Vantastic

A real social phenomena that began and ended all within a decade, the phenomena I'm writing about is Vanning. If you weren't around to experiences how big of a trend this was in the 70's it's hard to grasp.

Sometime during the early 70's on the west coast of the United States, surfers started customizing there vans that they drove to the beach to carry the surfboards. Exterior as well as interiors were customized with the idea of driving something different than everyone else. The Practice soon spread like wildfire and Vanning was born.

Vans, Vanners, and Vanning new words in the lexicon of the sleazy 70's. It wasn't long before vanners of like mind all got together and started clubs. They started off like a lot of automobile clubs, but soon their differences shown through.

One of the biggest differences between vanners and lets say a Corvette club was that a lot of young people were involved. Given that fact, as well as the still prevalent use of recreational drugs among the younger crowd vanners stood apart.

Stories of van club meetings that ended in orgies of sex and marijuana use were often not true. But the fact that these customized vans were basically "bedrooms on wheels" and it was the 70's there some truth to these stories.

From these stories, like any other piece of sensationalism that's going around Hollywood jumped on board looking to make a quick buck from this unique group of van owners. Although Hollywood came calling it wasn't the big studios but rather the small low budget film makers.

As was often the case the angle these studios were looking for was exploitation. It was a nitch market, but you have to remember at the time these movies were released there were literally thousands of customized vans on the road, and just a many vanners. The thought was vanners would go to see the film as well as the non vanners curious about what exactly was going on Saturday night at the local park where 8 to 10 vans would park in a circle and "hang out".

Below you'll find reviews to some of the best "Van Movies" of the 70's.

SuperVan
1977
Director: Lamar Card
Stars: Mark Schneider, Katie Saylor and Morgan Woodward

During the height of the custom van craze one man stood apart from other customizes and was called king, that man was George Barris. It was his one of a kind van creation "Vandora" that spawned the ridiculous but fun romp SuperVan. Plots can't really get much more thin than in SuperVan.

A young man leaves home to go the National Van-In. He picks up a distressed hitch-hiker who happens to be the daughter of a rich automobile manufacturer. Together they steal his latest concept vehicle, Vandora  a.k.a. SuperVan.

Through the entire 91 minute running time the viewer is shown about 20 minutes of story, the rest you ask? It's B roll type footage from the National Van-In. Footage of people washing vans, racing vans, people parting around vans, and hooking up inside vans.

For the uninitiated the lack of story makes this a rather boring movie. But for the vanner it's a time capsule of that decade, and the good times had at the national Van-In. Rating | ***

Van Nuys Blvd.
1979
Director: William Sachs
Stars: Bill Adler, Cynthia Wood and Dennis Bowen

Coming in towards the end of the big vanning trend is 1979's Van Nuys Blvd. Van Nuys is of course the famous cruising strip in California. This particular movie is big with vanners because it features two of the leading cast with customized vans.

There really isn't a lot to the story, a young guy leaves his rural home for the excitement of the Van Nuys strip. Along the way he makes friends with a group of people he meets in jail, sees a disco show, and has a couple of graphic sex scenes.

Although this movie is light on plot it's still enjoyable to watch following the same formula as the king of cruise movies American Graffiti.The main differences are this movie takes place over the span of a few nights and days. They even fit in a trip to Magic Mountain. The other major difference is the inclusion of nudity and foul language. A staple of Crown International Pictures, the parent company of this film.

Not enough of the vans are featured to really call this a van classic, but still worth a watch. Rating | ***

Mag Wheels
a.k.a. Summer School
1978
Director: Bethel Buckalew
Stars: John Laughlin, Shelly Horner and Phoebe Schmidt

Directed by backwoods sleaze master Bethel Buckalew Mag Wheels tells the story of innocent Anita. A young girl new to a sea side California school. She is caught in the middle of a feud between some guy Vanners and some tough four wheel truck driving chicks.

Interestingly enough George Barris had quite a bit of input when it came to the making of this film. He even plays himself and his shop is featured in the movie.You think a man who makes his bread and butter on customizing vans might think twice about being involved in a movie where the vanners are pot pushing gang rapist.

 Out of all van movies this one is often cited as the least liked one due to the fact that the vanners are shown in not just a bad light but as villains.

My opinion, is that this is my favorite van movie. Although there are lots of nice vans to look at in the film, this movie would stand strong without them. Buckalew has directed cinematic sleaze before with outstanding results and this film is no different.

What we have here is great exploitation number complete with nudity, drug use, assault, and vans! Rating | *****

C.B. Hustlers
1976
Director: Stu Segall
Stars: John F. Goff, Richard Kennedy and John Alderman

A pimp and his hookers run a prostitution racket on the road out of there custom vans. A police officer and newspaper writer catch wind of there gig and set out to catch them.

This film leaves a lot to be desired. As a van movie the vans don't get a lot of screen time, and as a sexploitation film there's not a whole lot of sex.

One redeeming quality of the film is the (although short) presence of the amazing Uschi Digard. She does what's she known for, so the movie can't be all that bad. Rating | ***