Historic Auto Attractions, and owner Wayne Lensing loaned this emerald green 1932 Studebaker Commander sedan from the museum for re-enacting a bank robbery in Columbus.
ROSCOE, Ill. — Eric Hoffman couldn't be more thrilled about attending the anticipated 20-hour-long, one-day shoot of the film "Public Enemies" today in downtown Columbus.
"I'm incredibly excited," he said. "I'm really looking forward to possibly meeting Michael Mann and Johnny Depp," Hoffman said. "That would be a neat experience."
Blaine Currier, picture car coordinator for "Public Enemies," invited Hoffman, curator of Historic Auto Attractions, and owner Wayne Lensing after he borrowed an emerald green 1932 Studebaker Commander sedan from the museum for reenacting a bank robbery in Columbus.
"We just really wanted our car in the film because it's unique and you couldn't have found a better fit," Hoffman said.
Depression-era gangster John Dillinger drove the Studebaker — originally black and stolen from a sheriff — when he and his gang nearly $75,000 in cash and security bonds on Oct. 23, 1933, from the Central National Bank in Greencastle, Ind.
"Historically, Dillinger drove all over the place so Depp will most likely be driving the car," Hoffman said.
An amazing find
Currier toured Historic Auto Attractions on Feb. 14, the same day Hoffman turned 25. He absolutely loved the museum and called the Studebaker an amazing find.
"It's such a jewel," Currier said.
Negotiations followed before Historic Auto Attractions agreed to loan the car to Currier but stipulated that the filmmakers insure it for no less than $2 million, keep it under lock and key and store it in a temperature-controlled environment.
"I can sleep at night," Hoffman said.
Currier, Hoffman and Lensing, along with some assistants, pushed the car — which hasn't run in eight years — out of the museum on March 4 and into an enclosed trailer. From there, Currier took it to a warehouse in Chicago where a mechanical and engineering crew made the Studebaker operable.
"I can just imagine there's probably a lot of gunk in the engine, the steering's pretty stiff and the gas tank is all jelled up," Hoffman said. "So the car will be in better condition when we get it back than when it left here."
He said there's nothing too spectacular about the Studebaker, but one element sets it apart from most cars of the 1930s, particularly those the police used.
"It had a flathead V-8 engine which gave it a lot more power than many of the Fords which were running the flat V-6," Hoffman said.
Lensing, an avid automobile collector since 1986, displays the Studebaker in the museum's Gangsterland Room where a mammoth black-and-white photograph of Alcatraz serves as the dramatic backdrop. A life-size cardboard cutout of Dillinger holding a Tommy gun and the wooden gun he used in the infamous Crown Point Jail escape on March 3, 1934 in Crown Point, Ind., stands near the back of the car. Newspaper accounts of some of the gangster's flamboyant exploits also grace the exhibition.
"He just couldn't turn it down," Hoffman said about Lensing who purchased the Studebaker in January 2001 from Christie's auction house in New York at an undisclosed price. "He just had to have this car."
Historic Auto Attractions, a 36,000-square-foot museum about 50 miles south of Madison, contains more than 75 historically significant automobiles as well as thousands of artifacts. It features 11 thematic rooms such as "Turn of the Century," "Kennedy Day in Dallas" and "TV Land."
"People get this impression that this is just going to be a big barn full of cars but it's not," Hoffman said. "You walk through our doors and you're back in time."