Hollywood. The name instantly conjures up images in the mind…of make believe and fantasy and home to an industry of creating something from nothing. To paraphrase author William Goldman then it is a place where ‘nobody knows anything’ but in the one small sphere of movie-making vintage motorcycle restoration business Glory Motor Works have carved a small niche were specialist knowledge and application have seen them become a calling card for some major motion pictures over the last ten years.
On the other side of the hill that houses the famous sign, Glendale is home to a modest but immaculately laid out workspace. Glory Motor Works orientate their base of operations from here where the small crew – headed by owner Justin Kell – balance movie bike fabrication and on-set operations, British bike restoration, and prop hire under cloaked walls of cool modern art motorcycling design and prints. An authentic edge is added by the presence of British tea bags in the small kitchen area and we find UK native Andy Holmes tinkering on a Norton (confusingly with a BMW GS on the adjacent workbench) as wooden crates containing the prototype electric Harleys that the company re-worked for the first Captain America production take up a lot of space in the central display area away from the tools.
Kell’s office is a den of memorabilia, posters, retro gear, posts-its, receipts and the odd concept drawing here or there. Hollywood might be a place where people’s knowledge comes into question but the power of its network is a vibrant as the lights that punctuate the snaking Sunset Boulevard at night. Ever since Glory provided ‘The Curious case of Benjamin Button’ with an Indian Chief and a 650cc Triumph T110 for Brad Pitt’s capable throttle hand they have supplemented their British bike work with copious movie appearances, featuring in films like: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Hell Ride (2008), Star Trek (2009), G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009), Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), The Master (2013), Gangster Squad (2013), G.I. Joe – Retaliation (2013), Oblivion (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).
Kell is an engaging host. The cups of tea flow, as we want to find out more about how they got into the silver screen business, what they do and what it is like trying to stay well placed in a notoriously fickle industry. Then Holmes, originally from Darlington but now an LA Downtown resident, is more than happy to chat about his work with Triumphs, Nortons and other rarities that form part of the Californian fashion fabric when it comes motorcycles and sheer variety of machines on the roads (admittedly bolstered and assisted by the weather).
Justin, what is the juice of the job for you? Movies, being an entrepreneur or working on the bikes?
If it were one singular thing of what you have said then I don’t think any could work. I do a lot of different things – even though they are interrelated – but it all stems from my passion for vintage motorcycles. It was this that started my business and every facet of it. From 1999 when my wife and I opened what-was-supposed-to-be an antique shop with weird high-end antiques and bikes were part of that, the business has morphed into different places. It has all stayed in that realm. What we do in the film industry didn’t really exist before we started doing it. I didn’t have the intention to create my own job in the industry, it just kind of happened. One of our first shops is pretty visible – its on Hollywood Boulevard and as people in film saw it driving past and going to work – we became more and more of a go-to place if you were doing a production and you wanted some vintage motorcycle stuff. Unlike the normal avenues of getting vehicles and picture cars we were actually experts in the field. We could do a historically accurate bike for a period film and it would be exactly how it was supposed to be. Luckily for us the film industry has also evolved immensely in the last ten years toward quality vehicles, sets and props. C&C, digital scanning and computer graphics and all the advancements in other areas means a crappy movie car is not good enough any more. We were expected to – and we actually do – operate at a higher production standard compared to others and it is a challenge. It means you have to stay on your toes.
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Photo by Ray Archer
