0 Kirkland Concours d'Elegance

by Willy Vinton

Wow, what a weekend we had in Tacoma, Washington at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance! For Alaskans, the weather on Friday and Saturday was really too warm for comfort, with temperatures over 80 with not a cloud in the sky. We had to wonder if we were truly were in Washington state. Sunday (the day of the show) brought the type of weather we relate to the Seattle area, with overcast skies and a hint of rain in the air.

A big thanks to Barb Cerny, our historic fashion curator, for being such a good sport and dressing the part. She helped the 1918 Biddle Model H Town Car win the Best Presentation award. The Biddle is a stunning car that will be a great addition to the museum when it arrives here.  (Speaking of "additions" Tim... hint hint...)

Here is the trophy we received for "Barb and the Biddle." Maybe we can make a song about that? It was a thrill to win this award, and it was well deserved if I do say so myself. The folks at the Kirkland Concours were all great and very friendly, making it a good show to be a part of.  Thank you to our class host, Jim Tate, for taking care of us and making sure we were where we needed to be at all times.

Once again our 1919 McFarlan Touring took top honors in the Antiques Class. If you've been following our blog or Facebook page,  you know the McFarlan also won Best in Class at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance last month. This is a stunning car, and it always attracts a crowd of admirers. Both the Biddle and McFarlan have such a presence that you cannot walk past them without stopping to admire the beauty of their designs and the quality of the restorations.

This is the First in Class trophy that we received for the McFarlan, which we will put on display when the car arrives in Fairbanks.

Many thanks to Murray Motor Car for helping us get the cars ready and transporting them to Tacoma. Here's wishing Bats MotorSports a safe trip up the Alaska Highway to bring these two jewels to us. Let's hope we can take them out for a drive around town before the snow flies.

Top photo courtesy of Kent Ramsey

Detail: Kirkland Concours d'Elegance

0 Winner! Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

This year we had the honor of being invited to show two of our cars at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. When we have a car restored, it is done in the Lower 48 by either Al Murray (Murray Motor Car in Monroe, WA) or Allan Schmidt (Horseless Carriage Restoration in Escondido, CA). We highly recommend both. On top of their outstanding work, it is an added bonus if we can display a freshly restored car at a show before we ship it north to Alaska.

We spent two hours polishing the 1918 Biddle Town Car and 1919 McFarlan Sport Touring the day before the show. Although we arrived early at the Pebble Beach Golf Links the next morning, we delayed moving the cars onto the show grounds. It was foggy and we could literally watch the cars' brass tarnishing before our eyes from the high humidity, so we kept them inside the trucks until the last minute. Judging started at 8:30 AM and included a very thorough inspection and questioning by a team of three judges.

The Pebble Concours is among the most elite car shows in North America and features some of the most beautiful classic cars in the world. There were numerous celebrities and even a Maharaja or two among the well-dressed crowd of spectators this year (Jay Leno refers to the event as "Tailgating for Billionaires"). Then there were the Alaskans and their friends--having the biggest lawn party on the 18th Green. The only thing missing to make it a true Alaska campout was a bonfire.

After a long wait that included a second visit by the judges to inspect the McFarlan, we were told to take it to the winners circle. At this point we knew we were in the top three for our class. The stage director then told the 3rd-place winner (a 1905 Clément) to go first, and when he directed the 1911 Isotta Fraschini to go 2nd we knew we had earned the coveted First in Class for A-2 Antiques. There was an audible gasp in the crowd when they learned that the car belonged to a museum in Alaska. We were also thrilled to receive the Ansel Adams Award for Most Desirable Touring Car of Its Era. What an honor! Museum owner Tim Cerny looks pretty pleased with the prizes. For some reason, the bottle of Champagne didn't make it back to Fairbanks...

1919 McFarlan Sport Touring
First in Class, A-1 Antique
2012 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance
Photo by Murray Motor Car

Both the McFarlan and Biddle will be shown at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance on September 9. This year's event will take place at the new LeMay Museum in Tacoma, WA. Please stop and say hello if you attend! Otherwise, expect to see the beautiful Biddle and McFarlan at our museum around mid-October.

We want to send out a big thank you to Al and Paul Murray of Murray Motor Car for the great job on the McFarlan, and to Allan and Beth Schmidt for their amazing work on the Biddle. Both of the cars are show stoppers and will be welcome additions to our collection here in Fairbanks. Hopefully they will arrive before the snow falls so we can get them out on the roads around town.

*Update* The McFarlan also won the Best in Class - Antiques award at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance on Sept 9, 2012!

Detail: Winner! Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

0 Wallace Reid & His McFarlan Automobiles

by Nancy DeWitt

Our museum is full of beautiful automobiles, but as we showed in our last Restoration Update, we have some gems that have yet to make the trip north to Alaska. One of these is a big, imposing car with an impressive provenance. Our 1919 McFarlan Type 125 four-passenger sport touring (#19133) was originally owned by Wallace Reid, one of Hollywood's leading male stars. Reid appeared in at least 180 movies with the likes of Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish and Geraldine Farrar.

Automobiles and racing were an obsession for Wally Reid, and some of his best-known films were daredevil auto flicks like The Roaring Road (1919), Excuse My Dust (1920) and Too Much Speed (1921). Women loved him for his dashing good looks (dubbing him "The Screen's Most Perfect Lover"), while men flocked to theaters to see Reid perform his own driving stunts.

Reid "adored automobiles," according to writer and friend Adela Rogers St. John. "I have seen him sit on a curb and gaze at a new roadster for hours, pointing out its lines, emphasizing its beauties, explaining its mechanical perfections." Reid collectible a series of fine cars, among them Marmons, Duesenbergs, and several McFarlans. He loved speed and was known for racing up and down Sunset Boulevard in a Stutz whose horn could play "Yankee Doodle Dandy." His carefree, reckless abandon behind the wheel led to a number of accidents, including a high-speed collision in his Marmon coupe that killed a father and seriously injured the man's wife and two children. He apparently avoided any mishaps with his 1919 McFarlan. In 1922 be ordered another McFarlan--a TV Knickerbocker cabriolet. Sadly, he never got to drive it.

Reid had been severely injured in a train accident in 1919 and given morphine while hospitalized to treat his pain. This was the era when Hollywood actors kept an exhausting schedule, cranking out multiple movies a year. Reid's studio continued to supply their "investment" with morphine so Reid could meet the demanding work schedule. Not surprisingly, this led to a serious addiction. The next two years were a downward spiral of drugs, exhaustion and alcohol abuse for Reid. His wife, actress Dorothy Davenport, finally put him in a sanitarium but the pressure of withdrawal was too much. Reid passed away at the age of 31 on January 18, 1923. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle bought the 1923 Knickerbocker, possibly before Reid's death, and it now resides in the Nethercutt Collection in Sylmar, California.

The immediate fate of Reid's 1919 McFarlan following his death is unknown, but it eventually found its way to William Harrah's museum in Sparks, Nevada. J. Parker Wickham purchased the car following Harrah's death, and we acquired it in 2007. It is presently being restored by Murray Motor Car in Monroe, Washington. Al Murray has done an outstanding job with several of our other automobiles, including our 19010 Whiting, 1914 Moline-Knight and 1927 Stutz. At right is a photo of the McFarlan at the 2010 Kirkland Concours d'Elegance, before its restoration.


Here is a peek at the McFarlan today. Once we get it in the museum we hope to exhibit it with a display about Wallace Reid. He was one of the most famous actors of his time, and it is only fitting that he drove such a grand car.

Detail: Wallace Reid & His McFarlan Automobiles