Supposedly, this is done in the name of progress. I take issue with that. After all, we’re talking about a city where bridges collapse, dumping rush hour commuters into the cold depths of the Mississippi river, where roadways are neglected for so long that by the time there’s any money to fix them, potholes and cracks are large enough to bend car rims left and right. So, it is in this economic environment that taxpayers driving around on bent rims over roadways and bridges that are crumbling have been told that they are going to be buying a shiny new stadium for a billionaire, because it’s progress. But the Metrodome…. It’s an icon. It’s huge, it seats thousands, has a nice field, a roof that was just replaced a couple years ago after a particularly heavy snow storm collapsed it, and though it may not be all high-tech and brand new, it’s still standing strong and can host events ranging from Vikings games to monster truck rallies. Why, it’s almost as though the Metrodome is a structure perfectly suited to host large gatherings of people at sporting events -oh wait, that’s because IT IS!
We’re being sold on the idea that this will create jobs. I’m sure there are stats that have been generated indicating how many people will be employed by the new stadium, but those stats don’t say how many people will be employed at a living wage, full time. A job that pays enough for a person to support themselves and their family is the only kind of job that actually matters, and everybody knows it. We just built the Twins a new stadium, and though it’s all new and cool looking, it isn’t generating the pile of money that people claimed it would.
Okay, I’ve raged long enough. The point is, that I love the Metrodome. Not really because I love sports, because I don’t. When you get right down to it, most of the popular sports just involve grown adults chasing a ball around a field or court. Sure, it’s fun for people playing and for folks who like to watch that type of stuff, but it hardly seems the type of thing that should necessitate stadiums that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The main reason I like the Metrodome is because of a tradition that sadly, will end this year when the Metrodome goes away; Rollerdome.
Rollerdome is held a couple nights a week, and for $5, you can go in and skate around in the Metrodome. The lower level is for your easy-going, more loitering-oriented type of skaters, of which I am one, and the upper level is for speed skaters. On any given night at Rollerdome, you’ll see a range of people from hard-core speed skaters blasting by while wearing uber-expensive skates with 100mm racing wheels, little kids toddling along on their first pair of skates, roller derby gals shooting the breeze as they roll along on quad skates and rack up some practice laps, couples out on an active date, recreational skaters looking to get a workout, and throwback roller disco fans practicing their moves in old school quad skates. It’s a great way to get some exercise when it’s too cold to do much outside, and an even better way to people watch. I love Rollerdome.
So it was that a couple days ago, I decided to go skating. I invited my little niece, Maeryn along with, because I’ll be taking her brother, my nephew, to the motorcycle show at the convention center in January, and I try to keep things on an even keel with them in terms of Auntie Val activity time. I decided to kick it old school, and eschewed my inline skates for my super-awesome blue suede quad skates, figuring that with my little niece in tow, it’s not like I’d be going too fast anyway.
For her part, my niece put together a skating ensemble that she thought would be suitable for her first ever time at Rollerdome. I insisted that she wear safety gear, and because she’s one of those girly types of girls who loves to accessorize, she had no problem with that. She did lament my lack of coordination with her outfit, and I had to assure her that if I did own a tutu, I would have worn it so we could be twins.
I took my niece out for some gluten free pasta and Spumoni ice cream at the Old Spaghetti Factory afterward, and I think she had a good time, because she wanted to know when we would be going back to skate some more. After I got home, I was putting my skates away when I was reminded of a very specific vehicle. So, inspired by my roller skates, for today’s automobile, we have a 1986 Owosso Pulse to look at. Coincidentally enough, the photos I have of the Pulse feature my little nephew, Lucian, who fell in love with the vehicle at Ellingson Classic Cars when I brought him there earlier this year. Lucian thought the Pulse was a speeder bike from Star Wars.
It kind of does look like my skates, doesn’t it? And really, Lucian wasn’t too far off with thinking that the Pulse is a speeder bike thingie from Star Wars, because this isn’t actually a car. The Pulse is what one would call an “auto cycle”. It’s part car, part motorcycle, and a little bit airplane as well.
The Pulse has a twin sister called the Litestar. The two are nearly identical but for a few styling cues and different engines. Both were designed by a guy named Jim Bele, who also designed aircraft. The Litestar was built in Iowa, whereas the Pulse was made in Owosso, Michigan. According to the information I remember from Ellingson, there were only around 270 Pulses made. This one features a 400cc Yamaha motorcycle engine. It has a sliding canopy like a jet, a steering wheel like a car, but it shifts sequentially like a motorcycle and has a electric motor for going in reverse. It doesn’t have 4 wheels like a typical car, nor does it have two wheels like a typical motorcycle. The Pulse has settled on the happy medium between the two and sits on 3 wheels. Its styling is very jet-like and futuristic, even though this car is over 25 years old now -thus the Jetsons in the display. This particular Pulse can be purchased from Ellingson Classic Cars for the price of $26,950. Though it would be a shame to see it go -my nephew would be heartbroken to have it gone from the museum. And besides, Ellinson’s would have to find some new purpose for the Jetsons family cardboard standies.
So, we started out with me complaining about the new stadium and crumbling infrastructure, moved along to roller skating, then to the Pulse auto cycle…. You might be thinking I’m about done with my tangents. Well, you’re wrong. We’re going to take the not so big leap from the three-wheeled Pulse over to another three wheeled vehicle and then off into an area that this blog has been known to venture into before: crime and mysteries.
I was about to wrap up this post when I recalled an article I read in one of my old car magazines. The April, 1975 issue of Road & Track features a cute little wedge of an automobile on its cover called the Triumph TR-7. It also has a smaller image of a Bricklin, a car that I find fascinating, but that I’ll have to wait to write about until I get to see one in person. Oh, but I should stop teasing you and get to the point already, eh? So, in my old magazine, there is an article on page 108 called “Mrs. Carmichael & Her Dale”. The article was written just shortly before things went terribly wrong for the Dale and Mrs. Carmichael.
The Dale was a three-wheeled automobile that was being touted as the next big thing in the mid-seventies, ten years before our pulse was made. Unlike the Pulse, the Dale had one wheel in back and two in front instead of two in back and one in front. This isn’t the first car with three wheels. From 1909-1939, Morgan made a three-wheeled car that managed to skirt the British tax on cars because it qualified as a motorcycle courtesy of its light weight and lack of a fourth wheel. The Dale, however, was definitely NOT like the Morgan three wheeler. In fact, the dale wasn't like anything, because the Dale, as it turned out, really wasn't ...anything.
Confused? I’ll explain. The Dale car was designed by a well-meaning, if not perhaps, too trusting fellow named Dale Clifft. The vehicle was to feature a BMW motorcycle engine, and a body made of space-aged resin that was resistant to damage. It would weigh less than 1,000 lbs, achieve 70 MPG, have a top speed of 85 MPH, and would cost less than $2,000. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
All this was being marketed and touted by a gal named Liz Carmichael, who roused investor enthusiasm in the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation that would be developing and producing the Dale. Liz claimed to be a farm girl from Indiana who constructed her first car at age 18 all by her little self. She claimed to hold a mechanical engineering degree from Ohio State University, and said she was also the widow of a NASA structural engineer whose passing had left her to raise their five children as a single mom. Well, if that’s not a human interest story in the making, then I just don’t know what is. But beyond that, Liz was bringing something interesting and fantastic to the American public at a time when gas prices were high and people felt desperate for relief. Low and behold, Liz had just the thing for it; the Dale!
In truth, only 3 Dales were ever produced, and only one of them actually could move without having somebody push it around by hand. The “functional” prototype was said to feature not the BMW motorcycle engine that had been touted, but a lawnmower engine in its place. That space-aged resin? Fiberglass. All was not as it seemed…. Really. Liz Carmichael herself had some secrets. One of which was the fact that Liz Carmichael was not who she said she was. Liz was actually Jerry Dean Michael (I hesitate to call this her dead name because I'm not totally sure her reasons for transitioning were earnest and done in a way to make her feel her true self).
That wasn't the biggest problem though. And besides, it’s a personal matter, so who really cares? So, she wasn't a farm girl from Indiana, and that single mom spiel was bullshit, because while she did have 5 kids, Liz was their father, not their mother. There was no dead NASA husband, and the mechanical engineering degree isn't for real either, as far as I can tell. She never built a car from scratch at age 18 either…. Well, alrighty then, maybe she just got carried away with cultivating her new female identity? Except that wasn't the biggest secret Liz Carmichael had. In 1975, Liz was charged with fraud when it was discovered that nobody could or would account for the money investors had been pouring into developing the Dale. The designer, Mr. Dale Clifft -bless his heart, held out hope, insisting that once the car was produced, things would even out and money would be made. That never happened. He only ever made around $1,000 for all the work he poured into that design.
As it turns out, Liz Carmichael was already wanted by the FBI in connection with a counterfeiting operation that she got busted for around 1961 when Liz was known as Jerry Dean Michael, a 6 foot tall, 200 pound man who was father to 5 kids. Jerry jumped bail on the counterfeit charges and wasn’t seen again until Liz Carmichael surfaced to gather funds for the Dale three-wheel car. She was found guilty of grand theft and securities fraud as well as conspiracy in connection with the Dale debacle, but managed to procure bail by making a deal with a publication that would put up the bond in exchange for exclusive rights to Liz’s story. Pulling a page from her old playbook from when she went by the name of Jerry, Liz jumped bail yet again, vanishing for many years.
It wasn't until after an Unsolved Mysteries episode aired in 1989 that Liz was located, living as a flower vendor in (coincidentally enough) Dale, Texas under the name of Kathryn Elizabeth Johnson. She was rounded up and did 2 years of jail time for her crimes. Some say Liz died in 2004, and others say she was alive and living with one of her kids as late as 2009. I don’t know what to believe, but I do know where you can see a Dale. If you’re ever in Los Angeles, stop by the Petersen Automotive Museum, and you can see one of the three prototypes.
So, from Metrodomes to roller skates, to Pulse auto cycles, to the Dale, to a gender-bending fraudster and over to Los Angeles all in one post. We have taken quite the journey today. My takeaway from this is that the Pulse is a neat little oddball, the Dale is just a hot mess, and frankly, I’m happy to stick with my blue suede roller skates for the time being.
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