2022 Hazzard Run and the 1st Ever Halloween in Hazzard Costume Contest

I love the Dukes of Hazzard and I love Halloween.  If you've read more than a post or two on this ol' blog you've probably figured this out.  Recently I was able to combine these two loves into an event that I'm very proud of and it was a success.  The first ever Halloween in Hazzard Costume Contest took place at the 2022 Hazzard Run at Cooter's in Luray.  It was great!

The Hazzard Run is an event that's been happening at Cooter's since 2009.  Though there hasn't been one every year since, this was the tenth Run, and it's always a favorite for Dukes fans.  Bobby Scott is the creator and organizer of the event, along with Jett Yaskow.  It started as a parade of Dukes cars, General Lees and others, that went from the original Gatlinburg Cooter's Place to the Nashville location.  Last year they moved to the Luray Cooter's.  I've never had the pleasure of attending a Run until this year.  Pictured above is the General Lee the belongs to your buddy and mine, Jim Dahlman.  Remember Jim brought his car to my 40th birthday party last year and made the party epic.    

I got to Cooter's on Friday and there was already a crowd.  Jim wasn't the only General Lee owner ready to make the Run.  

Friday evening I was invited to an exclusive barbeque and I had a blast.  I had to use my GPS to find the location, but when I got there, there was no doubt I was in the right place. 

The party was perfect.  A highlight of the night, and the whole trip, was getting to spend time with Dorothy Best, wife of the late James Best.  I chatted with Dorothy and her sister for hours about the Dukes, James playing Rosco, Sorrell, her time on set, different events, collectibles, and a lot of other stuff.  It was a very special evening and I am very so happy I had the opportunity.  

Saturday was the big day.  When the Hazzard Run was first announced, and I noticed it was later in October this year, and the idea for a costume contest popped into my head right away.  I've always wanted to combine my love of Halloween with the Dukes and the timing of the Run gave me the perfect chance.  Just like the professional group pictures at the 40th anniversary in Nashville and the Good Ol' Boy Fest, if I wanted this to happen, I had to make it happen myself.  I discussed the idea with Miss Alma months ago, and she agreed it would be fun.  I was hoping she would agree to let me host it, and she was on board for that too.  After the preparation and announcements were made, the only thing I had to do was design a costume.  Even though I wouldn't be eligible to win because I was the host, I still needed to show up in costume.  I had a few ideas, but I decided the Carnival of Thrills outfit was going to be a showstopper.  Just like every other amazing Halloween costume contest I've worn in the past, I come up with the ideas, and my Mom and Natalie make them amazing.  This one was all Mom.  The jumpsuit came from walmart.com, the Carnival patch came from my collection, the other patches were custom from zazzle.com and Mom did the rest.  This suit is perfect.  People thought it was professionally made.  It basically is.  After all these winning Halloween costumes, I would agree that my Mom is a professional costume creator at this point.  

I debated wearing the costume first thing in the morning, or putting it on after the run.  Wearing it all day was definitely the right way to go.  The Run started early and I got to Cooter's before most people, but as soon as I got out of the car, Miss Alma was there and she loved the outfit.  We are so blessed to have Miss Alma as the Matriarch of all things Dukes of Hazzard!  More on the contest soon.  Let's talk about the Hazzard Run!

With this being my first Hazzard Run, I didn't know what to expect.  It ran like a well oiled General Lee because this was not Bobby's first Run.  Bobby is in charge of all the cars at all the big Cooter's events and he runs his own event perfectly.  The Run started at Cooter's and followed a well organized path through Luray and through the Shenandoah Valley to the Shenandoah Speedway, the site of the Good Ol' Boys Fest in 2019. 

It was great seeing all the Hazzard vehicles, and being in costume made it even more fun.  

I rode with Richie in the official Cooter's Place General Lee.  Richie knows the car pretty well, seeing as he built it and owned it for years before it became Ben's number one Gen'ral.  

I set up my GoPro on the hood of the General Lee and recorded the entire run.  

The video is long but shows the beautiful colors of the Shenandoah Valley and you can see how many people came out to see the parade of Hazzard cars.  

General Lees in front of me and General Lees in back.  I was in Dukes of Hazzard heaven.  

Our pal Jennifer rode with us too.  We were a set of Duke Cousins, that's for sure.  

The Run went on to the Speedway, but we had to get back to the store to set up for the autographs and contest.  

Tom Wopat rode in the Run and then headed back to greet his fans.  I love seeing fans interact with the Dukes.  It's such a special thing. 

Luke wasn't the only Duke Boy at the Hazzard Run.  Byron Cherry, Coy Duke, also attended.  Byron is a lot of fun!

Dorothy Best signed autographs and sold prints of Jimmy Best's artwork.  I'm really glad we connected and look forward to talking with her again soon. 

Dukes of Hazzard Lead Mechanic, Tom Sormento, also attended the Run.  Tom kept the General Lee on the road, and in the air.  He witnessed every jump the Gen'ral made while the show was filming.  He has so many great stories and it's always a blast getting to chat with him.  

Tom took pictures with his fans and Cooter's General Lee outside the Hazzard Garage.  This really is the perfect place to get a picture with the cast of our favorite show. 

 

Unfortunately my camera focused on the wrong subject in this picture, but what a great pic these fans got with Coy Duke!

It wasn't all Hazzard cars at the Hazzard Run.  There was also a car show presented by the Shenandoah Valley Mustang Club.  There were some amazing cars there.  But, they just weren't orange enough for me.  

That's more like it.  Every car show I've ever been to, I'm searching for the General Lee.  I love seeing so many!

But we all know my favorite part of the 2022 Hazzard Run was the Halloween in Hazzard Costume Contest!  I was so happy when I saw fellow fans in costume as soon as I got to Cooter's in the morning.  People were excited for the contest!  Fans that didn't dress up were excited to see those that did.  Let's meet the participants in the event.  First up were my favorite of all the costumes.  This is Dave and John Ashbridge dressed as Bo and Luke from the season 5 episode "Welcome Back, Bo 'n' Luke."  These fellow jumpsuit wearing fellas really nailed it.  Topped with helmets, something I didn't think of, they were a hit all over the Run.  I wonder if they would win the contest?

Next up is Brandon Bergin as Rosco P. Coltrane.  Brandon and his Silver General Lee have a big presence on the Instgram side of Hazzard County.  I first met Brandon in 2018 at Cooter's.  

Next up is Tabitha Ingram as Daisy Duke.  

Tabitha and her boyfriend James Murphy III brought their sweet white General Lee Challenger.  James entered the contest as Cooter!

Another Duo of entrants were Corry Lin Stephensca and Mike Phinny.  They dressed as Deputies Daisy Duke and Enos Strate.  I love the unique thinking Corry and Mike put into their costumes.  Man, the contest was fun!

Next up is Gabriel Thacker and his dad Kevin.  They entered in to the group category with Staci Helms.  Gabriel is Rosco and Kevin is Enos.  Staci didn't have her costume ready yet and you can see her in the group picture below.  

Out next contestant is none other than our own "Dukes Geek" Bill Lambing.  Bill wasn't just dressed up as Rosco, he was dressed as "Ya Dipstick Rosco."  Billy has been representing the Dukes of Hazzard for decades and appeared on the reality show Beauty and the Geek as the Dukes Geek in the mid 2000s.  

Next up entering the Under 18 category is Nolan Desrosiers as Bo Duke.  Nolan looks great and even has a near perfect belt buckle.

Rounding out the contestants is Curtis Moore.  Curtis is dressed as one of Hazzard County's finest.  I am so grateful for all the contestants that they took part in the event.  Let's see how it all went down.  

Byron really wanted to enter but I told him the rules were strict.  He said he had the best Coy Duke costume ever and I had to agree, but I double disqualified him for getting into this General Lee through the door.  Use those windows Byron!

I took this picture with Corry, Mike, Dave and John before the contest.  This is probably my favorite picture of the weekend.  You know when there are certain pictures that you're sure will stick around for a while, and this is without question one of them.  I'll use this one to promote any upcoming costume contests or basically any other event I'm associated with for years to come.  I really love this picture.  

I posted it to twitter soon after taking it.  Our pal Jason Parmeter pointed out that we looked like Series 3 of the Figures Toy Company Dukes of Hazzard action figures.  I didn't even think of it, but he was spot on.  We are even in the same positions as the ad for the Entertainment Earth exclusive series.  I love the picture we took and love the reference to the toys.  Everything about this makes me so happy. 

The rules of the contest said the judging was based audience reaction, social media consideration and celebrity judges interaction.  Before we all went on stage, I had to take the pulse of the fans.  Billy really did a great Rosco and even does a super impression.  Everyone loved his costume. 

My Carnival of Thrills jumpsuit had a blank back, but John and Dave went the extra mile and put the Cooter's logo and the 01 on their backs.  It's the little things that really go a long way.  

The contest took place after Cooter and his Garage Band performed.  Ben, Lisa, Robbie and the band always put on a great show.  

While we were waiting to go on, I snapped this pic of Jett and Bobby.  They make the Hazzard Run run, and it runs so smooth.  Thanks for all you guys do.  I always enjoy hanging out with these two.  

Just a couple Hazzard cops hanging out on the lawn.  They need a Flash to stretch and yawn. 

They looked like they were having so much fun, I had to join in.  

The celebrity judges were none other than Byron and Tom.  Right before the contest started I conferred with them about who they thought should take home the gold.  

And I snapped a couple of pictures with them.  Had to be done.  I had the social media reaction, the celebrity judges' decisions, and all I need was the crowd response.  Time to get to the stage. 

All the contestants came on down to the stage and I read everyone's name and costume.

For each category we whittled the numbers down based of the applause they got from the crowd.  

 

The competition was fierce in the duos category and the crowd was definitely split between the deputies and the orange clad Duke Boys. 

I gave everyone a chance to show off a little in front of the crowd.  

The Bandit had a few jokes and Billy Lambing even did his Rosco and Enos impressions.  

Alex and Billy put up a valiant effort, but they didn't get as many cheers in the individual category.  

James Murphy III took home the individual prize with his Cooter costume.  The crowd cheered a costume of their hero to victory. 

The group category winners were the team of Gabriel, Kevin and Staci dressed as Rosco, Enos and Daisy.

Nolan won the best under 18 with his spot on Bo Duke and the final category was the most heated.  Corry Lin and Mike against Dave and John.

Deputy Daisy and Deputy Enos went against Welcome Back Bo 'n' Luke.  The battle of the century!

In the end, there couldn't be just one.  The crowd, judges, and I were so split, it was decided they both deserved a prize.  We had a duo of best duos!  

This is another one of those great pictures that I'll cherish for a long time.  This is the entire pool of participants for the first ever Hazzard in Halloween Costume Contest at Cooter's.  Each winner took home a seventy-five dollar gift card to Cooter's!  Well, I'm guessing they took home seventy-five bucks worth of Cooter's stuff because I know I would have spent that right away.  What a great time the contest was.  Everyone shown in the picture is, from left to right, Mike Phinny and Corry Lin Stepnensca as Deputies Enos and Daisy, Dave Ashbridge and John Ashbridge as Welcome Back Bo 'n' Luke, Alex Page as the Bandit, Nolan Desrosiers as Bo Duke, Billy Lambing as Rosco, host Larry Franks as Carnival of Thrills Bo Duke, James Murphy III as Cooter, Tabitha Ingram as Daisy, Kevin Thacker, Gabriel Thacker and Staci Helms as Enos, Rosco and Daisy, Brandon Bergin as Rosco and Curtis Moore as a Hazzard Deputy.  Thank you so much for everyone who participated! 

After the contest I wondered around and just had fun.  I happened to walk by the moment Byron was signing Jim's General Lee and snapped some pics.  Jim sure was happy to add Coy's autograph to his beloved car.  I'm glad I got to witness it.  

I spied a Carnival of Thrills car door leaning on the wall in the garage and had to pull it out and take some pictures with it.  I got so many great pictures at the Hazzard Run!

The festivities closed out with Dukes on the big screen.  I can't think of a better way to spend a warm Autumn evening.  This was truly a special event for me.  I lot of people said they wish they would have dressed up or wanted to see how it went the first time and want to do it next year.  I hope we have twice as many costumes next Halloween.  I successfully combined Dukes and Halloween.  Wow.  I can't wait to do it again!

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!