myBurbank Talks
myBurbank Talks
Special: Burbank Road Kings at Johnny Carson Park
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What happens when you combine a love for vintage cars with a strong sense of community? You get the 33rd annual Road Kings Charity Car Show at Johnny Carson Park in Burbank! Join Craig Durling, Ashley Erikson, Craig Sherwood and Ross Benson as they, along with guests, celebrate the rich traditions of Burbank and reminisce about past car shows. Nikki Perez shares her personal experiences growing up in the city, emphasizing the importance of maintaining these beloved community events. Whether it's custom bikes, food vendors, or the heartwarming sight of families and pets enjoying the day, this episode captures the vibrant spirit of Burbank.
Get ready to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones as we dive into the essence of local journalism and community events. Karen Arellano, president of the Burbank Road Kings, sheds light on the behind-the-scenes efforts that make the car show a sensational success year after year. The atmosphere is electrifying, filled with the hum of garage bands and the presence of Star Wars characters, all under the quintessential June gloom weather.
Feeling nostalgic? This episode will take you back to the 1950s with its parade of meticulously maintained vintage cars, classic motorcycles, and custom bicycles. Hear from Don Baldaseroni about the Road Kings' long-standing philanthropic efforts, including nearly $500,000 donated to local causes over the years. From personal anecdotes to future plans like Hot August Nights in Reno, this episode encapsulates the essence of Burbank's unwavering community spirit and its love for old-school cars.
Burbank's Road Kings Car Show
Speaker 1Good morning from the heart of Burbank's Media District, right here at Johnny Carson Park. The air is clear. Hopefully the sun will be on our side today. The grass has been cut and there are hundreds of cars sitting right in front of me. We're here at the 33rd annual Road Kings Charity Car Show. We're glad to have the MyBurbankTalks crew with us today. With the one and only the president of the company, the Greg Sherwood. We have today's producer and co-host of the weekly podcast. He's known around burbank as mr burbank the ross benson himself also joining the panel today. The voice of my burbank, yours truly, greg derling, joining us in a while, will be my burbank talks writer.
Speaker 1Writer and podcast host Ashley Erickson.
Speaker 3We are fortunate to have Vice Mayor of the City of Burbank, Nikki Perez.
Speaker 2Hi Ross, hi everybody.
Speaker 3Welcome, welcome. Well, you just said you know the opening remarks you said this is a Burbank staple. Definitely is, and it definitely I mean Road Kings, burbank. You're a lifelong Burbank resident.
Speaker 2I have been coming to these shows on my dad's shoulders.
Speaker 1I'm the only one here that hasn't spent their entire life in this city. I'm a transplant, but I'm still here. Still here. I got no reason to leave. We've adopted you. I'm adopted. I'm adopted. Burbank resident.
Speaker 3So as you made your way to the stage, you passed Hundreds of cars. Can you believe this? I remember you would last year. I think we have pictures of you and Jay, jay Last year. I think we have pictures of you and Jay I don't know walking around. He made his presentation or came and you were here and you're off to a busy Sunday schedule. Burbank is busy.
Speaker 2Burbank is busy, but you know what? It's good because we're busy with community events. My favorite thing is seeing all the little kids that are getting to enjoy what I got to enjoy when I was little, with their dads, their moms, out here, so this, this is a burbank staple. I love this. I love the bob's friday nights. John just told me about another one coming up, so I'm excited to be there too yeah, it's uh, like you say, it's community.
Speaker 3Burbank's a little different and we need to continue to do these events like this because it just brings people out, brings kids out and for kids. I know I have two granddaughters and when they come to community events they let them run around and they know who's here and they see their other friends. And that's what Burbank is. It's a little different than other communities.
Speaker 1And it's great, this event. There's so much for everybody here, our enthusiasts, children, there are games to play, there are displays, there are vendors here, there's food. That's always a plus, but this is great and it gets us all out of the house, that's for sure. On a nice Sunday morning, a little cloudy. That's keeping it cool for now, which is good.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, and I love what you said, craig. There's something for everybody. Last year, you know, I ran into some folks who do custom bikes. They deck out their bikes. They will add all of the glam that you think you can add to a car. They've added to a bike and they're cruising down on chandler.
Speaker 3You can find them on saturdays really, yeah, burbank has so much going on. I know there's an art festival going on yesterday and today. Our show today, like you say, chandler bike path will probably have hundreds of people walking on it today. There's an art festival going on yesterday and today car show today. Like you say, chandler Bike Path will probably have hundreds of people walking on it today. There's probably a dozen other events going on. Well, I know you have a very busy schedule today and we'll let you go and look upon the cars before you zoom off to your next assignment, and maybe we'll see your partner, uh, your partner in crime, the mayor of the city of burbank which one is yours?
Speaker 1I like that black little convertible over there.
Speaker 2I see you in that one going down olive you know I would take any of these lovely custom old school cars. But you know what? I wouldn't trade my car for anything. I have a 1996 toyota tacoma full metal body. It's in great condition, love her and I hope she lasts another 200,000 miles.
Speaker 1It's not out here anywhere. It's not on display, though.
Speaker 2We're not there yet.
Speaker 1A couple more hours in the garage.
Speaker 2It needs a couple of hours at West Coast Customs before it's presented.
Speaker 3There you go and there you go. Why do West Coast Customs choose Burbank as a home? We're a great community for businesses like that, and you know it's just nice to have West Coast Customs here.
Speaker 2Exactly, and you know I'll leave you with this, Ross I think Burbank is a huge old school car community and we really embrace that through our businesses, through our community members who are really involved in this, and I think it's a wonderful thing to showcase and I want to make sure we do that more.
Speaker 3And the Road Kings are a fantastic organization. They give back to the community. These guys pay to be in this show and that money turns around and goes to different organizations, nonprofits in our city. So we got to take our hats off to Road Kings, Road Kings.
Speaker 1they've been around longer than you have. They're 72 years old today.
Speaker 3Very true, very true. Well, madam Mayor, our Vice Mayor, have a great day. Nice seeing you, glad you stopped by. Your makeup's still looking good and I wish mine was. Thank you for stopping by.
Speaker 4Well, Ross, we have another guest. Why don't you introduce him and find out what's going on?
Speaker 3Well, we, you know we. This show has hundreds of people walking around and walking by our booth just now and I grabbed him by his shirt sleeve, by his beard, by his beard Kevin Maldoon A lot of you in Burbank if you listen to this podcast. He writes a lot of letters to the editor. He addresses the city council. He's lived here many, many years and knows a lot of history about the city of Burbank. What do you think today about this car show?
Speaker 5You know it's one of the go-to events every year, you know, and they filled the park again this time and if you haven't been up on the hill yet, if you at the show make check that out. It's a nice casual uh event up there. A lot of cool cars up here, but down here is the main road kings and and they just they're burbank staple. You know, I mean, what is it with a 50, 60 years, something like that? They've been around and, uh, the only thing I do miss is the chili cook-off that used to go with the car show here.
Speaker 3Well, Kevin, I am working on bringing Burbank Con Parade back to a smaller version.
Speaker 6Uh-huh.
Speaker 3And we're looking. There's been conversation. One day, maybe Burbank Con Parade on a Sunday, do the chili cook-off? You remember being out here for the fire? Oh for sure. Yeah, there were thousands and thousands. And what stopped, that is, some kid had a couple of beers and climbed up the power line.
Speaker 1City said no more, you never let me live that down.
Speaker 5But no, the Road Kings. They're great fundraisers and they're charitable with their activities and things like that. So they're a great part of Burbank. It's part of the reason people love Burbank so much is it is the home of the car culture. We got Bob's Big Boy, we got the Road Kings, we got the studios, we got the studio cars that we see. You drive around Burbank. You're going to see Jay Leno in an old car.
Speaker 1We haven't seen him walk through yet.
Speaker 5He usually shows up he does he does and who knows what he'll pull into. When I was working at NBC, it would be what did Jay drive today? It was one of the highlights of the day to see what was in.
Speaker 3Jay's pocket. Now, there you go. We're sitting literally across from NBC where you said you were working. How do you like that sight line? I mean these new iceberg buildings.
Speaker 5You know, it's really neat what they did. I mean, it's a Geary right.
Speaker 3Frank, neat what they did. I mean. Uh, it's a geary right frank. Geary is frank geary. Building done by that's a worth project, in fact, looking through that tunnel, all those are worth buildings.
Speaker 1Well, we heard from the vice mayor of that the inside of that building is is is amazing, right, the decor, the way it's decorated and uh, but isn't it you've?
Speaker 3been you've been there a long time. City's changing, sure, sure you know we look downtown.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, you live up on olive, or up on the hill and what we call the hill yeah people that listen to this podcast will know when I say up on the hill, right, but you know, you, you get around, you know, and burbank is changing. You can't do anything about the number of cars because people are moving here. They say that you have to build more houses. That means bringing more. Some people will be riding bikes In their own lane.
Speaker 3Well that's funny. As you know, they're narrowing streets in Burbank and putting bike lanes in. You know, we don't know what the city, the planners and all those guys have planned. But you look at this, I doubt if we have an electric car here today.
Speaker 5Well they're not going to get rid of the road kings or gas cars anytime soon. In fact, you know we still kind of push Sacramento into giving us the exempt older cars Because right now it stops at 75. So anything later than 75, you still got to smog and that takes a lot of classic cars off the road that you can't get smogged anymore. I belong to a website about smogging your classic car and it's a needle in a haystack of what pollution they're putting out. It's a car culture that hopefully will be still embraced as we get into our twilight years and not have to go buy specialty gas from somewhere that you know makes gas for us old-timers to drive our cars around.
Speaker 1It's hard enough finding the parts to keep it running, much less.
Speaker 5That's. What's amazing is you know some of these cars out here on the lawn. You can get a catalog and you can buy every nut and bolt for a 65-year-old car, but your washer machine goes out. That's four years old and you can't get a computer that's disposable you got to throw it away.
Speaker 3I talked to a guy. I have a 2004 chevy tahoe sitting behind me and he has built this is what the lap or la sheriff's department bomb squad used to drive and he has built one, rebuilt one, everything from what he can get by online, right, every part of it. He says you can get online.
Speaker 5And that's a tribute to the automobile business in our country. That was part of the thing. You couldn't build a car and leave people high and dry on parts for it, so they had to make a certain amount of parts and, like you say, those are getting some harder to find. I mean, there was a I forget what car pulled in here recently, but I looked at it and went you're not going to find a single part for that car in a catalog anywhere. There are some orphan cars that were just so few made that there is not a lot of market in making parts for those cars, so they all are hand-tooled.
Speaker 1We've got to keep those fabricators and machinists in business.
Speaker 5Keep them around. Luckily, 3D printing has brought a new life to finding parts for a lot of these cars. I know Jay Leno. He prints old Bakelite knobs for his cars that are obsolete and no longer available, so it's still a business out there. The old-timers are going away, though. I know a lot of guys that repair these cars and build these cars. They're retiring and they're moving on, and there's not a lot of people following them to keep up with this restoration. So things like events like this and the Road Kings are what keeps it popular going.
Speaker 1The camera picked it up, but we have a couple of stormtroopers and Darth Vader just walking by behind us here.
Speaker 3Oh yeah. So, Kevin, out of all the hundreds of cars that are here, what's your favorite? You?
Speaker 5know I gotta walk around again. I, I, you know they're audi. Audi gill has a rolls royce here today, a right hand rolls royce. Now audi has a collection of the finest automobiles on the planet. It's probably the most expensive car here today, so I'll have to tip the scale a little bit. That is a beautiful piece of machinery sitting over there. So if you haven't looked at that Rolls Royce up at the front of the show today, I'll have to go find that one I like that, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful car.
Burbank Community Event Coverage
Speaker 3Well, I appreciate you stopping by and taking time. Go ahead and listen to my Burbank Talks. We're doing podcasts. I don't know if you follow us.
Speaker 5I do, I do, and I was going to say thank you guys for all you do. You're the only voice in Burbank left. You know there's no other way to keep on what's going on, or letters to the editor anymore, and so you guys are old enough to remember the good old days when we had reporting as things like that.
Speaker 1Well, they are, they are.
Speaker 5So I want to thank you guys for what you do, too Well that's what Craig and I both we've been doing a long time.
Speaker 3We feel Burbank deserves its own news and there's enough going on and no offense. Local governments are trying to just keep it quiet. You know we remember the days that there used to be trays in the city manager's office for all the publications. They don't do that. We do have a great PIO in our city that keeps us informed, that keeps the public informed.
Speaker 1Well, they've taken out all the newspaper boxes, right?
Speaker 3Oh that was something, but that was more of an eyesore than anything, all the empty ones, but kind words indeed. Kevin, if there's ever a topic that you want us to cover, throw us an email or get a hold of me. We'll do the research and so forth. I know you're around town quite a bit.
Speaker 5I am my guys. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3Enjoy the show. Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 4Hey Ross, we've got the band back together again. The band.
Speaker 3I hear it, wow, we are. Is this a garage band? Not today it isn't. Were you really I was.
Speaker 8I was a drummer in my high school garage band.
Speaker 3Oh, come on, let's see some stick movement here. Who's joined us oh?
Speaker 1that's right. That's what we're doing. The lead singer of our garage band.
Speaker 3We said Ashley Erickson was going to be joining us in a bit, and look, I got out of bed. Lo and behold, you're the only one that requested a makeup trailer too. I don't get it.
Speaker 8I just needed a little extra beauty.
Speaker 1You're the only one of us that doesn't need it.
Speaker 3Well, we have Ashley Erickson with us. Ashley, if you've listened to any of her podcasts, I mean, you probably have a dozen shows down now on my Burbank.
Speaker 8Yeah, definitely more than that.
Speaker 3They are very interesting. I listen to them all and you have some great hosts.
Speaker 8There's some great women in this community.
Speaker 3That there are, and you're also one of our feature writers of my Burbank. You handle our my.
Speaker 8Burbank Email blast.
Speaker 1Email blast and our new awards.
Speaker 8You're behind a lot of the social media too, yeah yeah, yeah, I have 200 envelopes sitting on my table ready to be mailed out on Monday.
Speaker 3And that was for the library's best.
Speaker 8Yes, I spent all weekend working on those so our show today.
Speaker 3Ashley, I can you believe this I know I love it.
Speaker 8This is one of my favorite events of the year we.
Speaker 3We have the vice mayor here and, like she said, this is community, yeah, yeah, this is what brings people. You know, people are walking by where we're set up. We got dogs. I've got dogs. I've seen babies. Yeah, I've seen people, probably in their 90s. We have stormtroopers.
Speaker 1Darth Vader just walked by. Oh yeah, We've got a whole Star Wars crew that walked by.
Speaker 8I'm excited to look around.
Speaker 3And turn around and look right behind us.
Speaker 1You know that's what I get Hand polishing cars you know, that's what you see at a car show Scooby-Doo on the engine of another car there.
Speaker 8This weather is so perfect.
Speaker 7It is.
Speaker 8Overcast is so nice. No one's standing out in the burning hot sun today.
Speaker 1Thank goodness, not yet anyway, right, yeah, right.
Speaker 3So I know you're going to run out and look at some of these cars and make an offer on a couple that I hear.
Speaker 8Yeah, I'm here to purchase a vehicle today.
Speaker 3Well, we know your other half is a car aficionado. Yeah, he probably has ripped apart more automobiles.
Speaker 1As long as you put them back together. That's really the important part.
Speaker 3You know, he always has that extra bucket full of parts.
Speaker 1That's a problem.
Speaker 8We have a garage full of parts.
Speaker 1Extra parts when you put the lawnmower back together.
Speaker 8Oh yeah, he's always like I think I have this laying somewhere. I'm like I'm sure it's in there.
Speaker 1We'll be able to look forward to it. You're going to grab a couple of people throughout the day here and interview them. That'll be great.
Speaker 8We'll look forward to that yeah.
Speaker 1Get yourself a breakfast burrito.
Speaker 8I need some coffee.
Speaker 1They're good Coffee's right over there Stage right Okay.
Speaker 3Well, stay tuned for our next guest everyone. Ashley has joined us and she happens to have probably the most important person of this whole day, the president of Road Kings.
Speaker 8Two times yep.
Speaker 3second year I'll give it to you, Ashley.
Speaker 8This is Karen Arilano. She's here with us as the president of Burbank Road Kings. Welcome.
Speaker 10Thank you. It is wonderful and it is a unique weather day, but it is wonderful because it's not too hot.
Speaker 8This June, gloom is killing me. It is gloomy. It has been gloomy every single day.
Speaker 10When you see all this, how could it be gloomy?
Speaker 8But I feel like the colors I mean when you have the sun, you know reflecting in their shadows. But I like it like this. No one's out there sweating Nice.
Speaker 10Right, and I don't have to call the paramedics at all.
Speaker 8That's true, yeah, we got this. So this is your day. You have been planning this day for a very long time. You've been up since 5 am. Yes, you're extremely tired, I'm sure. Yes, but tell me.
Speaker 10Now that this is here and people are enjoying the day, how are you feeling? I'm feeling wonderful. I mean, I've seen these people. I run the registration as well, so I get to actually talk to everybody as they come in. And you know there's a good and a bad a little bit, but we got everybody in here. We had approximately 100 cars come in day of show, which is a lot, because people, with this weather lately, kind of wait to the last minute.
Speaker 8That was just 100 people just showing up, not registered.
Speaker 10Right.
Speaker 8Wow. So how many are here total? I don't know A lot.
Speaker 10Yeah, lots, a lot. City of Burbank charges me so I can't disclose that. But yes, plenty, we filled the park, plenty we filled the park. All the park we rented, we filled it. Yeah, and we have a lot of fun things here. We've got great vendors, all sorts of fun things for that Good food and we'll have beautiful trophies later on tonight.
Speaker 8Oh, that's exciting. Is there any favorite of yours here?
Speaker 10There's a couple I've looked at. We have the dragon tractor thing down there that I love. The guy sent me his card in the mail and said can I come Like? Yes, we have some people a lot. One of the things we try to do with this is, when we have them, find the cars that are somewhat new or people newer to doing this, or just finish something and bring them out. Yeah, we have some of those out here this year and I've seen some. There's a blue wagon thingy over there that's beautiful. There is, um, a bike somewhere, a sidewinder, something that's custom painted somewhere. It is gorgeous.
Speaker 8There's just so much to see here. I haven't even got a chance to walk around yet. I'm so excited because I mean, this event is huge.
Speaker 10You have a double decker right here we're a double stacker.
Speaker 8Yeah, it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 10It's nice to see we've got the fire department here. I love seeing them.
Speaker 8Gary loves to hear that.
Speaker 10It's just all very positive. We've got a lot of foot traffic too, so it's great. It's a big weekend for Burbank.
Speaker 8We have St Francis positive, we've got a lot of foot traffic too, so it's great. It's a big weekend for Burbank. We have St Francis Fair. Yes, we have the Downtown Art Festival. I mean this is the Burbank weekend, like you're staying in Burbank and you're enjoying everything that the community has to offer this weekend. That is perfect. Yes, well, thank you for coming. Oh, thank you. I mean, now you get to sleep. Tomorrow I'm sure you're going to feel so good.
Speaker 10Yes, so it'll be over. Yes, but then the next day you start planning for the next year.
Speaker 8Yeah, and you have little things throughout the year. Right, you have little car shows.
Speaker 10Well, we actually help on other ones. Like we'll help the Burbank Elks is going to do a chili cook-off this year I don't have their flyers. It's in August I think. And then we also help the Santa Clarita Elks on theirs, because we have members Burbank moved to Santa Clarita right, and so we have those. So we've got different car shoes. We'll help out with the different people and show up at them and just support them.
Speaker 8Amazing, amazing. Well, I'm excited. Oh, that reminds me.
Speaker 10I have to go back up on stage too because I have to go get the club. We have club participation trophy for the most club members for a club that comes. You are busy today I was about to say you are busy, go drink some coffee and get it done.
Speaker 1We don't want you to be late.
Speaker 8Alright, then Bye Karen.
Car Show Highlights and Interviews
Speaker 1Thank you. As you can all hear and see, if you happen to be watching this on the YouTube, it's a great day here at Johnny Carson Park so far at the 33rd Annual Road Kings Charity Car Show. Now, as you know, our local traffic enforcement expert here formerly. I haven't had a chance to walk around yet, but you suggested I do and maybe take a pad of paper and a pen with me to take some notes as to some of the vehicle code violations I see out there. But I'm happy to say I haven't had a chance to walk around yet. But a lot of these being vintage cars, older cars, they fall under a lot of exemptions and grandfather exceptions for a lot of these sections. Emissions, I don't know. They go back to like 75 or something like that. But I'm not here for that anymore. I'm here to enjoy the show, the event, the cars and the Road Kings and everything they're here to support. Do you have anything to say about the day here, ross?
Speaker 3Well, you know we just had Karen on and she said you know some of the stuff that's going on today, from our standpoint, or sitting where we are next to the stage, there are cars. What's that word? A plethora, a plethora of cars on this green grass.
Speaker 1You know, I don't know how long the 405 freeway has existed, but this is what I imagine the 405 freeway looking at during rush hour back in the 50s yeah, look at some some of these cars and there's food here.
Speaker 3they're jam-packed in here. I see vendors over here. When we drove in, I saw the fire department. I saw a group of bicycles custom bicycles, yeah there's a classic fire engine over there.
Speaker 1The Burbank PD classic car is over there.
Speaker 3Wow, you know just this car show has grown. I mean, it's a couple hours in now and there's got to be a couple thousand people.
Speaker 1This whole park is full. They've filled parts of the park I didn't know existed here. Can't even see them from here.
Speaker 3Yeah, the upper part is, if you know, Johnny Carson Park. The upper part, we've been told, has as many cars up there as we have down here. There are motorcycles.
Speaker 1Like Karen said, when they opened the gates this morning they had over 100 car entries that hadn't even registered yet. I'm impressed they found the room for them.
Speaker 3Also, you know what it's nice doing it out here at Johnny Carson Park there's kids, out here there's dogs out here. Dogs everywhere. Yeah, there's a ton of dogs out here. Pets Good dog day. There's dogs out here, Dogs everywhere yeah, there's a ton of dogs out here. Pets Good dog day. Oh, great dog day. I mean, dog gets exercise and everything, Chex, you know. I guess they're going to do awards. Karen said they do. She had to run off to Cali up and do a participation award for Road King members.
Speaker 1She's got to get up on stage soon and hand out some awards.
Speaker 3You know, and yeah, it just blows me away. Another great day for my Burbank Talks to be out in the public. Another great day for Burbank.
Speaker 1It is Every year and this goes until 3 o'clock this afternoon, so it's actually a pretty lengthy event so people can sleep in on a Sunday and still make it here to enjoy the show. This is great. You could walk around here for hours. You can see the pace. People are walking around at Very slow pace because they want to take in every detail, every car. There are still people doing every few minutes. They're buffing their car, they're wiping down their car because they want the shine right. Yeah, a little sprinkly out here today, a little misty on and off. We're under this covering here so we're not noticing it so much. Well, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 3Back in the day you remember, we always used to say, boy, that's a Kodak moment. I don't think I've seen one person without their cell phone camera out shooting their favorite car.
Speaker 1Well, we were talking about it earlier. I'm glad I didn't bring my camera camera, my big camera, today, because I'd be completely distracted taking pictures of the detail of these cars. That's my favorite part the overall artistry, the work that goes into them. But these older cars have these details to them the chrome, the grills, the headlights so unique it's great Well sitting just across from us.
Speaker 3I don't know what this is. It's a hot rod between the chrome in the engine. Yeah, and I looked at one or two of these cars the upholstery inside has stitching that I don't even have on some of my wardrobe and one.
Speaker 1One common thing that all of the the owners of these vehicles have that are displayed here today is pride.
Speaker 3Oh, definitely.
Speaker 1Pride in the car, pride in that manufacturer, pride in the decade it was built. You know these are a lot of classic cars, older cars, you know they take you back to another time and you've got some 50-, 60-, 70-, 80-year-old cars out here and they look like they just rolled off the factory floor.
Speaker 3It does, and I know these guys that own some of these cars and that's what they do every weekend. This is they go to all these different shows. As karen said, they do the elk show and do a show at santa nita racetrack. They do one a holiday in the park. There's a good display of cars. Look at these cars. They're just, you know, they're amazing and they love doing this and they all run. I know I haven't seen any battery attenders or AAA out here, yet About 2, 230.
Speaker 1We'll probably have a line of tow trucks on the street out here, but hopefully not. This is great. I hope we get a little chance to walk around a little bit Behind the scenes here. We're going to grab some GoPro footage for the video version of this so you can get a good view of what's around here. So check out the YouTube version of this at my Burbank for some pictures and some videos, as well as the rest of this podcast. But we'll get back to it. Find some more people to talk to, maybe take a little walk around. Sounds like a great idea. All right, let's do it. All right, we are among greatness right now with this bike and we'll cut in some video and some B-roll of it for the video version, maybe a picture. But we've got this custom Raiders. It's a trike, it's a tricycle trike. The owner of this magnificent creature out here is sitting with us right now. Well, you know.
Speaker 3I was just walking around to take a quick gander and I didn't have to walk more than 50 feet and I found Ruben Garcia with this trike. We have said during the podcast everything's out here today cars, bikes, fire engines I can go on and on. Ruben.
Speaker 6Yes, sir, this is classic. It is.
Speaker 3This is classic. You're from the San Fernando Valley. This show attracts everybody Of course. I've walked by. You've got a stereo on board. Are we going to?
Speaker 1get to hear the sound system. Yeah, a little demo.
Speaker 3All right.
Speaker 6A little demo, a little boom box there, huh. So tell us what got you into it. Well, I've been in the lowrider industry for about, I'd say about two or three years. I used to love lowrider cars and I always wanted a bicycle lowrider bike. I had a single one, but since I'm a, you know, a little bit on the side being You're talking to someone you're talking about.
Speaker 1Yeah, I know, but anyways.
Speaker 6I decided to get a tricycle, and I want to give shout-outs to SoCal Lowrider Bikes, because they're the ones that helped me put a little bit of part in it. I put my part, I told them what I wanted and we did it together. So, anyways, I'm a Raider fan all the way.
Speaker 1You better be. Yeah, I better be. I have a Raider bike.
Speaker 6You know I have a lot of people that comment on that. They just don't like the team.
Speaker 1Right, right, yeah, you'll get reactions from the Trike fans and the Raiders.
Speaker 6So, anyways, I decided to do a tricycle with some music on it, anyways.
Speaker 1Now is this a custom build from ground up.
Speaker 6Ground up.
Speaker 1Really, they fabricated all this stuff and you had a hand in it as well.
Speaker 6The frame is airbrush the Raider plaque. Joel made the Raider plaque, I decided to put it on the weld it on there, and so it has 188 spokes on each.
Speaker 1That's a lot of spokes.
Speaker 6Yeah.
Speaker 1That's a lot of polishing.
Speaker 6And the tires are from the Lowrider. And then I made it into, I wanted to twist it, I handled the steering wheels just for looks. And then the boom box. This is actually from a motorcycle, how they built it, okay, and it has two batteries, it has an amp I'll show you guys later and it has four speakers.
Speaker 1Now I feel bad for the audience out there that's just listening to the podcast, because you're missing the visual of this. You're watching the video version later on YouTube we're going to show some footage of this, but the detail to this? You just see spokes through, spokes through, spokes on these wheels. But do you notice, craig? People stopping to take pictures. Everybody's stopping to take pictures of it.
Speaker 6Yeah, they take pictures.
Speaker 1Yeah, but I asked you. You know not seriously and jokingly but you've got the twisted bars, which is a fantastic detail, and the mirror mounts coming off of it are twisted metal as well. But you've got that chain steering wheel in the middle, and I asked if you could steer with that if you wanted to, and you said that's just for looks. That's just for looks. I'll tell you. It's a winner, though, but this is a reason everybody needs to come to this show in person to see this stuff up close. This is great stuff.
Speaker 3Well, ruben, I'm glad I stopped and talked to you, because this is just this is what this show is all about, right? Yeah, you know, and thanks for coming out to the bank.
Speaker 6This is my first time here in this show.
Speaker 1I like the lowrider because I kind of got short stubby legs and my feet can touch the ground.
Speaker 6Yeah, and then, as you look over here, the sprocket Raiders.
Speaker 1Even that is branded with the Raiders. Is that laser cut or is?
Speaker 6that it was already made.
Speaker 1Oh really, okay, it was molded or something. Wow, you've got mufflers. You've got pipes coming off the front wheel.
Speaker 6They don't come yeah.
Speaker 3And look at you. They keep your feet warm in the winter.
Speaker 1Protect the dice hanging from the home. You've got the fuzzy dice and the drink holder, of course, mirrors and everything. This is this is this is great.
Speaker 3Thanks for letting us take a look at it. Yeah, thanks for stopping by and have a great day today and we hope to see you at future years again. It's my burbank talks. We're going to be on air in a couple of days with shid's show and tell all your friends the first of many for ruben thank you so much right on
Road Kings Car Show Philanthropy
Speaker 1thank you all right, we're back. We have the whole band back, together with a new lead singer. Sorry, ashley, we've got a new lead singer. Past president and current face of the Road Kings. Please introduce us to this gentleman.
Speaker 3Well, you know, if you've been around Burbank a week or two a month, you know the voice of Don Baldessaroni. You've heard that name, part of the heritage commission, the burbank chamber of commerce. This guy owned more service stations than 76, had no standard stations, excuse me, one of each. One is 76 of them if you ever drove through the intersection of olive and first street, or gl Oaks and Olive, you went by a couple of gas stations that Don has been around Don. You've been involved in Road Kings since 1987.
Speaker 9And it started it started in 1952 here in Burbank and they had a group of guys get together and they liked the common things of automobiles and started a club and we had a lot of famous members coming up through the years.
Speaker 3If you're not into drag racing or anything, like Don Perdomo, bob Moravis, jimmy Miles, tommy Ivo, I remember walking home from school down Oak every day and Tommy Ivo had that car trailer and he'd be out there working on it. Us kids walking home from Jordan Back then. It was Jordan Can't say that nowadays, but Tommy Ivo lived in that 1600 block of oak, I think, in that car trailer and he was just it was you know, tommy still lives in that same house really yeah we've climbed into the way back machine.
Speaker 1Yeah now well, this is a road kings event.
Speaker 3You know, don, and I start talking all the time.
Speaker 1I know I hang out with you too.
Speaker 3John, this is just amazing.
Speaker 9You know it's unbelievable Because we started back. If you remember, in 1991 at the Hilton we had a small little car show. The investor was the general manager of Hilton and we were in the parking lot. He had 50 cars. I don't think much more than that. The second year we did that and then went to the Equestrian Center. Oh, that was nice, of course, the general population around the Equestrian Center and the horse people we didn't want that kind of horsepower there, right.
Speaker 1Too many horses.
Speaker 9A little loud and everything else. And, as you know, that's in LA and when you go through the breezeway there it becomes Burbank 480 Riverside Drive becomes Burbank 480 Riverside Drive. So after a couple of successful years there, he moved Big Show to Santa Anita Racetrack. It was a lot of fun. We had a lot of cars there, it could hold 20,000, 30,000 people. By the way, we had Geno Singh, the national anthem there. Okay, Anyway, we still had the urge. We had to do something here in Burbank. So Bob Beck and I I was vice president, he was president- Look who's walking up behind us.
Speaker 3He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car Fox and I. He's the car haired man in the Levi outfit.
Speaker 8I have him on my other GoPro too.
Speaker 9We'll keep our conversation going here though.
Speaker 3Look what this show brings.
Speaker 9Yeah, Well, without a question. You know, Jay has more cars at his warehouse than we have here.
Speaker 1I have been there. I go way back with Jay. We went to the same high school, grew up in the same town. It's the same teachers. He was a little ahead of me, went to the same college. He might not remember, but we've known each other for about 35 years. I remember. He might not. He's met a lot more people over the years than I have. The Road Kings is a local. It's a community very engaged in the community, but a philanthropic organization too. This is a charity car show, is it not?
Speaker 9Oh, without a question.
Speaker 1So what can you tell us about that part?
Speaker 9Well, let me continue on with coming here to Johnny Carson Park.
Speaker 1Sure.
Speaker 9Bob Beck was president, I was vice president and we wanted to keep something in Burbank Very imperative. We started doing a car show here. We'd actually have a lot more cars than we had here, but we didn't charge any admission, we just wanted to come and have fun, you know. But then as the years, a couple years, go by, we started having raffles and this and that and it turned out good. Then we were given all our money, gave away, probably. That's a close to five hundred thousand dollars so far. The last 30 years 33 years, I guess is here and that money all goes back to burbank.
Speaker 9Non-profits 99 of it. Does you have to have a one percent that we have to pay city of burbank other things ago, but still need permits to have the events right last year we gave away twenty thousand dollars for charity. Wow. So you know, and that's what it's about, and everybody that comes and participates today and can help toward that exactly, no matter what they do Raffle prizes, hot dog vendor, taco vendor Everything that we raise goes to charity.
Speaker 9Because what are we going to do? We have $100,000 of cars. You know, $500 or $1,000 is not going to mean to us the big scheme of things if we can give it to a charity. Have five kids go to summer camp, or the Boys and Girls Club is one of ours, etac is one of ours. They use the money for really good cause, for Burbank, and that's what we're about.
Speaker 3Well, don, I got a question for you the other day. I ran into you and getting these cars are kind of, you get one, you get two. Now don you tell me the other day you got a new car this week how many I've lost count, and the numbers of fingers on my hand, how many cars you have?
Speaker 1what did you pick up this as as many cars as gas stations.
Speaker 9Actually, yeah, about the same, because I did have garages. In between that I bought a 41 Ford. A 41 Ford, well, a friend of mine.
Speaker 3And that thing is in pristine shape, oh yeah.
Speaker 9It's nice, it's a nice car.
Speaker 3Yeah, tell the story. I just love that.
Speaker 9Well, he called me up and said you know we need to. I need to get it out of my warehouse because I'm renting out my warehouse. He's 80 plus years old and says come on over and take a look at it. I'll go over. My wife and I went over there and says I love the color. I think you really should buy it. I think it's a good idea. Buy it. So we did and I really love it. I don't know if I love it as much as my 55 Chevy, my Trans Am, so I have three cars.
Speaker 1It fills that empty spot in the garage right.
Speaker 9I wish it was in the garage. It's right in front of the cars. I take one car out, I have to move three other cars.
Speaker 3You almost bob frutos beat with his what? Seven, six or seven, I know, and I don't know how he jockeys cars. Again, I will. I I've asked him how do you decide what day you're going to drive what car? I drove by today and one of them is in the driveway. I'll probably go home and a different one will be in the driveway because he has to shuffle them and he starts them all, rubs them and wipes them all down. But, don, you're also, like I, led off there. You're part of the Heritage Commission. Yeah, you are also with an organization here in Burbank, I think it's called the Historical Museum. Do you have anything to do with that place? Sure.
Speaker 9I sure do. Gordon Howard Museum. I'm actually the president of the board of directors of the Gordon Howard Museum. I'm actually the president of the board of directors of the Gordon Howard Museum and the best position to be in I get to go into work. When I'm there at the museum and can't see at all, I still, after 25 years, I still walk around. I don't remember, of course. My memory is not.
Speaker 1You're still getting lost.
Speaker 9Just about I know which way to go. I have a GPS on my phone. It's a great feeling. That is what the museum's about, just like with the road king Showing people what we have. That's the fun part of it.
Speaker 3We're custodians of burbank's history well, said it really, it really is, and we love it so that's why you know, this event today is brings out burbank's best, burbank's worst, burbank's everything. This is community, and you and I have been on burbank on parade together j July 4th. I mean I can go down the committees, you and I have been on, but this is what we love.
Speaker 1That's why we stay in this. Everybody's here, everybody's getting along, everybody's having a good time with shared interests. Fantastic families, kids, adults.
Speaker 9Everybody's here, everybody's here, that's true, and Nikki Perez, our vice mayor, was here today. She was Our vice mayor was here today. There was, you saw Jay Leno. I love Jay. He wanted to take a picture next to the car that's next to us here. What year is that again?
Speaker 1Looks a little newer than your 40. I think so, but it's the same color, is it Okay?
Speaker 9Bright red, I mean the sense of community. That's what it's all about. Giving back to the community that's a misused term. Why not Absolutely? I mean, my wife is just now on the board of the VFW committee.
Speaker 1Well, that's something to be spoken for too is the Road Kings are represented everywhere. You see the shirts all over town. You see your members all over town participating, leading different events, participating in different events, attending Road Kings are everywhere in Burbank. It's fantastic.
Speaker 9We try.
Speaker 3You have a lot of shirts. Well, thanks for stopping by and conversing with us and I mean this is just fantastic. I mean I can't you know. You can tell that I'm in my glory out here. It's running into people, I think I we got here and we started setting up and people came up to me and you know they listen to our podcast or listen to our weekly show or read my Burbank with some of our articles and that's why we're here.
Speaker 1It's really sensory overload. There is just so much to see. It's like which direction do I go now?
Speaker 9Without a question.
Speaker 1Amazing.
Speaker 9Hopefully you guys go out and take a look, see, thank you for my Burbank being here for us. That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1It's our pleasure to be here. Okay, thanks.
Speaker 4Great day. Thanks, ross, you found us another guest.
Speaker 3Yes, I have Woke everybody up. I don't know what happened there, but I think a spaceship just drove through me. Who?
Speaker 1do we have His shirt, says Hot Rod Bob, this is.
Speaker 3Hot Rod Bob, and I hope it's his shirt.
Speaker 7I was when I left the house.
Speaker 3Bob has been the announcer how many years now?
Speaker 7I've been an announcer since 1974. I've been with the Road Kings for about 35 years.
Speaker 3Oh, you're not that old. Come on, dude.
Speaker 1Yeah, I am actually. It sounds like you get the pipes of an announcer.
Speaker 7Well, he does.
Speaker 3That's the thing you guys. Greg's the voice of my Burbank and, you like it or not, you got the pipes. You know you're a car aficionado. You have done this show for years. You've done, I've been at tons of events that you have emceed and so forth. Isn't today's show amazing?
Speaker 7It is great. The weather is perfect. It's not too hot, it's not cold, got a little cloud cover, that's okay, it's comfortable.
Speaker 1Good for photos.
Speaker 7It is great because you don't get the shadows Right. You talk about this show. When I was president of the Road King this is the show that I started. We moved it from the LA Equestrian Center to here. The cost of doing the Equestrian Center was prohibitive. The horse people didn't want cars there in the first place. This was the perfect place for it. Moved it here. We still made the same amount of money for charity as we did at the equestrian center. Without the excessive money and time put on that show. You didn't have to fence it off. We had to fence off the equestrian center. You didn't have to do that here. We had to charge admission. You don't have to do that here. But it's a great venue. It's on the grass, it's in the shade if you want to be in the shade, if you want to be in the shade although we have plenty of shade today all over. But this was the show that I moved here in 1996.
Speaker 3And are you amazed? I have seen just the amount of, not only the amount of people. I've seen babies in strollers. I've seen babies on shoulders. I've seen mothers, fathers, grandmothers, great-grandfathers. This show has brought out the community. I mean, there's got to be, and they're still coming.
Speaker 7They're still coming and it's not just car people. These are people here to see the cars and see the event my grandkids showed up.
Speaker 3I saw that a minute ago.
Speaker 7So you know, we put them in the car, we let them sit in the car, and that's one thing I do. I like to perpetuate the car hobby. The best way to get a kid involved is get them in the car. I put my grandkids in the front seat, behind the steering wheel. They love it. They've got their own vintage pedal cars. As a matter of fact, this year at Christmas time I gave my grandson his father's pedal car that he had gotten when he was two years old. We're carrying on a tradition.
Speaker 1Well, you might call this an interactive art show. Yes, because you don't have to be into cars. This is art.
Speaker 7It is. When you look at some of the cars, the workmanship in it, the quality of the cars I mean right alongside us is a Nomad. This car is a Grand National Roadster Show winner. Multi-award winner at various car shows Just Roadster Show winner. Multi-award winner at various car shows Just perfect.
Speaker 1So I shouldn't put my drink on the hood.
Speaker 7Wouldn't be a good idea. Okay, I'll go, but then on the other side you've got mine alongside it with a 1972 Earl Shy black paint job. But you've got all different degrees of car quality. Mine's a driver. I drive it everywhere. We put over 100,000 miles on it.
Speaker 3Wait a minute. So a minute ago I walked by that car and it's the license plate frame that says no smartass. No, I didn't buy it new.
Speaker 7That's correct. I was at a gas station at Costco and the attendant the guy that walks around acting like he knows what he's doing he comes up, he's talking to me about the car. So I explain the car and the next thing out of his mouth was so did you buy it new? I'm old, but I'm not that old guys After he picked himself up off the ground you told him oh, and my wife started laughing like mad.
Speaker 1Well now I was wondering what the graphic with the guy with the microphone was. Here I am. Mystery solved, that's it.
Speaker 3Mystery solved, see if we stick around here long enough. But I have seen not only people, but I've seen people with two and a quarter cameras cameras on poles, cameras on sticks. I've seen GoPros. I've seen Brownie walking around Cell phones. Sure, this is.
Speaker 7Kodak moment. I know of at least four podcasters that are out here today shooting podcasts of the show and they were amazed. These are guys that go to shows every weekend and they are just set back by the amount of cars, the amount of people, the breadth of the cars. I mean you've got everything here, from sports cars to muscle cars, to hot rods, to restored antiques.
Speaker 1This is a content-rich environment for everybody, it is.
Speaker 3So I got a question for you and we were going to you know, I saw Jay Leno walking around. In fact he walked right by. Do we have any electric cars here?
Speaker 7You know what we don't luckily, I mean we don't you see, I'm mixed on this. Do I like electric cars? If you can use it, buy it. If you want it, buy it. If you like it, buy it. But don't tell me I've got to drive it too.
Speaker 1Amen, and that's where it is.
Speaker 7We've got three states right now that have already passed legislation to ban the demand, so you can have a choice. There's a bill pending in California right now to rescind Newsom's plan of all electric by 35. Whether it goes through or not we don't know, but there's three states that have already passed those bills, so the resistance is growing. I don't mind, if you want to drive an electric car, drive one, enjoy it if that's what you want. It's like telling someone you can't buy a Chevrolet anymore, you have to buy a Ford. Want. It's like telling someone you can't buy a Chevrolet anymore, you have to buy a Ford.
Speaker 1It just tells me the common sense is still alive somewhere.
Speaker 7Someplace. Yes, and we're working on it. Great.
Speaker 3Well, bob, I know you were up on stage before you do a fantastic fan. I'm not exaggerating folks. When I say fantastic job, your voice goes with the job.
Speaker 1It's all your music we're hearing in the background. It's all your music we're hearing in the background. It's all my music, nice.
Speaker 7Good stuff, good choices. I try. You know you got to look at this group and this time of day it's got to be upbeat.
Speaker 1You know how to read a room.
Speaker 7I try, yes, I try. Don't tell that to my wife. What is your official role with the club? These days Do very active one, I'm a very active one, and then I do the announcing for them at the different shows. And you know we talked about. Yes, I've been doing this since 1974. I started out doing drag racing, road racing. I was the announcer, I was.
Speaker 1Were you one of the first when there were 17 people at the first meeting.
Speaker 7No, I'm not that old. This club started the year I was born, so you didn't buy that car new.
Road Kings Car Show Recap
Speaker 7No, I didn't Not this time. Yeah, I do have a few that I did, but that's not one of them. But yeah, no, that's what I do. I announce auto racing. I emcee other car shows. I just did the LAPD show. Last week I helped at the Huntington Beach Concourse. On Sunday I'm headed to Great Britain to do an event there next month. I'm going to be at Hot August Nights in Reno for a week. I'm in there, seth See there's hope for you, craig.
Speaker 1Yeah, I know Well, I can fill in while he's gone.
Speaker 7That's it Right, there you go.
Speaker 3I'm going to snap a cute picture of you, so I have it. Did you say cute, a cute?
Speaker 1picture. Oh, that's adorable when you shoot with your camera.
Speaker 6Give us one of these.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3Bob, thanks for stopping by. Oh, thank you. We'll let you get back to the mix.
Speaker 1We're going to get back yeah.
Speaker 7We're going to start doing award presentations in just a little bit.
Speaker 1Thanks for stopping by.
Speaker 7Thank you guys, I appreciate it.
Speaker 4Okay well, Ross and Craig, what a great show. What a great time today. Great show, what a great time today. Road Kings were a great host and helped us out. Had a lot of great things to look at, to talk about. What are your?
Speaker 1final impressions. It's been a great day. All the years I've known this is going on and been around town. This is the first Road Kings car show I've been able to attend and even though I'm in this thing, I was able to do a lap and see some of the stuff out there the variety of vehicles, pride in all these vehicles, but the vendors, the food opportunities here and everybody just having such a good time. What a great event. This certainly won't be my last. Congratulations to the Road Kings on their 33rd show. They're still giving out awards and stuff on the stage over here, but it's ending almost at a perfect time because we've had shade and cloud cover until the sun's coming out now.
Speaker 4Here comes the sun.
Speaker 1It's going to start heating up. That means I have to find shelter before long, but a great show. Ross, this is not your first rodeo, so to speak, but how does this compare to those in the?
Speaker 3past Well you know I didn't get to walk around, but I've seen quite a bit. I've met a lot of new people, and what a great opportunity for.
Speaker 1Now everybody should know out there that the Road Kings were nice enough to loan us one of their canopies and it's branded Road Kings.
Speaker 4So all day, everybody's going to be taking the info booth that proves we're live my answer to everything is down two streets.
Speaker 1take a left, there you go.
Speaker 3Oh, I noticed the antique Burbank Ford is just pulling out and cars are going to start pulling out soon, so I think it's time that we pull the plug on this podcast.
Speaker 1We're just waiting for the 50-50 raffle.
Speaker 4And, by the way, shout out to the guys making the hot dogs here.
Speaker 3What a fantastic hot dog Quality stuff, holy cow, pretty well known.
Speaker 1Everything I had was fantastic today and reasonably priced. You don't see that a lot of these shows You're so correct.
Speaker 3You go to a county fair 20 bucks for a hot dog.
Speaker 1You go to a Dodgers game and get one of these hot dogs. How much are they now? Ridiculous. This was only a few bucks. It was fantastic.
Speaker 3It's nice to see, with the money, that will come back to Burbank in the long run. Our weather, like you said, the sun's breaking through and getting warm.
Speaker 1I feel it. I feel it, but when we say the money coming back to Burbank, it's not going to the city. No, no, no, no it's coming back to organizations nonprofits going to benefit the people that enjoy the city of Burbank, that live and work here. Yep, sure, but a great event. We don't know the final tally of how many vehicles are here. Jay Leno came by and said hi mid-interview at one point, but he was whisked away quickly to his next stop.
Speaker 4Go on our website. My Burbank Ash is going to write a very nice article. You can find out a lot more about who won the awards and everything else. Myburbankcom.
Speaker 3MyBurbankcom and you know, as we promote it all day, we have MyBurbankTalks, we have MyBurbankcom A lot of ways for you to get information of stuff in Burbank.
Speaker 1And we're going to keep doing it folks and it's come up several times talking to these great people all day is. Myburbankcom is the local newspaper for the city of Burbank now.
Speaker 3It's funny you say newspaper, because Craig he hated that line for years.
Speaker 4I just call it the digital news source.
Speaker 1It is Well, we'll evolve to that, but it's replaced the gap left behind by the newspaper industry.
Speaker 4You can look at myburbankcom and not get ink all over your fingers.
Speaker 1That's right, unless you iron the paper first. Yes, unless your staff irons the paper.
Speaker 3You know and honestly, we'll have this out in a day or two. Yeah, you won't see this in the local paper for another week, but do this too right when you listen to it.
Speaker 1Put it on your calendar for next year.
Speaker 4There you go Okay Well for Craig.