10 Years of DukesCollector - New Centerpiece: Screen Used CNH 320 License Plate

Today, February 21, 2022 marks the tenth anniversary of my very first blog post here on DukesCollector.  To say that my collection has come a long way in the last ten years would be the understatement of the decade.  I didn't really know what I was doing back then; the first post didn't even have any pictures on it.  On my first post I stated my intentions for the blog to be showing off my collection, bringing fellow collectors together, and finding a place for people's unwanted Dukes stuff, namely in my possession.  I definitely achieved those goals!  This blog has done so much for me and made my collection so much bigger.  It's put me in contact with so many fellow collectors and helped me make so many new friends.  I knew I had to write a tenth anniversary post and I figured I had two options.  The first option would be to do a "best of" post and look back at some of the highlights of the last ten years, sort of like a clip show that every TV show out there has done.  All but one.  The Dukes of Hazzard never did a clip show, they did a flashback episode in the final season, but never an actual clip show.  The other option I had is to show off a new addition to the collection that is so amazing, so unbelievable, so ground breaking that it could only be shared on a very special post.  The Dukes never did a clip show and neither am I.  But how often do you add a collectible to the mix that it becomes the new centerpiece of the collection?  What could possibly eclipse the mythical swimming pool?  What could transcend the various pairs of Dukes shoes?  What could overshadow the pencil and matching pencil cup?  What could outweigh the archery set, Cooter's Garage Playhouse tent, the crew belt buckle mold, the slot machine, and the sidewalk bicycle?  What could outshine the mighty Gold General Lee?  All right, this is turning into a clip show...

I present to the world, my new centerpiece, my new holy grail, my new pièce de résistance; this is my screen used CNH 320 General Lee license plate!

This is truly an amazing piece and I'm humbled to have it in the collection.  In this blog post I'll discuss how I came to own the plate, the prominence behind it, and look at its intricate details.  Buckle up, we're about the jump the creek!

A lot of my big ticket items like the pool and the belt buckle mold found a home in my collection because their previous owners searched online and wound up here in the blog.  It's the best thing about this blog and something I honestly didn't expect in the beginning.  That was not the case, however, with the CNH 320 plate.  Ten years ago, people searching me out online to sell me Dukes stuff would have been an unexpected dream scenario, but the way I got the plate was even more unexpected.  

https://twitter.com/larryafranks

As far as social media goes, I'm primarily a twitter user.  I have instgram and use it some times and don't have facebook, but my go to is twitter.  Mostly I talk about Dukes, crack jokes with Jeffrey, and look at action figure pictures.  It's fun to interact with celebrities and follow trending topics.  Every once in a while I meet some interesting characters on there and one meeting led me to my cherished plate.  A very peculiar tweet thread found its way to me where the original poster tweeted out some made up song lyrics and called out some other twitter user that would then call out someone else and they would try to keep it going.  It made its way through the founder of Rotten Tomatoes who called out Jeff who called me out.  Jeff and I met the founder of RT years ago at Comic Con and have stayed in touch.  The author of the twitter thread would be involved with each tweet.  I'd never been involved with something like this, but it was going on long before it got to me and I wasn't going to be the one to drop the ball.  I played the part and replied to Jeff's tweet and called out another twitter friend and thought nothing more of it.  A few days later the author of the odd tweet thread reached out to me and said he noticed my account and saw that I was a Dukes Collector and said he might have something I was interested in.  I love those kind of messages.  The new twitter friend's name is Emery and he has a verified account.  Verified accounts have a blue checkmark beside their name and are usually reserved for celebrities and people of statue.  It's a way of letting people know you're seeing tweets from the actual Catherine Bach or John Schneider and not some impersonator which happens pretty often.  I, unfortunately, don't have a blue check, but I did have an impersonator on twitter for a while.  That was a long crazy story for another time.  (Shout out to @evillarryfranks)  Back to Emery, the blue check gave me confidence that this guy probably wasn't trying to rip me off.  He sent me a picture of the plate and my jaw dropped.  Turns out Emery is a Hollywood insider who has worked all over Tinseltown with different positions from producer to editor to director.  Over the years Emery has come to own some amazing props and costumes from some very recognizable shows and movies.  When he saw me take part in his twitter thread, he reached out to show off his collectible.  

Turns out Emery had the plate up for auction with the Hollywood auction house Profiles in History back in 2017.  He had several pieces listed in the auction.  The auction happened to take place on my birthday.  The posting for the plate came across my radar back then, but I never considered bidding because I thought the price would out of my league.  Turns out I had some birthday luck and didn't even know it because the plate didn't sell.  Several years later it came back on my radar in a big way.  It took a little time, but Emery and I agreed on a price and the plate became mine.  I still can't believe it.  

The plate is metal with thick red vinyl letters, numbers and lines.  It's not in perfect condition, but the patina adds more to it.  If it were perfect, it couldn't have been screen used.  

The plate is hand-made and the numbers were hand-cut.  There are tiny imperfections like the way the ends of the 3 go slightly inward.  

I wrote a post about the different plates used during the show and showed off some replicas that you can buy from Cooters.  In the article I mentioned that there are variations of the plates used throughout the show.  One obvious differences is the bottom of the plates.  Some plates early on read "Hazzard" while others read "Hazzard County."  The Hazzard County on my plate was made using the same red vinyl and when you look closely you can see the letters are not perfectly lined up.  The tiny details make this thing even better.  

The vinyl is thick and hard.  The 76 on the plate represents the plate style that Georgia was using at the time.  All plates from 1976 until 1983 looked similar to this plate.  In 1983 Georgia went with a green letter plate that had an 83 in the corner.  The Dukes updated the CNH 320 plates on the show to reflect the change in Georgia.  

There is a large smudge under the 2 and 0 that almost looks like a finger print.  It's distinctive to the plate.  Maybe down the road I'll go Gil Grissom and run it through CODIS.

In addition to the red letters and numbers, there is a yellow sticker affixed to the plate.  The plate reads B 81 739606.  This sticker is important because it dates the plate.  1981 is a very meaningful year.  The Dukes merchandise boom was at its peak in '81 and this particular Dukes fanatic was born in '81.  This plate was also used on a General Lee in 1981.  The production crew added stickers to all the plates on the Dukes to make them look authentic.  I'm glad they dated them. 

The sticker is made of some kind of thick paper and the adhesive has done its job these last forty years.  

The back of the plate is the least pretty.  It look like that back of any old piece of metal. 

But if you look closely you can see G. L. written in pencil.  Not everyone is as crazy about Dukes details as we are and I'm sure some people that worked on the set didn't know which plates went on which car.  This is an awesome detail and I would love to know who wrote these letters on the plate.  Man, do I love this thing.  

The back of the plate will be hidden for a while though.  As tough as this bad boy is, it's still lost a little of the red lining over the years and I don't want it to lose anymore.  I put it in a shadow box to protect it and I love the result.  It's not right up against the back of the frame; it's about a half an inch away.  It looks really good in the shadow box and I can't wait to display it within my collection.  

Now you might be wondering if I tried to find evidence of this actual plate being seen on the Dukes.  Let's go down that rabbit hole together.  

I called in reinforcements on the case.  Pictured above is my buddy Thomas Heisel.  Thomas is from Suamico, WI and as you can see, he's a huge Dukes fan.  Thomas is currently in college studying for a degree in Digital Media Technology.  My kind of guy.  I first met Thomas at Cooter's Last Stand during my trivia event.  We've kept in contact on Twitter and we talk Dukes often.  Thomas's dad introduced him to the Dukes when he was three and he's been addicted ever since.  His whole Dukes experience has been during the digital age of watching them online and on DVD.  He's told me how he loves to pause and go frame by frame to catch tiny details.  I knew Thomas would be the perfect fellow Dukes super fan to ask for help.  

 

It took Thomas less than a day to strike gold.  We knew the registration sticker on the plate narrowed it down to the year 1981.  That's all Thomas needed to go to work.  The above screen shot is from the later season 3 episode "The Canterbury Crock."  It was produced and aired in the Spring on '81.  Thomas took the above picture from his TV and believes this could be a match.  

The "Canterbury Crock was the season finale of the third season.  The next episode, the premiere of season 4, was "Mrs. Daisy Hogg" and it aired in the fall of '81.  Thomas took the above picture from that episode.  It's a reasonable guess that the plate spent the summer hiatus on the hero General Lee.  The hero car refers to the car that is treated better on set and used for scenes with the actors as opposed to cars that the stuntmen jumped.  Thomas believes the numbers on these two shots are a little off center and match the imperfections of my plate.  I see no reason to disagree.  Given Thomas's hard work I now believe that my plate appeared in at least two episodes spanning two seasons of the Dukes.  That's incredible.  Thanks so much for helping Thomas!

Now that we have some video evidence of the plate being screen used, let's go back and talk about the Profiles in History auction that took place in 2017.  As I said earlier, I was aware of the plate being offered for sale.  When Emery first offered the plate to me, I went back and searched online for the old auction listing.  Once Emery and I made a deal, I wanted to get everything I could relating to the auction.  On Profiles in History's website, they sell older auction catalogs, but didn't have this particular one available.  Even though it would appear Profiles' chief rival would be ebay, I was able to find the above catalog on our favorite auction site (sorry Profiles) for a lot cheaper than Profiles sells them for. 

This catalog is big, real big.  It reminds me of the old Sears Christmas catalogs, but about twice as thick.  I'm very happy I found one. 

Page 372 of 669 is the page I care most about.  The plate is shown with all its imperfect details.  A nice write up is provided.  Oddly enough the description says the plate is stamped with embossed letters which is not the case.  No wonder we like ebay better.  

I haven't really studied the catalog, but every time I open it I'm surprised at what I see.  The June 28, 2017 Profiles in History auction had so many amazing items in it.  Pictured above are just a few marvelous examples.  The Puffy Shirt from Seinfeld is so iconic.  Tony Sopranos outfit!!  A sweater from Laverne and Shirley with an L is cool, but I was really excited about seeing an original Spider-Man costume, then I found more!  This auction was loaded! 

 

You may have noticed that the Profiles listing also included a "studio silk screen set card" or what I would call a Dukes parking placard.  I got that too!!  Emery initially told me he was going to keep the placard during our first round of negotiations.  But when it was over, both amazing set items wound up here at DukesCollector headquarters.  Let's take a look at the placard.  

    

The placard is cardboard with a silkscreen printing on it.  The original use for this card was to be placed on the dash of your car to signify you as part of the production crew.  Dukes filmed on both the Warner Bros. lot and on location so there was a lot of traveling involved for the cast and crew.  I've seen a few of these over the years and I'm so glad I finally got one.  

The artwork is amazing.  The General Lee is in midflight.  Looking close you can see the silkscreen process on the white reflective area on the Gen'ral.  I really love the old WB logo. Not many commercial Dukes item have the logo, but it is on some of the original scripts I have.  I'm glad it was included on this placard.  This thing just has a super official vibe to it. 

I love the Dukes font.  The placard uses it perfectly and has a very nice drop shadow added.  

There's an embossed logo on the back of the placard that reads Crescent Quality Boards.  A little research shows that they produced other crew placards and I also found some artwork using the boards.  

I put the placard in a shadow box as well.  It fit perfectly.  Getting the placard alone would have been great, but getting it as an accompaniment to the screen used CNH 320 plate is monumental.  

 

Over the past ten years, my collection has grown to unimaginable levels.  Before DukesCollector, I was the only one who got to enjoy all these crazy Dukes items.  Ten years ago today I started a journey that I'm still on and it's taken me places I can't believe.  Before the blog I got to do some amazing things in the Dukes world, but because of the blog, I've done so many more.  I still can't believe that I've added so many amazing pieces to the collection because I write about Dukes of Hazzard collectibles.  I love sharing this stuff with the world and I'm so happy you enjoy reading about it.  This plate is without question the new centerpiece of my collection, and I'm so grateful that talking about Dukes online made it possible for me to own it.  DukesCollector has been jumping the hills of Hazzard County for ten years so far, let's see what the next ten years brings!  Yee Haw!