1935 Dodge Convertible Coupe

SOLD
 
Time-warp 1935 Dodge Convertible Coupe with 33,563 miles. Purchased new by Carl J Schmidlapp, VP of Chase Manhattan Bank, New York City. Owned by the same family for 84 years.
 
Totally original right down to the cowl-mounted coil. Okay, she has a "new" top and tires dating back to the Regan administration!

Schmidlapp died in 1960 and the vehicle went on to grandson Andrew Humes of Great Barrington MA, pictured here. Andrew recounts how his inheritance of the vehicle was not merely a stroke of the estate attorney's pen:
 
I was born in New York City in November of 1957. I grew up on the Schmidlapp-Humes estate in Mill Neck, NY, on the North Shore of Long Island, "The Gold Coast." For as long as I can remember, my grandfather's ("Big Pop" or CJS) 1935 Dodge convertible coupe sat on blocks in a large garage across from the stables. Big Pop ran Chase National Bank for 30 years as its newly created Senior VP; he died when I was very young.

Above the garage lived Big Pop's chauffeur, Frank, a former race car driver who had lost a thumb in a racing crash. Frank also had a room at Big Pop's NYC residence, 834 5th Ave., New York, and was on call 24-7-365. And Frank was a polisher! He polished the Dodge and my grandfather's limo whenever he wasn't working as a driver. 

Around 1987, my mother decided to give the Dodge to one of Big Pop's nine grandsons by raffle. I told her how much I was willing to pay and suggested she ask all grandsons who would be willing to match my offer and put only those names in a hat. As a banker's daughter—and a frugal woman—she thought it was an excellent idea. It happened that only two of the grandsons were willing to come up with the cash, me and my only younger brother, Francis Cooper. So, with our two names in the hat I won the draw!

Big Pop was always chauffeur driven, except for occasional weekends, when he played golf at the Creek Club, and had his golf clubs in the rumble seat. There were many big bankers who played there, and they had Bugatti's and Cadillacs, etc., but Big Pop ran the biggest Bank in the world and his "golf car" was surely the least expensive of all the bankers and businessmen who parked there, and surely the most respected.

Sold right out of the gate to a collector in west Texas where she will be cherished for many years to come.