May 2017 - Richard M. Langworth

The Packard Adventures of Howard A. “Dutch” Darrin, Part 2

29 May 2017 Comments 0 Comments

A chance meting with Darryl Zanuck brought Darrin back to America—at exactly the right time. The custom coachbuilding business was waning, semi-customs were in, and Packard needed a new body style. Continued from Part 1…

Part 2

Excerpt: For full text and illustrations and a roster of Packard Darrins, see The Automobile, May 2017.

Darrin frequently hobnobbed with the Good and the Great. One day in 1934, at the Paris Polo Club, a club director approached: “There’s an American out on the playground with a horse and polo mallet; please see if you can help him.” Dutch went out and met film producer Darryl Zanuck—who invited him to Hollywood.…

Would Winston Churchill Legalize Smoking Pot?

28 May 2017 Comments 0 Comments

The first commandment of Lady Soames, Winston Churchill’s renowned daughter (1922-2014), was: “Thou shalt not proclaim what my father would do in modern situations.” However, since she enjoyed smoking a good cigar on occasion, she might excuse the suggestion that if he were around, he would probably not object to legalizing marijuana.

Churchill on Smoking

The journalist and broadcaster Collin Brooks wrote a sprightly essay, “Churchill the Conversationalist,” in Charles Eade‘s collection of articles, Churchill by His Contemporaries. (This 1953 book is inexpensive and well worth owning. It’s an evergreen collection of perceptive pieces on aspects of Churchill’s life and character.)…

All the Luck: Howard A. “Dutch” Darrin, Part 1

27 May 2017 Comments 0 Comments

Dutch Darrin was supremely lucky—and one of the most charming things about him was that he never ceased saying so.

Part 1

Excerpt only. For full text and illustrations and a roster of Packard Darrins, see The Automobile, May 2017.

Looking back on the previous century, the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. reflected that individuals do make a difference: “In December 1931 Churchill, crossing Fifth Avenue in New York City, looked in the wrong direction and was knocked down by an automobile. Fourteen months later Franklin Roosevelt was fired on by an assassin….Would the next two decades have been the same had the car killed Churchill in 1931 and the bullet killed Roosevelt in 1933?”…