I'm so sorry to hear about Gary's passing. I met him in 1979 right after I got my drivers license and my friend Karl introduced me to him. Since I lived on Skyline Dr., I spent countless hours hanging out with Gary. Way too many stories to tell now. Over the years he did tell me the story on how he was injured while working at Lockheed. I think I was lucky enough to be one of the few people to actually get to ride in his lifted Corvette and I actually rode with him in the Ranchero during a slow speed race that he started from Grandstands to Skyline where the only rule was that you had to coast all the way, no accelerator allowed. He won. The last time that I saw him was many years after I had moved away and I had come back to L. A. on business. I found him around midnight just past the Fire Station just East of Laurel Canyon in the turn where the road was slightly rerouted and there was a good area to park and just sit. That really seemed to be his favorite pastime, sitting alone in the quiet and reading. RIP Gary.

What makes for a legend?
By Jeff Hailpern

Charlie Woit legend and lore was he drove hard and drank even harder. Maybe so and maybe not but when Charlie passed he became larger than life and the lore grew legs and then into internet spiders . All sorts of helium filled stories came out.

Most of the people that came up to Mulholland Drive came to drive, race, hang out, gain experience, hone skills and have fun. For many it was on the way home or to work, and others the rebellion of youth or scenic route distraction. It is a road that was purposely made for driving and that was the only reason anyone needed to show up.

I met Charlie at the swap meet at Saugus Speedway shortly before December 1982 while looking into gold panning. I also ran into him west of Sepulveda east of Calneva across from Fire Station 109 at the dirt overlook where I had a talk with him. I had seen the Corvette a few times cruising Mulholland at civil speeds as well as the Olds on the 405 Freeway. The man was a gear head that was into cars, racing, the outdoors, mining, hunting etc. He just happened to drive a notorious Corvette. The Charlie I met was a normal guy. At the time I did not know the guy from the swap meet was one and the same. Surprise when a rumbling exhaust Corvette built for business pulls up!

No different than actor Steve McQueen or even Bud Ekins whom Charlie knew. They all had talents and skills but when you remove the fame they are just people with interests, hobbies and professions that occupy time. Some made more money than others, some arrived at fame by a craft. At the end of the day they were guys who lived life and wanted to enjoy the ride. They liked to hang out with pals, have a beer, get dirty working on a car. Go shooting or taking off across a desert on a dirt bike because they can. A lot of it has to do with freedom. Is it appropriate to lump Charlie in with some of these folks? Of course; a young Charlie was a legendary wrench for quite a few of these celebrities and friends. The man had skills.

Racing the Corvette on Mulholland, his GMC pickup, desert excursions in his Oldsmobile Holiday 98 are very small slivers of the legend and sometimes lore. He was fortunate to be located on Stanley Hills Drive between work at the Willie Peniche Chevron Service and Mulholland Drive which were the perfect gateway to his playground.

Charlie had a family, interests were cars, digging his claim at the Gentle Buzzard mine. Manning the fort at the North American Liberation Front Headquarter in the Town of ill Repute in the Panamint Mountains off Wood Road . His reptile collection when he lived at 5229 Cartwright in North Hollywood known as the reptile zoo. A collector of all things cool. The list goes on and on as well as the adventure. Later Charlie moved to Gazeley Street in Canyon Country known as the compound. Sadly Charlie passed at thirty seven years of age on December 8, 1982.


I believe one thing alone does not make for a legend, it's when all are combined into an amalgam, salted and stirred, simmered over time and the dross drained off that the truths themselves assemble into something admirable.

Charlie has been a shadow for four decades. With the Mulholland regulars, a guy named Tiger, forty plus years of patience, numerous new friendships, a crack developed in the facade allowing the light to come through and put a face to Charles Francis Woit once more. The human Charlie.

Charlie was named after his father Charles Sr. His family name was actually Woiteszek (Poland via Austria). Juniors Grandfather had the name changed to Woit.

Charles Woit Sr. had worked in the banking, aircraft, radio and eventually as a business manager to Leslie Townes (aka Bob Hope the comedian).

Charles Woit Sr. was the business manager of Bob Hope Enterprises. At the time Charlie Jr. was born they lived around the corner from the Hope estate in Toluca Lake at 10105 Toluca Lake Ave on the corner of Mariota .

Mr. Woit Sr. first marriage was to silent film starlet Elsie Wareham (screen name Elsie Ware) a Mack Sennet model and actress who had about 10-13 years of fame.

Charles Woit Sr. then remarried to Estelle Davis and baby boy Charles Jr. was born on April 4, 1945. The Woit family moved to Stanley Hills Drive when Charlie was about 5 years old.

In retrospect two things:

If his Mom Estelle switched the first and middle names around I don't think the moniker "Crazy Francis' would have had the same impact. Frank Woit was Charlie's Grandfather hence juniors middle name.

The lore was intentionally omitted.

I have met a lot of legends and salt here. Charlie was one of the humans.

Charlie Woit is buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in an unmarked grave. I am coordinating to purchase an appropriate grave marker tablet to be cast and placed. Please contact me by private message if you are interested in cost sharing towards this worthy cause.


Photo credits and descriptions:
Tiger Joe Michiels (from the book "Mulholland Rollers" )


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Charlie's own all American logo.

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Oil pan modified by Charlie squirreled away for 50 years. Similar to the one installed on the Corvette.

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There were a lot of characters that gravidated towards Beaumont and Mulholland Drive back in the '70s. Charlie's participation transitioned across a few different groups over the times but he never was very sociable. In fact the closest interaction I ever got with Charlie was when he walked up to Beaumont and shot out the street light. We all scattered like rats but he thought that was pretty funny.

A permanent bronze memorial Plaque for Charlie will be Awesome...in the mean time, do my best.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1670781214.jpg

Charley Woit
 

Thank you Jeff for that excellent post concerning Charley.
You found a lot of relevant information and photos that give us all a face to the Legend.
Tiger Joe Michaels who you referred to told me that Charley actually belonged to a group at one time called "Canyon Runners" that I wasn't aware of. It's great that his memory has been embellished from your research and efforts. Please call me as I want to be a part of properly remembering him with an appropriate grave marker and I would like to donate to that cause. I believe he deserves to be respected rightly and never forgotten.
Good Job Jeff.

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As one of the Resident Corvette guys, my Canyon racer pictured here at Willow Springs in the black and white shot, thank you for the Charlie Woit write-up. I still am curious as to how developed his car was, hope some pictures of his Corvette turn up one day.
I have a whole bunch of SCCSCC/WSCC slalom and SCCA race records to look thru, to see if he turns up as someone mentioned he ran an event for which I have records on. Now seeing a face, super cool!

Is there a section of the Race Course that is in danger of being washed out in this week's winter storm? Just saw a story on the evening news that showed a close-in shot of some of the slope eroded away from the roadside. But it was too close-in for me to identify where on Mul. They mentioned something about between Laurel and Coldwater.

As long as Glen Campbells former home is still sitting above the race course any new erosion can't be that serious.

Glen Campbell: He owned a blue Lincoln Mk4 with white padded top and fake white padded spare circle on the trunk. One fine summer evening while we were hanging out on Bowmont, he cruised by east to west. Cool ! Rhinestone Cowboy driving on Mulholland.
Well there was this guy in a Sprite going back and forth making a lot of noise. When Campbell came cruising by later, presumably on his way home, the guy in the Sprite attempted to make a pass on the curved "straight" before Carl's turn. We heard honking and brakes locking up, seeing brake lights through the brush.
Campbell had pepper sprayed the guy ! Nice....

For some reason, this thread is like a time warp for me - and I usually get the idea to check in on it and see what all of you guys are up to late at night. Truly inspiring to see so many of you who were there continue to be there and involved. Happy New Year to y'all.

Dave, I guess we have to include Glen too as a Mulholland Alumni. His Lincoln was done by George Barris. His home looked down on Carls Turn and he could probably throw rocks at us. He wins the claim to living "on" the race course.


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.......

Haven't peeked around these parts in a while. Jeff, your info and personal take on Charlie is excellent. So glad I can finally put a face with the legend.

Mulholland Closure
 

For the past few weeks Mulholland has been closed both east and west of Coldwater Canyon due to the heavy rains that brought down some landslides that has undermined Mulholland Drive. It's been difficult on the Residents and has created more of a nightmare for those that use the Canyons to commute to and from work.

The first closure was east of Coldwater in the old Racecourse.

What would usually take months to repair has been expedited by the City.

Here is a photo of the first closure near Bowmont Drive showing work being done to repair the failure.

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The second closure is just west of European Straight across from Marlon Brando's old residence. No cars have been allowed thru these trouble areas.
Beverly Glen is now even more of a terrible choice with cars backed up for over a quarter mile on Mulholland. It's especially bad in the late afternoon.

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Danger Zone
 

On January 28, at 2:30 am I was woken by what sounded like very loud Machine Gun fire. Over 30 shots in rapid succession. This was at a Party on the nearby southern Ridge on Ellison Drive. Several people killed.

Over the past couple of years other murders have happened, also quite close to my house. One was just across the Canyon on Mulholland to the east and one just to the west on Mulholland. You have probably heard about them on the local news.

These have all occured at short-term rentals like B&B rentals provide. I'm very grateful that no stray bullets have come into my house. These events have not happened in the past and are unfortunately a sign of our current times.

I have received emails from the Benedict Canyon Association concerning this.
Below is the most recent one.


Dear Residents of Benedict Canyon,

On behalf of the Board of the Benedict Canyon Association, our heartfelt compassion goes out to the families of those who were killed at the senseless shooting on Ellison Drive over the weekend, to those who were injured, and to those who were at and around the home where the tragedy took place. Our area's LAPD Senior Lead Officer James Allen, West LA Captain Craig Heredia and Detective Daryn Dupree of the Robbery Homicide Division enlisted the BCA for assistance in contacting our residents for homeowners who may have had camera footage that could assist in capturing the perpetrators. Thank you to those of you who were able to help, and those seeing this message for the first time, please check your cameras.

We have been informed that this was not a random shooting with someone wandering into the neighborhood, but that the incident occurred at a short-term rental where some sort of event was taking place. While that does not give comfort to those who experienced this tragedy, we are fortunate to have a relatively low incidence of these types of crimes in Benedict Canyon. However, this was the third time that homicides occurred in Benedict Canyon in the past 2 1/2 years at homes which were apparently rented out as a "party house", and that is three incidents too many. The Board of the BCA has consistently voiced to the City of Los Angeles the concerns that our residents have with short-term rentals and party houses: from the fire danger in our extreme fire hazard canyon, to the late night/early morning noise and trash left at the site. And now this.

The BCA sponsored a Zoom meeting last year with Officer Allen to give information about the LAPD's Neighborhood Watch program, which is more than just putting a sign on our front lawns. A number of you got together to form or join an existing NW group and it is important for more residents to do so. You can contact your neighbors to exchange names and phone numbers/email addresses to continue with this important program.

Finally, remember the oft-quoted adage: If you see something, say something.

Petersen Automotive Museum Interview
 

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of the company of the Petersen Automotive Museum and their Video Crew at my house on Mulholland. They were all very nice, very professional and personable. First to show up was Magnus Walker who conducted the interview. He came in his very rare 1976 Porsche Carrera that has a 2.7 liter MFI Engine.
He said that Porsche only made 50 of these units and I'm sure that it is quite fast.

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We had some time before the Crew showed up and we talked about our love of all things Porsche and how we got involved in Cars and our personal Automotive hobbies.
Magnus is polite and considerate and was nice to my wife who wanted to be around when the video was being filmed.

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Congratulations Chris! Exciting stuff coming.

Petersen Automotive Museum Interview-Continued
 

Then the Petersen Video Crew showed up and all of them were a delight to meet and talk to. First was Trevor and David who came from the east coast to do the filming. They began to set up their equipment and even though it was quite cold and rainy they decided to shoot into the garage for the best effect instead of from the inside.

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Then Luna arrived who is the Marketing Director for the Petersen Museum. She brought Coffee and Crescent Rolls for us all. They were delicious. Then Shiloh arrived who was part of the team. Later the Petersen Automotive Museum Curator named Jonee came to oversee the program.

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Speaking of Magnus, I recently did a video with him driving my 911SC Turbo for his new web series.

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Petersen Automotive Museum Interview-Continued
 

Magnus and I sat behind the Mulholland Carrera and he directed the questions and found the relevant topics to talk about. The interview took about 2 and a half hours. We discussed things from the book, The Mulholland Experience at first. Then he asked me to talk about some fast and furious races that I participated in on Mulholland which was fun to discuss. Then we talked about some of the chases from Law Enforcement which I was reluctant to talk about but he got them out of me anyway, lol.

Magnus is a natural when it comes to doing interviews and it was relaxed and it went smoothly. We briefly talked about some of the details in the Carrera like the body modifications, engine and transmission modifications, and the suspension modifications. I had a huge list of these modifications but time only allowed for some of these to be talked about. The temperature was dropping and everyone wanted to wrap it up.

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Magnus mentioned that he had done a Video with Derek who is the one who started this thread and he showed me the video which was quite good. I thought about posting Derek's video but I think to be polite I should ask him for his permission first. So Derek is it ok to post your video with Magnus. You could post it yourself if you would like to.

All of this was in Preparation of Porsche's 75th Anniversary Celebration being held at the Petersen Museum starting in April which will feature cars from Magnus, Rod Emory, Patrick Long and The Mulholland Carrera. Of course, I'm honored to be in the company of such notable Porsche People. The Museum will be picking up my car later this month.

So we called it a "Wrap" and finished for the day.
Unfortunately, while we were enjoying the Shoot and the Crescent Rolls, a 50 foot Eucalyptus Tree had fallen completely blocking the Crew from leaving. It brought down Power Lines and snapped telephone poles.

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By now it was raining and everyone was concerned how to get out. Magnus was resolved to leave his car at my house but Luna was preparing for the Ferrari Event at the Museum and had to get out.
Luckily I was able to contact the neighbor who has a private secret exit out of the neighborhood and she was kind enough to let everyone out.
Thank you again to all who was at my house and thank you Magnus for your time and insights.
I'm looking forward to see how all of this transpires.

In the mean-time, I'm doing some cleaning, detailing, and re-polishing of the Aluminum 14 point Rollcage and the Fuchs 9 and 11 inch I.R.O.C. wheels like they were in this photo from 1976.
That's Mulholland Drive in the backround above the roofline of the Porsche.

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