Nearly fifty years later, some of them still remain a little star-struck. But, just to see a movie star was a unique experience in your workplace.” “We had to kind of be quiet and keep out of the way. “It was very exciting for us!” remembered Susan Tassi, who worked in color and fabric design. Actors Tommy Lee Jones, Edward Herrmann, Roy Poole, and Kathleen Beller strutted about, discussing “the Betsy,” a secret new car design for which the movie was named. During a week in 1977, a small army of movie-makers transformed it into the fictional Bethlehem Motor Company. Located in American Motors’ historic Plymouth Road facility in Detroit, the styling department where Geraci worked had served as the incubator for many famous AMC, Rambler, and Nash designs, as well as some Kelvinator appliances. “They came through my studio, and it stopped some things… It was a change of pace.” “I don’t think GM or Ford or any of these other companies would have given them time of day to go into the studios and do this,” said Vince Geraci, former head of AMC interior design. Perhaps it was the temptation of free advertising or maybe it was AMC’s lack of bureaucratic red tape compared to its competitors, but for some reason the company decided to say yes. When the movie’s producers wanted to film inside a real-life design studio and a working assembly plant, they turned to American Motors. The Betsy was an adaptation of a 1971 novel by the same name, featuring the dysfunctional family behind a failing automobile empire.
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