Frank Lloyd Wright and His Automobiles

Chris Summers wrote: Working with Hamilton on the story of Peters's Duesenberg, I was very impressed with her dedication to getting it right, which I think readers will notice through the entire article. She wasn't afraid to challenge me when she thought information I had was wrong (and in the end, she proved that she was right, and I was wrong).

I'll take this time to reiterate that the L-29 Cabriolet in the ACD Museum was not originally orange, that it did have a golf bag door originally, and that Wright wasn't the original owner. Sorry, but as nomenclature grates on some here, inaccurately portrayed history grates on me. Most of these notes are covered well by Hamilton.

I was just out in the Phoenix area and as a Wright fan, I visted Taliesin West outside Scottsdale....aerial photo's of the spread back in the old days was amazing...There was NOTHING else around..At the end of the tour, a person tried to sign up new members and had several of the more recent news letters. Included was the mentioned boolet of Wright and his cars. Although I haven't THOROUGHLY read it, it appears to be pretty good...great photo's. One even shows all of Wright's cars together (and maybe a couple owned by Peters) shortly after his death....the Cord in the ACD museum is in the pictures. It probably wasn't a showpiece by any stretch. Even the wheels are painted red and the whole car was probably painted with a brush!!!
Also on the sight seeing was a walk thru the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, which Wright did some consulting work on....and had lunch at one of the old Wrigley mansions which sits high on a hill and overlooks both the Biltmore and Phoenix...couldn't help but wonder what was in THAT place's six car garage back in the 1920's and 30's?????

Working with Hamilton on the story of Peters's Duesenberg, I was very impressed with her dedication to getting it right, which I think readers will notice through the entire article. She wasn't afraid to challenge me when she thought information I had was wrong (and in the end, she proved that she was right, and I [u:1w8pfbgq]was[/u:1w8pfbgq] wrong).

I'll take this time to reiterate that the L-29 Cabriolet in the ACD Museum was [i:1w8pfbgq]not[/i:1w8pfbgq] originally orange, that it [i:1w8pfbgq]did[/i:1w8pfbgq] have a golf bag door originally, and that Wright [i:1w8pfbgq]wasn't[/i:1w8pfbgq] the original owner. Sorry, but as nomenclature grates on some here, inaccurately portrayed history grates on me. Most of these notes are covered well by Hamilton.

Awhile back I read the book,"The Fellowship", about Wright's efforts to get not only free laborers but their money as well through his Talisen Fellowship. Also in the book were several references to his cars and as they arose, I was posting the info on this site.
The mention of Wright's son-in-law, Wesley Peters jarred my memory. Peters, aside from having some decent cars, was manipulated quite a bit by both Mr. and Mrs. Wright, even after Frank's death. The widow Wright talked Peters, against his own sexual preference, into marrying the immigrant daughter of Joe Stalin who had come into a large amount of money from her best selling memoirs. That made Ms. Stalin's checkbook accessible by Mrs. Wright.

Major excerpts from this fine article will appear in ACD Club Newsletter issue 2010-3.

And if you do not know... the ACD Museum giftshop is ONLINE:

store.automobilemuseum.org/

check it out with an order!

The Winter 2010 edition of the [i:1ve4jt2f]Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly[/i:1ve4jt2f] features a large and wonderful article by historian Mary Jane Hamilton on the legendary architect's cars, including Cords and the Duesenberg owned by son-in-law Wesley Wright Peters.

Several Club members contributed information to the story, including Jon Bill and Matt Short of the ACD Automobile Museum, Paul Bryant, Dick Greene, Jonathan "Jack" Richards, and yours truly.

Copies of the Quarterly are available in the ACD Automobile Museum gift shop, where I picked up mine this weekend, along with a Frank Lloyd Wright hand puppet.