Humphrey Bogart’s 1940 Buick Phaeton featured in “Casablanca” and “High Sierra” recently sold for $461,000.
Were you at the recent Bonham’s auction in New York? If not, “you’ll regret it – maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”
Why the dramatics? Because you missed the chance to drive home in Humphrey Bogart’s 1940 Buick Phaeton featured in what is arguably one of the most iconic scenes in film history – the departure scene in World War II-era Casablanca. It’s the one where Bogart’s character, Rick Blaine, says his romantic goodbye to his longtime love Ilsa Lund played by the stunning Ingrid Bergman.
“You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then and it all adds up to you getting on that plane with Victor where you belong,” Rick tells a teary-eyed Ilsa in the scene that ends with perhaps Hollywood’s most memorable lines: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
Fast forward to Bonham’s latest auction, appropriately dubbed “What Dreams are Made Of: A Century of Movie Magic.” One of 230 limited edition Buick Model 81C trunkback Convertible Phaetons built in 1940, the car sold for $461,000. The Aztec Brown painted classic surprisingly had logged just 42,000 miles. It boasts an 8-cylinder engine with a 3-speed transmission. And while a mechanical restoration completed in the 1990s gave the car new wiring, tires with side mounts and standard shift in the steering wheel, the body and interior are all original – right down to the cigarette burns in the seats put there by Bogie himself, and presumably, the spark plugs.
The car also appeared in another Bogart film, 1941′s High Sierra, in which he played a notorious thief and ex-con hired by his old boss to help a group of criminal newbies rob a swanky California resort.
Which is your favorite car featured in a classic Hollywood film? Post your thoughts on the E3 Spark Plugs Facebook Fan Page.
