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| Jay's Duesenberg collection |
For years, when I was first interested in Duesenbergs, I would always hear from guys in the know that there was a Duesenberg in a parking garage in New York City. So one day my wife and I went to New York City. Now I'm not a shopping guy so I decided I was going to hit a bunch of parking garages and see if I could find this old car. I knew it was somewhere on the West Side. At around the 12th to 15th garage they told me that, sure, they had an old car. I went upstairs to take a look, and there was... a 1991 Honda Civic! Which is an old car I guess - if you're 24.
But at the end of the day, just like it always happens in the movies, I roll up to this garage and the parking attendant says that there was an old car there. I asked how old and he said he'd been there for 20 years and it had been here all that time. I wanted to know what kind of car it was. He said he didn't know, so I went up, and there it was, a Duesenberg sedan. About a '29 or '30, big limousine body. Ugly thing. But it was a Duesenberg.
Turns out the people are still paying rent on it, and it's just been parked there for almost 80 years. What happened was, in the late '60s or early '70s, the garage was renovated and they put a new elevator in. But the elevator was too small and the car is still there to this day. I contacted the owner, and he says "No, it's not for sale!" You know, about every 10 years somebody calls him. He's from a well-known New York family, but I'm not telling you which.
Half the fun of finding rare cars is doing the leg work and the detective work. But even if you find the car you want, sometimes you have to wait for the guy to die!
My wife's getting calls now. If anything happens to Jay, they say...
Jay Leno was talking to Jeremy Hart
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