Muppet Car on display in South Bend

Published 10:22 am Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Muppet Car from the original 1979 “Muppet Movie”  is on exhibit at the Studebaker National Museum 201 S. Chapin St. in South Bend, Ind.

The “Muppet Movie” spawned the hit song, “The Rainbow Connection,” which reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1979 — the song remained in the Top 40 for seven weeks.

The vehicle on exhibit is one of two psychedelic painted 1951 Studebaker Commander Coupes used during the filming of the movie – one was used for close-up shots, the other was retrofitted with a steering wheel in the trunk so a puppeteer could drive the car and it appeared as if Fozzie Bear was driving.  This was before Computer Generated Imagery (CGI).