Black Beauty

The Black Beauty as it appears in the television series.

Black Beauty is the name of the customized car utilized by the Green Hornet and Kato in their crime-fighting efforts. It is equipped with a unique horn that sounds like the buzz of a hornet, as well as an array of gadgets. It debuted in the Green Hornet radio series, the first iteration of the franchise and has appeared in every major adaptation since. It is typically driven by the Green Hornet himself in the radio series, but by Kato in later adaptations of the franchise.

In the radio series

The Black Beauty was Britt Reid's new car when it was first mentioned in the radio series. Due to the fact that it was witnessed at the scene of a crime, Britt unfortunately could not allow himself to be connected to it. The car also had a defective horn that sounded like the buzz of a hornet in flight. Once Britt adopted the vigilante persona of the Green Hornet, Kato made several modifications to the vehicle to facilitate their crime-busting efforts.

In the film serials

In the film serials, the Black Beauty was shown to be capable of outrunning virtually any police vehicle and was also bulletproof. It was apparently a 1937 Lincoln Zephyr that was personally modified by Kato. It used a special fuel that Kato had created, which allowed it to reach speeds over 200-miles-per-hour (322 kph). The fuel made the engine sound like a hornet buzzing. When Kato threw a switch, the buzzing sound cut off, and the engine operated silently, allowing the Hornet to sneak up on a suspect.

In TV series

The TV series featured a 1966 Imperial Crown hardtop customized by Dean Jeffries at a cost of $50,000 USD, part of which went toward the car's paint job: 30 coats of metal flake, pure black green pearl of essence lacquer hand-rubbed to a high gloss. An article in TV Guide published during the show's network run made reference to disparaging comments made within the industry about ABC being "the two-car network" because of the Black Beauty and the Batmobile.

The Black Beauty was stored underneath Britt Reid's garage. A set of switches on a secret control panel behind a tool wall would sequentially 1) lower the lights; 2) attach clamps to the axles of Reid's personal car; 3) rotate the floor of the garage — hiding Reid's car and bringing up the Black Beauty; and 4) unclamp the Black Beauty's axles. The Black Beauty would then exit the garage through a hidden rear door, and enter the street from behind a billboard advertising the fictitious product Kissin' Candy Mints — with the slogan "How sweet they are" — that was cleverly designed to separate down the middle and rejoin.

Van Williams (the Green Hornet) and Bruce Lee (Kato) pose with the Black Beauty in a publicity shot for the 1966 Green Hornet TV series.

The Black Beauty could fire explosive charges from tubes hidden behind retractable panels below the headlights which were said to be rockets with explosive warheads; had a concealed-when-not-in-use, drop-down knock-out gas nozzle in the center of the front grille and the vehicle could launch a small flying video/audio surveillance device (referred to as the scanner) through a small rectangular panel in the middle of the trunk lid. Working "rockets" and "gas nozzles" were incorporated into the trunk lid as well.

The TV series employed an audio device from the radio show. In its era, the engines of cheaper cars made a lot of noise; the expensive Pierce-Arrow was reputed to be extremely quiet. So, when the Green Hornet said, "Rig for silent running," the hornet-like buzz on the radio show was turned off and the listener was left to imagine that the car really was silent. On TV, the car sounded like a modern car, but the noise was removed from the soundtrack after this command.

The Beauty's regular headlight cluster supposedly could be flipped over to reveal what studio publicity described as "infra-green" headlights. However, the car's headlights were not actually rigged to flip, so the green filters were seen deployed constantly. It was revealed in the related Green Hornet spin-off Gold Key comic book that the green headlights used polarized light which, in combination with the appropriately polarized vision filter (translucent green sun visor-like panels that could be pulled down when needed), could provide almost as much illumination as conventional headlights while being extremely dim—almost invisibly dark—to someone without the filter. In some early episodes in two-shots with both Van Williams and Bruce Lee inside the Black Beauty, as seen through the windshield, Lee's face was tinted green since he was supposedly seen through a "polarized" filter in the form of a large pull-down, transparent green-gray visor; Williams on the other hand was seen in normal light. The tint is not present in close-ups of Lee alone. Since specification of what this lighting was supposed to indicate never actually made it into any finished episode, the effect was unexplained to the audience and soon discontinued. However, most night shots were actually filmed during the daytime by the day for night technique, giving the illusion of night-time as the actual car headlights were not polarized but just had green lenses, which would render the headlights useless for real night-driving. As the series progressed, the process was executed less effectively, reaching the point where the viewer would need context to understand that some scenes were supposed to be taking place at night, as can be observed in screening the episodes in either original network airing or syndication (production) order.

Post-series

In 1992, Green Hornet enthusiast Dan Goodman, purchased the "number one" Black Beauty from the former transportation director of Twentieth Century Fox for the sum of $10,000 USD and commissioned Jeffries to restore it; two cars had been built for the series and Goodman's was the primary car. Although the vehicle was in perfect mechanical condition with the original custom wheels and most body modifications as used in the show and had logged only 17,000 miles (approximately 27,350 km) since leaving the factory, it was badly weathered. Despite numerous legal bouts between Jeffries and Goodman over cost overruns and rights to the "Black Beauty" name and likeness, Jeffries eventually restored the car to its current condition, albeit incorrect regarding the condition during the series. While the rocket launcher panels on the trunk lid had been welded shut, requiring replacement of the body panel in order to make the system functional again, the flip-down green headlights were intact less their drive motor and discovered beneath the hood after Goodman took delivery. The Black Beauty is part of the Petersen Automotive Museum collection; the "number two" Black Beauty resides in a private collection in South Carolina.

In the comics

In the NOW comics

There were two versions of the Black Beauty used in the NOW comic series. The first was based on the Pontiac Banshee, and the second was a four-door sedan based on the 91-96 Oldsmobile 98 Touring Sedan.

In the Dick Tracy comic strip

The Black Beauty as it appears in Dick Tracy

In 2018, the Dick Tracy comic strip featured a crossover arc with the Green Hornet, Kato, and Lenore Case in which the trio travel to Dick Tracy's city in pursuit of gangster Cyrus Topper. While Kato poses undercover as Topper's new servant, Lenore fills in as the driver of the Black Beauty and adopts the costumed persona of the Red Wasp to protect her identity. The Hornet also uses the Black Beauty to escape from Dick Tracy on multiple occasions. This iteration of the car is visually and functionally similar to its appearance in the television series.

In the 2011 film

• Two cartridge-fed, hood-mounted retractable .30 caliber M1919 Browning machine guns
• Front bumper loaded FIM-92 Stinger missiles
• Grill-mounted M2 Flamethrower
• Benelli M2 20-gauge shotguns loaded with non-lethal, kinetic impact munitions rifles – mounted in the light bezels
• Four AIM-92A Stinger missiles – rear bumper loaded
• Trunk-mounted .30 Caliber M1919A6 Browning machine guns on tripod mount
• Two retractable front wheel anti-riot spikes
• Six AR-15 Carbines
• 12-gauge modified door guns – inset 3 per door

Role in Animated series

The Black Beauty has been announced as being featured in an upcoming The Green Hornet animated series.

Gallery

Bruce Lee as Kato posing alongside the Black Beauty from the TV series