| The great cars seem to float above the polished black marble
floor. The brightly painted metal forms become as ethereal
as the reflections that appear to be supporting them. The room
is as grand as anything in the Pitti palace. It was created to
echo pre-depression showrooms from the era of fabulous,
untaxed wealth, when there was no expectation of failure. The
richness of the American boom fed dreams of young men and
women all over the country, but few places were as fantasypossessed
as Los Angeles with its brand new movie culture.
Jack Boison (J.B.) Nethercutt was one of the dreamers. He
took action as best he could, becoming a regular in the dealerships
and coachbuilders’ showrooms, memorizing the details of
many of his favorite machines. The fates showed their pleasure
by sending young Dorothy Sykes into his dream-car world.
Most remarkable was the fact that she joined his quest, not
entirely for romance, but because she genuinely shared his
passion. The result, of course, was a marriage that lasted 71
years and that didn’t include, as J.B. used to explain, the
first five years of their courtship. That courtship, in fact,
only ended when J.B. lost Dorothy near the end of 2004
after a long illness. We lost J.B. shortly after because half
his self was gone.
Their life together was filled with the riches of friendship
and companionship that far surpassed the great edifices they
filled with their artful treasures. A million devoted enthusiasts
have found their way to Sylmar and the traffic and collection
finally conspired to outgrow the now famous Tower
of Beauty. A 60,000-square-foot Nethercutt Museum now
occupies the property across the street from the muchadmired
Tower building.
There was never a deliberate plan to assemble an historic
collection, they just bought their favorite cars as they
became available and began the process of restoring them.
J.B. co-founded, with his aunt, the company bearing her
name, Merle Norman Cosmetics, growing it into an international
corporation. And, in 1969, ground was broken for a
safe haven where the cars could be kept and restorations
could be carried out under careful control. Tony
Heinsbergen designed the structure to include the grand
hall, elegantly veneered in fine marbles, but go virtually
unnoticed from the outside.
The 1971 Sylmar earthquake shook the new structure
hard enough to cause structural damage. Enthusiasts everywhere
faced a terrible disappointment. The long-awaited tour
of the Nethercutt collection would be delayed until January
of 1974 when San Sylmar opened. It drew its name from
San Simeon, William Randolph Hearst’s great home on the
central California coast. A second earthquake in 1994 caused
another closure and the construction of the new museum was
a distraction, but now both buildings are available for tours,
San Sylmar by appointment only. J.B. and Dorothy left the
collection with an endowment that guarantees its survival
and, indeed, growth in perpetuity. Here are a few highlights.
For this issue we are focused on coupés.
Packard’s 1930 Seventh Series 734 Speedster –
This chassis was the factory hot rod. It had a highly modified
Standard Eight carrying a DeLuxe Eight engine with
optional heads, dual up-draft carburetors, and rear axle
ratios at no additional cost. This lovely Ray Dietrichdesigned
Victoria was one of four available on the speedster
chassis. This sporting two door coupe was not as popular as
the boattail roadster and weighed 200 pounds more, but it
would certainly qualify as a sport sedan of the era.
Today the President of the Nethercutt Collection and
Chairman of the Board of Merle Norman Cosmetics is
the older of J.B. and Dorothy’s two sons, J.B. (Jack)
Nethercutt II. Jack is enthusiastic about the collection and
carrying on with projects, "with possibly a few additional
variants." He particularly enjoys driving the cars and the
earlier the better because, befitting the former race car driver
he is, he’s adept at managing recalcitrant gearboxes. Of
this Packard Jack commented on how much he liked the
choice of colors and application saying, "I think Dad outdid
himself on this one. It is so purely elegant."
1931 Bugatti Type 51 Dubos Coupé – Great cars
come with stories. Some come with legends and a few
bring layers of legends. Bugattis, by their very nature,
come with more than their share. This remarkable coupé
(facing page) has had more lives than a cat. Beginning as a
winning factory T-35 racer it was converted to DOHC T-51
then given to driver Louis Chiron to settle a debt. That’s
three lives. The next five were a quick succession of owners,
with the last a race driver who died in a racing accident,
although not while piloting this car. His widow sold the car
to André Bith – pivotal event in the life of this car. Bith
transformed the car, commissioning Louis Dubos to create a
coupé body that was ultimately given a South Seas Blue
coat of a dark violet-blue hue. One day the wrong fuel was
put in the tank with a ruined engine the result. Disgusted,
Bith sold the car.
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