Hearse procession in Hell

WOW...as a Pro Car Lover, what a sight to see. As a funeral home owner, what a sight to see. I had no idea that people adored cars that my profession more often than not looks at hearses as just a tool of the trade. It's sad to see older hearses tossed aside. Seems we (funeral home owners) always want the latest greatest, only to realize down the road that what we had at one time was a piece of art. Am I off by saying that when I see an old hearse in bad shape, it makes me sad???? Like a dog somebody just gave up, I want to take those hearses and adopt them myself and give them the dignity they deserve. Thank you to all who adopt these castaways and love them again. THAT makes me very happy! Even when it's an old 80's Buick (which a firm I worked for had and I always was ashamed to drive it, because it wasn't a Cadillac). You are all awesome....
 
Scott Avnaim said:
Was there a car count?:confused:
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According to a follow-up aticle I read by googling "Worlds Longest Hearse Procession", they were told by Guinness they needed at least 50 and they ended up with 43. However, I seem to recall that the So Cal Chapter of the PCS staged a similar event and they claimed 91 hearses. I dont know if that number was ever submitted and validated by Guinness.
 
James and I were in Hell for the event this past Saturday. There were 45 hearses in all. The deadline was for 4:30, but we waited until 5:00. Two of the hearses had to leave (one of them being us) at 5:00. There would have been a better turnout if it hadn't rained. There were a lot of reporters and a couple TV stations there waiting for the big event to happen.

Here are some pictures from Saturday.

http://s800.photobucket.com/albums/yy285/mrk6940/Hell MI/
 
So-Cal Event

Rick Franklin said:
According to a follow-up aticle I read by googling "Worlds Longest Hearse Procession", they were told by Guinness they needed at least 50 and they ended up with 43. However, I seem to recall that the So Cal Chapter of the PCS staged a similar event and they claimed 91 hearses. I dont know if that number was ever submitted and validated by Guinness.
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Rich: I believe the So-Cal Event in 2005 was (77) with a mark set (then) by Guinness of (50). I also heard the recent event back East was a total of 43) units? MM
 
LeeAnn Boston said:
We need to work on making this happen in Ohio next year at the International meet! :drive2:
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It's funny that you mentioned that. When I read the article, I thought the same thing. Last night I started looking around on the Guinness website to figure out the logistics. :)
 
Ok, now I'm confused. I found the issue of the TPC from 1st quarter 2006 that covered the Southern California Chapter's world record attempt. The article says that they now hold the Guinness record for world's longest hearse procession with 88 hearses. If that's truly the case, why did Guinness tell Hell that they only need 50 hearses? Did SoCal not file their paperwork or something?

I'll contact Guinness and see what I can find out. If we try for anything in Ohio next summer, we will be probably be looking to compete in the world's longest professional car procession, but before we start looking at making world records, we should probably see what's actually documented with Guinness first.
 
most likely same as the rest of the things coming from that specific direction. but lets find out what the big book says so I know if I'm bringing a hearse or a ambulance to the event.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
most likely same as the rest of the things coming from that specific direction. but lets find out what the big book says so I know if I'm bringing a hearse or a ambulance to the event.
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The cars were definitely there, as documented by countless photos. The procession ran down Wilshire Blvd from the Peterson Automotive Museum. I can't find any reference to the event in any of the Guinness lists I've checked. I know Lou made arrangements for a Guinness rep to be there.

The Saturday before the 2009 International Meet we had 96 cars at our summer meet. I guess those days are over....
 
never doubted the cars were there. just wounder if Lou filled out the paper work. then again even if you don't count ambulances they would have been over 50 Hearses alone.
 
The article in the TPC reads as if the SoCal Chapter got the record for world's longest hearse procession, so if that's the case, the ambulances probably didn't count. I'm working on our application to Guinness right now to see what related records have already been recorded by them.

When you pay to have a Guinness representative come to your event, they issue your record paperwork to you on the spot because they were there to witness your attempt. If that happened in California like Kevin says, that means their record is real. What's weird though is, why did Guinness tell the Hell, Michigan people that they only needed 50 cars?

According to the application, it will be several weeks before Guinness gets back to me. I'll let you know when I find anything out.
 
Ok.... I heard back from Guinness on two of my three proposed Guinness ideas and I'm somewhat dumbfounded by their response. First off, I looked into three possible world record ideas. They were:

-World's Longest Ambulance Parade
-World's Longest Professional Car Parade
-World's Longest Hearse Parade

I haven't heard back from them about what we would need to do to get the world record for ambulances. This is a current category, so they will let me know what number we would need to beat. I'll let you know when I get a response on this one.

The professional car one would be a new category for them. Even though I explained what types of cars are considered professional cars in my application, Guinness responded that instead we should try to beat the similar (according to them) world record for longest tow truck parade. I'll have to respond to them and explain that our cars are a bit different than tow trucks. ;)

And then there's the world's longest hearse parade category... This is a category that we thought already existed with the record being held by the SoCal PCS Chapter. They wrote an article a few years ago in the TPC about it. They had 88 cars. Anyway, according to Guinness, as of today, this is a category that would be brand new to them. No one holds a record for it and they say that we would need at least 50 cars to get the record. This is the one I am still trying to get my head around. We've read the article about it and according to Kevin, there was someone that said they were from Guinness even witnessing the event. I have no idea what happened, all I know is that according to Guinness today, the category would be a new one and our magic number would be 50 or more.

I also learned a bit about the Guinness adjudicator fees. A Guinness adjudicator is a Guinness rep that you can pay to come to your event to witness your attempt. They are trained to deal with any possible media that would like to cover your event and to verify your attempt. Because they are a representative from Guinness, they can also issue you a Guinness World Record certificate on the spot. These adjudicators are pricy though. In the email that I got from Guinness today about the fees, it said, "Costs that are expected to be paid by you include: airfares from New York (must be business class for flights over 6 hours long), all transfers to and from the event, accommodation and a daily attendance rate of GBP 3,500 (this equals approximately USD $5,500). A £500 DISCOUNT WILL APPLY IF THE ATTENDANCE FEE IS PAID 10 WORKING DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE RECORD ATTEMPT."

That's a lot of money to say the least. The good news is that you can get a world record without an adjudicator. You just need to have your attempt properly documented, send the info to Guinness to verify it and wait for your certificate to arrive in the mail. If/when we try to break any records, this is definitely a much more affordable option.

If anyone wants to check out the emails that I got from Guinness today, private message me your email address and I can forward them to you.
 
Sarah Snook said:
Ok, now I'm confused. I found the issue of the TPC from 1st quarter 2006 that covered the Southern California Chapter's world record attempt. The article says that they now hold the Guinness record for world's longest hearse procession with 88 hearses. If that's truly the case, why did Guinness tell Hell that they only need 50 hearses? Did SoCal not file their paperwork or something?

I'll contact Guinness and see what I can find out. If we try for anything in Ohio next summer, we will be probably be looking to compete in the world's longest professional car procession, but before we start looking at making world records, we should probably see what's actually documented with Guinness first.
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Guinness has very strict guidelines. If you don't follow them exactly... no record. When I contacted Guinness last year for our event in Hell, Michigan, they were very clear that there was no such record yet, and that if we wanted to establish one, we would need at least 50.

Just saying you had 88 hearses somewhere is simply not enough.

I have been in constant contact with Guinness regarding our September 17, 2011 event, and they have already confirmed that we did set the record at 51, pending receipt of all the evidence. As I write this, the paperwork is on a plane, on its way to London. You can track the progress of our certification here at http://www.largestparadeofhearses.info
 
Steve, I was in touch with Guinness last September so I am very aware of the documentation too. It's a ton of work. Having an adjudicator come out from Guinness makes it a lot easier, but who wants to pay a few grand for that? Like others have said, I'm sure Lou had 88 hearses for his attempt, but what is so amazing is that he never followed through with the paperwork. Guinness had told me the same thing - no one had ever attempted that category, which means Lou didn't turn in his documentation. For all the time he spent talking to the local media and writing an article about his successful world record for the TPC, you would have thought that he had the time to actually turn in his paperwork. Who knows.

When we had the PCS international meet in Hudson this year, we thought about doing a world record. We had 126 procars there at the last count that I heard, so we would have definitely had enough hearses, combos and flower cars to count for Guinness' definition of what a hearse has to be, but with all of the work with hosting the meet, we didn't have time to organize the paperwork for a Guinness attempt too.

I'm glad your attempt was successful though. That's awesome and it gets the word out about the professional car hobby.
 
This past Friday, we (Just Hearse'N Around, Hell, Michigan) received the official notification from Guinness:

"The longest hearse parade consisted of 51 hearses and was achived by Just Hearse'N Around (USA) in Hell, Michigan, USA, on 17 September 2011."

So to put it to rest:

Sarah Snook said:
I found the issue of the TPC from 1st quarter 2006 that covered the Southern California Chapter's world record attempt. The article says that they now hold the Guinness record for world's longest hearse procession with 88 hearses.
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That was obviously a premature claim. The issue could have said 88, 188, or even 888. The bottom line is that if the predetermined rules set forth by Guinness are not properly followed, then it is simply not a Guinness World Record.

Kevin O'Connell said:
I know Lou made arrangements for a Guinness rep to be there.
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As Sarah said, if a Guinness adjudicator was there, and they had at least 50 hearses, then they would have been awarded the record on the spot. So either no adjudicator was there, or there was less than 50 eligible hearses, or both.

Guinness hasn't updated their website yet, but you can see a copy of the original Guinness certificate here:

http://www.longesthearseparade.info/317644_certificate.pdf

Hey Sara, why don't you join us next year?
 
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