The documentary of rockabilly’s favorite car legend, Bo Huff, has been in the works for the past 5 years as the documentary’s director, producer and one-woman crew, Monique Wood, continues to make it happen in his honor.
“He was well-known, and he was this rockabilly king that everybody loved. When you met him, he was just an instant friend and a total guru,” said Wood. “It was fun making a film about him and even the content I have is amazing, he was really great on camera.”
The documentary follows the life of Huff (Gerald Douglas Huff) who was notorious for his car builds on custom cars and hot rods and his love of rockabilly. He began his love affair with cars at a young age in the 1950s and continued his passion until the day he died at the age of 72 in his hometown in Dragerton, Utah from cancer on August 4, 2015.
“He chopped 3 Mercuries [cars] when he came out of the stem cell transplant and he’s sitting there with no hair, no beard cause he lost it all in chemo and he’s telling them how to chop 3 mercuries on the phone saying you do that, you’re doing this, I want you to do that. He’s there recuperating but he was still building until the day he died,” Wood said.
Wood, who was born and raised in California for most of her life, had always loved the rockabilly scene and began to photograph car shows, pin-up girls and anything related to rockabilly back in 2001. After she graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) in 2008 with a degree in broadcast and a minor in film, she decided she wanted to make a documentary about Bo Huff—the renowned car legend that everyone admired for his generosity, talent and great personality. She approached him with the idea of doing a documentary on his life through Facebook back in 2013 and he instantly responded.
“I self-produced everything, I shot it all, I paid for all of the production. I kind of invested in myself and went for it. It’s going to cost me some money and I’m not working right now because of my neck injury so a bunch of his friends stepped up and donated their art work to fundraise,” said Wood. “Even Jake Baca from the Hard Knocks Car Club asked about the film and offered to auction off some stuff and show the film at the Rockabilly Riot to help raise money. I’m hoping I can release it by the end of the year or I’d like to get it out by January.”.
They travelled all over for his shows and no matter where they went he would have people recognize him from all over and he would give them his full attention. Wood was fortunate enough to capture all his adventures and even took part in some, like when he was selected as Grand Marshall for Community Daze, and they rode in the Grand Marshall car throwing candies to the crowd. She even had the opportunity to check out his museum where he stored his cars and kept all the memorabilia that he either collected, bought or was given.
The 2 grew close during the filming of the documentary and when Huff became ill, Wood stayed by his side helping him through his rough time. It was something he told her he appreciated and when he passed, he even left his 50’ Chevy convertible for her in his will. But the most important things he gave her was an extended family and so many fond memories with him—like the time she helped break him out of the hospital to buy a pair of boots.
“He asked the cashier for a pen to write his name in his boots and she refused to give him a pen. She told him he couldn’t do that, and he goes, ‘I just bought them,’ and she goes, ‘Yeah but you can’t write your name in them because if you want to return them, we aren’t going to accept them. He goes, ‘They’re my boots, I just paid you for them.’ He probably got mad because she wouldn’t give him the pen, but then he got the pen and then he wrote his name in it right in front of her, and then he put them on and we walked out of there. He was a hoot,” Wood said.
Photos courtesy of Monique Wood