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Dennis Gage and the TV show My Classic Car.
Dennis grew up on a small family farm in northwestern Illinois. He started tinkering with carsearly on and purchased his first, a ‘59 T-Bird, at age 15. He also played guitar and trumpet in avariety of rock, folk, and school bands.Upon graduation from high school, he went to North Central College in Naperville, Illinois wherehe majored in both chemistry and physics. His undergraduate research in quantum physicsreceived an American Chemical Society award. He continued his automotive interest and,through the course of his college years, owned a number of muscle and sports cars. He alsokept up his music, playing in local coffee houses.After receiving his degree, Dennis took up the pedal steel guitar and started playing in countryrockbands in the Chicago area. He has opened for acts such Charlie Daniels, Waylon Jenningsand Dr. Hook. However, after two years, Dennis decided to retire from the music scene and goto graduate school.
He attended the University of Idaho, from which he received a Ph.D. in chemistry. While there,Dennis became an avid climber and winter mountaineer. He also finally married his high schoolsweetheart, Ellen.Dennis accepted a position as a product development scientist at The Procter & GambleCompany in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he either worked on, or created, most of P&G’s foodproducts in the 80’s, including Pringles, with which he bears a striking resemblance to thehandlebar mustachioed character on the can. Dennis holds a number of patents on P&Gproducts. Once again having some disposable income, Dennis got back to playing with classiccars. This is also where he and Ellen had their three children.After 10 years at P&G, Dennis took a position as Director of Product Development at a Bristol-Myers Squibb company in Evansville, Indiana where he led the development of Boost nutritionalenergy drink, among other products.
In 1995 he met the founder of the fledgling Bradley DavidProductions, Inc
.,
and he became co-owner of the company shortly thereafter. A
My Classic
Car
pilot series, hosted by Dennis, was developed for TNN and received strong ratings when it
aired on TNN in early 1996. Based on this success, the show premiered as a weekly series onTNN in January, 1997. After only 6 months on the air, Dennis was selected by
The Cable Guide
and
Total Television
as one of the “Hot Faces of Cable” for 1997.
In 2000 the show moved to SPEED channel where it reaches over 80 million households. Nowin production for its sixteenth season,
My Classic Car
is one of the highest rated programs on
the network. In addition, Dennis is the Executive Producer of the motorcycle televisionprograms,
Corbin’s Ride On
and
Trippin’ on Two Wheels
, and the reality series,
Texas
Hardtails
, as well as the independent film,
Novem
.
Dennis and his business partner received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award forIndiana in 2000. Dennis also serves on the Board of Directors of the Specialty EquipmentMarket Association (SEMA), as well as a number of academic and industry advisory boards.In 2010 Dennis became sole owner of the production company and renamed it MadStache, Inc.and with his own lifelong love of cars and motorcycles, he states, “This has got to be the ultimate job!”
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