Sam Raimi, The Classic, And Finding Your Artifacts

World renowned movie man, Sam Raimi, has been hanging onto the same 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 since he was a teenager. His dad bought it NEW in ‘73. Sam inherited it as a teenager. And since that time, it’s appeared in almost every single film he’s ever made. Not usually as a plot device, but always as a sentimental easter egg.

Anchor points matter.

When Bruce Campbell discusses the car, that he’s been riding in since they were getting dropped off places by Sam’s parents in the ‘70s, he gets the absurdity of it still being around. He calls it “The Classic” for a reason. He’s attempted to sabotage it, made all sorts of jokes about it, and wondered how and why Sam will ship it all over the country and the world to have it appear in a background shot, or disguised as a covered wagon.

But the commitment to remembering that’s the car that drove them around, before he got it, and before they used it to make their first movies together - that’s a real piece of personal and professional history right there.

My favorite stories are the ones about when Sam uses it that make no logical sense. Sure, in Evil Dead (personal favorites of my friends and I growing up, thus starting my fandom for spotting the car in the future), where it’s practically a character by Army of Darkness. But then in Doctor Strange when it’s in the multiverse? or when Uncle Ben’s got it as he’s driving around Queens in Spider Man?

Makes you wonder what your version of “The Classic” is too, doesn’t it?

I don’t have something that tangible. I have old stuff, but nothing like that. Probably a good thing we retired that old, green Dodge Caravan (but I think I still have the hood ornament somewhere). What I do have, though, is the sense of the taste that made those original horror movies so fun for me and my friends growing up. What I do have is the weird cultural artifacts of experience so many of my relationships formed and bonded over.

We were in Gallery of Sound watching an record release show for Glitterer this past week. That’s our local indie store, that I’ve been shopping at for 30 years, and around several old friends and a bunch of perfect strangers, including teenagers and some kids, there was a palpable magic in the air, just because of where we were, and watching people still choose and use the space.

Maybe I’ve got a lot of Classics, when I think about it.

Raimi’s car helps keep him grounded, I am sure of it. And the point that it’s unglamorous does a lot of lifting. The point is it’s a physical embodiment of identity, specific to his world, that’s stabilizing in a way nothing mass produced ever could be.

Choose to remember. That’s the move. And choose what you want to remember to keep the experiences alive, even in small ways, especially if they made you feel the most like yourself.

* (seriously, some great stories about the car alone are in Campbell’s If Chins Could Kill)

ps. this is great