Identification of old pictures

The Tyrone Power car is indeed Murphy Convertible Torpedo Berline J-391 / 2315. I don't know if O'Quinn's has parted with it yet or not. Power owned it between 1952 and 1958.

The other car is a Van den Plas* body for which no numbers are known, as has already been stated. The body is very similar to that built by Hibbard & Darrin on J-278 / 2298, another extinct car.

Odd that it was put on display with its sidemounts missing.

*For trivia and clarity's sake, there were two shops by this name: the original Van den Plas (three words) of Antwerp and its offshoot in London, England, Vanden Plas (two words). The latter was eventually absorbed by BSA (Daimler) and then in turn into Jaguar, hence the use of the name Vanden Plas as a Jaguar trim level for years. The Duesenberg's body was by the Belgium shop.

Thanks a lot for the information!

mikespeed35 wrote: Bob, I like the "big as a bed sheet" comment. I have never heard that one before.
CORDially Mike

Mike,
That is one I've used for years to compare the value of real "Silver Certificates"with the Monopoly money we are plagued with today. Melvin Clemens once offered to sell me J396 for $800 and there was still that problem of not having enough money. I think I had about $300 to my name then (1952)and did use $150 to buy a 1935 Packard Covertible coupe with wire wheels and rumble seat and new top.I could have made money on that deal because when I got to looking around inside the car,I found a German P38 pistol that was loaded and ready to fire in the left side glove box. I unloaded it and gave it to the man that owned the business to return to the former owner of the Packard. He was a court officer so he needed the gun and I already had a good pistol,a Smith&Wesson Model three in 44 caliber.One made for the Czar of Russia in 1876.
Getting back to J396 for a bit,it was a car that started life as a Derham Sedan and was later rear ended by a street car in NYC I think. It was rebodied with a 1928 or '29 Packard roadster body and has been that way ever since. In later years,the car was traded to a man in Maine along with another unrestored SJ for a restored DCP. Then after that,the car was owned by Bill Bools who died in a tragic accident,fell off of a roof I think. I don't know who has it now.It also now carries engine J434 or did at one time.
Have a good day.

Bob Roller

As to the second car pictured, Fred Roe wrote in the summer of 1996 issue of Automotive History Review that this was purported to be a Van den Plas body that was shown in a Brussels show in 1934. He mentioned that from the cowl to the rear of the doors it was so similar to Hibbard & Darrin work that he thought it could have been assembled from salvaged H & D parts on a used chassis.

Fender treatments here are quite a bit different than J-277/2300 which appear like standard issue Duesenberg to me.

Car remains a lost unknown as far as I know.

I have a guess .....J277/2300 1930 Hibbard & Darrin ? Maybe not.

Bob, I like the "big as a bed sheet" comment. I have never heard that one before.
CORDially Mike

J391 and it was recently in the O'Quinn estate in Texas. Maybe Chris can give you some data on ts current status.The other one is H&D but I don't know the numbers.Itcould be one of the lost cars we sometime speculate about.
I saw J391 stored in the ACD Museum with a badly damaged running board. Seems as though someone tried to jack it up by placing the jack under the running board and won the bonehead trophy for whatever year that was. I could have bought that car for $2500 in 1952 but in that time frame,a $100 was big as a bed sheet and hard to come by.

Bob Roller

Hello, I can't seem to find anything on these two cars. The first one looks like a Murphy with Tyrone Power, the other one a Hibbard & Darrin coachwork. Does anybody have numbers?
Thanks