1941 Graham Hollywood Sedan
Offered by Mecum | Dallas, Texas | November 2-5, 2016
There are two separate automotive histories that converged in the late 1930s to allow this spectacular car to come to life. First, the story of Graham: brothers Joseph, Robert, and Ray Graham founded Graham Brothers in 1919 and began building trucks under that name. In 1925, they sold the company to Dodge and a year after Chrysler bought Dodge in 1928, the Graham Brothers brand was shut down.
In 1927, the brothers bought the company that built Paige and Jewett cars and in 1928 started building cars branded as Graham-Paige. Eventually, they dropped the “Paige” and just sold cars as Graham.
Now the other side of the story… E.L. Cord’s automotive empire failed in the 1930s and the brilliant Cord 810/812 “coffin nose” design of Gordon Buehrig was too good of a design to simply disappear. Enter Hupmobile, which by this point in the Depression was also failing. They bought the dies for the Cord but didn’t have any money to build the cars. So Graham stepped in and made a deal to build cars for Hupmobile if they were allowed to build some for themselves, too. In 1940 Graham started building the Graham Hollywood and its sister car, the 1940-only Hupmobile Skylark.
The Hollywood was available in 1940 and 1941 and this well restored example is powered by a 3.6-liter straight-six making 85 horsepower (a supercharged version could be had as well). Unlike the Cord, the Hollywood is rear-wheel drive. Production delays frustrated customers and, despite high initial public interest, the car was considered a flop. Only about 1,500 Hollywoods were ever built and this one is from Graham’s final year of automotive production. They remain a rarity today, but stand as one of America’s most stylishly advanced cars of the immediate pre-war period. This one should bring between $50,000-$65,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Update: Sold $47,000.