David Cassidy on the Web
Of pop music, school buses and neoplasticism
September 25, 2013
By Kurt Ernst
www.hemmings.com
Forty-three years ago today, The Partridge Family debuted on ABC television. Though most would argue the stars of the show were David Cassidy, Shirley Jones and Danny Bonaduce, the central figure in our eyes was always the 1957 Chevrolet school bus, painted in the "neoplasticism" style of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
As Telstar Logistics explained in a 2008 blog post, the actual bus used in the filming of the series wasn't found on a used car dealer lot (as depicted in the show's pilot), but was instead purchased by the studio directly from the Orange County School District. It's also doubtful that the actors (and actresses) cast in starring roles actually supplied the labor to paint the bus in the style of Mondrian's Composition With Large Red Plane Yellow Black Gray and Blue, and the show never does explain why the singing family (based on the real-life pop group The Cowsills) may have been influenced by a Dutch artistic movement dating to the First World War. On the other hand, a suburban family would be hard-pressed to recreate an accurate representation of a Francisco Goya mural on the side of a retired school bus.
The visually distinctive bus lasted the duration of the show, which ran until March of 1974. Following the cancellation of the series, the bus was repainted white and used in the filming of a second series, entitled Apple's Way. Eventually, it was acquired and repainted in its original livery, perhaps as a marketing tool, by Lucy's Tacos, located just a few blocks south of the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles. According to the Partridge Family fansite, CmonGetHappy.com, the Chevrolet school bus graced Lucy's parking lot until February of 1987, when repaving forced the relocation of the bus.
Time had not been kind to the pop-culture relic, as the windows had long been shattered, the tires flattened and the De Stijl-influenced paint scheme long masked by a sun-faded white livery. With neither pomp nor circumstance, the one-time television star was towed to a junkyard for scrap, ending what most perceive to be a hopelessly optimistic, rose-tinted view of one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. history. Like the 1970s, however, the Partridge Family bus has staying power: As late as 2010, the body of the bus could reportedly still be seen in the scrap yard, awaiting its final disposition.
Even this tale is not without controversy, as some insist that multiple versions of the bus were used in the filming of the television show. Our research shows that a single bus was used for the filming of the original series, though a futile attempt was made to resurrect the series in 2004. Could fans be confusing this bus with the original? Could Screen Gems have produced multiple buses for promotional purposes? If an average suburban family can become pop stars and recreate an influential Mondrian painting on the side of a school bus, we suppose anything is possible.
