1/24 1927 Bugatti Type 35B

What lovely work on the dashboard! Looks almost real.

Steve H

Wildcat wrote:

Hey, neat! I believe that's the same car as Thomas Magnum drove in lieu of his usual Ferrari on an old episode of Magnum, P.I. which was on TV last night. (It was a he-dreamt-the-whole-thing-episode set in

I have also heard stories that there was a "starlet" in the 1920's that was killed by her scarf getting wrapped around the rear wheel of a Bugatti which broke her neck.

Not a Magnum fan, but FYI he flies the same Hughes helicopter that I flew in 'Nam more years ago than I wish to admit.

A more comprehensive account of her accident from Wikipedia:

"Duncan often wore scarves which trailed behind her, and this caused her death in a freak accident in Nice, France. She was killed when her scarf caught in the wheel of her friend Ivan Falchetto's Bugatti automobile, in which she was a passenger. As the driver sped off, the long cloth wrapped around the vehicle's axle. Ms. Duncan was yanked violently from the car and dragged for several yards before the driver realized what had happened. She died almost instantly from a broken neck."

Speaking of freaky deaths ... One that has me rolling on the floor laughing when I think about it is the (just too unbelievable to be true) fate that befell the Greek dramatist Aeschylus:

"According to legend, Aeschylus was killed when an eagle, mistaking the playwright's bald head for a rock, dropped a tortoise onto it."

Just a couple of notes on this matter from Isadora Duncan's latest biographer (me):

It was not a Bugatti, but an Amilcar Grand Sport, and it wasn't a "scarf," properly speaking, but a shawl, or cape, made of very strong silk & trailing 18-inch fringes (also of silk.) It was the kind of thing Isadora invariably wore in her later years, wrapped several times around her neck and upper body over loose gowns in the "Greek" (or "Empire") style. The shawl had actually been made for her -- and hand-painted with the design of dragons and birds -- by her best friend, Mary Desti, who was also the mother of American film director Preston Sturges.

The story of Isadora's death is true -- that is, *how* the accident happened. In movies, you will see it depicted as a quick and clean death, but it wasn't. Quick, yes, but not clean. The passenger seat in the Amilcar was staggered a few inches behind the driver's, and it was the fringes of the shawl that caught in the spoke of the back wheel as the car took off, breaking her neck instantly but also hurling her body to the street, where it was dragged for some 30 or 40 yards before Falchetto (the driver) realized what had happened. Death was instantaneous, but there was blood everywhere. pk

John Magne Stubsveen wrote:

Thanks for clearing that up. All accounts I've ever heard of her accident had it being a Bugatti for whatever reason ...

(Gee ... Who would have expected the author of her new biography to chime in with his knowledge on some relatively obscure newsgroup?)

now i have to read it.

Everyone thought it was a Bugatti, because Isadora herself thought it was. She wasn't interested in the car so much as the driver & in fact nicknamed him "Bugatti" (at the end of her life, she cheerfully picked up sailors, mechanics, lounge lizards, etc., all over the Riviera, saying, "The only things left are a drink and a boy!"). She went for the fatal ride on the pretext that she was interested in buying the car from Falchetto, but really she only wanted to buy ... him.

Anyway, it was an Amilcar, serial # 2318M9 -- no one is sure anymore what became of it -- it was reportedly sold 2 days after her death at a greatly increased price. Parts of the scarf, still caked with blood, are in the Isadora Duncan Collection at the New York Public Library.

Google lets me know whenever Isadora's name appears in the news or on newsgroups, which is how I came across y'all. pk

coolness. i had always thought she disappeared in russia in the 30's...duh.

I distinctly remember the movie with Vanessa Redgrave playing Duncan. That almost qualified as typecasting. :) I couldn't figure the point of the whole movie but then I knew nothing of Duncan. I sat through it because the 'management' wanted to watch it. I sat through 'Gatsby' and 'Barry Lyndon' for much the same reasons.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

yeah, chick flic. left almost no impression on me.