Yes, yes it does. I have to remember to copy that page before I send the book back to the library.
Maybe I can have some CCBB fudge for next time I watch the movie.
I am still waiting for “Toot Sweets”.
He also played the fire chief in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (which happend to feature Gert Frobe as the boss of the German contingent).
Although they weren’t called “Toot Sweets”, there was something similar called “Whistle Pops”. Unfortunately, it looks as though they were recently discontinued.
You’re entering into the realm of serious car-geek history, here. Before they started selling sponsorship, cars in international racing classes were painted different colors depending on what country they were from. If you see any pictures of Formula One or sports car races from the 1960s or earlier, British cars are dark green (British Racing Green, and don’t you forget it), Italian cars are red, French cars are blue. German cars used to be white, but one year they weighed their car the night before the first race, and it was a pound or two too heavy, so they spent the night sanding the paint off down to bare metal. The dominant Mercedes cars of the 50s were known as the Silver Arrows.
The tradition survives here and there. Formula One Ferraris are red to this day. When Mercedes returned to sports car racing the in 80s, the bodywork was made of carbon fiber, but painted silver.
How were those countries assigned colors?
The wikipedia entry traces it all the way back to 1900. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) is the governing body for such things, and has been around since 1904.
The list is quite extensive. I don’t personally know of any racing cars built in Egypt (for example) during that era, but if there were, they would have been pale violet.