My Father's Duesenberg

Commodore wrote: My father had a Duesenberg up until 1955. Recently I came across some old photos of his Duesenberg. So I am posting them here in hopes that someone can tell me something about the car. Also, family lore has it that the car appeared in the 1949 movie version of the ?The Great Gatsby?. Does anyone know whether a Duesenberg appeared in this movie and which car it was?

Steve Marshall

Hello Commodore,

maybe there is (on page 108) a short (letter) remark written by your father, about his Duesenberg experience, in the book "DUESENBERG - the mightiest American Motorcar" by J.L. Elbert

In the early 50ies Mr. Elbert sent a form letter (to several persons who have had a Duesenberg car), in which he requested owners remarks and recollections about their Duesenbergs.

A Mr.(?) C. Marschall aswered as follows: ..." I bought the car as a used one in Chicago in 1940... Being a used car, I don't suppose it was in especially good condition mechanically, allthough I never had any trouble with it and the appearance was good."

Kind Regards

Matt

There was an ACD club facebook page video of J565 at Auburn a few days ago that has me confused and wondering if the car that Mr. Marshall's father owned was J565?

My posts on this thread suggested it was J533 that was for sale in the 1950's in Malibu that my dad missed out on. I distinctly remember seeing it and I had a photo we took but I gave it to Chris Summers. I thought Dad told me that JB Nethercutt bought it so I always assumed the car I saw was J533, but now I'm doubting my memory, What I do know for sure is the car I saw in Malibu was Mr. Marschall's car, since the history he provided in this thread matches up. Wondering if you can clear up which car Mr. Marshall owned J533 or J565? I guess both cars appeared in Great Gatsby? Thanks

Please disregard my last post on this topic I was wrong. Chris maybe you could share that pic?

Yes those photos are 533

Sorry gentlemen, I missed this post or I would've responded with the photo Steve mentioned more quickly.

Thanks Chris. Back in the day there was no Hemmings, no auctions, and very few dealers. The main marketplace for classics was the Sunday edition of the LA Times classifieds and it wasn't uncommon to see more than one Duesenberg advertised. My Dad and I always got the paper early and tried to act quickly when an interesting car was listed and were first on the scene to buy J533. Unfortunately being a weekend we didn't have cash with us so we had to drive back to Venice to borrow it from a friend. By the time we got back
Mr. Merkes had brought the car. Why my Dad didn't leave a deposit to secure the car I'll never know. At the time we didn't know it was one of the Gatsby movie cars. I do remember removing the tarp and how breathtaking the car was. It wasn't really in bad shape as can be seen in the photo.