Almost-famous old truck to help drive-in

The 1963 Dodge pickup, as shown in the trailer for Man of Steel.

The 1963 Dodge pickup, as shown in Trailer 2 for Man of Steel.

Brian Grams, director of the Volo Auto Museum in Volo IL, had to search all the way to Kansas to find the beat-up 1963 Dodge D200 pickup truck that will be featured in this summer’s Superman movie Man of Steel. The Daily Herald of suburban Chicago had a nice story about how Grams found the right vehicle for the movie, and then a bunch of close matches for the filmmakers to use in other shots.

Although Man of Steel looks like it’ll be a fine drive-in movie, normally I wouldn’t care enough to write about it. The great part about this story is the Grams has donated that truck to the McHenry Outdoor Theater to help it raise money to buy digital projection equipment. From May 3 through August 24, each patron’s ticket stub will be entered into a drawing to win the truck. Sounds like it’ll run just well enough to return to the drive-in each week. The Daily Herald wrote, “Though the truck runs, Grams says he wouldn’t recommend driving it cross country.”