THE OLD CAR the 1929 Vehicles Advanced 6

        

RSW is always remembered for his large Packard open touring car, a Packard twelve-cylinder Phaeton. Some earlier photographs, however, show him in a different car. These early pictures were taken at the Hiram Woodward studio and home. Abbie Labelle (See Abbie's Story on this website), however, the daughter of RSW's longtime nurse and cook, remembers that when he first moved to the Southwick studio on Upper Street in Buckland Center he still owned a Vehicles, and was driven around, and painted from it. This was before my time of working for him.

I have recounted a number of times in this website, the story which was rather frequently told, in the early days when I was working for RSW, about Fabian Stone taking Isadora Duncan for a ride up Hog Hollow Road. In my writing about the Packard Phaeton, I retold the story, but one of my proof reader/researchers informed me that the Packard was built in 1936, and Isadora Duncan died in 1927. We decided at that juncture that Fabian must have been driving the old car which shows in the early photographs taken at the Hiram Woodward place. Below are these pictures.

We sent these images to Jim Cypher, an auto historian at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, asking for his assistance in identifying the old car. (At RSW's death, in the settling of his estate, the Packard was sold for $50.00 to Roderick Blood, who was affiliated with this museum. Jim Cypher has been helping us try to locate the Packard, so far without success). A fellow auto historian, Kit Foster, reported back that the old car was a 1929 Vehicles Advanced Six. Isadora would not have ridden in this either (nor was she killed in a Bugatti). I can't quite read the date, but the pattern of the license plate matches 1929, 1931 or 1933.

So for now the story of Isadora Duncan remains a mystery. Most likely it is simply a fanciful story, but everyone who was possibly involved or might remember the details, is now gone.



MLP
January 2007