When Allen Met Graham

Story and Photos by Allen R. Kuhn
From the VeloceToday archives, March, 2022

I would like to start this series of short stories – they are not Galleries as before – by telling a true story about Graham Gauld, and how he saved our skin when we were in Italy/France in 2006 for our seven-week tour of the Continent. The story really began in Maranello, so bear with me….

We were in Rome heading by train to Bologna where we had a rental car waiting for us for our trip to Maranello and the Ferrari factory. I had made arrangements to talk to the head of their Archives Department about our pictures. When we got to the Bologna train station there was a McDonald’s where Carole waited with the luggage while I walked over to the rental car place. The car waiting for us was the tiniest three-door thing we had ever seen. Mind you we had two large suitcases, two carry-ons, one large duffel bag, two cool bags for ice packs for Carole’s back problems, one camera bag, one satchel bag for miscellaneous stuff, and a partridge in a pear tree. I didn’t think it would work, and it didn’t. I went back to get a bigger car, but all they had was a Mercedes 350 E. I never looked at the bill, and to this day we have no idea of what the 7-day rental price was. But it was a sweet ride, and pulling up to the Ferrari factory in it was nice.

When we pulled into the Ferrari Factory visitors’ parking lot, a robust security guard came briskly up to our Silver Arrow waving his arms and saying something like, “you can’t park here.” I wasn’t really sure what he said, but I told him we had an appointment with the people in the Archives Department. He gave us a blank stare. Fortunately, someone from the office came out and took over from the guard. Thank goodness she spoke English very well.

I told the young lady who we were and that we had an appointment with the Archivist. She said that we had to find street parking as they had so little visitor parking. Carole went inside with a notebook filled with about 40 8×10 Ferrari photographs. I drove around until I found parking about four city blocks away. When I got back to their office, the Archivist and Carole were looking through the book. After 16 years, and an appropriate number of lost brain cells, I can’t remember his name.

What I do remember is that he was very pleased with the quality of the photos. We spent about an hour looking and talking about them. I remember that because I felt very good that after 50 or so years I was finally being recognized for my photographs. He said, although they were very good, it would be difficult to find room for them with the huge number of prints they already had. This did not bother me as I was just glad to be able to have someone at the Ferrari Factory like them. I was hoping we would get a tour of the Factory, but I guess you have to buy a new Ferrari to get a tour. They do have a wonderful Museum, and we spent a lot of time going through it.*

After our enjoyable time in Maranello, we were on the road to Modena to catch another train to Monaco, I saw a sign for the Stanguellini Museum. I told Carole we had plenty of time to go to the Museum, and then get to the train station. So wrong, after visiting the Museum, we could not find the car rental place. By the time we found the place it was too late to catch the train. We turned in the “E” and decided to rent a car more liking to our budget. We were going to drop the car off in Monaco until they said it would be a 2,000 euro drop charge. Carole asked, “What is the closest town in Italy, to the border”? He said Sanremo. How much, 40 euros. . We got another car and were off to Monaco, and then had to figure out how to get the car back to Sanremo.

Meeting with Graham Gauld

We were staying in Cap-d’Ail near Monaco trying to think of a way to get the car we rented back to the town of Sanremo some distance away. One thing we wanted to do while we were there was to get together with Graham Gauld. I had corresponded with Graham many times about my racing photographs.

I was so very pleased when he asked to use two of my photographs in the chapter on the Lotus 19 and 23. One was a full-page colour shot of Jim Clark getting into the Arciero Brothers Lotus 19. The other was a B & W of Clark talking with Dan Gurney, both at the Riverside October 1963 race.

(Read review of Graham’s book)

We got in touch with him, and after talking awhile he said he would like to pick us up and we’d go to lunch at his club, the Automobile Club de Monaco. I kid you not, Carole and I both thought this was by many laps the best meal we had on our entire trip. I came tieless and coatless to our luncheon with Graham, but I did not know it would be formal. I don’t remember if I had the coat or he brought the coat for me but somehow I got a coat. The tie is something else. I remember that very clearly. He not only brought the tie for me to wear, but he presented it to me to keep. It is a very special gift. Graham had ties specially made by Maddock & Dick LTD of Edinburgh, Scotland, for important occasions. It is dark blue with a white “ECURIE ECOSSE” crest and just a hint of the crest in the background, in black. “ECURIE ECOSSE” is French for “Scotland Stable” used by the motor racing team from Edinburgh, Scotland. I remember seeing the crest on the D-Type Jaguars when they won Le Mans in 1956 and ’57.

That was just the beginning of his kindness. We talked about our plans for the rest of the trip, and where were we going next. I told him first we needed to get the car back to Sanremo.

Without my asking, he said he would come to get me, and I could follow him to Sanremo. He said it was only 20 minutes down the road. What he didn’t say was it was 30 minutes to the road and 30 minutes off the road to Sanremo. When we got to the rental place it had moved. Oh my. He asked me if it was alright to go across the street to a store he wanted to go to. When he came back, he said he saw the place just down the street. Problem solved. For his so kind help, we will always be extremely grateful.

*A year after our incredible time in Europe we were attending the Automobilia Monterey memorabilia show in 2007. Two gentlemen came up to the booth. One asked me if I had any Maserati pictures. I said but of course, and handed him several notebooks of 8x10s. As he was looking at them the other gentleman asked about Ferrari pictures and I handed him several notebooks. Within a few minutes, both were pulling out pictures faster than I could count them. A friend of mine, Ron Cummings, pulled me aside and asked if I knew who that guy was, pointing to the Maserati guy. Good customers, I said. He said, “He is Adolfo Orsi.” That name I knew. It was Adolfo Orsi Jr., the son of Omar Orsi who was made managing director of Maserati when his father Adolfo bought financially troubled Maserati in 1937. Today Jr. does consulting work on the history of Maserati. Now for the other gentleman. He was Jean Sage, a well-known and respected archivist with an outstanding Ferrari memorabilia collection, including cars. They ended up getting over 30 8x10s each. Life was good.

Lead photo: Carroll Shelby in John Edgar’s Ferrari 410S leads Dan Gurney in Frank Arciero’s Ferrari 375 Plus at Palm Springs on April 13, 1958. With the help of Arciero’s 375 Plus, Dan was really beginning to be noticed for his skills. This race was probably one of the factors that got him to start a career in Europe. He won, with Shelby second. Maybe you wonder how the fender was dinged. Exciting story, so I am told. Just passing out hearsay. When they were unloading, somehow it managed to hit the ground without using a ramp.

Comments from 2022

Bill Maloney says

March 8, 2022 at 1:16 am

I love reading every one of these installments by Mr. Kuhn.

Mary McGee says

March 8, 2022 at 12:13 pm

Every story and pictures is fantastic. I remember some of the Palm Springs and Riverside stories and pictures. Thank you Allen

Chuck+Drowne says

March 8, 2022 at 12:19 pm

You were not only making history for yourself, but for all those you were taking pictures of.

Allen says

March 8, 2022 at 1:27 pm

So good of you, Mary, to say those kind words about our series. All I did was chronicled it, you lived it, and lead the way. Hope we can get together when we have the next Fabulous Fifties lunch. Folks, you should Google Mary McGee and see just what she did for our sport, and motorcycles too.
Thanks Marry, Allen

LAZYDAZY534@Q.COM says

March 8, 2022 at 3:00 pm

ALLEN MUST HAVE
TAKEN
GREAT PLEASURE’
IN VISIITING’
THOSE FIRMS’
IN MODENA
AFTER ALL
THOSE YEARS
OF READING
OF THEM,,,

GOOD STORY’
JIM SITZ
OREGIB

Paul House says

March 9, 2022 at 5:38 am

Great stories and photos Allen, really enjoyable. Thanks for sharing your wonderful memories.

William Edgar says

March 9, 2022 at 2:06 pm

I enjoyed your recall story of the Ferrari factory and those times you had. Thanks, Allen, for that, and for the display here of your various and excellent photographs. The one of Shel leading Dan is only prelude to Gurney’s marvelous win of that Main on his 27th birthday. Our by then aging 410 Sport was tired and served as a standby car effort after Shelby used up the brakes on the Edgar 450S Maser while winning the meet’s Preliminary. But the outcome was worth our loss to Dan, as his victory showed Chinetti and others at Ferrari what a great driver he had the potential to be.

Your photograph of the Edgar 410 Sport on grid at Palm Springs is a wonderful tableau shot. Broadcaster Frank Aton interviews Shelby, as Edgar team chief mechanic Joe Landaker, sitting on the car, peers into the cockpit. On the far right, back to your camera, stands my father, John Edgar, in conversation with his business manager Steve Mason, who appears to be amused with what his boss has to say. A marvelous moment preserved!

And what a fine action photograph that is of Shelby driving the Edgar Maserati 450S at Palm Springs in early November 1957, only a few weeks after Shel crashed the car during practice for the Riverside opener in late September. The new nose of the Maser is evident in the shot, and what we don’t see his Shel’s repaired face that needed 70 stitches after his Riverside shunt. Bravo to you for being so close to get this picture and so many others in your outstanding collection of historic images!

Allen R. Kuhn says

March 9, 2022 at 6:17 pm

First, let me thank you for all your kind and encouraging comments. This has been one tremendous boost to my moral, and ego. Also, thanks for all the additional input you gave. One thing that I had been racking the few brain cells I have left, what was the name of the mechanic sitting on the fender. I did know it some time age, and remembered putting it on the labels I attach to the back of the prints. I knew it started with a “L”. However I looked for a print, but must have sold them all. Looked online and in some of my “stuff” notebooks, nothing. But, I was sure someone would come up with it. Thank you for identifying him, the interviewer, and pointing out your Dad and Mason too. Well done.

William Edgar says

March 9, 2022 at 6:24 pm

Regarding my prior comment about Allen Kuhn’s photographs, I incorrectly spelled Frank Alton’s name, leaving out the “l” in “Aton”. I know better, for I knew Frank well back in those 1950s’ sports car racing days when Frank was typically first in to interview a breathless race winner, and he’d also record voice pieces on any number of drivers and entrants during pre-race opportunities, such as he was doing with Carroll Shelby in Allen’s Palm Springs grid shot. Frank, always a smile on his face, used a hand-held mic wired to his heavy recording machine hung over his shoulder. And when Frank spoke to his subject it was in his trademark accent, I believe it to have been Austrian. His forever jovial mood was liked by everyone at those Cal Club and SCCA event. But there was a tragically dark time in Frank Alton’s life. His son, an avid Porsche enthusiast, went missing on a drive across the Santa Monica Mountains. A police search initiated along the canyon roads was called off after days of not finding a trace of young Alton or his car. His father then continued the search on his own, never giving up hope of knowing what happened and where. Eventually, Frank discovered the point at which his son’s car may have gone off the road. I recall it was in Benedict Canyon where Frank at last found the car, along with his son’s body, deep in the steep canyon’s dense shrubbery and tree growth. Frank Alton’s story, the cheerful happiness and then resonant grief of it, is just one of so many accounts that live in our memories of the Fabulous Fifties. Thankfully, Allen’s photography of the period brings those times back to us through the images he has preserved.

Allen says

March 9, 2022 at 8:16 pm

Thanks again, Will for brining out more of the stories that are locked inside this image. There are more stories than just the wheels going around in so many of anyone’s imagines. The late, great wordsmith, Michael Lynch once saw one of my images that showed a specific car at Palm Springs. No one was sure this driver was there. Some times photos do not lie. Just be careful when you start messing with them pixels in photoshop. Historically yours, Allen

Dianne J. says

March 9, 2022 at 8:23 pm

Allen, I didn’t realize that your trip to Europe was so fabulous, memorable and filled with remarakble drivers and cars.
I remember Carole talking about all the luggage and one just for meds.
Thank you for putting it all together.

Ginny Dixon says

March 11, 2022 at 3:49 pm

Allen,
This is a wonderful story. We’ve been to Monaco many times but somehow never made it to the Automobile Club. Reading your memories brought back many fond memories of John and I being in Monaco for the GP several years … and we loved San Remo.
Keep up the great stories,
Ginny Dixon

Tom Wall says

March 15, 2022 at 10:33 am

Just a side note – the Stanguellini Museum in Modena.
I visited this museum, located at a new car dealership (Lancia? – I don’t remember)
What a treat to see these great cars of the the 1950’s – the sports cars and the Formula juniors! (The latter I often raced with when campaigning my Vervalen Special (Devin-Crosley) for years with VSCCA,
Don’t miss this wonderful display of a great historic marque if you are in the area.
Tom Wall

D KEITH LOWTHER says

March 18, 2022 at 12:17 pm

Your photographs retell the action of the 50’s racing in vivid detail, and your narrative brings color to the black and white glossy’s.

karlcars says

March 22, 2022 at 4:30 am

It was an era of the most awesome cars and the men to master them.

Superbly pictured!

cyirush says

March 29, 2022 at 3:31 am

Wonder what happened to Frank Alton’s interviews?