Old Checker Cabs Are Riding High Again

NEW YORK - Hail, hail the Checker cab.

The vintage taxis, once the sturdy staple of New York City streets, are now the driving force behind a business that's betting people nostalgic for the 1940s and '50s will pay $30 an hour for a cab ride.

"This car represents a more civilized era," said Philip Kirschner, general manager of operations at Manhattan Checker Corp., where the regal old cabs with their bulbous shape and trademark jump seats still rule.

New Yorkers agree the Checker is still king. The company has received hundreds of calls in the past three months - for rides to proms, weddings and parties - since getting a plug in a local magazine.

One of the first people to flag down a restored Checker was Arnold Kaplan, a native New Yorker who owns a production company. Directors, producers, actors - anybody working with Kaplan's Taxi Films gets a Checker instead of a limo.

"The whole idea of it is charming," Kaplan said. "The jump seat and the whole thing - they're great."

The Checkers are a relic of Damon Runyon's New York, when the subway was a nickel and gas a quarter a gallon. They're big cars - imposing silver grilles, massive bumpers, a back seat with more room than a Manhattan studio apartment.

Although the last Checker cab was produced in 1982, the car still boasts a devoted following. The Checker Car Club of America worships the bruising cab, which once dominated New York's 11,000-taxi fleet. Only a few of the cabs still cruise the city's streets.

The Checker idea belonged to Rocco Belcastro, an aerospace engineer with an eye for ground travel. The Brooklyn resident wanted to operate his own fleet of the cabs. He bought one and opened a car service. Last year he picked up Kirschner - then a car-company ad executive - for a ride to the airport. The two men started talking Checkers, and fellow Brooklynite Kirschner flashed back to his childhood."I remembered chestnuts roasting outside Radio City when I came for the Christmas show," Kirschner recalled. "I thought, `This is pure Americana. We've got to do something.' "

The company opened in January and now owns a half-dozen Checkers. Headquarters is Belcastro's home, where a framed, autographed picture of the cast of "The Honeymooners" dominates the living room.

While they're selling nostalgia, they're doing it at competitive rates: $30 an hour, compared with a regular cab's $2.50 a mile, plus 20 cents a minute waiting time, or the $30 to $40 price for a limousine.