From: dab@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (The Nashville Flash)
Subject: INDIANS! (long)
Followup-To: Spooge-o-rama
Summary: REPOST of year-old article.
Originator: dab@space0
Keywords: repost, indian, old news, rip-off artist, (Hi Art:-)
Organization: Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, Nashville, TN, USA
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 11:49:29 GMT

REPOST FOLLOWS:

Article: 12808 of rec.motorcycles
From: artc@bacchus.epps.kodak.com (Art Campbell)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles
Subject: Indian update (long)
Date: 9 Aug 91 19:39:22 GMT			<- Note the DATE!

This ran recently in the Boston Globe. 


GLITZ  AND  GLITTER  AT INDIAN MOTOCYCLE 
PHILIP ZANGHI REVS THE PUBLICITY
ENGINES BUT CAN HE DELIVER?
Boston Globe (BG) - TUESDAY August 6, 1991
By: Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Contributing Reporter
Edition: THIRD Section: BUSINESS Page: 35
Word Count: 1,480

SPRINGFIELD - Philip S. Zanghi is a man who likes to make promises. He vows
to revive one of the world's first motorcycles, a legend among collectors,
and in the process bring new jobs to this troubled economic region.

Telling people what they want to hear has won Zanghi eager audiences
with state officials; several newspapers, including USA Today, have hailed
his dreams of a *motorcycle* empire.

But beyond the hype, there are more questions than answers.

The financing Zanghi boasts he has lined up for his company may not be
to open his first factory, say people who have not seen the business plans they
have requested. And Zanghi, 45, is vague about his business background. He
says he has spent the last five years in Europe managing hotels and casinos
-- but refuses to name them.

Some details of Zanghi's past that can be pieced together are easily as
colorful as the gleaming motorcycles he likes to promote. For instance, he
once spent more than a year in an Italian prison awaiting extradition to
California to face charges of grand theft, on which he was later acquitted.

So far, Zanghi has been long on promises and press releases, and short
on the kind of financial muscle that will turn doubters into believers.

Indian Motocycle Co. is housed at 180 Avocado St., at the end of long
row of wholesale warehouses.Zanghiand Mark Diamondstone, his
communications director, exuberantly greet a visitor -- as do a
receptionist, and a butler dressed in a black and white tuxedo.

Zanghi, dressed in a blue suit and American flag tie, is beaming. He
says he plans to make 100 percent American-made motorcycles that will be
competitive with Japanese models. He will do so, he says, by disdaining the
use of any foreign parts in his machines.

"Indian Motocycle Co. will only manufacture goods made in America,"
Zanghi says. "I believe the American people need to relive the American
experience."

Zanghi says he is going to build the "motorcycle of the 1990s" and open
25 dealerships across America. He and his Indians will be ready, he says,
by the Fourth of July 1993, when a parade of new motorcycles will come
roaring down the streets of Springfield.

Indeed, Zanghi relishes painting a grand vision of the company's future
for motorcycle enthusiasts who revere the Indian name.

The first Indian motorcycle -- initially just a bicycle with a motor --
was unveiled in the spring of 1901 by the Hendee Manufacturing Co. of
Springfield.

At the company's peak just before World War I more than 1,800 employees
worked at the Springfield plant. In the 1950s Steve McQueen greatly
popularized the machines, known for their heavyweight size and roar, by
doing his own movie stunts on them.

But by 1953 financial troubles set in and the Indian went out of
production. Now only antique Indians remain, and they sell at auctions for
as much as $20,000 each.

So with his big plans to revive the machine in hand, Zanghi and his
public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton Inc. of New York, recently revved
into high gear.

In June Hill& Knowlton said Indian Motocycle was "in final
negotiations" with Bank of Boston Corp. to purchase a manufacturing plant
in Connecticut. But David Lawler, who is handling that property for Bank of
Boston Connecticut, said in an interview at that time that he and Zanghi
had "only made initial contact."

More recently Zanghi said Lawler had offered him a property in East
Windsor, Conn., for $5 million. Lawler says he sent Zanghi only an
appraisal. "No deal exists," Lawler said last week.

Zanghi says he initially wanted to build his motorcycle manufacturing
plant in Springfield, where the Indian was first produced. But
environmental problems and a slow response from city officials made that
plan impossible. "I really feel bad about that," he says.

But Dominic Sarno, Springfield's community development commissioner, has
a different view: "Our concern with Mr. Zanghi was whether or not he had
the financial capability to do what he proposed."

The city asked Zanghi to produce a bank letter or a reference to show
that he had the millions of dollars he claimed. "We never did receive from
him anything that would encourage us," says Sarno.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, Economic Development Office agent Ronald Horne
says the state has not received any substantial financial documentation
from Zanghi, although Horne says a business plan was requested June 13. As
of late July, Horne says, he had not received one. "We've been concerned
about what their backing is," he says.

Whether Zanghi has the financial backing he needs is open to question.

Joseph Parkhurst, who publishes the Motorcycle Business Newsletter in
Costa Mesa, Calif., figures it would take about $30 million to start a
motorcycle company.

In an initial interview Zanghi said Indian has a start-up fund to
purchase the Connecticut site and finance the company for a year, but he
would not disclose the amount of the fund. He said only that it was in cash
and that the company had no debt.

In a later interview Zanghi said he had borrowed $1.5 million from a
California real estate company he declined to name. He said that same
company will provide any other funds he needs.

His public relations firm offers little more that is precise about its
client. Patrick Carle, his representative from Hill & Knowlton, says
Zanghi, who lives in Laguna Beach, Calif., graduated from the University of
Buffalo. Zanghi in a later interview said only that he attended the school.

Zanghi likes to say he is a Vietnam veteran, although when pressed he
will say he served in Okinawa during the Vietnam War, which is confirmed by
Air Force records.

In the 1980s Zanghi says he was managing hotels and casinos in Spain,
Italy and the Middle East. His return to the United States was on the arms
of Los Angeles police.

In 1989 Sgt. Jerry Swick of the Los Angeles Police Department and a US
marshal flew to Rome and brought Zanghi back to the United States to face
charges of grand theft, based on a complaint against Zanghi involving
lease-hold property.

Zanghi was acquitted by a judge in Pasadena County, after having spent
more than a year in Regina Coeli federal prison in Rome. Zanghi had been
detained there by Italian officials while he challenged the Los Angeles
extradition order.

Zanghi says he was never extradited. "I was retained there," Zanghi
says. "I fought extradition, then I volunteered to come back."

Zanghi's plans for the Indian motorcycle, like his career, have taken
some unusual turns. Nine months ago Zanghi told newspapers he was going to
restore 100 antique Indian motorcycles and sell them at $100,000 each.

Zanghi said in a recent interview that although he started the project,
he did not complete it because he was in a legal battle over the Indian
trademark with a California businessman, Carmen DeLeone. DeLeone could not
be reached for comment. Zanghi said late last week that he has settled the
trademark dispute with DeLeone and paid him $75,000.

DeLeone's lawyer, Stanley Rosen, disagreed yesterday with Zanghi's
description of the outcome, but declined to comment further.

The plans for the cycle restoration project went far enough, apparently,
that Zanghi had asked Gary Stark and his father, Robert Stark, to do the
work for him at their company, Starklite, in Perris, Calif. Starklite sells
motorcycle parts and refinishes cycles. But they have not heard from Zanghi
in several months, Gary Stark said recently.

Motorcycle industry analysts and some potential business partners say
they find Zanghi's plans for the new company ambitious, perhaps
unrealistic.

One analyst says at least one other entrepreneur also has plans for
Indian motorcycles. Wayne Baughman of Albuquerque says he intends to make
Indians using old and new parts from his company, Indian Motorcycle
Manufacturing Inc.

Still, Connecticut officials say, they want Indian to do everything
Zanghi says it will, and for Zanghi to succeed. "I would love to see this
happen," says Horne, the Economic Development Office agent. "It would be a
real deal for us."

At the moment, Indian enthusiasts will have to settle for T-shirts,
leather jackets and other paraphernalia, which Zanghi says have been
selling by the truckload. Hung liberally across his office walls, the logos
announce the second coming of the Indian cycle.

"The Fire Returns," reads one. "In Indian We Trust," proclaims another.

These days, other than Zanghi and a few promoters, only the T-shirts are
so confident.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________________
Art Campbell          artc@atex.kodak.com            72227.1375@compuserve.com
   DoD 385                                  _Real_ BMWs have just two wheels.
    "Age and treachery will beat youth and skill every time." Willie Nelson
                      All the usual disclaimers apply.


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