History The father of the first T-Bucket

Norm Grabowski is credited as the creator of the first T-Bucket. It was featured in a number of TV shows and movies.

The first much of the world saw of the Kookie T took place in April 1957 when it took up a full page of an edition of LIFE magazine dedicated to hot rodding, shot... under the lights at : Bob's Big Boy in Toluca Lake, near Hollywood, with Grabowski at the wheel stuffing a burger in his mouth.

 

Were you around then, Sonny?

 

It's not likely, I was 14 in '57 and he's 26 years younger than me.

 

How about this slick roadster from the 1932 movie Hot Saturday

 

“Wings” 1927

 

I have read that it was not a hamburger but more likely an egg sandwich brought from home in the iconic Life photo.
as cool as the kookie version is I always liked the lightning bug version



you can see his influence in my latest T

 

The internets says this and it’s never wrong

other sources call it the first “fad t”
Some say coined by Tex Smith to describe all the kookie copies


https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=30253

 

The most amazing thing thing was that it wasn’t just one version. The Lightning Bug and the Kookie Car versions were both home runs!

 

I wanted my parents to buy this T roadster, but it was not for sale!

 

I just want to state the obvious I love t buckets from the early gow jobbers to the now iconic 1950s Grabowski type Ts to the wild mildly off topic diamond tuft interior T's of the late 1960s.
Adult go carts but way cooler sounding and better looking.

 

I read somewhere that he ended up being the driver in most of the motion shots of the car. He was frustrated by what poor drivers the stars were. We had lunch at that Bob's a couple days ago. Every Friday is Cruise Night - https://bobs.net/pages/classic-car-show

This is about where the photo was taken. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.152...umbfov=90!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205410&entry=ttu

 

HAMBer Piero DeLuca did this movie quite a while ago. This is just the trailer….well worth watching

 

The Car That Ate My Brain and TCTAMB 2 are on Tubi for free - https://tubitv.com/movies/524433/the-car-that-ate-my-brain

 

I borrowed heavily from Norm's Lightnin' Bug for my T too, although I went with the later body hoping for more legroom (yeah, right). I had a 4-71 for it but went with the 3x2s when my Dad bought them bought them at a garage sale and surprised me with them. The early version had a single 4 bbl, Cal Custom air cleaner and no hood.

 

BUT, BUT, Nobody ever mentions : who is the guy with Norm, Has he ever come forward? does anybody know anything about him?

 

The first 2 minutes of this TV show, has Norm and the T at their best.
https://www.google.com/search?q=pet...gMyCQgFEEUYOxjCAzIJCAYQRRg7GMIDMgkIBxBFGDsYwg

 

I have the LIFE Mag cover framed and signed by Normie Poo.

 

Norm told me the car is what got him into show biz.....
He had rented the car to the studios on several occasions, and nearly every time they used it, it was returned to him with some degree of damage. The studios stood good for repairs (and a few upgrades), but it finally got to the point that he told him they had to hire him along with the car, and he would be the only driver (except for Kookie , in which case Norm had to be on set). The studios agreed as long as he joined the Studio Actors Guild. As long as they were paying him, they insisted he at least be an extra instead of just standing around. Thus.... he became an actor! Probably the only audition ever performed in a hot rod! The rest is Hollywood magic and history....

 

I would say that Ed's T was a bit before Norm's version, 1938 i believe and built before Ford introduced hydraulic brakes. JW

 

The Isky T is not a “bucket”. Needs a short bed to be a bucket.

 

Two things , the mainstream media of the time declared norm the creator & Mr Iskendarians T was not a bucket , just like your RPU isnt a bucket .

 

I concur, just like in my photo above while I did take design cues from Norm's earlier version of his Kookie car I never considered it a T bucket, it is a roadster. for that matter it's debatable whether Norm's Lightning Bug version is a "T Bucket" either.. to me anyway. it has all the parts but not the attitude, it's somewhere between T Bucket and modified RPU.

 

Or a Turtle Deck or nothing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-bucket
At 6'1" and 250 I'd need to build a Touring - like the great grandparents had. Looks like my grandmother is trying to hide the bent fender.

 

Yeah, Wikipedia is always right. I’m sure they know more about vintage hot rods than we do.

 

History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there.

George Santayana

 

That’s why I asked Sonny if he was actually there in person. Lots of opinions and it’s good to learn from the guys who were there. I’m just a kid at 57, and have been going to rod runs for 45 years. Been reading magazines for 50. But never owned a T bucket.

 

I get offended when my RPU gets called a T Bucket because it's not.
I believe now that a T Bucket can really only be called one from the point in time that the phrase was coined. JW

 

I would correct people who called my “T” a T bucket, explaining to them that it’s a T roadster.

 

You must not be very flexible , I'm 6'1" / 210 & have been driving my standard size 1923 size T for 2$3 years & 50k miles,I fit just fine ....