Nostalgia Revs Its Engines at Sale of Antique Vehicles
The two men from Cape Cod had flown 3,000 miles in search of rare treasure at an exclusive auction.
The object of Matty Shaughnessy’s desires was a 1950s-era Triumph Motorcycle once driven by the Fonz.
Shaughnessy’s friend, Mike Upton, said he was prepared to pay “any price” for a chain bicycle that once belonged to Eddie Munster.
On an overcast Sunday, Shaughnessy, Upton and hundreds of other enthusiasts sat under tents outside the Ambassador and watched intently as Rick Cole Auctions sold off more than 200 vehicles once used in movies and television shows.
They were once owned by Pacific Auto Collection and Movieworld, two firms that for decades supplied rare and antique autos for TV shows and movies before going out of business in recent years.
The cars included a 1931 Duesenberg Roadster used in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” and “Gable and Lombard” that sold for $362,000, a 1920 Ford stake truck driven by Henry Fonda in “The Grapes of Wrath” that sold for $4,200, the “Leslie Special” driven by Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood in “The Great Race” that sold for $27,000 and a 1922 Maxwell used by Jack Benny and Eddie (Rochester) Anderson that sold for $18,200.
Other unusual items auctioned off included touring roadsters once driven by Laurel and Hardy, a 1926 Rolls-Royce used in “Foreign Correspondent” and “Grand Hotel,” several Jeeps and tanks used in war movies and the white Martian spaceship crashed on Earth by Ray Walston in “My Favorite Martian.”
From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., the enthusiasts watched as antique car after antique car was driven up to the auctioneer’s block. Almost all of them would have flunked modern emission standards for air pollution. Many coughed, sputtered and had to be hand-cranked or pushed. But the thick fog of exhaust fumes did little to dampen the spirits of auction-goers.
Shaughnessy, a short, mustachioed man with thick hair and two gold chains around his neck, explained that he has seen every episode of the television series “Happy Days” and that he particularly identifies with the Fonz character played by actor Henry Winkler.
‘Same Wild Stage’
“I was a lot like that when I was young,” Shaughnessy said. “I drove a motorcycle just like that one. I was a car mechanic, and I also dropped out of high school,” he said. “I went through that same wild stage before I realized you need an education.”
The black motorcycle cost him $3,200. “I’ll ride it on weekends,” he said, smiling.
As the auction drifted into the evening hours, Upton was still waiting for his chance at the Munster bike he wanted for his 6-year-old son and others had not managed to buy the cars they had sought.
Lois Laurel Hawes of Tarzana, the late Stan Laurel’s only daughter, said she wanted to buy some of the cars driven by her father in his movies. “We’ve got a 12-year-old grandson who’s spurring us on,” she said. “He’s very much into nostalgia and his great grandfather. I wish I had enough money to buy all of them.”
