May 5th Concours at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills was a very successful event despite the freezing and dreary weather experienced over the Los Angeles area, one of the coldest on record for the city.

Beautiful automobiles were displayed all over the former residence of the Doheny family.

 

Greystone, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style house set on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Beverly Hills, California. The architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the residence and ancillary structures, with construction completed in 1928 at a cost exceeding 3.5 million dollars, an astounding amount in its day.

The estate was a gift from “Big-Oil” magnate Edward L. Doheny to his son, Edward “Ned” Doheny, Jr., and his family. Following the purchase of the estate by the City of Beverly Hills in 1965, the property became a city park in 1971 and was subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as Doheny Estate/Greystone. The house and grounds are often used in film-making and television production. The house’s descending staircase is one of the most famous sets in Hollywood.

 

The LASCM was invited by the curators to display a sample of their immense and colorful collection of vintage slot cars, possibly the finest toys ever made in America since the end of the 19th century. Scott Bader had some of the museum’s showcases transported to the mansion, the display set in the main hall facing the dramatic staircase leading to the second floor rooms. Artist Sean Robinson produced large posters representing a brief history of the hobby, enlarged period photography and composite pictures of Cox and Classic box tops.

Original box art from Monogram, Classic and GarVic slot cars was also on display, the original painting by Bob Cadaret of the Classic Gamma Ray gathering much interest and several large, cash-on-the-spot offers, which of course were denied as it it certainly not for sale.

At the same time, Electric Dreams showed currently available slot car models by Scalextric, Fly, Ninco, Slot.It, Carrera etc. from their store, that has the largest inventory of slot cars and parts in the United States.

 

The display was visited by several hundred interested viewers, men, women and children and attracted huge enthusiasm from the young and the eternally young alike.

 

 

 

 

Some of the younger collectors could not understand why they could not grab displayed pieces, as glass is not yet familiar to their young minds, which did not stop them from imprinting the silica based material with their personal markings.

 

The LASCM personnel on site kindly responded to all questions and inquiries, and a good time was had by all.

Don’t forget to visit the LASCM regularly for added information, new exhibits and simple longing nostalgia at www.lascm.com