,
held until the vehicles
were actually produced.
What happened was
the deposits were used
to finance
the activities
of the business
salaries and distributions.
That runs immediately afoul
of our securities laws,
both federal and state.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL:
-(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
-(TAPE CLICKS)
CARLSON:
What guarantee is there to him
that he's either gonna
get the car
or get his money back
if he does not get the car?
Well, there's no guarantee,
any more than
there's a guarantee
that the sun will come up
tomorrow morning.
As I've said before,
caveat emptor.
Let the buyer beware. Chuck.
SMITH: The fact that
we were doing this story
helped their sales.
In fact, I think their sales
went up 200 percent
immediately after
the news coverage we did.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SMITH: There were
more people down there
buying options on those cars,
and she was making money.
We went over
and we talked to the people
at the State
Corporations Commission.
But they didn't do anything
to enforce it.
If I wanted to commit a fraud,
I certainly
would want their help,
because they don't know
how to investigate anything.
The evidence was clearly there
before them,
and they ignored it.
-(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
-SMITH: I think the best service
we did as a news team
was we brought it
to the attention of the public,
so the government
had to do something
'cause we were shoving it
right in their faces.
On Monday,
the state of California
issued an order
demanding that the company
stop selling options
on the automobile.
They said it was in violation
of state securities law.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
-CARMICHAEL: Try anything new,
try something different,
try to challenge the leaders,
and hey,
you gotta be swatted like a fly.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARMICHAEL: Acid in
the plastic vats, plans stolen,
locks busted, fires started,
false reports turned in
to various regulatory bodies.
Never a day goes by where
we aren't harassed by somebody.
-Been going on for months.
-(TAPE CLICKS)
CARLSON: And Liz Carmichael
says she is convinced
the state has been harassing
the company.
I don't really know
in what fashion
she has indicated harassment.
I, um, I do know that we have
issued subpoenas.
We have issued, uh, orders,
desist and refrain orders,
and if she has considered these
to be the form of harassment,
then I guess that would be true.
SMITH: After
the Department of Corporations
had ordered Twentieth Century
Motor Car Corporation
to cease and desist
selling options on the car,
I was assigned with Dick
to go over to their offices
and see what was going on.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SMITH: Now, Dick was obviously
really well known
in the offices,
and he couldn't walk in.
Dick asked me if I'd go
poke my nose inside.
So I walked in and just
acted like I was interested.
I looked over,
and there was somebody
filling out paperwork at a desk
and writing out a check.
And realized that he was
buying an option on the car.
I went back out to the car,
jumped in,
and told Dick
that they're still selling cars.
And he looked at me
and thought for a second,
and he said, "Do you have
your checkbook with you?"
I said, "Well, I'm not sure
there's that much money
in the account."
And he goes, "Don't worry.
The check will never leave
this building."
So I walked in,
walked around the car again,
looked interested.
Somebody came over to me.
I told them
I wanted to buy an option,
and they said, "Absolutely."
I fill out the paperwork,
I wrote them a check,
walked back out to the car,
and held up my option to Dick,
and he goes, "Grab your camera."
-Get outta here.
-What I wanna ask you is, uh,
you sold an option
to my cameraman here.
I understand there's a state
cease and desist order
telling you
you can't do that.
Hey, Jay, come on down.
Having trouble finding
somebody to talk to.
No sé nada.
-CARLSON: Pardon?
-No sé nada.
-CARLSON: No sé nada?
-No, no comprendo.
Españoles?
-CARLSON: You're fibbing to me.
-Españoles?
CARLSON: No, I don't,
and I don't think
you speak it very well either.
-Can you tell me
who's in charge?
-I have-- I have nothing to say.
Well, what I'd like to find out
is my-- my cameraman just bought
a Dale option for 500 dollars.
LEAS: You'd come home at night
after working,
and you see this stuff
on the Dale on the news.
CARLSON: Hey, Jay, come on out.
We'd like to talk to you.
My cameraman wants a refund.
LEAS: Why are you doing this?
Why are you destroying something
that could actually
help this country?
There was nothing, in our minds,
more important and more exciting
and more needed by the country
at that time.
There was an energy crisis.
CARLSON: Well, finally,
after about 20 minutes,
a salesman did come out.
Since our interview last time,
how are you?
-I'm okay.
-CARLSON: Can you explain to me
why you're selling options
on the Dale?
What do you mean,
"selling options"?
We are.
We're taking deposits on cars.
CARLSON: Ah, so you didn't--
you don't know anything about
a, uh, an order
from the state of California
-forbidding you to do that?
-No, I do not.
CARLSON: You don't? They never
said anything to you about it?
-No, they have not.
-CARLSON:
Have you continued to take,
uh, orders on the car
and sell options
-since the last time
I talked to you?
-Most-- Yes, I do.
CARLSON: I see. You don't think
you're breaking the law?
-No, or I wouldn't be doing it.
-CARLSON: Would you
be surprised if I told you
that there's an order saying
that this Twentieth Century
Motor Car Company
cannot sell options on Dales?
There's a lot of things
you could tell me,
but I don't believe
anything that you say.
CARLSON: Well, after
a short discussion in that vein,
Jay handed back Smith's check
for 500 dollars.
I left,
and I was locked outside.
"We're closing for the day,"
they said.
Somebody called the police, who
were first asked to arrest us
and then to confiscate the film
that we'd shot this afternoon.
They declined, fortunately
for us, to do either one,
and, uh, that all took place
about two hours ago.
I just couldn't get over that.
I just--
It was beyond me,
in the name of journalism
or anything else,
why anybody would do that.
To set out
to deliberately destroy
something that noble.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SMITH:
We were out to get to the truth
so the people who were investing
a couple thousand dollars
to put deposits down
on these cars
wouldn't be taken advantage of.
CARLSON: The Twentieth Century
Motor Car Company
really got to dislike me.
One day, I was on the set at ABC
and a grip, whom I knew,
came up to me
and asked me to--
if he could talk to me alone.
"Sure." So I went
behind some curtains with him,
and he basically
offered me a bribe
that came through
Mrs. Carmichael.
He didn't say it came through
Mrs. Carmichael, but it did.
Uh, he said he knew some people
who knew some people. (LAUGHS)
And if I would take,
I've forgotten, 2,000 dollars
and stop doing this,
that would be the end of that.
And he was offering the money.
Somebody had gotten to him.
Mrs. Elizabeth Carmichael
is the prime mover
behind the automobile.
She says that she is
a mechanical engineer.
She says she has
a master's degree
in business as well.
I called the university
that she said she attended,
and I checked to see
if there were any graduates
with her name
from the engineering school,
and they had never
heard of anybody
named Elizabeth Carmichael.
And I called her, and I
asked her on the telephone,
"What was the year
you graduated?"
She said, "Well,
women don't tell our ages."
"Look, I just checked
with the university.
They say they have no record
of you attending."
(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARLSON: "Why am I answering
all these questions? I--
I'm telling you who I am,
and it's clear
that I'm telling the truth,
and I know
a lot about engineering,
-and so stop bugging me."
-(PHONE SLAMS)
CARLSON: Now, a woman heading
an automobile-making company
is news,
and by her account,
Carmichael is a graduate
in mechanical engineering
from Ohio State
and has a master's in business
from the University of Miami,
yet neither school
has a record of those degrees,
and when I asked Carmichael
for details about that,
she refused to discuss it
any further.
Let the stations, the owners,
the oil companies
choke on their gas.
-(CAR HORN HONKS)
-I'm worried.
It's not a happy situation,
to say the least.
-I'm tired.
-My tank is, uh, almost empty.
So they waited three hours,
and there was no gas.
I can't take it anymore.
(BANGING ECHOES)
REPORTER: How much
have you got left in there?
None. It's empty.
I just couldn't imagine
something like this
would happen in America.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARMICHAEL:
People have begun to believe
that the land of opportunity
does not really exist.
And when they see
somebody like me,
who spouts off that I am
a nobody who's going to become--
become the biggest in the world
by my own effort,
they clamor to me
because I am
the one thing that's lacking
in this country today,
and that's a hero.
People need a hero.
And we haven't had a hero
since Teddy Roosevelt.
(TAPE RECORDER CLICKS)
BARRETT: She called me and
said, "Now, I've got
a deal going out here."
She said,
"I really need your help.
We're gonna produce this car.
Trust me,
you are going to make some money
and everybody's gonna get rich.
We just need a break
to get it going,
and once we're up and running,
it's gonna be a hit."
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
But she needed help.
She needed support from family,
some people
that she could trust,
because when you're
in a pool of sharks,
you're gonna get bit.
She said,
"Every time I turn around,
they're coming through the door
with another complaint.
We gotta cut some corners
because we gotta
get the money coming in.
If you don't have the money,
the car is gone."
She kept stressing how
they had to get it in production
before the government
shut them down.
She kept saying that.
She said,
"Once you're in production
and the car is out there,
they can't stop you."
I said, um
"Man, I'll tell you what,
I normally--
I would do anything
you want me."
But I said, "I've got
a really good job here."
I said, "I've-- I'm respected."
(CHUCKLES)
"I've got three children
to feed now."
I said, "I'm sorry
I can't. I can't."
(OMINOUS MUSIC FADES) ♪
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MCGUINNESS: I remember
the first time I'm saying,
"Something is wrong."
People weren't getting
their damn paychecks,
and I was, like, shocked.
There was some kind of
money issues going on,
and without money,
you're a done deal.
You cut off the blood,
that animal dies.
And I remember my dad said,
"No one works
without getting paid.
That's all there is to it."
Even though
they believed in that car,
you still need money
to pay your bills.
We all went down
to Liz's office.
-Everyone shows up.
-(INDISTINCT CLAMORING)
And some of them were angry,
you know, shouting at Liz.
I mean, it was like
a mob ready to blow up on her.
(INDISTINCT CLAMORING)
MCGUINNESS: What do you do?
Probably took her by surprise.
All of a sudden, you have
30, 40 people in your office
kind of screaming at you and
waving checks that are no good.
(CLAMORING)
MCGUINNESS: She looked very,
like, "What am I gonna do?
I can't let this
fall apart right now."
I actually felt a little bit sad
'cause we still felt so much
involvement in the company,
and I actually, out of all
the people there, I just said,
"Well, I feel if we could
get over this hump,
we'd be okay.
I know businesses
go through things like that,
but we've gotta
get the investments."
You know, I'm a kid
saying all of this,
and everyone's shutting up.
And she looked back
and she goes,
"Well, that's what
I just wanted to tell you all,
that I just got the phone call.
The investors are coming in
from Japan.
We're getting the money we need.
Everything will be fine.
I need you all
to go back to work.
You'll get your back pay.
We're all gonna make it.
We're all in this team together.
We're family.
Don't let me down
when I need you.
This is not the time
to leave me."
(INSPIRATIONAL
MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MCGUINNESS: And there were
people in there that were like,
"Don't worry, Liz,
we're there for you."
She could bring that emotion up
faster than you could imagine.
GRIFFITHS:
Enter the Japanese investor,
which was going to
give Liz credibility
about the Dale project.
So Liz said, "It's gonna
maybe give us a lot of money.
We're gonna have to
put on a test drive."
December 31.
We knew we had
a big old fish on the hook.
They were gonna invest
30 million dollars,
so if that test drive
is successful,
that's the beginning
of the major competition
for the big three.
MCGUINNESS: So it was like,
"Throw it together!
Get the engine going!
Put the parts together!
We need it now."
GRIFFITHS:
Orders came from headquarters.
"Get that car running.
I don't care
if it's unfinished."
Just had to put two seats in it
one way or another
that would, quote, "start,
physically start and run."
Eyewitness News wanted to know
just what those men
who actually worked on the idea,
the design,
the mechanics of the Dale
really thought about it.
Late last week, I located
a high-level technician.
He asked only
that he not be identified,
hence the shadows
on the sidewalk.
TECHNICIAN: I feel the car's
got a lot of potential,
and with proper management,
I think we can really produce
a good, sensible,
economical automobile.
CARLSON: Mrs. Carmichael said
she expects this car
to be in mass production
by June.
Do you think that's realistic?
TECHNICIAN:
I don't feel it's realistic. No.
They've generated a momentum,
and they--
they don't know
how to control it now.
I'd say the lunchtime talk
was,
"Well, yeah,
she's probably gonna--
she's probably gonna
hit the hills
when the money comes in.
That sounds like
what she's waiting for,
it's the Japanese investment.
Once she gets a few million,
she's gonna disappear."
And then, at the same time,
you're thinking,
"No, we have to
move forward on this.
I don't know
if it's real or not,
but we have to move forward."
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GRIFFITHS: Everything culminated
with that one test drive.
It took place
very near the facility.
I mean, I--
I did seize the moment
because people are,
"Well, who's gonna drive it?
Who's gonna"
"Well, I'm gonna drive the car."
The excitement was
getting into the car
before anyone else got into it.
And I grabbed Hans specifically
for the test purposes,
and we talked briefly,
and I said, "You know
you know why I want you
to help me here,
because we're gonna--
we're gonna see whether
this thing is even roadworthy
in any way or form."
Liz followed
fairly closely behind us.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MCGUINNESS: We got there,
and all of a sudden,
these Bentleys,
big black limo kind of cars
all one after another,
I mean, it must've been
a half a dozen or more,
all pulling up.
It was like, "Oh, my God,
big money
just is rolling up here
to see this thing."
Well, I'm thinking
it's gonna be perfect.
And I mean, you go straight,
you have no problem.
(ENGINE STARTS)
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC
CONTINUES) ♪
LEAS: I was amazed that we had
that doggone thing operational.
And it reached
45, 50 miles an hour, you know.
That's cool.
And it sounded good,
sounded like a BMW.
And it looked good.
It was a three-wheeled car.
How many times
do you see one of those
going 40 miles an hour?
I loved it.
(ENGINE REVS)
GRIFFITHS: The whole idea
of getting someone who's heavy,
I'm gonna be able to
test the turn,
whether I go right or left,
that the turnover aspect
of a three-wheeler
comes into play.
And if the weight
is on one side,
then you're gonna have an issue
if you wanna turn
in the opposite direction.
The car will wanna roll.
I told him what I was gonna do.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GRIFFITHS:
So he's grabbing onto the roof,
and I said, "Be ready here,
I'm gonna do it right now."
MCGUINNESS:
And he's driving around fine,
and then he hits the brake
and turns the wheel.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
(METAL SCRAPING)
And I almost went out the door,
if I remember correctly,
hanging onto the steering wheel.
Hans had his shoulder
scraping along the side there.
Came back down,
boom, boom, boom.
(CLANKING)
GRIFFITHS:
We both laughed pretty hard
out of the nervousness
of this experience.
So it made the car look
very dangerous, you know.
And, of course,
this was quite disturbing to Liz
'cause she was counting on this
as the clincher
to get some money,
give a reality
to the whole project.
I thought the test driver
was there to disprove it.
In the shop, they blamed me
for sabotaging the company,
usual stuff.
MCGUINNESS:
The guy that drove that car,
he tried purposely
to try and flip it.
This is just a prototype,
you know?
Should've just let it run around
like a normal car
instead of going
as fast as you could,
hitting the brake
and turning the wheels.
He said something
along the lines
(SIGHS)
"I had to do that
to prove what kind of car
this really was,"
and I was like,
"You just shot us all
in the heart, you know that."
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
PRODUCER:
No, I vin--
I vindicated the poor design.
Liz Carmichael focused
on the excitement
of making a lot of money
and raising money
and hoop-dee-doing
about technology
and getting people, you know,
"Oh, who is this person?
What is this?
Oh, it's three wheels
and not four? Oh, wow.
Made in
such and such a fashion."
"Oh yeah, I'm gonna
put GM out of business."
Blah, blah, blah, you know?
(IMITATES GUN FIRING)
That was-- that was the style.
See, it's just ridiculous.
I wanted this thing
to be road tested
and be engineered
and everything,
and it never was.
We are so used to just being
a dog in the chain of events,
you know.
(TIRES SCREECHING)
LEAS: It wasn't that hard
to get it up on two wheels,
because of our rear suspension.
There's two in the front,
one in the back,
and it's on
a right-angle drive train,
there's a wheel and an axle.
And that's suspended this way,
on a lever, so to speak.
Well, that lever has side play,
so that
when you turn the car right,
that--
that whole thing kind of tilts.
So one of the wheels
is trying to turn the car over.
We're going, "Oh, there you go."
All we needed to do
was tighten that up.
But we didn't think of it.
Took a while to get over that.
MCGUINNESS: That was it.
That was it. That was it.
There's no way in the world
that these guys--
They saw that, and they
were not about to invest.
(ENGINE STARTING)
CARLSON: I put
a surveillance on the R&D lab.
They had a bunch
of Japanese investors out there,
as I remember.
(ENGINES RUMBLING)
CARLSON: I watched this
white-coated lab tech leave,
get in the car,
and he drove to some other spot
in the San Fernando Valley.
-He went into a bar.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
So I followed him into the bar
and I sat down next to him,
and I attempted to turn him
into an informant for us,
and actually with some
success, I have to say.
Introduced myself.
I said, "Can you tell me
exactly what it is
you're hired to do?"
He said, "Yes, we're all hired
on a-- on a daily basis
to wear these lab coats
and talk automotive language
and sound like we know
what we're talking about.
But they do it--
They did it for your benefit,
they did it for
some other TV people's benefit."
He told me all that.
So ultimately,
he was good enough
to grab an item
that Mrs. Carmichael had used.
It was a glass, actually.
And he gave it to me,
and I gave it to a sergeant
at the LAPD.
He had the prints taken off it.
NOYES: (ECHOING)
Who the hell was she?
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MCGUINNESS:
After the test drive,
Liz was irate.
She said, "I just witnessed
an abortion on three wheels."
But she acted like
new investors were coming on,
or something else,
which, you know
she knew
nobody was coming in with money.
She had to say something,
you know, make up something
to keep the waters
clean and level,
or else bad things
were gonna happen.
And, uh pretty soon,
bad things did happen.
She had to, uh, you know,
run for the hills.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CANDI:
We were in the car driving
from Los Angeles to Dallas
because the headquarters
was being moved to Dallas
by invitation of
the governor of Texas.
California was coming up
with all these new regulations
and stuff,
so Texas said,
"Hey, come build it here.
We'll waive these regulations,
and, you know,
do your car company here."
The only stumbling blocks
that would prevent us
from manufacturing, uh,
short of, uh, let's say,
a ship being sunk at sea
that had some of
our components on it,
might delay us a few weeks,
or the possibility in California
that we might not be licensed
to manufacture an automobile.
In the event that
that should happen,
we'll simply manufacture it
someplace else.
We're prepared to go anyplace,
but we are going to
build the car,
and we're gonna build it in '75.
CANDI: This was the time
for the big move.
We were taking two cars.
Vivian and I and Michael
were in one car.
Aunt Patti and the other kids
were in the other car.
Liz was still at
the headquarters office
in Los Angeles.
And we were driving down
the Pearblossom Highway
when it came on the radio.
(RADIO STATIC)
ANCHOR: Late this afternoon
-(STATIC)
-was shot to death
in the showroom of
the Twentieth Century
Motor Car Company.
They were shot
on the showroom floor
(TIRES SCREECHING)
CANDI: There had been a murder
at the Twentieth Century office.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I remember pulling over
and her and Patti
frantically talking.
Vivian was scared to death.
Vivian thought
that Liz had been killed.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DRAMATIC MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(FUNKY MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
-REPORTER: Where's the money?
-What money?
MAN: We asked them to run
the name Jerry Dean Michael.
It was a house of cards.
MAN 2: Liz being transgender was
the single most motivating issue
in why they went after her.
How do you combat
the media's narrative
that you are not a woman?
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪