Last weekend out at the Art of Automobile Lifestyle Show, I saw a whole bunch of cool stuff. But one of the true delights was spotting this cool old ambulance-hearse manufactured in 1924 by Studebaker. Wait! Studebaker made trucks in the 1920’s?
Apparently they did as this “Big Six” was a star car back in the day. In 2002, a couple from Central Florida purchased it from Warner Brothers Studio out Californie way and brought it here to the Sunshine State.
At that, my fellow Hoons, is a Big Six. It apparently runs and drives as it made it here to the coast for this show.
I’m not really sure why the driver and passenger are dressed in old school prison uniforms. Possibly this truck was featured in the old Keystone Kops series of movies?
That theme would explain the handcuffs on the bed in the rear of this beast. Well, at least I hope that is what they are for!
Hooniverse Truck Thursday: The "I'm A Movie Star, Baby" Edition
By LongRoofian
May 12, 2011
By LongRoofian
No biography of the LongRoofian would be complete without [edited for length and adherence to subject matter] and your continued enjoyment of these ramblings is certainly welcome.
Jeff Glucker 
Kamil Kaluski 
Mercedes Lilienthal
Not really a truck, just a big car that happened to have a truck like body put on it.
It does day "POLICE" on the front, that might explain the prison uniforms too. Actually, I'm pretty sure some jails still use that uniform. Sheriff Joe in Arizona uses it.
Its like Prison Break, but with less tattoos.
Rough condition. That bed looks more like a stretcher. Maybe it's an escapee from the prison museum in Saint Augustine.
That is one cool old beast.
My guess is that this is a paddy wagon or black mariah, which would explain the "Police" signage and the striped costumes and handcuffs. In the back is a backless bench, where arrestees would be seated back-to-back for transport to the pokey (or hoosegow). A vehicle of this livery would have many uses at a movie studio, whether for comedy, drama, or period history productions. It's a beauty, if a bit worn about the edges.
If it's some of these ones, it looks like it spent most of it's movie career as an ambulance.
I just bought that truck on Craigslist for $40 bucks what a steel.
Sorry but I still own it and it runs as new. It was used in many Warner Bros movies as an ambulance and police vehicle from 1930 to 1969
i know this stude. it was originally a paddy wagon/ ambulance in la county when it was new in 1924. it was later donated to warner bros