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Celebrity Healeys

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After completing work on Alexander the Great in 1956, Fredric March leaves Madrid with wife Florence Eldridge for a European tour
 
Sissy SPACEK:


"But Spacek's childhood was not without trauma. Her brother Robbie, a high-school track star 16 months her senior and with whom she was very close, died of leukemia as a teenager. For years afterward, she kept the Austin Healey his father had bought him during his treatment. "

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William MANCHESTER - Author of the Kennedy assassination book, "Death of a President"

From his son, John:

"But that Friday, November 22[SUP]nd[/SUP], my father picked me up early from school in his green Austin-Healey Sprite. My father loved that car. He’d grin and say, “Let’s go for a spin,” crank the top down and we’d go flying out over the hills of Middletown, Connecticut. The Sprite gave him license to become a different person from the tightly wound writer who worked all day as an editor, then wrote late into every night. He was always writing. Even at dinner you could see the phrases playing on his lips, almost hear the whirr of his brain."
 
When actor (and History Chanel narrator) Edward Herrmann becomes grand marshal at the Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles today, he won't just be a big name doing a job. The award-winning Herrmann is very serious about automobiles. While this will be his first visit to the Canton event, he is a regular at other auto concours. The interest began while he was growing up in Detroit. His father, he recalled, was one of the few engineers not working in the auto industry. But the fathers of all his friends did, and he became steeped in the car culture. Now 64, Herrmann started car-collecting in his 20s, with an Austin Healey that he said got so hot, it was ''not a wise car to have in California.'' https://www.ohio.com/the330entertainment/the-heldenfiles-herrmann-at-glenmoor-1.69774
 
Clive CUSSLER:

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Brighton Motorsports is pleased to present this 1957 Austin Healey 100-6 BN4 four place roadster!

This an original CA/AZ car it's whole life!

Restored by the previous owner and in very good condition.

Has the original engine and transmission (4 speed w/overdrive)

Repainted in Carmine Red

Interior completely redone including new top!

"Original" owners and service manuals

Many original advertising articles and roadtest from 1957

Previously owned by famed author Clive Cussler

https://www.brightonmotorsports.com/austin-healey-100-6-bn4-four-place-roadster-1957
 
Often called "Britain's Marilyn Monroe" Diana DORS:

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is seen here with British pop star Mark WYNTER, taking delivery of his first new car, an Austin-Healey Sprite:

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But what's more interesting is this quote from a former "Goldie" owner claiming that Ms. Dors also owned Goldie at one time:

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Sounds plausible as Ms Dors had an eye for flash cars, witness her Delahaye:

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And to add a bit more grist to the mill, Lady Docker was well known for her ostentatious Daimlers, including this ivory one with gold trim (sound familiar?) called the "Golden Zebra" due to its zebra skinned interior, because as Lady Docker said, "Mink is too hot to sit on."

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And the mascot on the Zebra?

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Lady Docker had this kind of cash to throw around in no small part to her millionaire husband, who was chairman of Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) which also owned Daimler. When he was sacked as chairman, the Daimler went back to BSA: https://blog.modernmechanix.com/lady-dockers-golden-chariot/

I suppose it's not too far-fetched to believe that Lady Docker kept the zebra mascot and later gifted it to Diana Dors as the perfect accessory and the zebra was incorrectly later described as a "golden horse"
 
Didn't know Mel Torme was a car guy. I had lunch with him at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C., in 1978 or 1979. He was once a well known collector of single-action Colt revolvers, but I heard those went away in a divorce. He was into Lugers at the time I met him. He was visiting NRA headquarters, then located just up 16th St. at Scott Circle, where I and my luncheon companions worked. I had brought an MT TF back from Italy in 1958 and owned a BT7 right out of college in '63, but by '78 I had three children and was driving and old Volvo 145 bought from a CIA friend. I didn't own another Healey until 2013, though I had Porsches and still have one as a daily driver. Sorry for the diversion.
 
Richard Anthony seems to be a French singer ...

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Dominic COOPER -actor - "Need for Speed":

TG: What was your first car? Did you have a clapped-out old banger?

DC: [Laughs] I had an old Austin Healey Sprite handed down to me, with a hole in the petrol tank and no front lights and no windscreen wipers which I used to drive around, which I loved! I really want to get another one as I really enjoyed driving it. I then got into Volkswagen MK 1's, fiddling around with the engines.
 
Hello,

I`m wondering, who the person in this picture`is. The car is probably a 100M with number 117 on it (with correct Cat. D index). As it´s a lhd car it should be somewhere in the US.100m.JPG

We have a celebrity riddle here in the German Club and this person is the last one for me to guess.

Thanks a lot Christopher:smile-new:
 
Chrissi said:
Hello,

I`m wondering, who the person in this picture`is. The car is probably a 100M with number 117 on it (with correct Cat. D index). As it´s a lhd car it should be somewhere in the US.View attachment 32410

We have a celebrity riddle here in the German Club and this person is the last one for me to guess.

Thanks a lot Christopher:smile-new:
Click to expand...

Wilkommen Christopher,

Do a Google search for "Henry Grimes Austin Healey" and the results will show some late 1950s Sports Car Club of America races with Henry Grimes driving an Austin-Healey in D-Production with the car number "117". That's about all I could find, no pictures of the car and no more information on Mr. Grimes.
 
Dear Rick,

Thank You very much for the kind hints.

I already checked the phenominal Database in "racingsportscars.com" and found Mr. Grimes and 5 other honorable men racing with AH 100s or AH 100Ms in the mid 50s in these SCCA Races. But none of them seems to be a "celeb", not even in the small "Healeyworld".

As I mentioned before this picture is part of a Celebrity Quiz in the newest issue of "Pigs and Frogs" the Club magazine of the Austin Healey Club Germany. Al the other pictures were shown in this thread above (Clint Eastwood; Sacha Distel and BB; George and Paul; Janet Lake and of course Joanne Woodward). So the person aside the 100M should be realy prominent as well, at least in the "Healeyworld".

Paul Anka, Steve McQueen, Larry Hagman, Buddy Holly, Peter Revson, Briggs Cunnigham, Walter Schirra or Buzz Aldrin all do not "fit". John Kerry
is too young. Who is shown on this picture? Blond, parting his hair at the left, stylish sunglasses, white clothes, obviously no shoes and therefore probably not the driver or the owner of this car. I don´t know.

Thanks again
Christopher
 
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