Stars And Their Cars

[Fading Fast]

Coop ...
and he still looks stylish regardless of the weather in this photo

There's a reason he was a major movie star and also a style icon.

Of course wind makes him look cooler / Me, I look like an unmade bed in wind (sigh).

Hadley, do you have this book ⇩? It came out several years ago and has wonderful pictures.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hal Roach's Rascals and their mule-powered taxicab, 1932. Kendall "Breezy Brisbane" McComas at the wheel, Dinah The Mule providing the motion. When Breezy pulls a rope in the cab, the lid on a tray of feed opens at the rear of the car. Dinah walks toward it and pushes the car forward. Ferdinand Porsche, take notice.

 

[3fingers]

As a child I used to ride a pony that belonged to a neighbor. Given the general disposition of ponies and given Jack's advancing age he was perfectly happy to stand quietly rather than walk me around the barnyard. There was a bowl on a stick in the barn that you put a handful of oats in before mounting that Jack would never tire of walking after. At the end of the ride you let Jack have the oats. Lather, rinse repeat.

 

[2jakes]

ACTING PIONEER LINCOLN THEODORE MONROE ANDREW PERRY AKA STEPIN FETCHIT

 

[2jakes]

Steppin' in style!

Champagne pink Cadillac Phaeton!

 

[2jakes]

Wm. Powell admiring G. Cooper's " Duesy".

 

[BobHufford]

Ferdinand Porsche, take notice.

The modern VWs have the "motor" in the front.

 

[2jakes]

The modern VWs have the "motor" in the front.

My Citrogen 2 horsepower vehicle
gives me great gas mileage!

 

[2jakes]

Here's a rare photo of the "Leslie Special" with an equally rare human hood ornament.

Patent pending!

 

[HadleyH1]

There's a reason he was a major movie star and also a style icon.

Of course wind makes him look cooler / Me, I look like an unmade bed in wind (sigh).

Hadley, do you have this book ⇩? It came out several years ago and has wonderful pictures.

View attachment 101231

-"He was the epitome of grace and style and came by it naturally and seemingly effortlessly." -




Gary Cooper was definitely a style icon... he was born with it!

I don't have that book, Fading Fast, but I have seen it before, its great!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Here's a rare photo of the "Leslie Special" with an equally rare human hood ornament.
View attachment 101245
Patent pending!

Push the button, Max!

 

[Benzadmiral]

Coop ...don't know the make of the car,sorry....but he has his pets with him in the photo


. . . and he still looks stylish regardless of the weather in this photo

That looks like it could be a Lincoln Continental Mark I. But the pics I find of that car show no chromed exterior door handle or chrome strip, and the convertible top and the window are both much more square on the Lincolns than on this car.

 

[Fading Fast]

That looks like it could be a Lincoln Continental Mark I. But the pics I find of that car show no chromed exterior door handle or chrome strip, and the convertible top and the window are both much more square on the Lincolns than on this car.

You know much more about cars than I do, but my very amateurish guess was one of those small model Packards - 110 / 120 - from the mid '30s.

 

[Benzadmiral]

You know much more about cars than I do, but my very amateurish guess was one of those small model Packards - 110 / 120 - from the mid '30s.

Fading Fast, I do believe you're right: https://www.mecum.com/lots/DA0917-294070/1938-packard-six-convertible/

And if the Packard Six was an "affordable" high-quality car at that time -- what, $1100, $1200? -- that would have meant Coop (who could probably have bought almost any car he pleased) would have gotten himself a real bargain. Rather like with Buick today: 75% of the driving experience and reliability of, say, Mercedes, at 50% of the purchase price.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fading Fast, I do believe you're right: https://www.mecum.com/lots/DA0917-294070/1938-packard-six-convertible/

And if the Packard Six was an "affordable" high-quality car at that time -- what, $1100, $1200? -- that would have meant Coop (who could probably have bought almost any car he pleased) would have gotten himself a real bargain. Rather like with Buick today: 75% of the driving experience and reliability of, say, Mercedes, at 50% of the purchase price.

That would make me one for two hundred in guessing cars correctly. I've always liked those "smaller" Packards and it didn't quite look like any other car I could think of. Good point on the affordability to Cooper, but it might well have been one of six cars he owned, who knows - he seems like a car guy as he shows up in a lot of car pictures.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fading Fast, I do believe you're right: https://www.mecum.com/lots/DA0917-294070/1938-packard-six-convertible/

And if the Packard Six was an "affordable" high-quality car at that time -- what, $1100, $1200? -- that would have meant Coop (who could probably have bought almost any car he pleased) would have gotten himself a real bargain. Rather like with Buick today: 75% of the driving experience and reliability of, say, Mercedes, at 50% of the purchase price.

If that's it, it's quite a nice looker (from your link):

 

[LizzieMaine]

Those Packards were designed to compete directly against the Buicks, LaSalles, and DeSotos for the "family on its way up" market -- the kind of $3500 a year white-collar types who wanted to project the image but didn't want to live too far beyond their means. They were also popular among well-to-do people who didn't want to be too overly ostentatious about it -- by the late thirties, a lot of people viewed big, gaudy luxury cars as gauche.

 

[Fading Fast]

Those Packards were designed to compete directly against the Buicks, LaSalles, and DeSotos for the "family on its way up" market -- the kind of $3500 a year white-collar types who wanted to project the image but didn't want to live too far beyond their means. They were also popular among well-to-do people who didn't want to be too overly ostentatious about it -- by the late thirties, a lot of people viewed big, gaudy luxury cars as gauche.

I almost always like simple over ornate which is probably why those smaller Packards appeal to me (the one above would improve greatly if it lost that over-the-top hood ornament). One of my favorite simple cars (that I think you identified for me) is this 35 Ford:

I'm sure it wouldn't have wowed the Jones', but I love its simple, beautiful lines. Those luxury behemoths from the '30s - Duesenbergs, Cords, 12-cylinder Cadillacs, etc. - are fun as heck to look at today, but are (as so well put in "The Great Gatsby") "circus wagons" when you think about them.

 

[Benzadmiral]

If that's it, it's quite a nice looker (from your link):

View attachment 101353

You can imagine Katharine Hepburn's madcap heiress Susan in Bringing Up Baby driving that when she wanted to show off.

 

[HadleyH1]

Robert Montgomery - American film and television actor (1904-1981) He was also the father of actress Elizabeth Montgomery from the TV series "Bewitched"







arriving at the MGM studios in his sports car no idea of the make



in 1929



Bob and his latest prize....the 1931 Cadillac.




Robert Montgomery and his Cadillac Sport Phaeton 1933