Cars and music: a Valley blend

Deep in the San Fernando Valley lies the automobile and musical instrument lover’s answer to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory: sibling collections of vintage cars and antique mechanical musical instruments amassed by J.B. Nethercutt, the 89-year-old scion of Merle Norman Cosmetics.

The good news is you don’t need a golden ticket to get into the Nethercutt Museum of cars or San Sylmar, which houses the instruments and more automotive artifacts.

The Nethercutt started in 1956 with one car, a 1930 DuPont. Now it boasts more than 240 automobiles and a 65,000-square-foot temple dedicated to the heyday of automotive design.

Cars are laid out in chronological order, from an 1896 Eisenach 2 Cylinder to a 1983 DeLorean Series DMC-12, making the self-guided tour a breeze for first-time visitors.

“The Nethercutt has a real commitment to authenticity,” says curator and archivist Skip Marchetti. “ ‘Functional fine art’ is how Mr. Nethercutt refers to his collection.”

Directly across the street is the San Sylmar museum. A guided two-hour tour starts at the Grand Salon, evocative of the car showrooms of the 1930s.

Upstairs, guests are treated to Nethercutt’s collection of hood ornaments, automotive mascots and Louis XV-style furniture. These two floors are just a pitstop on the way up to “Cloud 99,” which houses San Sylmar’s mechanical musical instrument collection.

Instruments range from musical pocketwatches to midsize nickelodeons and on to gigantic electro-pneumatic “orchestians.”

These machines not only sound great, they are also works of mechanical genius. The 20-by-11-foot 1926 Hupfield Excelsior Pan Orchester has two built-in accordions, full percussion and drums, a piano and more than 500 pipes that can mechanically play a John Philip Sousa tune as loud and clear as the USC Marching Trojans.

The tour ends at the room’s main draw, the 1926 Hope-Jones Unit Wurlitzer, featuring more than 5,000 pipes and playing in tandem with a grand Bosendorfer piano.

“I just couldn’t believe that these machines were made in the 1920s,” says 26-year-old Silver Lake resident Daniella Meeker. “I was floored. They sound and look so amazing, even by today’s standards.”

“I liked the [1930] Encore Banjo the best,” Meeker adds slyly, “because it plays ragtime better than me.”

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Where to go

The Nethercutt Museum

15151 Bledsoe St., Sylmar. Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Free. (818) 364-6464.

San Sylmar

15200 Bledsoe St., Sylmar. Guided tours Tuesday- Saturday at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Free, reservations required. (818) 367-2251.