Corvette Hall of Fame

Always drawing Larry designing chairs in the camp Larry’s fishing skill Mother’s reaction to Larry's daredevil racing Larry and President Clinton Corvette Hall of Fame

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And Larry had a theory, that no Corvette should ever be viewed under artificial lights during daylight hours and so the light is specially designed that during daylight hours only natural light hits the Corvette.

And his sculpture figure, and this is a funny Larry story, is made out of fiberglass and he told the sculptress, I can’t recollect her name right now, "Hey, how about putting on a little more hair and making him a little skinnier." And this figure that they made of him, when the museum first opened, they had him getting out of a very shiny Corvette, waving.

Now, and I got a picture of that, because when I went to Manzanar one time just to visit, I met this young couple in a rented car, a beat up rented car, at the gates of Manzanar and he said, "Might I have known anyone in this camp that I might know?" And so I said, "Well, I was in this camp but I’m not anybody of any notoriety. But you might have heard of Larry Shinoda and the Corvette that he designed." He said, "Oh yes, I do know of Larry Shinoda and I do know of Corvettes."

Little did I know, he was a Corvette owner and little did I know that he was the vice-president of Sun Computers and that’s when Sun Computers was a big computer outfit. But he asked for my name and address and lo and behold, the following Christmas he sends me pictures of my brother climbing out of the Corvette. He had gone down on is corporate jet and taken pictures at the opening of the Corvette Museum climbing out of the car.

Then in subsequent years, well I guess he said he went down the following year, and Larry, the sculpture wasn’t there. They don’t know what happened to him. And they told him that he was in the closet, so that was very dismaying.

But when we went for the opening of the Hall of Fame, there was Larry. And there was a huge showroom and Larry sitting at a desk and he’s looking over all the Corvettes that he's designed.

Date: September 9, 2011
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

automobile Corvette Hall of Fame Larry Shinoda