I was saddened to read tonight that my long-time friend had passed away back in January ... I hadn't seen him since attending Rudy Perez' memorial back in September of 2021 For those not familiar with Jim, here's his "Automotive Photojournalist" Biography: While still in high school and working as a yearbook and sports photographer, Jim went to his first hot rod show in Phoenix, Arizona in 1960. He attended San Jose State University and got to know the street rod guys in the San Jose area; the drive-in's and the cruise spots. In 1967, he and good friend the late Tom Meyer were asked by the late Jim McLennan to be Track Photographers at Fremont Drag Strip. Every Sunday for the next three years, Jim and Tom photographed and reported the day's results to National Dragster and Drag News via overnight mail. Jim and Tom also traveled the West Coast, photographing action at various drag strips in California like Pomona, Orange County, and Bakersfield. Jim began photographing the Grand National Roadster Show (aka Oakland Roadster Show in 1962), and has photographed almost all of the shows since then. Jim was inducted into the GNRS Hall of Fame in 2003, along with another young man just starting his hot rod career, Chip Foose. Jim's photo work has appeared in magazines since 1967; Street Rod, Street Rodder, Rod & Custom, Hot Rod, Custom Cars, Rod Action, Collector Car, Truckin', Hot Rod Mechanix, et.al. Jim is retired and currently lives in Northern California with his wife Sandy. His James Handy Photography website is also very popular with front motor dragster fans and contains many of Jim’s 25,000+ images. His garage time is spent wrenching on his ‘56 Nomad and his sons ‘57 Bel Air. Jim's vintage photos are posted all over the H.A.M.B. (just do a search) ... and be sure to checkout Mr. Handy's HAMB-friendly (& seimi-HAMB-friendly) HOT ROD Magazine articles: 1963…Bay Area Car Shows Were the Best History of the (Grand) National Roadster Show…Continues Look Back at the Grand National Roadster Show of the 1990’s History of the Grand National Roadster Show…1970s
Jim once owned a very HAMB-friendly HOT ROD: The Paul Harris track-nosed Deuce Roadster circa 1951 The car was a dirt track racer in the late '40s. In 1951, Paul added the track-nose & a belly pan and ran at Bonneville with a flathead V8. It was later sold to another Bay Area rodder who installed a Buick Nailhead and went drag racing. In 1972, James found the car in a Los Gatos, CA field. He drove it for a year or so with the Buick & mini-exhausts with Harley baffles: James Handy's track-nosed channeled Deuce Roadster . . . circa 1972 James Handy's Deuce Roadster at the LODI '73 Mini-Nationals image from the @Tom Branch "Street Is Neat" collection Jim then totally revamped the car . . . installed a Chevy II four-banger . . . painted it black . . . with flames (by Art Himsl & Mike Haas) . . . and the chassis, wheels, & floors were powder-coated yellow (by GT Bicycles): James Handy's Deuce Roadster at the 1976 Oakland Roadster Show (GNRS) Jim in his Deuce Roadster at the LODI '76 Mini-Nationals image by Sherm @fuely32 Porter In late 1976, Jim sold it to a young man in Cincinnati, OH. The car was last known to be owned by Roger Morrison (of in Salina, KS) . . . who donated it to the McPherson College Collection:
Hemi32, thank you for sharing this information about such an accomplished individual. My condolences to his family and friends
Jim took pics of my 33 Ford pickup and they ended up in Rod Action magazine January 1976. Sorry to hear of his passing.
Sad to hear. Met him a few times at shows. Very accomplished photographer! Shot pictures of a couple of our cars years ago.
Checkout these links to hundreds of Jim's Vintage Car Show photographs: 1962 Oakland Roadster Show (GNRS) 1963 San Jose Autorama 1964 Oakland Roadster Show (GNRS) 1965 Oakland Roadster Show (GNRS)
I always enjoyed my conversations with Mr. Handy … most of them were off-topic for the H.A.M.B. (i.e., late ‘60s & early ’70s drag racing and/or ‘70s & ‘80s Street Rod stuff) … but in the summer of 2020, James contacted me regarding a very "HAMB-friendly" topic: This message immediately sparked my interest as I knew that photographs taken at the inaugural Bonneville meet were very rare. I immediately replied to James and asked him to send me higher resolution images (i.e., I couldn’t make out any details of cars via a tiny image on my iPhone). He obliged and emailed me higher-rez scans of 19 frames from the negatives. Although the images were of fantastic photographic quality, I admit that I was a bit disappointed because I immediately recognized that they were shot at the 1951 meet vice the 1949 meet. I was able to positively identify the majority of the vehicles in 17 of the 19 photos … let Jim know that they were not from the 1949 meet ... and that I would continue to search for info about an unidentified motorcycle streamliner, an unidentified car, and the unidentified vehicles in the group shots and/or in the background of the photos. James wrote back to thank me … and included the following in his note: : I am trying to put an historical story together on these images for Brian Brennan, for his new magazine. I don't make any $$ for it, but it helps educate young hot rodders about our heritage. Plus it keeps me busy in these trying times. Details about each car would be a huge help if you have the spare time. These negatives were given to me many years ago by Norm Milne, an original Sacto Thunderbolts member and friend of Bertolucci, Westergard and that gang. If you have any other images from 1951 that I could use, that would be great. I would be glad to list you as co-author. : I provided Mr. Handy with links to several H.A.M.B. threads with tons of info and a bunch of (black & white and color) images of the 1951 meet … and later elicited the assistance of my friend (and Master Dry Lakes historian), @JimmyBarter to help me identify all of the yet to be identified vehicles (which he did … with the exception of the motorcycle 'liner). I don’t know if Mr. Handy ever submitted his “1951 Bonneville photos by Norm Milne” article … but if I can get confirmation from the editors of (e.g., @Brian Brennan and/or Rob @RF Fortier) that they aren’t going to run the article, I’d be happy to post these historical photos here on the H.A.M.B. ... as somewhat of a memorial to Mr. Milne & Mr. Handy.
Hello, The time period of 1965-66 in the S.F. Bay Area and San Jose in particular holds a lot of memories. Going to San Jose State College away from home, wanting to be back in coastal So Cal, missing friends from a long time ago and learning to get along with new friends was an exercise in futility for me. It was a new adventure for sure and the new areas of exploration were wonderful. The hills of Berkeley, the coast of Marin County, the funky bridges all across the SF Bay Area... it was all new and a lot to see/enjoy. The one thing I thought would snap me out of the “funk” was going to the Fremont Dragstrip, the GM Factory plant where my El Camino was built the year previous, as well as the car shows in the neighborhood and in Oakland. At the time, none of those places or events helped. The people I met were great, the school was interesting and the surf 35 miles away was outstanding. But, it just was not So Cal. Hot rods and drag racing were so ingrained in me that it was hard to drift away during this time. So, within a year and a half, I returned to So Cal and enrolled at a college near the beaches of Orange County and the city of Long Beach. That helped immensely and as the saying goes, “the rest is history..." The odd thing was, with the experience in the S.F. Bay Area, it led my wife and me back to that area for the next 10 years, almost twice a year for events, vacations, and photo shoots. That early 65-66 experience kept calling us back for more explorations. That included several shows in Oakland for the hot rods and custom motorcycle shows. From the same shows that had the Lonnie Gilbertson RPU and Bob Chechini futuristic motorcycle, we expanded our clientele during out forays to those Bay Area Car Shows. One even had a photo shoot a month later in Santa Cruz Bay Area near Capitola, on an oceanside cliff. Those were the times of car shows and competing with other photographers for contracts to photograph those cool customs, hot rods, and motorcycles. Jnaki My wife and I looked at the photography journeys as a vacation and treated it as such. It was a fun experience going to different places on a road trip. What was not to like going up and down the Coast Highway 1 all along the California coast, stopping in little cabins and motels along the way. The people we met along the way, at the shows and contracted customers were interesting. They were all apart of those early forays into photography and what we could do with the experience. It is unfortunate that we missed meeting such an accomplished photographer and historian from back then. But, at least, the ideas of those cool Northern California Bay Area custom cars, hot rods and motorcycles were in our like minds from those early days. @HEMI32 Thanks for the history and great memories of the photographer, the excellent photos and days gone by… ever so quickly. Those very early car shows led into the very creative era of the GNRS events and the designs that came from them.
The Jalopy Journal
