The Lady and The Dale Car Wash Activation

Community News, Entertainment — By Buddy Sampson on February 16, 2021 at 9:16 pm

A Time Travel Warp in Time

By Buddy Sampson

Burbank, California- The meteoric rise and fall of transgender entrepreneur Elizabeth Carmichael and her three-wheeled car, called “The Dale,” is featured in a documentary series called “The Lady and The Dale,” which debuted on HBO Max, January 31^st, with episodes that aired the following two Sundays. Produced by Andre Gaines and Allen Bain, to commemorate the series, HBO Max added a bit of 70s retro to the Magnolia Car Wash and Detail Center, located in Burbank, California, taking place on Saturday February 13^th, 2021, and Sunday February 14^th, 2021 from 10AM-12PM both days.

“The Lady and The Dale,” as described by HBO is a “riveting, human portrait of an imperfect trailblazer, an industrious businesswoman, and a beloved mother whose ambition and unwavering optimism ran headlong into widespread transphobia and media bias.” The story chronicles the heroism of Liz Carmichael, who, as a transgender figure had to “operate in an unaccommodating world,” a world of judgement and cynicism, in trying to get her car, “The Dale,” manufactured by huge auto dealers, such as General Motors and Ford.  Andre Gaines, one of the producers of the documentary series was immediately captivated by the story of Carmichael. “We had a positive reaction to it almost immediately,” said Andre Gaines, who received an e-mail, an unsolicited script from Nick Cammillera, a screenwriter at the time and was blown away, a rare occurrence in the entertainment industry. “This story really stood out,” said Gaines. “Really without her (Elizabeth Carmichael) making such a bold attempt to bring this car to the marketplace, we wouldn’t have, in my judgement an Elan Musk and Tesla. But there’s many carmakers, some of them Black that attempted to make the independent vehicles that they can bring to the market and just were brought to their knees.”

The event, called “The Lady and the Dale Car Activation,” was masterful. As part of promoting the series, guests and visitors were treated to a free car wash, with an ambience that felt as if transformed, with a time machine to the early 70’s, with ladies on skates skating to cars, and ladies dressed in service uniforms, and guys that snapped to attention, washing cars with deft precision.

Kate L Wolff, founder and CEO of Lupine Creative, worked with HBO Max to put on this highly unusual promotion. “When HBO came to us, we said ‘we want to bring something that’s an experience, people are hungry for it,’ and we wanted to bring a little of the 1970’s without being too much,” said Kate L. Wolff. “It just made sense. The story is about a fraud, the story is about Elizabeth Carmichael, one of the best entrepreneurs of all time, but truly there were cracks in that foundation. And we looked at her and said, ‘okay, really what she was doing was cleaning cars and dirty money.  So why don’t we make a car wash that brings that to life. It’s been an amazing, 1970s, time travel warp in time.”

The Lady and The Dale debuted with two back-to-back episodes on HBO on Sunday, January 31 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with episodes that aired also, in February.  “The Lady and The Dale,” is also available to stream on HBO Max. Visit www.hbomax.com.