Rescue 8 episode - '58 M-M ambulance

58 chev

58 convertible 348 tri-powe 1st year 4 speed contenental kit fender skirts. makes me drool. nowdays 100k+. ahh those were the days.
 
I could watch that all day.. Locally, there's a station on Digital Cable called MeTV, they show Emergency at 5pm daily. What ticks me off, is they don't go in order, they skip around.
 
Somewhere I have a picture of a 14 year-old Joe Ortiz standing next to that 58 MM Futura Ambulance. He answered the phones at Miller's. One day the crew woke up and all the cars had been repossessed. Miller's accountant was an actor named Rand Brooks. Brooks bought the phone numbers from Miller's and paid the finance company to get the cars back. Joe Ortiz became the first employee of Brooks' new company, Professional Ambulance.

We've talked about Brooks before. At the time of his death, he was the oldest surviving principal cast member of "Gone With the Wind". His first wife was Stan Laurel's daughter.

BTW, the California steady burning red light law (now known as 25252 CVC) dates back to 1929 but was not adequately defined until 1957. Prior to that a Mars FL or Federal PropelloRay sufficed. Beginning January 1st, 1958 that changed with the new California Administrative Code Title 13 which laid out exact requirements, including minimum lumens and beam spread. This is why Superior bullet lights were hard to find in California- they weren't bright enough and didn't have the required beam spread. I don't remember any of Miller's cars being consistent, not even from one week to the next. Some times, one or both of the tunnel lights would burn steady, sometimes there would be a red spotlight.
 
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Kevin: THANKS for the clarification on this. From information and pictures I obtained from the CDF Museum (Pre and Post 1958) in restoring our X-CDF 1949 REO Fire Engine (6336), I knew it must have been mandatory circa 1957-1958. At that time their whole fleet of around 100+ vehicles had Single (FLASHING) S-M Oval Red Lights. I wonder what happened to all of those ..... probably in a landfill near Sacramento? MM
 
Kevin: THANKS for the clarification on this. From information and pictures I obtained from the CDF Museum (Pre and Post 1958) in restoring our X-CDF 1949 REO Fire Engine (6336), I knew it must have been mandatory circa 1957-1958. At that time their whole fleet of around 100+ vehicles had Single (FLASHING) S-M Oval Red Lights. I wonder what happened to all of those ..... probably in a landfill near Sacramento? MM

Mike,
I have searched all the landfills in Sacramento,even went to Roseville,Placerville,and Auburn....NOTHING........except old Superior Ambulance,Foothill Ambulance,and Metro Ambulance items from the 70's and 80's that AMR disposed of when they took over all 3 companys in the 90s........:yum:
 
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