Passage: Batmobile designer George Barris
It happened this past week ... word of the death of Hollywood car designer George Barris.
Born in Chicago, Barris found his calling while working at a Los Angeles auto body shop.
He went on to customize many of television's most memorable cars.
Barris created a macabre rolling funeral home for "The Munsters" ... a backwoods rattletrap for "The Beverly Hillbillies" ... and a fully-loaded crime-fighting car for "Knight Rider."
Perhaps most famous of all: It was George Barris who transformed a 1955 Lincoln Futura into TV's "Batmobile." The remodeling job cost him $15,000.
He sold that car at auction in 2013 for more than $4.5 million.
George Barris was 89.