London, the 60's again.
We had a good friend, an American photographer, who bought a beautiful old Rolls Royce, it had previously been owned by Vivian Leigh. It was a beautiful car, and we used to fantasize about the cars previous life.
He was a fan of a great NY radio station ,WNEW, and he had some cassettes of the DJ, William B Williams. He played them quite a bit and we used to have a little of NY when we drove around London, probably on the way to a pub.
He had to pick up a cousin that was coming to London from NY, it was her first time in Europe and she was pretty excited. He picked her up and turned the radio on (cassette player in reality), they drove for a bit until she realized it was a NY station playing. The amazing Rolls had an amazing radio, she was told. This terrible fraud continued, I think for the full time she was in London.
I wonder if she still thinks that the radio in the Rolls was that amazing.
It was an amazing time in London, an amazing friend with an amazing Rolls, with an amazing radio.
I wonder if it could have gotten stations from LA?
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I remember so well, our friend, coming through the hall into the kitchen where i stood barefoot, in my jeans preparing morning coffee, grabbing me by the hand...."Wait, wait, I need to put on shoes,"I shouted......."No time for shoes." he said, as we ran out towards the Rolls and I jumped into the back seat. All I could think of was how wonderful our ride down the Kings road was that bright day and tinged with a bit of sadness as I noticed the reading light its curved neck near my shoulder, the light that Vivian Leigh would have used to read her scripts. What would she have thought, I wondered.
ReplyDeleteYou should have driven around in my 63 Dodge Dart. It even had a handle you could turn and make the window go up and down. Now that was luxury.
ReplyDeleteI also had a 1965 Olds 98 that had safety features, like a big hole below the driver's seat that you could stick your foot through to stop the car in case the brakes failed. You can't beat that.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteAnyway i can contact you about the Rolls? I was at a repair shop today and they're working on one that could be this car. The shop owner says that the car's owner claims it was once owned by V. Leigh. Thanks
kaplanr1959@gmail.com