Herbie History
*With Gordon Buford Article*
LAST UPDATED: 1-1-2001
The history of Herbie is very interesting. The man who invented him was Gordon Buford. You may have seen his name in the Herbie credits. In the 60's, he wrote a book called "Car-Boy-Girl". Disney saw the book and decided to make a movie out of it. Then, in 1969, The Love Bug came out in theaters. It was Gordon Buford's greatest achievement. Coincidentally, the original book did have to do with a VW Bug. But a Disney employee put several little cars in the Disney parking lot one day, including a VW Bug, just to see which one was most popular. Almost everyone patted the VW, and that is how Herbie stayed a Bug.
HERBIE EXPLAINED! This article appeared in Small World, a magazine for VW owners that was published from the 50's to the 80's, published this article in the Spring 1970 issue. Herbie's history finally explained!
Does anyone know where I can locate a copy of the original book? If you do, e-mail me
here.