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Inexpensive People Mover: 1971 MCI MC-7 Bus

MCI, or “Motor Coach Industries”, has been manufacturing bus platform vehicles for nearly a century now.  In business since 1933, their chassis has been used for a wide variety of purposes, including everything from prison transport vehicles to highly… more»

Running Late: 1951 GM “Old-Look” Bus

Hey, does the number 11 still stop here? Noooo, not any longer, the old 11 has seen better days and its time as a hauler are long over. Looking for its next trick? That appears to be the case… more»

Fishbowl Coach: 1975 GMC “New Look” Bus

It’s funny – in the vintage BMW world, there are all sorts of translations for the different styling eras that emerged in the late 1960s into the 70s. That makes sense, as collectors tend to break their favorite model… more»

Rat Rod Shorty: 1952 International Harvester School Bus

When it comes to vintage buses, it’s often the case that well-intentioned owners get to it too late. The bus, once retired, falls into private hands that simply need a lot of space and a lot of seats, which… more»

Willie Nelson Connection: 1952 Flxible Flyer Visicoach

If I weren’t into vintage European cars and Japanese SUVs, I’m fairly certain I’d want to own a Flxible touring bus of some kind. Flxible Flyers sported some of the best art-deco styling to ever grace a transportation vessel, and… more»

Short Bus: 1958 Chevrolet Superior School Bus

This 1958 Chevrolet Superior School Bus has been sitting forlornly in New Mexico for years, according to the seller, and there’s not much left to this short bus body. While I wish there were pictures of the hedge it… more»

Flathead Powered Shorty: 1949 Ford School Bus

For some reason, old school buses are super cool. And the shorter they are the better! Just have a look at this 1949 Ford School Bus. It’s definitely a special find, as it’s a highly original short bus with… more»

Live the Post-War Dream! 1948 Flxible Clipper

The Flxible company (one ‘e’ short of Flexible to coin a patentable trademark) made this generation of Clipper bus from 1946 until 1967. This 1948 Flxible Clipper hails from a location near Londonderry, New Hampshire. Thanks to reader “AMXBrian”… more»

They Can Fly! New Life for Seven Old School Buses Update

In September, 2016 I wrote about seven old school buses headed to a new life serving the children of Haiti. It took awhile, but finally on November, 20th they were loaded onto two Air Force C5 aircraft and flown… more»

Big Barn Find: 1950 GM Transit Bus

I can only imagine the size of the barn this thing was found it! It is being sold by the third owner, who acquired it the estate of a private collector, so presumably it was kept in a large… more»

1978 Volkswagen Bus in Time-capsule for Over 20 Years!

Check out this  1978 Volkswagen Bus in seemingly excellent condition, offered here on craigslist for $6,000 in Hayfork California. Said to have been off the road since 1996, this Tylenol-shaped time capsule is waiting for the right person to put… more»

Old School: 1957 GMC School Bus

How much fun would this be as a converted motorhome or party bus?  This 1957 GMC bus looks like a very solid project.  For sale here on craigslist for $2,500 in Scottsdale, Arizona.  The ad doesn’t have too many pictures… more»

For Short Hippies: 1966 Volkswagen Bus

Your eyes are not deceiving you. This VW bus was shortened by two feet before a band of paintbrush-toting hippies descended on it. The seller claims that this bus could have been at Woodstock. That may be speculation, but… more»

Too Cool For School: 1937 Ford School Bus

This ’37 Ford school bus has a rad look to it! There’s some moss growing here and there, but it’s surprisingly solid. The seller purchased it from the city and is has supposedly never changed hands since new. They had… more»

Three Pedals: 1970 MCI Motor Coach

There are times when I want to meet the owners of the vehicles we feature on Barn Finds and find out their story. How did you come into owning such a vehicle? What was going through your mind when you traded… more»

Ran When Parked: 1947 Ford School Bus

What a neat old school bus! Modern buses are big boxes without character. A bus like this ’47 Ford School bus on the other hand is jam packed with style. If this bus pulled up in front of my house, I’d… more»

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Bus Stop Classics:  Vintage Buses for Sale – Ready for a Fixer-Upper?

Paul’s find the other day of the “Advanced Design” Chevy Hippie Bus once again got me fired up to go see what vintage buses might be out there for sale.  This malady of mine usually occurs once a year, and lasts about 24 hours, before reality returns and I realize that I live in Tokyo and the parking space at our home barely fits my Volvo C30.  But one can always dream…and a little googling finds some real beauties out there.  Which would be your pick?

How about an iconic Flxible Clipper – this one a 1952 Visicoach model.  And it has celebrity heritage – it was one of Willie Nelson’s first tour buses.  Just imagine how much Platinum Gold still permeates those interior walls.  While this bus may be terrestrial-bound, inside those fumes could have you soaring higher than Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson.

There is a large and active Flxible Owners Club that can help find parts so getting this one back on the road could be done, though would likely be a bit expensive.  It has no engine, and it might be a little difficult finding a Buick 320 cubic inch straight eight like the one it left the factory with, but you could always go with a CAT or Cummins diesel – a popular modern upgrade.

You’ll have a unique piece of Americana – just ask Jay Leno …  Price:  $8K.

Americana?  What spells Americana better than a GM Old Look bus – this one a 1950 Series 4512.  There was no more ubiquitous motor vehicle on American city streets in the decade of the ‘50’s.

Sure, it’s a little rough on the outside, but in what has to be a minor miracle, it retains its factory passenger seating in what appears to be very good condition, and the original ads still remain above the windows.

Could you see yourself behind that big steering wheel?  Just remember, it’s big because there’s no power steering.  Price:  $24K.

OK, those two may be a little too big or too far gone – how about a cute little 1950 Ford B-Series “Shorty” school bus.

It comes with new tires and while not original to the bus, a period-correct flathead V8 which is said to run well.

The seller may be a bit too optimistic here – asking $10K, when the typical price for one in this condition is more like $2K.

Maybe your plan is to modify your bus into a motor home – here’s one already done for you – a 1978 Blue Bird Wanderlodge 33-FC.  Blue Bird made these Wanderlodge front-engined, forward control models from 1963 to 89 (the Wanderlodge name was used on a rear-engined model through 2009).  No interior pics, but one can imagine the orange shag carpet, strobe lights, and Farrah poster.

This one has a later-model CAT 3208 turbo diesel.  While looking clean and well-kept, at least on the outside, the ad states it is “non-operational” and would need to be towed away.  Price:  $15K.

So, in your “what if” world, which one would you pick?

15 Comments

When I was starting school, we got there in a bus that looked somewhat like the “featured” Chevrolet, tho longer, and pretty much brand new. Mr Post, our driver was a kindly, mature man, who had a busload of patience. I remember several times when the bus arrived and we weren’t ready for it. He would wait all long as possible then slowly pull away. Of the buses here, I would lean toward the “shorty” Ford. Though whether to keep it looking as is, do a sort of Partridge Family look, or return it to showroom condition would be a tough decision to make.

No question, the 60-61 GMC with the V6. Second would be any of the other transit styles except the Bird. I wouldn’t touch that Wonderbodge with a stolen 10 foot pole. We had several of the school bus versions of that in our fleet and they were not a very good bus. Miserable to work on and unpleasant to drive with the motor making more heat and noise than power immediately adjacent to your crammed in right leg.

For nostalgia reasons, it would have to be the GM Old Look bus, as I used to drive them. And with the interior being intact, I could re-enact the experience of hauling passengers. The exterior is a bit rough from sitting outside, but doesn’t look to bad. Just needs a new paint job. Fire up that 6-71, drop the big lever into D, and floor the accelerator, which was the only way to get these to move, such as it was. And then the long wait until it CLUNKS into direct mechanical drive.

I would like to drive on old city bus one more time in my life.

+1 – Not good choice for interstate speeds, but the perfect trip for slow cruising blue highways – which is more my speed these days.

That Ford school bus would be pretty cool, but I like the look of the GMC in the opening picture. A big Buick 320 pushing a bus around would make that Flxible an interesting choice; it would certainly sound nice.

I loved sitting in the very last back seat of the long school buses. When they went over the bumps on a dirt or gravel road you could fly a good 12 inches into the air, or so it seemed. These were pre-seatbelt days of course.

Sign me up for the shorty Ford oh wait, my allotted parking space barely fits my Citroen and I get complaints if I have my trailer with me, I got alerted to a TK Bedford house truck kit last week legally done cut thru from the cab already done but the rear dismantled and stacked on the deck very tempting, but, same problem where do I park it, theres no more room at my mates place where I keep my Superminx estate either. Flathead V8 4 speed crash box zero braking abilty yes Ive driven one luv it.

I like the GMC in the opening pic, a little Google-Fu brings up a less than stellar article written a few years ago with a dead link to an add. A little tuning/sprucing up and I’d have decent schoolie platform for local jaunts. Gas mileage aside, of course.

My summer time weekend occupation involves driving 1 of 2 1974 GMC C60 former school busses as a shuttle alongside a river. This bus looks like a Wayne body as opposed to the Wards I am familiar with. I am no engine spotter, but I believe I count 8 plug wires, so a 327 hopefully mated to a 3spd. with OD? Excellent short distance camper. Parts still available to the layman, and in my part of VA there are tons of great spots within a 2 hour drive. Sign me up!

The riding in the way back comment brought back many fond memories ~ rural new England was full of what we kids called “Roller Coaster Roads” and I too loved to sit in the furthest back row to get those flying jumps .

I’d love an Advanced Design shortie bus to use as a camper but really, I’d prolly never use it after the initial up fixing and test driving .

I have fond memories of riding in those blistering hot GM buses in the 1960’s .

Most of these junkers are wildly over priced and will prolly get scrapped some day .

The Flxible Clipper is probably the most gorgeous form of bus art I’ve encountered. They look like they’re moving and purposeful even when they’re standing still (unfortunately the only way I’ve ever seen one). A Buick 320 would be an awesome source of motivation to me; hopefully it has a 4 barrel carb… or wouldn’t a 1941 Compound Carburetion setup be cool?

The 60-61 GMC would be my next choice, except, keep that engine quiet! I like the sound of the later Chevy 60 degree V6, but the GMC isn’t so pleasant to listen to. Those seem to run forever, as long as you can afford to keep their thirst for fuel quenched.

Blue Bird Wanderlodge would be cool as well.

And here’s something weird… the only bus shown here that I’ve never seen in person, is the GM Old Look.

I love that Chevy bus in the top photo. Is it for sale? If so where?

Love to have one

I’m Interested in the 50 Ford but no where near $10.000. I’d go $5000 Tops if your interested and you can keep that flat head. I doubt anyone else would even want that. I’m not sure why people think everything these days are Worth so much Money Because there not. You want to do your homework like me I can go find and buy that type of Bus All Day long for $1000 dollars and sometimes free Just please get it out of here they say. I got a 1958 as well as a 62 vette from a second story barn free just need to move it and get it gone. Took about 6 months of work went to Barrett Jackson and I will even begin to say what it sold for. I went back and gave those I got it from $20.000. Anyway interested if you want it gone or I’ll just go do My Homework. Thank You.

Thanx Harold ;

Here’s hoping it will or has been saved .

Too many read/watch B.S. stories about pulling some junker out and flipping it for !!BIG DOLLARS!! and forgetting to mention the hard work going in and following through .

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• 1776 (Edwards)

Bus and Truck Tour (1970)

•  Overview
•  Credits
•  Musical Numbers
•  Venues
•  Recordings
•  Trivia & History
•  Posters
•  Photos
•  Video Clips
•  Audio Clips

Back to Show

Production Info

Opening September 18, 1970 Closing: May 14, 1971 Length of Run: 217 perf. Run Type: Open-ended

Location Info

Market: US Tour

Credits Highlights

See full list

Musical Numbers

• Sit Down, John .... John Adams and The Congress
• Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve .... John Adams
• Till Then .... John and Abigal Adams
• The Lees of Old Virginia .... Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
• But, Mr. Adams .... John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston
• Yours, Yours, Yours .... John and Abigal Adams
• He Plays the Violin .... Martha Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
• Cool, Cool, Considerate Men .... John Dickinson and the Conservatives
• Momma Look Sharp .... Courier, Andrew McNair and Leather Apron
• The Egg .... Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
• Molasses to Rum .... Edward Rutledge
• Yours, Yours, Yours (Reprise) .... Abigal Adams
• Is Anybody There? .... John Adams
• Finale .... Company

Additional Musical Numbers Lists

No additional musical numbers lists yet.

Trivia & History

The Best Plays of 1970-1971 lists this tour's run as having been from September 18, 1970, through May 14, 1971, also listing a total of 217 performances. A run of that length, if it had been continuous and the production had consistently played eight performances a week, ought to have a somewhat higher total number of performances so it may be that the total given by Best Plays is wrong or that the tour took a break at some point or sometimes played less than eight performances a week.

Posters & Promo Art

Video Clips

Audio clips, tour schedule.

• Charleston Municipal Auditorium (Charleston, WV) September 26, 1970 - September 26, 1970
• University Auditorium (Kalamazoo, MI) September 30, 1970 - September 30, 1970
• Akron Civic Theatre (Akron, OH) October 2, 1970 - October 3, 1970
• Brown Theatre (Louisville, KY) October 8, 1970 - October 10, 1971
• Elliott Hall of Music (West Lafayette, IN) October 14, 1970 - October 14, 1970

Audio Recordings

Video recordings.

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Put-in tours

Original tour agency in moscow and st petersburg..

Onboard a Soviet van!

Welcome to Russia!

We are Sergey and Simon, a Russian and a Frenchman, both  passionate about Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and classic cars. Together, we have created Put-in tours. Our goal is to help you experience Russian culture off the beaten path. Join us onboard our classic Soviet van and let’s get rolling!

In Moscow we offer you a city tour to discover most of the city in an original way as well as a night tour to admire the lights. Our pubcrawl is ideal to explore Moscow’s night-life and have fun. If you are craving to discover Russian culture, come impress your senses during our monastery diner or join our 100% Russian Banya Excursion . The latest will also bring you to Sergiyev Posad and it’s famous monastery!

For the most extreme travellers, our shooting tour will deliver your daily dose of adrenaline whereas our tank excursion will let you ride a real tank and shoot a bazooka.

We also offer help to receive your visa , safe and multilingual airport transfers , as well as organisation services for team-building events or bachelor parties .

All our excursions (but the monastery diner) happen onboard our Soviet military vans and can be covered by our  professionnal photographer or videographer.

In Saint Petersburg

We welcome you in Saint Petersburg onboard our Soviet van to discover the imperial city with our city tour and night tour .

Continue your discovery in style! The adrenaline lovers will like our shooting tour  which brings 3 Russian weapons to the tip of your trigger finger.

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At Put-in tours, we put you in our classic Soviet vans to go explore Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Russian culture off the beaten path. Discover our Moscow city guided tour, visit Moscow by night, join our banya & Sergiyev Posad excursion, visit and dine in one of Moscow's oldest monastery or even Luzhniki stadium, before you party on our famous pubcrawl! Original and atypical tours : Shoot AK47 and a bazooka after riding on a tank with our tank & bazooka excursion ! Extreme tours: Fly a fighter jet in Moscow onboard a L-29 or L-39 aircraft!

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Harris launches bus tour of western Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh

Vice President Harris launched her bus tour of western Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh on Sunday — just one day before the Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), arrived Sunday at Pittsburgh International Airport, where they greeted supporters alongside their spouses, according to The Associated Press (AP). They held hands and raised their arms in front of cheering supporters who were holding signs for their campaign, according to AP.

The AP said they then boarded a blue bus that had “Harris Walz” written across it in white letters. They then took off to meet with voters across the Pittsburgh area.

The Harris campaign announced last week that it would be courting western Pennsylvania voters ahead of the Democratic National Convention on Sunday. Harris, Walz, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Minnesota’s first lady Gwen Walz will be making several stops across the region Sunday.

The AP reported that the four of them made their first stop visiting local volunteers at a campaign office in Beaver County. Former President Trump carried that county in 2020.

Harris, Walz and their spouses sat down at a few tables to make some calls to voters, according to AP.

“We’re all in this together,” Harris said at one point, the news service reported.

“He’s all in,” Walz said at one point after hanging up the phone and giving a thumbs-up.

Walz also posted a photo on the social media platform X of him, his wife, Harris and Emhoff with the caption, “Road trip.” The four of them were posing for a selfie in front of the tour bus.

Harris has gained momentum in recent weeks as many national and swing-state polls show her closing the gap with Trump. According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s  national polling average , she has a 1.8 percentage point lead over Trump based on an aggregate of 120 polls.

The Associated Press contributed.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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By David Brooks

David Brooks is an Opinion columnist for The Times. This essay is adapted from his introduction to a new edition of “Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers,” to be published by Picador this month.

There are certain writers you should never read before you yourself sit down to write, like P.G. Wodehouse and Tom Wolfe. For if you do, you will not be able to get their voices and rhythms out of your head, and you will have to confront the absolute certainty that you can’t pull off what they did. In Wolfe’s case you’ll find that you can’t quite replicate the raw energy of his prose: the fun; the snap, crackle, pop; the fuzzy effusions of new sociological categories — masters of the universe, social X-rays.

And then there’s his sheer audacity. His essay “Radical Chic” — about a cocktail party the conductor Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia, threw for the Black Panthers in 1970 — begins with Bernstein waking up in the middle of the night in a state of wild alarm. He had mentioned having a bad dream in an interview somewhere, and Wolfe took that little autobiographical morsel and spun it into a grand tour through the inside of Bernstein’s brain. Any responsible journalist can report, “Bernstein had a nightmare,” but Wolfe has the guts to take a flight of fancy and describe the nightmare from the inside, with its moments of narcissistic grandiosity and its descent into degrading humiliation.

Wolfe was known for his style, but it was his worldview that made him. He read Max Weber at Yale and it all clicked : Life is a contest for status. Some people think humans are driven by money, or love, or to heal the wounds they suffered in childhood, but Wolfe put the relentless scramble up the pecking order at the center of his worldview. It gave him his brilliant eye for surfaces, for the care with which people put on their social displays. He had the ability to name the status rules that envelop us in ways we are hardly aware of. He had a knack for capturing what it feels like to be caught up in a certain sort of social dilemma.

He was drawn to times and places where the status rules were shifting. His book “The Right Stuff,” about the U.S. space program, takes place at such a moment. Before, the combat pilots were the tippy-top alpha males in the world of flight, but then along came the astronauts to knock them off their perch. In “Radical Chic,” you can catch glimpses of the old blue-blood Protestant elite — the Astors, the Whitneys, the Rockefellers. But this is 1970. A new crowd is beginning to displace them: the Bernsteins, Barbara Walters. The members of this rising elite have often made their money in culture and the media, and include the formerly unthinkables — Catholics, Jews, Black people.

The old aristocrats had it so easy, those stately bankers in the J.P. Morgan mold. They may have been frequently bewildered about why the masses didn’t like them, but their own place in the social aristocracy was secure. It was right there in their bloodlines — the generations of grandees stretching back centuries. The status rules were simple. All you had to do was live like an English earl and collect European culture by the boatload, and you could cruise through Manhattan amid the sound of others bowing and scraping.

The members of the new cultural elite could never be so secure. Their status — their very reason for being — was based on their own superior sensibility. They lived by their wits and their public attitudes. These media-age aristocrats had to excel at tasks that members of the beau monde have always excelled at — being rich, thin and well connected; keeping the duplexes adorned with the design trends. But they had to do so much more. They had to be morally avant-garde, able to articulate the luxury opinions du jour. They had to perform all these inversions — rising to the social stratosphere by ostentatiously demonstrating their solidarity with the oppressed, assuring their place atop the structures of power by striking radical poses and pretending to support tearing those structures down. Wolfe was there at the dawn of 20th-century one-downmanship, when you could rise to the social stratosphere by donning peasant and revolutionary garb.

Some people think “Radical Chic” is simply about race relations. It’s not. His essay “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” deals with this issue more squarely in its study of the bureaucratic tangle at the center of the chillingly named Office of Economic Opportunity in San Francisco, where white fears around political correctness collide with entrenched poverty in the city’s Black, Chicano, Filipino and Samoan communities. The program is supposed to help create opportunity for disadvantaged groups but ends up becoming a farce in which jobs and money are manipulated from harassed and clueless office workers. “Radical Chic” is about status codes and narcissism. The Black Panthers in the essay are treated by the white characters as luxury goods, beings who bring a frisson of righteous danger to the safe tranquillity of the Upper East Side.

Wolfe would later say that he learned about that evening at the Bernsteins’ when he was visiting the offices of Harper’s Magazine. He wandered into David Halberstam’s office (Halberstam wasn’t there), and noticed on his desk a handwritten invitation from Mrs. Leonard Bernstein to attend a soiree with the Black Panthers. He saw immediately what the members of the beau monde were too oblivious to see: that if you told the people in Queens or Topeka that the rich white residents of the Upper East Side were throwing parties for the Panthers, they would fall all over themselves laughing. He called the R.S.V.P. number, gave his own name and said he’d be happy to attend. At the party he sat quietly in a chair, his notebook prominently displayed, taking it all down in shorthand. A New York Times reporter was also there, allowed to record the festivities. The Bernsteins were being so noble! Who could possibly ridicule them for it?

Wolfe captures all the little challenges that afflict the new elite. Of course you can’t have Black servants at a Panther party, but where do you find white servants? Sideburns are symbols that you’re on board with the revolution, but how low should you wear them? Should they go down to the “intertragic notch,” that spot near the lower rim of the ear, or should you flaunt full mutton chops, with all their countercultural glory? And what do you call Black people, anyway? Wolfe has his characters wondering. This was the moment when the notion that the word “Negro” was offensive was beginning to penetrate even these patrician circles. With your fellow militant-by-invitation elites, you say “Black,” but what happens when you’re talking to your white servants? If you use that word, they’ll think you’re just one of those limousine liberals.

Wolfe recognizes the climax of a cultural moment when he sees it. It comes when an uptown art gallery owner in a tuxedo, pregaming before a private party at the Met, rises in full revolutionary fervor and cries out, “Who do you call to give a party?”

Any college lampooner could make fun of this stuff. But Wolfe goes several levels deeper. There’s a lot of double-track thinking going on here, he writes. The partygoers really do care for those who are oppressed. Racial injustice really is one of the core themes of American history. It’s just that these people want to care in a way that makes them look gorgeous. Wolfe is asking a question that decades later would be at the heart of Instagram activism: How much of all this is about caring for the oppressed, and how much is about the image of you caring for the oppressed?

Wolfe’s goal was to be like Balzac, not JD Vance. He was a provocateur, not an advocate. He came to examine fashions, not legislate morality. His writing rests upon a quiet self-confidence. As a young man, he came up from the South to graduate school at Yale and found that all those Northeastern preppies looked down on Southerners. He could have tried to conform to his new milieu, but he became even more his idiosyncratic Southern self. Then he came to New York, and there, too, he could have lost himself in all the glamour, in the if-you-can-make-it-here-you-can-make-it-anywhere ambition. He sipped from the cup of that ambition, but mostly he stationed himself where writers are supposed to station themselves, off to the side, observing, never quite belonging. It’s lonely there, but it allowed him a peek at what was emerging: The new coastal elites had made themselves insufferable to working-class Americans, and sooner or later there would be hell to pay.

Wolfe satirized the upper crust, but he had empathy, fellow feeling and sometimes admiration. He labored to accurately get inside their heads. What made him humane was that his sensibility was ultimately literary; his goal was to simply depict modern life, to describe people in their foibles and follies, to capture the way their sad and sometimes wonderful longings tortured, drove and uplifted them. Wolfe pulled off an astounding trick, turning sociology into art.

David Brooks is an Opinion columnist for The Times, writing about political, social and cultural trends. More about David Brooks

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