And How! is a new regular feature in VeloceToday, just right for those stories which are too short or too little or news items that don’t qualify as full length articles.
Charles Chayne’s Cabriolet La Royale chassis 41121 at the end of the Press on Regardless Rally on August 6, 1950.
Over the next few weeks VeloceToday will present photographs by Bob Temple, coming to us via the collection of Vintage Motorphoto’s Dale LaFollette.
The photos are remarkable in themselves, portraits of cars and events that shaped the sports car movement in the U.S. during the post war years which include the Bugatti La Royale convertible when owned by Chayne. But they were particularly interesting for us, for the photos brought together an equally remarkable set of VeloceToday Contributors who each had story behind some of the images.
Paul Wilson was writing a story about a one-off Alfa 2500 Pinin Farina for us; rare photos of exactly the same car were found in the collection.
Jim Sitz recalled and identified cars at a little known event at the South Bend Proving Grounds; only Jim could have identified the cars and drivers and used his extensive non-computer files to do so.
Eric Davison previously wrote of the Fiat 1100 Special of Paul Farago, and perhaps the most personal and poignant was the negatives that revealed Eric’s father next to his Jaguar SS100.
The Pinin Farina Alfa 2500 at the Studebaker Proving Grounds, 1951.
And of course Dale LaFollette, who found and purchased the negatives years ago.
Who was Bob Temple
Bob Temple was an automobile and truck designer for the Studebaker company. Born in Ketchikan Alaska (source genealogy.com) in 1914, he found a job as an apprentice designer in Detroit in 1940. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945 and was eventually employed by Studebaker. He also had a good eye and camera, and began recording some of the car events in the South Bend area, Indianapolis and as far as Watkins Glen and Palm Springs California. Bob died in 1991 at the age of 77 in Moses Lake, Washington.
Paul Farago jumps into his Fiat 1100 Special at Watkins Glen.
Dale LaFollette on acquiring the photos
About 25 years ago a friend of mine told me about an auction in Moses Lake, WA that contained some automobilia so he and I decided to attend. We drove up, spent the night in a motel and were at the auction site bright and early. The auctioneer normally handled farm implement auctions so was a bit out of his league with the automobilia side of things.
We found ourselves in a cinder block building at the Moses Lake airport, my memory says the building was about 50 feet long and 20 feet wide, there was one wall at the back and behind it was a very rudimentary living quarters of about 15 by 20 feet. The front of the building had a garage door but I do not remember if there were any other doors or windows. It was pretty austere and I felt sorry for whoever was living there.
We were told that the items on the tables were on sale and were from the estate of a Bob (RW) Temple who at one time had been a designer for Studebaker and had passed away while living in this building. Piled up on makeshift tables were hundreds of pencil line drawings that we found were mostly copy machine copies and were priced at $3 to $5 each. Any actual drawings were on newsprint and of subjects that were not inspiring. I bought a couple, one of a Grand Prix Brabham, I think. I did find a wonderful cutaway drawing of the Novi in ink that I purchased. The bulk of actual drawings were of mundane American cars from the ‘60s and ‘70s and I passed on all of those.
Most of the rest of the items for sale were literally tons of car magazines, mostly on hot rods and customs. We were told that Mr. Temple made drawings and cutaways for that type of magazine while in retirement.
The famous V-8 Novi at Indianapolis, 1950.
I then spotted on a shelf some black and white drugstore photographic prints of Indianapolis; I picked up those, and then found a couple of boxes of slides which I also bought. I inquired about the negatives for the prints and I was told that they had been sold already.
When the actual auction started, we found that indeed it was farm implements from another source and there were no automotive items at all. After returning home I lamented missing the black and white negatives to a friend who then said he knew who had purchased them. After some negotiations I was able to reunite them with the prints.
I am not much of an estate sale guy as I really don’t like picking through other people’s junk. In this case while I am happy to own the negatives and the slides that I found but I am always a little sad for the living conditions that Bob Temple had to endure. I don’t believe the building had air conditioning and believe me when I tell you Moses Lake can get very, very hot.
And from Palm Springs
Roger Barlow and the Simca at Palm Springs.
Nice image of Chayne’s Royale. The story usually told about the car is that Charlie traded a refrigerator for it in the immediate post WWII years.
Really? I seem to recall the story as Briggs Cunningham trading appliances to the Bugatti family for a couple of Royales, the better of which he kept and sold the other to Cameron Peck.
Richard, You are correct. Cunningham bought two Royales from Bugatti’s daughter. The price was $1500 and the refrigerator. My friend, Historian Jim Sitz and I talked on the phone after my comment above. Jim has seen the paperwork and Briggs gave the Cameron Peck car to him for $1. They must have been pretty good buddies.
Regarding the Temple article: For the record….Ketchikan is in Alaska, not Arkansas.
Bob Peters
Bob,
Right you are. We have some doubts about the description of the birthplace of Bob Temple via our source, genealogy.com. But wherever he was born, Ketchikan is indeed in Alaska.
Pete