The 5th Golden Pond Boat! Please Have Mercy On Our Soals!!
ugh
So… what the hell, here we go again.. I was at the Woody Boater tent at the Sunnyland show, the Boatress had gone out with some pals on the Canal Cruise.. The phone rang.. It was the Boatress. The conversation went like this.
Boatress.. Your not going to believe this.
Me: Are you OK?
Boatress: Yes yes.. We met a guy on the Canal Cruise that has a boat used in the Movie.
Me: What movie?
Boatress: On Golden Pond.
ME: NO! Please NO!
Boatress: YA, here talk to Jimmy.
Jimmy: Your not going to believe this ship!
Me: Holey ship! Your shipping Me
Jimmy: We are talk’n and the guy says his boat was used to ferry Kathryn Hepburn and Henry Fonda to and from the set during the shoot. I ain’t shipp’n you.
Me: Are you shipping me?
Jimmy, No ship!
So, that how we got to know Anejo a very nice 1946 20 foot Chris Craft Custom. The 5th Golden Pond boat that thankfully does NOT have the name Thayer IV on the transome. But… It did have another name , “Teaser III”. It’s never easy with this film. The boat was owned by Mr George Meade, a Boston industrialist in the chemical and paper business, was kept at the Meade farm on Squam Lake and became a Taxi of sorts… Wait, it’s Hollywood.. Limo would be the correct term..
The current owners Ann and John Ross are the second owners of this fine craft. By the way 20 foot customs are one very cool boat. Ann and John are very active in the hobby and the boat is never far from them.
Ann and John Ross. John is hoping for less comments than the other Golden Pond stories.
After hearing this story we had only one thing left to do..
Sorry Terry.. He was so excited to get one.. He did get to drive Miss America IX, so thats a good second prize...
That’s right. Anjeo became the first Big Woody Winner of the year, trophy and all. So here is to one more Golden Pond Boat. To more comments, to more fun, to keeping the history of the film alive… Or beating it to death.. Either way. Its all fun.
Ann and John Ross on there trusty 20 ft Chris Craft Custom. One hat was not enough for Ann..
WOW!!! Do you have a callous on your head where you keep banging it against the wall? LOL
Those birdhouses are starting to sound pretty good about now.
You made this one up!… If this were real you’d have a photo of Kate in the boat!… Pat Curtin never said anything about this boat… CSI has not turned anything up so It can’t be true… Then again it might be true…
Matt, you do like to stir the pot! Thanks for saving us from complacency.
I second what Frank has to say. I have actually talked to Pat about this very subject. I can tell you what he has to say if you like…….
You’re publishing this three days too late.
Give this ship a rest. There must be some other movie with some other boat we could go on and on (and ON and ON) about. Know of any, Matt?
Something is not right here. This 20-Custom is #163, right? shipped to Spring Lake, MI in December of 1946 with a M engine.
20-Custom #193 (the first 1948 model) was shipped to Irwin Marine in Lakeport, NH 9/23/47 with the name “Teaser III” on the Transom – much closer to where OGP was filmed.
Two Teaser III 20-foot Customs? Coincidence?
Matt, Give it a rest, we had a great time with all the Woodyboater folks at Tavares. Please continue the rant we love it ! Oh, I would like to do a story on the boat I purchased there, please email me with your thoughts, Scooter
Bob:
I have one for you about another movie. 4 Capris were used in Striking Distance… (It was always reported as three) But I tell you there are four…
I have the Hull numbers of three of the four Capri’s used in Striking distance… Yes four… and all 4 made it on film and made the final cut… I can tell what boats were used in what scenes… Controversy? No not realy… The 4th Capri was a model about 18″ long that sat on the TV of Hardy’s houseboat.
Are you sure there is only one Mail Boat?
Yup!
Actually there is a little controversy on the mail boat… The 1984 book Story of the Century by Bill Wittig.. Had a photo of the mail boat from “On Golden Pond”… We always though it was taken before the graphics were painted on… Looking at the photo much closer the boat in the book is not the boat in the movie… It had different rear deck vents and spotlight location was different… as well as a bow rail, that could have been taken off… The boat from the movie has standard rear deck vents… (so was there a second mail boat or just the wrong photo printed in a book.)
When I get a chance I will send Matt the photo
I have said this a million times here at work.. If you dont have a defined history on something, folks will make it up to the best of there knowledge. I dont think any of this is done with ill intent. Just no real evidence. thats what these finds became. Now that we have the mail boat and it is the only one. We can show the real deal.
Anyone interested in the photo of the mail boat in the Bill Wittig book, “Story of the Century”… Second Mail boat or just a generic photo used for the book? I’m pretty sure it is the second… Here is a link to the photo… with CSI notes…
http://centuryclassicpowerboat.com/OGP/wittigbookraven-1notesandmore.jpg
Where is Tommy Holmes when we need him?
I heard the jpg. was just that a .jpg for the book..not the mail boat used in the movie.
Wow, ready for another movie?
Hey Texx, c’mon out ‘West” this summer and write the definitive history of “Madison, The Movie” — I can help you with that one. Documenting the boats used now will prevent anything like this (OGP) from EVER happening in the future!
Hey Randy – Good to hear from you out there in Gig Harbor. I am hoping to make it out for the opening day festivities in early May and to spend some quality time at the Hydroplane Museum. I’ll keep you posted on my schedule…
I received a bunch of information from Brian Franchini and Dick Dow just today!
It is a little known fact that there is yet another boat that was used in the movie. The producers needed a go-fast boat to deliver coffee and donuts to the various shooting scenes around the lake so they used a 1991 Donzi. How can this be, you might ask, as the movie was filmed in 1981. As it turns out, rumor has it, Pat Curtin also handled the time traveling DeLoreans in the “Back to the Future ” movies. (There were several cars involved and their whereabouts are not clear). He simply used his skills from that movie to transport the Donzi back to 1981. I have tried to track the location of the Donzi but everytime I get close, it disappears. There is a DeLorean that has been made into a salad bar in a restaurant in Fargo that might have ties to that movie but the serial nimbler seems to have been altered. As Paul Harvey (the other Paul H.) would say, “Now you know-the rest of the story.”
Oh. god! I know whats coming.. Hide your children.. No really.. Or take the survey.. That will calm folks down..
Teaser III belonged to my grandparents, George & Cary Mead. He was the inventor of the Wasp airplane engine and co-founder of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in Hartford, CT. Katharine Hepburn rented the Mead house on Squam Lake during the filming of “On Golden Pond” and she was taken out for a ride in Teaser once or twice by family members, but the boat never served as a taxi for the movie company. I’m interested in your correspondent who talks about two different Teasers; my family’s boat would have been delivered to Irwin Marine. The boat in the picture looks exactly like our Teaser except that, in this photo anyway, the blond decking wood looks more yellow than I recall. Anyway, it’s nice to know she is in good hands and well cared for. Thanks for the post.
Morgan, thanks for posting good, factual information. I am pretty certain it was built in 1948. I think there is a reference to it in “Wings Over the World”. The boat above looks similar but without seeing the wheel (pearl white) and the gauges (I think there was one mounted right in the center of the dash), it is hard to say. As a boat driver on the movie who had the privilege of working with Pat Curtin and was the “hidden” driver on the mailboat where “Charlie” first meets “Chelsea”, I can tell you there was a single Century mailboat and Pat did not have a Donzi on the lake. In addition to the “Thayer IV, there was a couple of camera barges, a small Boston Whaler, and a couple of mahogany boats — one owned by a Tom Grapone of Concord, NH, who also was a boat driver, and a huge mahogany boat that was Pat’s boat. I don’t recall the make, but it was beamy, extravagant, probably 23 to 25 feet in length. I think it was a Century, and a late 50s model.