Churchill: Walking with Destiny, Andrew Roberts’s outstanding biography was at Don Cline’s bedside, and he almost made it through. I opened his copy to where the last bookmark fell. It was January 1944, a scene redolent of the fascination we shared. The writer was Lady Diana Cooper: “There was our old baby in his rompers, ten-gallon cowboy hat and very ragged oriental dressing gown, health, vigour and excellent spirits. Never have I seen him spin more fantastic stuff, the woof of English and the warp of slang.”
That passage will now always remind me of Don, who himself spun fantastic stuff.…
Don Weber of San Antonio, a sterling gentleman of the old school, died December 10th at the age of 90. Those who miss him may like to leave a few words on his permanent legacy page. There you will also find details of his extraordinary life.
In Don Weber’s memory, we thought it would be a nice thing to reprint my article on storming Pikes Peak in his 1914 Packard Six Model 1448 on the 1976 Glidden Tour. It first appeared in my sixth issue as editor of The Packard Cormorant, Spring 1977.…
22 November 2018— A photographer friend sends along praise of Barry Goldwater (1909-1998). The Senator was noted portrayer of his beloved Southwest: “I am reading an issue of Arizona Highways devoted to his work. The only thing he was more passionate about than politics was his photography. And he was a great cameraman.” Praise of one photographer for another is high recommendation.
His note reminded me of People and Places, Goldwater’s fine book of photographs, from canyons to Hopi. The depth of feeling for Arizona’s native peoples and natural vistas in those photos belies the picture his enemies tried to paint of Goldwater when he ran for President in 1964.…
The best editor I ever had wrote: “There is nothing to be said when a friend dies, even among people whose trade is words.” Much nevertheless is being said about Charles Krauthammer. That is fitting, and it is what we have the Internet for. (Some of the most touching tributes are linked below. Fox News produced a very fine tribute, “Krauthammer in His Own Words” click here.)
My editor meant, rather, that for some, words are inadequate against “a big, empty hole where there was once someone you loved. And all the talk in the world won’t change that.…
…a kind and decent man, died aged 92 on August 29th, surrounded by his family. Neville had served most recently as a parish and district councillor for Billinge and Seneley Green. Described as a “great bloke” by his friends, he will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Among these are Churchill historians, who had the benefit of his remembrances. Bullock was probably the only man alive whose encounters with the great bridged Churchill in 1945 with Rudy Giuliani in 1996.
Trained as a Royal Marine, aged only 19, Neville Bullock suddenly found himself a bodyguard to the Prime Minister.…
“What Price Churchill?” Click here for the final moments of a momentous television epic. “Churchill: The Wilderness Years” (1981) enshrined him forever as the greatest of “Churchills” in a sea of pale imitations. Martin Gilbert‘s close involvement with the scriptwriters gave him truth and substance. In a world of revisionist history, flawed portraits and overplayed roles, it was accurate to a fault. Timothy Robert Hardy was the only actor to play her father for whom Lady Soames would brook no word of criticism. I’ll always remember her greeting Tim with outstretched arms: “Papa!”
Hardy at HillsdaleI’m glad we were in time.…
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…
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.…
Dutch Darrin was supremely lucky—and one of the most charming things about him was that he never ceased saying so.
Part 1Excerpt 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?”…
