I got my start in Hollywood

Arnie Madsen

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2007
Messages
4,351
Location
Southport Aerospace - Manitoba Canada
Aircraft
Bell 47 G2
I really did get my start in Hollywood California.. I was a newlywed in the early 1970's and should have been in a jewelry store buying pearls.

However I was driving my seriously underpowered brand new Chevy Vega Pacer that I just I bought from Terry Balkin Chevrolet Oldsmobile in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada .... and was driving down Old Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles California.

Jon Kosmoksi had a little storefront shop that said "House of Kolors" ... "Candy Apple paints"

Men love jewelry-grade pearls ground into a fine powder that can be mixed with a clearcoat to spray on something that belongs to a friend.

I spent a thousand dollars in Jon's store that day , I brought his paint to Canada and pretended to be something special.

I love this video by Jon Kosmoski , when I first watched it I recognized his voice immediately. I will be forever grateful to him when he helped a kid like me find some paint that looked like jewelry in the sun.

When I watch him paint this Camaro .... I can smell the Candy paint and I love his narrative.

Original guys like him do not come by very often. For some reason I am thinking about Vance Breese as well. The two seem to go together. I am talking about character of men.

Jon Kosmoksi is a natural born painter . wonderful video.

House Of Kolor - How To Paint A Car - John Kosmoski - YouTube
 
A businessman named Hugh Shirley owned Imperial paints out of Winnipeg Manitoba Canada and drove a big school bus full of automotive supplies. Kind of like a traveling warehouse. . I bought many of my paint supplies from him in the 1970's.

In 1979 I had moved to Winnipeg and enrolled with the Vega Helicopters flight school (St Andrews Airport) .... and desperately needed a job. I had no references because I had always been self employed painting cars.. I wanted to work as an aircraft painter at Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg but I could not answer all the technical (military) questions during the interview.

I knew nothing about Winnipeg ..... I had the classified ads from the Winnipeg Free Press .... I was standing in a phone booth on Regent avenue and placed my first call. I think it took the last few coins in my pocket. After that I was flat broke and had no credit. Turns out the number I dialed was Bibeau Auto Body on Chrisland street ..... The lady (secretary) said they had lots of applicants and I would not probably get hired. She asked me where I was .... and I said in a phone booth on Regent Avenue ..... she said look north and you will see our big sign.

I walked in the front door and Hughy Shirley was standing with the shop owner Bill Yee (William Truson Yee)..... they had been trying for 3 days to figure out how to do a pearl white custom paint job for an insurance repair..

When I walked in the door Hugh Shirley said .... "there is Arnie Madsen ..... just the guy the guy you need." ...... I was wearing street clothing , had no coveralls or anything ..... but I walked straight into the paint booth anyway ..... and 4 hours later I had done a near perfect job. Bill Yee gave me a check for $500 and said ..... can you come back tomorrow...... ??

I said yes but I would come in a bit late. After all , when a man has $500 of new money in his hands he should go straight to the helicopter school and get rid of it real quick.

The next day Bill had brought his wife's (Mabel Yee) 1973 El-Camino to the shop and said ..... she is an artist and is really fussy and particular ..... do whatever you want Arnie. The car was originally a green color so I painted in a beautiful House of Colors Candy Apple Green with some nice fish scale designs on the sides and hood. It was very formal and classy for a lady and was one of my best paintjobs. Bill and Mabel absolutely loved it. The only thing she complained about was that now Bill took it to work every day .

From then on Winnipeg car dealer Terry Balkin Chev Olds used to send me their custom paint repairs ..... in those days Balkin would bring the airbrush artist from "the Shrunken Head Studios" in Montreal to do airbrush murals on a bunch of new vans. Whenever they got in an accident they would get me do redo the murals and custom painting ...... and because those vans were insured as customs .... the insurance labour hours were on the high side.

It is amazing how many helicopter hours a man can fly from the revenues produced by a tiny Wren Airbrush

Hugh Shirley also imported the Jon Kosmoski House of Kolors Candy paint for me for many years afterwards.

Starving student helicopter pilots need all the help they can get

Hugh Shirley passed away recently and I will be eternally grateful for giving me a boost in life 33 years ago.

http://passages.winnipegfreepress.c...blish_date|DESC,last_name|ASC,first_name|ASC/

HUGH SHIRLEY Peacefully at the Victoria Hospital, Hugh Shirley, born November 8, 1937, passed away after a brief illness on Thursday, October 25, 2012. It is with great sadness that he leaves his wife Beth and children James (Christine), Tony (Marla) and Shawn (Donna). Also to miss their Grampy are his grandchildren, Stephany, Dylan and Dustin. Left to mourn him in Victoria, BC are his brothers Bill (Elaine) and John (Pamela) and his sister Penny. Hugh loved family dinners with his in-laws; Fernande, Noël, Marie-Anne, Claire, Edmée (Bram), Alain (Muriel) and Guy (Audrey). Hugh had a full and active life. He always credited the Navy for his life training and sense of adventure. On arrival in Winnipeg, he established Imperial Paints where he worked for 50 years until his untimely passing. He was a Shriner for many years. Hugh was a unique man in many ways. His dream was to build a theme park (Huggieland) in Manitoba for which he tirelessly worked. He spent countless hours making animals and dinosaurs for all children to enjoy. His generous spirit will always be remembered by those he loved. His pastimes were hunting, fishing and spending time at the lake. A private service will be held. If so desired, Donations may be made to the Children's Wish Foundation. www.desjardinsfuneralchapel.ca

As published in the Winnipeg Free Press on October 30, 2012
 

Attachments

  • hugh shirley.jpg
    hugh shirley.jpg
    8.2 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
Armie- You are a most interesting person. Keep your posts coming. Stan
 
Armie- You are a most interesting person. Keep your posts coming. Stan

Thanks Stan .... I have always found it interesting how some of those little encounters can sometimes set our direction in life. I always like to remember the people who helped me along the way. I was just a dumb farm boy who read the California Hot Rod magazines from to cover to cover and dreamed .

The only thing that could make me drop the magazine was if a helicopter flew overhead and then I would dream about helicopters the rest of the day.

If I had spent a little less time dreaming and a little more time working I could have probably owned one by now.

I am going to try find some pictures from back in those days. I am hoping the Bill Yee family still have some. Bill and Mabel are gone now but I have some interesting stories about them too.

Bill was friends with famous wrestler "Mad Dog Vachon" and I got to hang around with him a bit. Mad Dog was a real gentleman in person with a heart of Gold.

Bill was a firearms enthusiast and had a nice collection of early military memorabilia.

To describe Mabel Yee you would have to picture the most beautiful China Doll you can imagine. Her cooking was some of the best food on the face of this earth. I felt privileged to be able to paint her car and was thrilled by how much she liked it.

I hope I can find some pictures. I finally have a decent computer and high speed internet .... next I have to figure out how to transfer from my camera to computer. I can be a slow learner when it comes to electronics. Once I finally figure it out it seems so simple.

I am pretty busy right now but this winter I want to do an article on a 1930's coaxial helicopter built near here that actually flew. They used rigid rotors so of course vibration was a problem and they never took it higher than 15 feet or so. The intriguing part was they were just some Manitoba farm boys wanting something to do during the winter. Their shop was not much more than a blacksmith shop but they built a very professional looking helicopter that actually got off the ground

I have lots of pictures but they are in the old projector-slides format so this winter I hope to do some electronic versions and post them here.
 
Last edited:
.

This afternoon I spotted a Vintage Dodge Dart owned by friend Wayne K. at the local car wash. I was able to snap a couple of pictures before he started washing it. Another day I will try to get more pictures.

Wayne has always been a local Car Guy with many very nice vehicles through the years and I have had the privilege to do several paint jobs for him .

This is a 31 year old paint job , done in DuPont IMRON Polyurethane enamel , I worked on it starting around 1983 and did it as a side project in my busy autobody collision repair shop . The black stripes are painted on , and several topcoats of IMRON 500S Clear seals it all in .

Wayne has taken good care of it and the paint still retains the typical IMRON gloss after all these years

.
 

Attachments

  • DSCF4740.jpg
    DSCF4740.jpg
    134.6 KB · Views: 0
  • DSCF4742.jpg
    DSCF4742.jpg
    134.7 KB · Views: 0
  • DSCF4741.jpg
    DSCF4741.jpg
    142.7 KB · Views: 0
I very much enjoyed reading your story Arnie. One joy in life, as you get older, is the fond memories. I often consider the turns my life took and the "what if's" and how things might have been different. (good & bad)
 
.

Wayne & I especially liked the way the hood turned out. When it first came in my shop it had a bit of hail damage , so I found a nice straight replacement hood and bonded a new scoop on it .

The detail where the fiberglass scoop joins the steel hood is near perfect and after all these years there are no signs of cracks or stress.

I remember doing this job like it was yesterday , I love this stuff and I miss doing it. The closeup pictures are not all that great , the black spots on the scoop are just a bit of dirt , Wayne had not washed the car yet.

Another day I will get some better closeups , plus maybe some of Wayne's other cars ... Challengers , his wife's 1970's Firebird etc

..
 

Attachments

  • DSCF4745.jpg
    DSCF4745.jpg
    136.6 KB · Views: 0
  • DSCF4744.jpg
    DSCF4744.jpg
    153.8 KB · Views: 0
  • DSCF4743.jpg
    DSCF4743.jpg
    150.7 KB · Views: 0
Thanks for sharing some rattling good yarn from the past, Arnie! It's indeed interesting how small things can alter your life. So far so good.....(fingers crossed for all of us for the future).....;-)
 
Last edited:
Wow how did I miss this!!!

Very interesting and I love that hood!!

Wish you could come here and paint my ride!
 
Top