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“One time I ran away from home and hid in a lot across the street. Once I ran away in a car I’d just bought with money borrowed from the school janitor. I knew I could pay the janitor back. I still had my Bar Mitzvah bonds. So I picked out a real gas, a nineteen thirty –nine Studebaker dechromed, leaded-in. Price: one hundred and fifty dollars. I drove it for two glorious weeks before my mother grounded me. I was still sixteen and in New Jersey you had to be seventeen to get a license. That car stood in the garage for six months. I used to pick up my dates, bring ‘em to the garage, sit in the car and listen to the radio until the battery went dead.” Michael, talking about an early car.

In the early days of Michael’s acting career, he had a car repossessed by a finance company when he couldn’t keep up the payments. Not long after that he saw an abandoned, derelict car parked on the streets for weeks, asked around and after finding that no one knew who the car’s owners were, he had a key made, drove to a gas station to have the tires repaired and drove it until it completely wore out. He parked it where he had found it and then bought an old Cadillac convertible, driving that until the frame of the car cracked.

In 1962, Michael, Landon, Lorne Greene and Dan Blocker visited Virginia City, they were there for three days. At that time Virginia City had a population of 650 people, during those three days that figure swelled to 35,000. Below are two photo’s taken during that event – two unconventional modes of transportation for Michael – riding on a car instead of in it – and riding an elephant. In both photo’s he is with Lorne Greene.

On a tour of Sweden in 1962, Michael was mobbed by thousands of people at the first town so plans were made to get Michael to and from destinations safely. Talking later about it, Michael said, “There’s a twofold reason for it, too. We also had a problem with people driving, seeing us in cars, because they drive wild and they’d see us and have an automobile accident. Between the two things we decided to go for an ambulance. Yeah, so they put us in an ambulance with the curtains drawn and when we get to the stage, the back of the ambulance would open and they’d roll two beds off and two zombies would get off the beds. They’d leave the ambulance parked up against the door and at the end of the show they would roll us back in and we would go from town to town in an ambulance.”

By 1964, Michael was flying 100,000 miles a year to make personal appearances. Michael’s son, Michael jnr was born on June 21, 1964. For the week before his son was born, Michael was on location filming Bonanza in Kernville in the High Sierras, he charted a plane so that he was able to fly home every night. The plane took off at 5am the next morning. On one of the flights, Michael asked the pilot about airplane prices as he was interested in learning how to fly. On the last day of location filming, Michael and Bobby Miles (Bonanza stuntman) drove back to Los Angeles in Michael’s new Cadillac.

In 1967, when asked about his cars, Michael said, “Our most luxurious car is a red convertible. Then there are a blue fastback that’s a perfect way to go on wheels, a red station wagon that’s also a pick-up truck, and a brand new green camper in which I’m going to take Lynn, Cheryl, Leslie Ann, and little Mike on our first camping trip shortly. I’ll head for the mountains and teach them to fish for trout. This addition fascinates us because it has every convenience compactly. Lynn’s a good driver, but I always do the steering in my private life. I bought my first motorcycle four years ago and kept it only a couple of months. I rode it to work and both Lynn and the studio protested that it was too risky in Los Angeles traffic. After two months, I admitted its only fenders were my legs and got rid of it. A motorcycle can be fun on the desert, but I’d rather spend my spare time with my family.” (According to Lynn, Michael had always wanted a motorbike and talked about buying one when they were first married. Worried about him riding it, after he finally bought one, Lynn was relieved when he sold it.)

In 1967, after David Canary had joined the “Bonanza” cast, he talked about how good the cast had been to him, saying about Michael, “One day Mike asked me if the sponsor had given me a car to use. I shook my head negatively. ‘All the regulars have “loan” cars to use for the year,’ he informed me. ‘You’re a regular and you should have one.’ Arrangements were made, thanks to Mike, to get me one.” According to David, at that time, Chevrolet had been loaning the cars to the cast for several years, at the end of each year they picked out a new one.

Michael wanted his children to know the value of things, not to just be handed things because of his fame. The following piece is about his son Mark, from an article in 1968: At sixteen, Mark wanted his own car. He suggested a brand-new, sporty convertible. Since his father is one of TV’s highest paid stars, that was a reasonable request from one viewpoint. “But not from mine,” Mike recalled. “I agreed he needed transportation, but he doesn’t have to put on a pretentious front. I taught him to drive carefully and that matters much more. I bought my first car when I was his age for seventy dollars – money I’d saved” So Mark is still whipping around in the bargain he found himself for a couple of hundred dollars.

Some forms of transport are made for fun. Michael’s thoughts on snowmobiling were, “My wife and daughter said that if they had their choice of what was the most fun, snowmobiling or skiing, they would have to go with the snowmobile. Because the fun is now. The fun isn’t having an instructor tell you that six years from now you will be flying down the slope. Snowmobiling is instant fun. And you don’t have to wait for one member of the family to catch up. Also it gives kids a good feeling to get behind Dad, or to get behind Mom and go through the snow. They get a good feeling of closeness out of it.” Michael, 1973.

Michael wanted his children to know the value of hard work. "I look around at all this (his house) and it scares me. I never let my kids forget that I had to work hard for this and if they want one like it, they'll have to work just as hard. I see the cars being driven by 16 and 17 year old boys in this neighborhood and it drives me crazy. Ferraris, Porches, Jaguars - they're driving $15,000 automobiles to school! I never bought a car for a son of mime and I never will. The time you give your kids is important - not the money." Michael, 1975.

The following piece is from an article in 1978. Until recently Mike refused to have a chauffer-driven car pick him up each morning and return him home each night. “I mainly didn’t want to have a driver, to be honest with you, because I felt it was kind of phoney. You know!” he says in the form of a statement more than a question. “I didn’t feel comfortable arriving in a limo while everybody else had to climb into vans, buses, or car pools. However I eventually realized that I was wasting two hours a day by driving myself. There was an hour out and an hour back when I could be working, rewriting a script or outlining a new script. So I finally decided to accept the offer.” Such a convenience is commonplace for most TV stars of shows that rely on location work. It’s frequently a luxury that is accepted readily. But Mike agreed only so long as his “family” understood the genuine reason for his decision. He laughed to tears the first day he arrived and found everyone standing in mocked attention.

When Michael first started seeing Cindy, he was driving a bright green 1976 Ferrari. Cindy said, "He would drive by in that car, open the window and shout out in broad daylight: 'I love you, Cindy Clerico!"

From an article in 1984: Michael Landon surprised wife Cindy with a new $157,500 Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible. Cindy was flabbergasted – but two days straight she showed up on the set and asked Landon if she could borrow her old car, which he’d driven to work. Reason: Her Rolls wouldn’t start.

“It was rush hour and everybody was screaming and yelling at each other. They were so full of anger. I wondered what’s the matter with these people? Wouldn’t it be better to use some positive energy? We’ve all got to live here.” Michael, talking about how he came up with the idea for “Highway To Heaven.” 1985.

From an article in 1986. Michael Landon was driving to work when he saw a dog hit by a car that sped off. Michael pulled over as the young woman who owned the dog came rushing up, sobbing hysterically. The dog was hurt but alive, so Michael drove it and the distraught owner to a vet’s office. Turns out that the dog had suffered only minor injuries, and Michael waved off the grateful owner’s offer of a reward.

“We just have the two little ones at home with us full time, but on the weekends, there is always a gang around. We swim, play tennis, go four-wheeling in the hills and make up silly games.” Michael, 1987.

From an article 1989: The Definition of gall. Michael Landon’s Rolls-Royce was heisted from his Malibu pad in 1987, it was found in Illinois. The thief got two years’ probation, went back to LA and was arrested for something else. Now the guy’s mother has asked Landon to pay for her son’s psychiatric care on the grounds that he’d never have been in this mess if Landon hadn’t owned a Rolls. But get this: Illinois authorities, now aware that the thief is back in LA, want to extradite him for breaking probation – and they asked the star to pay because the state’s budget is tight.

The following piece is from an article in July, 1991: Before Michael got sick he’d ordered a fantastic new Acura NSX sports car. But by the time it was finally delivered to his house, he was very ill. “So Michael let all his grown kids have a spin in it – and sent it back. He said, ‘Let’s get real about this thing. I won’t be driving that car.’”

WHEELS to WINGS ...