Museum Exhibits Extremely Rare Dual-Cowl Cord L-29 Phaeton

Here's both surviving L-29 Dual Cowl's when they were both in Auburn back in 2004.

Now, that's my kind of traffic jam!!

As Raf Vallone says in the original "Italian Job"..."Preety car."

I need to get back up to Auburn before Labor Day.

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Photo please

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum is pleased to announce the exhibit of a rare Dual-Cowl Cord L-29 Phaeton. A special thanks to Dick and Carol Greene for making this loan possible. Read below for further information about this amazing car...
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Museum Exhibits Extremely Rare Dual-Cowl Cord L-29 Phaeton with and Interesting History

Reputedly owned by ?Treasure Island? star Wallace Beery, the person many believe is responsible for the death of Ted Healy, the creator of the Three Stooges.

(AUBURN) ? A rare Dual-Cowl Cord L-29 Phaeton, reputedly used by silver screen movie star Wallace Beery, is now on display at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum. Prior to the introduction of the first front-drive Cord L-29 in 1929, Auburn Automobile Company president E.L. Cord (for whom the car was named) selected the Walter M. Murphy Company of Pasadena to produce several custom-bodied Cord L-29s for the company. Murphy was renowned as ?Coachbuilder for the Stars? and produced seven Dual-Cowl Cord L-29 Phaetons. The extended wheelbase allowed for a second folding cowl with a second windshield to protect the rear seat passengers from the weather. It was more of an eye-catching, attractive, exotic style than one of practicality. Of the seven produced, only two are known to exist to this day. Richard and Carol Greene of Mahwah, New Jersey have generously placed this rare automobile on exhibit at the museum. The other example known to exist is also owned by the Greene?s and was the model for the 1997 Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival poster by artist John Souder.

The much duplicated design was from the prolific pen of Franklin Hershey, a young Murphy designer that would later be instrumental in designing the legendary 1955 Thunderbird. Hershey, whose design career extended over 40 years, stated that this Cord design was his ?ultimate creation.? The Cord on display at the museum is car number five of the seven produced.

Paramount Studios purchased several custom-bodied Cord L-29s, as well as many Auburn and Duesenberg automobiles, to fulfill contract obligations to its many stars. Wallace Beery was reputedly assigned this Cord L-29 when it began its interesting history, which has now come full circle and returned to the very grounds on which its chassis was produced in 1929.

The phaeton was shipped to England with Beery for a movie shoot in 1932 and then to the Union of South Africa around 1934, during the making of ?The Snows of Kilimanjaro.? Upon completion of the filming, the car was sold and remained in Africa due to its age and the cost of returning it back to America.

Beery is rumored to have been hard to work with in the movie industry. He has also been linked to the unfortunate death of Three Stooges creator, Ted Healy. While other accounts do exist, it is generally accepted that Healy was beaten to death by screen legend Wallace Beery, a young Albert R. Broccoli (who later produced James Bond films), and notorious gangster (and Broccoli's cousin) Pat DiCicco outside the Trocadero in West Hollywood following an argument. It is rumored that legendary MGM's "fixers" Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling, sent Beery, one of MGM?s most valuable properties, off to Europe for several months until everything cooled down. A myth that some "college boys" murdered Healy was supposedly fabricated to conceal the alleged truth. According to immigration records, Beery took a four-month trip to Europe immediately after Healy's death, ending April 17, 1938.

The Cord spent nearly 70 years in and around South Africa. Local lore has it that the Cord was used or owned by a Zulu chieftain during World War II whose legal status kept the car safe from the British war effort to collect aluminum. The car?s entire body is made of aluminum sheet metal with many heavy aluminum castings.

For two decades after the war, the ownership history is rather fuzzy. A Johannesburg newspaper article in the late 40s featured the car as being owned by Clark Gable, which is not true. Obviously, the car was mistaken for the Hershey-designed sweep-panel Duesenberg that Gable had driven. The Dual-Cowl Cord L-29 actually became a family car in a remote section of Africa?s Transvaal. By the mid-1960s, it was being used to haul tourists from a posh hotel in Capetown to the top of the Escarpment where both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are visible. It is here that Dr. Frank Hayward and his bride first saw the car and immediately purchased it.

The rare Cord L-29 was not complete. The dual-cowl, the second windshield and the trunk were all missing. Hayward tracked the missing parts down to a service garage in the Transvaal and the parts were reunited with the rest of the car. Many parts were needed for the restoration. Hayward and noted L-29 collector and expert, Dick Greene, became friends, and the parts began to cross the Atlantic. In 1973, with the restoration completed, it was shipped to Dick Greene until the Hayward family flew to New Jersey and began a 2,500 mile tour in the Cord. Greene shipped the car back to Africa and the friendship continued.

During the decades following the restoration, the Hayward?s used the car extensively on rallies and tours in South Africa. In 2004, with a worsening political and economic situation in South Africa, it was decided to sell the car in an effort to move it to a more secure environment. Dick Greene bought it immediately.

This rare Cord L-29 will be on display at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum until Labor Day weekend, 2008. ?This is a very special car due to the rarity of custom bodied Cord L29s,? said Matt Short, executive vice president of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum. ?Only around 80 chassis were supplied for custom coachwork. This one is particularly beautiful because of the stretched wheelbase that accentuates the low lines of Franklin Hershey?s design.? Visitors are invited to bring their family and friends to view this car and the other 120+ cars on display at the museum throughout the year.

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum ? where the world?s finest cars of yesterday live today! Over 120 classic, antique, vintage and special interest cars are displayed with other automotive related exhibits on three floors. The museum is located in the original 1930s national headquarters of the legendary Auburn Automobile Company and is a National Historic Landmark. Admission is charged, with group and family rates available. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. year round. In 2007, plan a visit and bring your family to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum, a place where automotive history comes to life! acdmuseum.org