Linked to Hollywood’s Golden Age, a unique Duesenberg Model J convertible coupe heads to auction

1933 Duesenberg Model J disappearing-top convertible coupe by Bohman & Schwartz. Photos courtesy Mecum Auctions.

By 1933, the year she took delivery of a new Duesenberg Model J, bodied as a convertible berline by LeBaron, actress Marie Dressler had experienced Hollywood’s highest highs and lowest lows. A year later, the Oscar-winning actress would die of cancer, her beloved Duesenberg sold to director Roy Del Ruth, who’d soon order a disappearing-top convertible coupe body from Bohman & Schwartz for chassis 2421. Once part of three notable American collections, this 1933 Duesenberg Model J heads to auction in Indianapolis on Saturday, May 20.

Dressler was a stage actress who’d made her Broadway debut in 1892, at age 24. By 1907, she was on her second bankruptcy, both the result of failed theatrical productions, but by the time World War I erupted, Dressler was again a major star, selling Liberty Bonds in a nationwide tour and entertaining American troops in France. The early Twenties, however, were not kind to Dressler, and the aging actress found it difficult to find steady employment (or, truthfully, any employment) in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

That would change in 1927, when a former colleague pulled strings to get her an audition at MGM, and the resulting deal saw Dressler once again rise to the height of fame. From 1927 through 1933, she appeared in 28 films, both silents and “talkies,” winning an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1931 (for Min and Bill) and receiving a second Best Actress nomination in 1933 (for Emma). After years spent living in cheap hotels, Dressler had amassed enough wealth to purchase a Beverly Hills estate once owned by King C. Gillette, and her seven-passenger Duesenberg convertible berline was surely another reward for her re-found success.

In 1934, Dressler died of cancer, leaving her estate to her sister, her maid, and her butler. Shortly after, the Duesenberg was purchased by Del Ruth, then at the peak of his directorial career. Chassis 2421 wouldn’t remain bodied as a seven-passenger convertible berline for long, however, as Del Ruth’s new wife, Winnie, reportedly experienced an altercation with a telephone pole whilst behind the wheel of the truck-sized convertible. She suffered a fractured skull in the encounter, but survived; the same could not be said for the Duesenberg’s original LeBaron coachwork.

Perhaps looking for a sportier ride, Del Ruth ordered a convertible coupe body from Bohman & Schwartz, finished in the same shade of light tan the car wears today. The long-wheelbase chassis would be the only one bodied in convertible coupe form by Bohman & Schwartz, and despite the change in coachwork, Del Ruth kept the car’s original engine, J-386, in normally aspirated form (still good for 265 horsepower from 420-cu.in.) instead of adding a factory supercharger.

Over the years chassis 2421 has been owned by Harrah’s, The Blackhawk Collection and The Imperial Palace Collection, and has been documented by numerous Duesenberg historians, including Fred Roe, Don Butler, Dean Batchelor, Don Howell, Dennis Adler and others. It’s been featured in numerous books on the marque, and has been displayed at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, most recently in 2007 (finished in red and owned by Yasuhiko Akimoto). It’s crossed the auction block on a few occasions as well, selling for $1.8 million in 1989 and crossing the stage last year in Monterey, where it bid to $3.6 million but failed to meet the reserve price.

Refinished in the original light tan by the consignor sometime after 2007, the car is one of 14 Duesenbergs bodied by Bohman & Schwartz, and one of six convertible coupes built upon the 153.5-inch long-wheelbase chassis. As previously referenced, it’s also the only LWB convertible coupe body built by Bohman & Schwartz, meaning that the stately disappearing-top will likely be a standout at any concours entered. Its last appearance at Pebble Beach was unjudged, leaving the door open for the car’s next owner to compete at the highest level of the show hobby. Mecum is predicting a selling price between $3.5 million and $4.0 million when the Duesy crosses the stage in Indiana next month.

For further details on the Indianapolis sale, visit Mecum.com.