Vanderbilt Cup Races

What’s a little confusing to me is that Josh Ruff says above that Bentel & Bentel designed Holterbosch’s garage to house his cars about 15 years ago and the color photo of the garage looks far newer than 1962.  So while the big auction was in ‘62, I was wondering if Holterbosch retained or added some cars in his later years and up to his death, and that’s what is shown in the photo.  Also wondering if his heirs retained any cars.

From In Search of H. Dieter Holterbosch and his W.C. Bird's Duesenberg

Someone wanted to know about the To engine Alfa that McGallister one ..It was just thet ro engines bolted together uder the hood..By the way J.P.McGallister was the owner of the Port Jefferson and Oreint Point ferry and also had a fleet of tug boatt in new yaor harbor and hudson and east rivers all Named after family .

From In Search of H. Dieter Holterbosch and his W.C. Bird's Duesenberg

Oh, this nostalgia bit is getting overwhelming!  “PI 7-”?  PIoneer 7-?  I had PIoneer 7- lines ‘way back - West Hempstead or Mineola!  Then 747- in Westbury.  Next?  [By the way, for telecom freaks, PI 7-0050 was originally PIoneer 50.  When I first met my late ex, her number had just been upgraded from FRanklin 44.]  Sam, III

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Gary, Thanks for the very definitive and first hand post on the mural, especially the color photos.                                                                          Sam, Early on there was some doubt the mural, which was painted over a three year period starting in 1935, could be safely removed since it was applied directly to the brick wall of Hanger F.  Some 25 years after she painted it, Aline Rhonie herself got involved and was determined to save it. She hired an Italian art restoration specialist, Leonetto Tintori, and paid him $18,000 to remove it from the hanger wall which he did in 1962. As he was taking down sections, she setup shop nearby and did some restoration work. Not only that, she invited artist groups to observe her. All interested parties had to do was to call PI 7-0050 for an appointment.

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

I was just reading an account of the entire sweepstakes results in a 1908 Automobile Topics and came across this photo of Florida in the #1 Locomobile.

From Update Mystery Foto #35 Solved: Jim Florida in the #9 Locomobile at the 1908 Founders Week Cup Race

Now that you mention it, Gary, I vaguely remember that.  OK, people; who has or can find a copy we can reproduce and share?  At the very least, can we get a full copy of the mural?  HK can have a ball with Mystery Fotos of the airplanes!  Hey, while we’re on aviation murals, how about this one by Eugene Choderow (shown - and August Henkel), Oil on Canvas, Floyd Bennett Airport, W.P.A. Federal Art Project, Chodorow at work on a panel of his mural, PRIMITIVE CONCEPTS OF AVIATION, installed in the Administration Building of the Floyd Bennett Airport in Brooklyn.  Is it still there?  Again, copies and details?  Also, weren’t there such at the Marine Air Terminal at LGA?  Sam, III

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Sam, there was a booklet published along with a key to everyone shown.  Also, the aircraft are clearly identifiable.  I hated to see it go!

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

I never realized it was that readily demountable.  For a work of this magnitude, I wonder if anyone ever published a “catalogue” and index?  Yu can easily pick out the Wrights and Earle Ovington.  Reminds me in a way of the big “mural” I posted on the inner back wall of the Roosevelt Raceway grandstand for a Girl Scout jamboree ca. 1975; it was a set of cutouts of all the major whales and dolphins in reduced scale (quarter?) with a Brownie Scout silhouette for comparison.  Does anyone remember it or did anyone take pix?  Sam, III

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Part 3 of photos   Note that to our surprise there were also some unfinished panels stored in the custom fitted blanket coverings.  Everything was in good condition considering its age, and the fact they originally were in an hanger!

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Part 2 of photos

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Aline Rhonie’s mural “The Pre-Lindbergh Era of Flying on Long Island” was purchased by the Long Island Early Fliers Club (LIEFC) after her death.  It was then placed on a long term loan the the Nassau County Division of Museum Services.  It was stored in several of our collections facilities through the decades, finally winding up in storage at the County’s Sands Point Preserve.  Parts of it was at one point displayed at the Cradle of Aviation Museum (CAM) in the early 1980’s, where we had hoped the entire mural could eventually be displayed.  Unfortunately, this was never to be.  Around 2006, the LIEFC ended the loan and arranged for the mural to be donated to the Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology in Queens, where is was promised to be displayed in its entirety.  I don’t know if this ever happened.  I know this to be accurate as in the 1980’s I was the Ass’t Curator at CAM and involved in its display, and then as the Museum Registrar for the Nassau County Division of Museum Services I was responsible for its return to the LIEFC prior to my retirement in 2011.  I took the attached photos on November 29, 2005 while in storage at Sands Point.  [Part 1 of photos]

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Hi, just wanted to let you know that your last picture (the 1950 aerial shot) is upside down.

From The Mystery of the "Deer Park Lodge"

No WONDER the name rang a bell!  “Aline ‘Pat’ Rhonie Hofheimer Brooks (August 16, 1909 – January 7, 1963) - - - is also known for her aviation history mural which is now located at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology.”  Vaughn was previously Casey Jones’ famed Academy of Aeronautics, still there in Elmhurst (Elmhoist?), across GCP from LGA.  See attached.  Sam, III

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Art, Did not see the name of Aline Rhonie Brooks on either membership list. Read that she joined in 1930’s.  Club thought Aline was a male name. ( her husband, Peter, was also a flier.) Dropped Brooks after he died, early 1940,s. Fascinating woman, socialite, lived in Sands Point, took flying lessons as a teenager, married several times, went to Europe beginning of WW 11, help set up field hospitals in France, then flew war planes in England from factories to military bases, before coming back to the States to do the same here. Painted an aviation mural on an interior hanger wall at Roosevelt Field that measured 12’x100’. Said to have about 500 life size images of individuals connected to aviation. (studied under Mexican muralist Diego Rivera), Mural was removed before the hanger was taken down. Understand Cradle of Aviation now has it.

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

Are Holterbosch’s garage and cars still in place, or have the cars been moved or sold?  I’d love to see them and perhaps get one in my Newsday column if anyone can share a family contact.

My dad worked briefly for Holterbosch after he absorbed what had been Ballantine Beer’s largest distributorship in the early ‘60s.  I think I met him once as a kid, but I had no idea at the time of his interest in classic cars.
_________________________________________________________________
Howard Kroplick

David, they were all sold at the 1962 auction and spread across the world.

From In Search of H. Dieter Holterbosch and his W.C. Bird's Duesenberg

Here’s a membership listing from 1930, from “The Aircraft Yearbook”, an industry publication.

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

1933 picture of member and at that time Governor of the Long Island Aviation Club, Thomas Eastman at the start of a “seaplane cruise” in Sands Point.  According to the Membership List above, in 1940 Eastman was on the Flying and Membership Committees.  (Aero Digest, Aug. 1933)

From Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club

From Josh Ruff, Deputy Director/Director of Collections and Interpretation, The Long Island Museum

H. Dieter Holterbosch lived both in Cove Neck (at the end of his life, he died in 2016 at the age of 95) and in Belle Terre, which was how he knew the Melvilles. He did not own many carriages. The donations we received from him in the 1960s included 5 vehicles from Prince Adalbert’s family of Bavaria, including our Grand Duc, Chariot, Dress Coach, and two sleighs (one of which was deaccessioned and sold at Martin’s in 1978; I’m not sure where that one wound up). Holterbosch was an antique car collector, primarily, who owned beautiful vintage early Duesenbergs, etc. About 15 years ago, he had the architectural firm Bentel and Bentel design and build a structure for his private automobile collection in Cove Neck.

He also donated a beer wagon to the museum in the late 1960s but his company somehow “misplaced” it, thus it was never truly here for very long.

Holterbosch’s father had started the company that he ended up running, which distributed Lowenbrau beer. Holterbosch frequently traveled back and forth to Germany and ended up visiting the stables at Nymphenburg Palace in 1958 and purchasing these vehicles from the family. They are rare escapees of the fantastic Bavarian vehicle collection that is held by the Marstallmuseum in Munich. In 2014, I had the pleasure of meeting curators there and comparing notes. Truly a fantastic collection.

Joshua

From In Search of H. Dieter Holterbosch and his W.C. Bird's Duesenberg

Hi Mark,
The first Pebble Beach Concours photo was a “parade” of the three Walker-Grand Model J’s being shown that year.

From In Search of H. Dieter Holterbosch and his W.C. Bird's Duesenberg

There’s some confusion of which Duesenberg is what? The winning Duesenberg in front of the other two, was all black (with the later looking ‘34 headlight), was shown having a maroon body with the black fenders and headlight and having whitewalls in the Cove Neck garage? When was the photo taken, before or after the Pebble Beach win? At the start of your article there’s a blue Duesenberg posted that was at the third spot on the Pebble Beach runway. Howard, please sort this out.

From In Search of H. Dieter Holterbosch and his W.C. Bird's Duesenberg