David Burge Profile picture
Apr 25, 2021 24 tweets 8 min read Read on X
Welcome to a special Os-Car Night #DavesCarIDService Late Show! No requests please, I'm just posting a thread of some of my favorite vintage stars with some of my favorite vintage cars.
Let's start off with the Best Automobile In a Supporting Role. And the winner is: 1941 DeSoto Coupe in Cool Hand Luke. Here supporting the hard-working Joy Harmon
And on the topic of blonde bombshells, here's the OG blonde bombshell Jean Harlow and her stately 1934 Cadillac V12 Town Car.
And a blonde bombshell of a different Hollywood age, the impossibly curvy Jayne Mansfield with an equally impossibly curvy 1949 Delahaye 175S Saoutchik roadster.
Yes, I realize I have female readers too, so it's time to bring out Hollywood's Duesenberg Boys - starting with the original, Gary Cooper, showing off his circa 1932 Duesenberg Derham touring car to William Powell.
Nothing said "made it, Ma" in Tinseltown like your own custom tailored Duesy, a luxury that only the top box office stars could afford. Cooper had several, as did Clark Gable - here with his 1935 Duesenberg JN.
And how about Tyrone Power's 1930 Duesenberg J Torpedo Berline convertible? He actually bought it used.
I interrupt this thread for a correction from an eagle-eyed Belgian: not Jayne Mansfield, but her British doppelganger Diana Dors. In my own defense, I got the car ID correct.
Sisters from different misters, gotta say
Not all big Hollywood stars blew 10 years of a middle class income on a flashy custom luxury car. Here's the thrifty Joan Crawford cruising in her modestly priced but lovely 1933 Ford roadster. Although I see she hopped it up with a set of General Jumbo rims & tires.
When it came to hopping up cars, nobody topped Robert Stack- a legit pre-war dry lakes land speed racer and member the LA Pacemakers hot rod club- before he went into acting. Here at Muroc 1939 with his Cragar head 1931 Ford Model A roadster, which he drove to 115.68 mph.
Can I get a double va-va-va-VOOM for Sophia Loren and her Mercedes 300 SL gullwing coupe?
Unfortunately for Sophia that Benz turned out to be a lemon. Come ON, paparazzi, put down your damn cameras and give the poor lady a hand
Sorry McConaughey, here's my favorite Lincoln driving star: Rita Hayworth and her 1941 Continental.
Rita & her Lincoln one year later during WW2. How can you not love a patriotic gal willing to sacrifice her bumpers for the war effort?
For those grousing that the Sophia Loren image is photoshopped: fine. So here's a real one, you pedantic killjoys.
Nothing says "in like Flynn" like legendary roue Errol Flynn in a 1952 Frazer-Nash Targa Florio Grand Sport. BTW, Frazer-Nash was a bespoke British car maker, and had no relation to either the Frazer or Nash US car companies.
Sidney Poitier looking sharp and focused in a 1959 Chevy Impala convertible.
the ultimate Hollywood power couple Bogey & Bacall at home with their son Stephen and their 1952 Jaguar XK120.
The voluptuous Ava Gardner and her 1958 Facel-Vega Excellence EX1. French built, but packing a Chrysler 392 Hemi.
And the crooner who she almost drove to emotional ruin, Frank Sinatra, with his 1956 Dual Ghia. Italian built but, like Gardner's Facel Vega, packing a Chrysler Hemi. Chrysler Ghias were a prerequisite for membership in the Rat Pack; Sinatra, Dino, Sammy all owned at least one.
Which reminds me: Jake Tapper's retro crime novel "The Devil May Dance" is out May 11, featuring murder, mobsters, mayhem, Rat Pack debauchery, and L 6.4 Dual Ghias. BTW, I served as his automotive technical advisor on the book. </humblebrag>
Okay, gonna wrap this up with one of my favorite old timey Hollywood car stories: in 1933 Chico Marx bet studio exec Phil Berg that his supercharged Mercedes could beat Berg's supercharged Duesenberg. So they stripped 'em down and took 'em to Muroc and settled it like gentlemen.
Spectators for that dusty dry lake event included all the Marx Bros, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Mae West, Carole Lombard, Al Jolson, as well as car racing legends Harry Miller and Earl Gilmore.

For the record, the Duesenberg won. USA! USA! USA!

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More from @iowahawkblog

Oct 11
Today's #DavesCarIDService crosses the streams on two of my avid interests, American cars and American college football, with a salute to the Cars of the Big Ten.

Yes, there are 18 schools in the Big Ten. I'm sorry if you don't get ironic Midwest humor. The quality of its football versus other conferences is debatable, but there's no debating that it encompasses America's historic vehicle-making region. Not just Michigan, every state represented in the Big Ten played a non-trivial role in America's car history. Even the Johnny-come-latelys who ironically pushed the school count above Ten.

To illustrate, I have selected a vehicle to represent each university in the conference, one that was made nearby.

Illinois: there were over 100 car companies founded in the state of Illinois, most in Chicago. But since UI is in Champaign-Urbana I selected one made downstate: behold an 1898 Duryea Peoria Motor Trap. The Duryea brothers were born in nearby Canton IL, and this 127 year old baby is still driving the streets of Peoria.

Indiana: Hoosiers rank only second to Michigan in importance to Michigan in car history. IU, your all-star is a 1915 Indy-made Stutz Bearcat, the Bugatti Veyron of the pre-WW1 era.

Iowa: the Hawkeye state had a few notable marques; including Colby and Maytag-Mason. But its claim to Automotive fame are native sons Fred & Augie Duesenberg. In #3, Eddie Rickenbacker driving one of the first Duesenberg branded cars ever made, a 1913 race car made in Des Moines at the Sioux City 300.

Maryland: you Terps get an 1908 Maryland, with a grille that looks a bit like a turtle.Image
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I could blather endlessly about Michigan car industry, a had hundreds of of choices for its two conference reps. In this case, I could pick brands made just off-campus.

Michigan: Wolverines get a very spacious 1911 Ann Arbor, the Big House of early touring cars.

Michigan State: a layup for Sparty, because Lansing was forever the home of Oldsmobile. 1903 curved dash Olds model R, the Model T before the Model T.Image
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Minnesota: despite my antipathy for the Gophers I am granting them a dandy, a 1911 Minneapolis 6 hp. Made by the ancestors of a pal of mine, Ky Michaelson.

Nebraska: Cornhuskers get another 2-wheeler, a Lincoln-made Cushman Airborne. Cushman virtually invented the motor scooter, and this one was used in WW2 by paratroopers.

Northwestern: Wildcats get the Chicago-made 1948 Tucker Torpedo, the star-crossed car of legend.

Ohio State: again, hundreds choices available for an Ohio made car, including the Buckeye. And couple dozen brands made in Columbus. But among them, I chose the 1910 Firestone-Columbus 7-A runabout.Image
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Read 6 tweets
Oct 8
If I was the CEO of Dollar Tree I'd expand to the UK and call it Pound Towne
For more special content like this please like/ share/ subscribe on the socials
This is what I'm talking about, what bloke would go to Poundland when he could take his best girl downtown to Pound Towne
Read 4 tweets
Oct 6
The most hilarious boomerang in the history of boomeranging approaches its ultimate denoument
This thing is not over until the wails and lamentations after Paramount buys CNN
tfw you're in the NYTimes newsroom Oberlin mafia, tell someone "you'll never work in This Town again," and a couple years later it turns out she is now This Town
Read 9 tweets
Oct 1
That Des Moines school superintendent is the greatest charming grifter to fleece dimwitted gullible Iowans since Professor Harold Hill
He even rolled into town in the same wardrobe, you just gotta respect that kind of dazzle-the-rubes audacity Image
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I still hold out hope that his degree from the Gary Conservatory of Music in Gary Indiana checks out

Read 14 tweets
Sep 27
A happy #DavesCarIDService birthday to the GOAT of all cars, the Ford Model T. The first completed Flivver rolled out of Henry Ford's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit on September 27, 1908.

"GOAT of all cars??" Let me explain. Not the fastest, or sexiest, but hands down the most important history-altering vehicle ever made. It put America, and pretty much the rest of the planet, on wheels. Circa 1918, half the cars on the road worldwide were Ford Model Ts. And by far, it's the most common car I see in the old photos of readers.

As you can see in this 1908 ad its introductory price was $850, about one year's income for an average Joe at the time. Still, reasonably affordable to doctors and small businessmen. Over its 20 model year run (1908-27) it had some body styling changes but its drive train and suspension remained virtually unchanged, driving economies of scale resulting in a 1927 price of $270.

Its combination of low price, durability, and serviceability resulted in over 15 million Ford Model Ts sold, a record that would last for many decades until it was surpassed by the VW Beetle. It would never win a drag race (at least in stock trim) or a beauty contest, and will never be a big collector's item due to its sheer numbers. But there's a very high likelihood that the first car owned by your family (like mine) was a T, an every true gearhead has a soft spot in his heart for the beloved Tin Lizzie.Image
Being of a hot rod bent, my favorite Model Ts tend to be a little juiced up. #1 here is my late pal Norm Grabowski and his Cadillac-powered 1922 roadster, later to become the "Kookie T" of 77 Sunset Strip. #2, "TV" Tommy Ivo with his 1925 T-bucket sporting a fuel injected Buick Nailhead. #3, the Camfather, Ed "Isky" Iskenderian behind the wheel of that 1924 OHV conversion flathead hot rod that he built in 1939. 104 year old Isky and his 101 year old hot rod are still alive and kicking. #4, Blackie Gejeian - the closest thing ever to a real life Fonzie - and his chromed-out, flathead V8 powered 1926 roadster.Image
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Even in stock trim or as dilapidated jalopy, the T has unquestionable charm. Like Fred McMurray's 1915-16 T in "The Absent Minded Professor" and "Son of Flubber. Not to mention Archie's campus jalopy (yeah, stylized cartoon, but we all know it's a T). Image
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Read 19 tweets
Sep 18
The FCC is a anachronism of a long-ago expired world where people watched The Love Boat on rabbit ear antenna TVs. Its only remaining value is as a government cudgel to beat campaign donations and contrary opinions out of the media industry
Initially it was set up to regulate bandwidth through licenses for radio & TV stations, so that some dick wouldn't set up his own more powerful transmitter at 670 AM. And then of course conditions came with those licenses: call letters on the hour. No smut! And then of course a "Fairness Doctrine" to force airing "equal time" for other opinions, which coincidentally only applied in cases where the opinion needing contradiction offended the prevailing power in DC.

Above all, we must safeguard our precious, precious Public Airwaves, lest our innocent children be accosted by offensive radio and television waves floating in the very air about them! We stand on guard for you, citizens of America!
Fast forward: today "broadcasting" and "public airwaves" are like "dial a phone" or "tape a movie." Humorously obsolete terms that some somehow still exist for things that no longer exist. But the first two of those terms are still being used as blunt end of a government club.
Read 14 tweets

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