0 A Break in the Weather

by Nancy DeWitt
© Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

The weather in Fairbanks this summer has been much rainier than usual, which means our opportunities to get cars out on the road have been severely limited. We finally had a two-day stretch of sunshine last week, so Willy and the Pit Crew prepped and drove three cars. I had to get in on the action!

First out was the 1905 Franklin. Until we purchased it this summer, the Franklin had been sitting in storage since 1991. The car is in great shape but needed a bit of work to get it running. Once cranked and on the road, it zipped right along as it motored around Wedgewood Resort. I love air-cooled Franklins and it was a treat to go for a ride in this newest addition to the museum collection.

Next up was a faster and louder ride in the 1927 Stutz Black Hawk boattail speedster. It was lunchtime, so I had Willy take me to the Tanana Valley Farmer's Market for a little "guerilla marketing" and some of Lane's Quickie Tacos. We can't go anywhere in this car without people honking, waving, and flashing us thumbs-ups! Willy thought it needed more exercise, so he took it on the local car club's run-around that same evening. Hardship duty.

Then it was on to one of my favorite automobiles in the museum: the 1918 Biddle Town Car. Women love this Biddle, which looks like a motorized version of Cinderella's coach. If you haven't already, be sure to look inside the Biddle when you visit the museum, because the interior is exquisite. The only thing missing is a speaker tube for me to order the chauffeur where to take me next (and no, I didn't ask anyone if they had any Grey Poupon).

We enjoy driving the museum cars, and not just because it's fun to do so. We love seeing the surprise and excitement on people's faces when one of these classics rumbles past, and giving them a chance to hear their old engines in action. We hope you time your stay at Wedgewood Resort and a visit to the museum when we have one of these beauties out for some exercise!


Coming to Fairbanks to see the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum and other area attractions? Support the museum by staying right here at Wedgewood Resort. All guests receive half-price admission to the museum!

Detail: A Break in the Weather

0 Our Year in Review

by Nancy DeWitt
© Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

What a year! Each one just gets better and better, and 2013 was full of accomplishments. Most notably, we had our best year ever for attendance and gift shop sales. Based on direct feedback and on-line comments, our visitors were very pleased with their museum experience. In fact, their reviews on TripAdvisor earned us the top ranking for Fairbanks attractions for the second year in a row! It's never too late to submit your review, which you can do by clicking on this link.

Other highlights from 2013 include:

• We hosted a number of school field trips at the museum and offered rides in the Snow Flyer to almost 50 children during Tired Iron week.

• Historic fashion consultant Abigail Cucolo joined our staff for several months and accomplished a whirlwind of projects. She led fashion tours, wrote blog posts, organized our storage room, cataloged over 700 items into a database, repaired garments, and added over 30 new outfits to the galleries. She also curated our "Beauty and the Bird" exhibit and created several new displays, including ones on undergarments, Fortuny gowns, and WAVES uniforms.

• Our docents continued to provide valuable support, from educating visitors and providing security during private receptions, to dusting cars and helping Willy with innumerable repair projects in the shop.

• We worked hard to improve the visitor experience and began offering free audio tours with admission. One guest wrote of the audio tour: "Very good and really adds to the experience."

• We acquired J. Parker Wickham's library and now have a wonderful collection of resources for research.

• We participated in the Vernon L. Nash Antique Car Club annual show, Golden Days Show and Shine, and a fairly soggy Golden Days Parade. We were delighted to be selected to carry the winner of the Miss World Eskimo Indian Olympics pageant and her court in our 1919 Pierce-Arrow.

• We added a number of videos to our YouTube channel, which receives about 2,500 views a week.

• We had five articles published in national magazines, including The Bulb Horn, Horseless Carriage Gazette, Air-Cooled News, and The Classic Car. The museum was also featured in articles in Alaska Magazine, The Ruralite, and Old Cars Weekly.

• Our historian attended the National Association of Automobile Museum's annual conference in Lincoln, Nebraska, and was elected to the NAAM board of directors.

• Our manager attended a number of national and regional events, including the Chickasha and Bakersfield Swap Meets, the Scottsdale auctions, and the Hershey Swap Meet.

• With the help of some great volunteers, we got one of Fairbanks's first Dodge automobiles running again and helped drive it to Valdez to commemorate the first automobile trip to the coast. The story is posted here.

• In July we hosted a full house for a presentation about the 1908 Great Race by Jeff Mahl, great grandson of the winning car's driver, George Schuster. He gave a fabulous program and we thank everyone who came (and NAPA for sponsoring the event!).

• We added three automobiles to the Fountainhead Collection, including a 1902 Knox, 1906 Pope-Toledo, and 1910 Schacht. The Pope-Toledo won several awards before we shipped it north, including First in Class (Antiques) at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance, and Third in Class (A-1 Antiques) and the Ansel Adams Special Award at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

• The majority of the museum automobiles got a tune-up and some road time this year. Here are a few out getting some exercise--can you identify them all?

Thank you all for another great year!

Coming to Fairbanks to see the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum and other area attractions? Support the museum by staying right here at Wedgewood Resort. All guests receive half-price admission to the museum!

Detail: Our Year in Review

0 Field Trips to the Car Museum

By Nancy DeWitt
© Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

We just wrapped up a busy week of field trips to the museum. Most of the students who visit us have never been inside a car museum before, and hearing their exclamations of "Wow!" when they walk in the door always brings a smile to our faces. In fact, most of these kids have never seen an antique automobile up close, and it is especially fun to show them the cars and their place in American history.

The field trips are tailored to each age group, although each covers the history of the automobile, different ways cars were powered (steam, electricity and gasoline), special clothing needed to stay dry and warm in early cars, and Alaska's zany automotive history. The story about how Bobby Sheldon built Alaska's first car is always a hit.

If time allows, students can dress up for a photo in the 1911 Everett and/or do a scavenger hunt in the museum. Anyone visiting the museum with children can ask for one of our scavenger hunt forms, and there is a little prize awarded for completed forms.

Many thanks to Nancy Allen for designing our field trips and leading so many of them for us. A retired school teacher, Nancy has a gift for keeping the kids' attention and herding rambunctious groups through the galleries.

Field trips are available only during the school year. For more information, click here.

Detail: Field Trips to the Car Museum

0 Vintage Treads and Threads

by Nancy DeWitt
© Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

Not a week goes by that I don't encounter a recent museum visitor or read a review that expresses shock at the extent of our collections. It's not surprising that many expect to find no more than a few Model Ts and other old Fords in a Fairbanks car museum, and we are thoroughly entertained by the stunned looks on visitors' faces when they walk through the door and see a huge gallery full of ~60 spectacular automobiles.

I am even more delighted by the women who tell me they didn't want to come to our facility, but then enthusiastically admit that the cars and clothing blew them away. In the past year our historic fashion collection has grown to rival our assemblage of automobiles. In fact, we now have over 100 costumes on display, making ours the largest permanent clothing exhibit in Alaska, if not on the West Coast.

 
Our historic fashion curator, Barb Cerny, has assembled a fabulous array of gowns, suits, dresses, coats, hats and accessories spanning 150 years. While the focus is on the same time periods represented by our cars, several garments date back to the 1880s. From custom gowns to ready-to-wear day dresses, there are even a few treasures by well-known designers such as Mariano Fortuny, Jean Patou and Callot Soeurs on display. Some pieces are from Alaska pioneers, showing that the women who arrived here during Fairbanks' rough frontier days were just as interested in fashion as their contemporaries to the south.

A walk through the museum vividly illustrates how fashion changed from the Victorian's tightly corseted, restrictive clothing to the looser sophistication of the Roaring 20s and glamorous 1930s--just as automobiles evolved from boxy carriage shapes to sleek, stylized designs. My favorite pieces are from the Belle Époche and Art Deco periods, especially the Titanic Era gowns and beaded flapper dresses. Which are your favorites?

 

This winter we will be offering monthly curator talks that will include behind-the-scenes looks at the fashion collection and several "Under the Hood" tours of the automobiles. Watch our Facebook page for details. And if you need more convincing that you should visit our museum, check out some of our TripAdvisor comments (and please add yours if you have already visited).

Detail: Vintage Treads and Threads

0 Bulldogs, Brohms and Boattails

by Nancy DeWitt and Willy Vinton

As noted in our last post, it's been a busy summer at the museum. Among the 30 or so cars we've tuned up and exercised are three carrying the legendary Stutz name.

Mention the word "Stutz" and immediately the famous Bearcat comes to mind. Much less well-known, even among many automobile afficionados, is the stylish Bulldog. Introduced in 1914, it was identical to the Bearcat except that it carried a four-passenger sport touring body. Although heavier than a Bearcat and equipped with a windshield, a Bulldog could attain a respectable speed of 75 mph. This 1918 Series S 4-Passenger Special is one of only a few Bulldogs remaining. It carries an 80-hp, 4-cylinder T-head engine with four valves per cylinder. Willy says, "This car is very capable of running 80 mph today (not that I have tried--really!). When riding in or driving this car, it's obvious why people wanted a Bulldog. Both Ethan and Steve had ear-to-ear grins when I took them for a ride."


Often called "The Forgotten Stutz," the elegant Speedway Six was produced for a few short years. Equipped with high-grade coachwork and a new Stutz-built engine, it was the company's most luxurious automobile yet. The sedan body on our 1925 Series 695 Sportbrohm was made by the Robbins Body Corporation. The dash, steering wheel and window frames are solid black walnut, and the sumptuous interior features mohair upholstery, silk curtains and crystal bud vases. Only a handful of Series 695 models still exist. Stutz guaranteed that its 95-hp, 6-cylinder inline engine could propel the car to 80 mph. "For a 60s paint and upholstery job," says Willy, "this car still shows well and the body is remarkable for its fit and finish. The doors still close tight, the windows roll up and down like new, and it runs and drives very smooth and quiet."

Stutz introduced their radically different Vertical Eight in 1926, and the Speedway Six was soon forgotten. The new "Safety" chassis design allowed the body and frame to sit quite low, which reduced the risk of tipping. Other new safety features included four-wheel hydraulic brakes and a wire-reinforced windscreen. The racy Black Hawk was perhaps the most fashionable of the Vertical Eights. Our 1927 Series AA Black Hawk is powered by a 95-hp, single-overhead-cam straight-eight. Its boattail design added 10-12 mph to the car's top speed. Willy says, "I have to say that, of all our cars, this may be the most fun one to drive. I took it out last Wednesday evening for the local car club cruise, and it really turned some heads. One gentleman came into the museum later and spotted the car back on the floor. He was very impressed to see that we truly do drive our cars." It's hardship duty, but someone has to do it!

Detail: Bulldogs, Brohms and Boattails

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