This 1934 Packard Eight Town Car by Larkins is a wonderful car, with history all the way back to the Original owner, Margaret McBean of the Gladding-McBean interests. Her Husband, Athol McBean had the Gladding-McBean Ceramic company, as well as other endeavors. Here’s a good summary of the family.
The fact that Mr. McBean was chairman of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce goes to explain why he bought the car at the famous Earle C. Anthony Packard dealer in San Francisco, and gave it to Larkins & Co, an accomplished San Francisco coachbuilder since the horse & buggy days. No patronizing those upstarts Bohman & Schwartz down there in Pasadena! Muriel Vanderbilt ( yes, those Vanderbilts!) had it later, while married to John Payson Adams. How do we know all this? Because when the Harrah Collection bought it from Samuel L. Yates, of the Dean Witter firm, they asked him on the purchase form about the chain of ownership!
Harrah’s owned it from 1962 until the 1985 Dispersal sale in Reno, NV. Gordon Howard , a well known and well regarded collector in Southern California and his descendants owned it until 2020, when it went into the care of its next owner. He is an experienced classic car collector and restorer, who got the car back up and running, re-gasketing and cleaning the engine, upgrading the cooling and fuel systems and doing some minor cosmetics. The result is a car that runs quietly, drives smoothly, and is a delightful car to drive.
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The combination of formality and sportiness is epitomized by the Vee windshield!
1934 Packard Town Car by Larkins
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Very pretty indeed!
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The formal edge of the roofline is terrific!
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Excellent top insert
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Excellent dashboard and front compartment.
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This really is an open front car – there is a “top” that goes from the roof to the windshield. And note the speaker for verbal instructions to the chauffer as well as a bell (!) that the passenger can ding at the poor guy! At least he had side windows that do, indeed work.
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Packard had it right in 1934!
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Here’s the Harrahs’ form that Samuel L. Yates filled out, listing the former owners
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And the letter that began Harrah’s acquisition of the car.
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$1,500 in 1962 !
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Here are the photos taken in the Harrah’s Automobile collection yard in 1967, as well as the display placard. Note that on the back of the placard was the number 736, which was the “Harrah’s club equipment number”. It was titled to Harrah’s club, and was on Harrah’s club books as an asset. Ultimately, that’s why Holiday Inn got control of the collection, because they bought the casino business, and accidentally got into the classic car museum business! I attended the 1984 and 1985 Kruse Auction dispersal sales, and saw this car go across the block in ’85!
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The Goddess of Speed!
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Sidemounts with Sidemount mirrors, a useful accessory!
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Step plates have the Larkins & Co tag – “established 1865” !
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Beautiful dashboard, and all the gauges work and register where they should except for the clock.
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The Earle C. Anthony tag
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The rear interior is the actual original interior, and is in truly excellent condition!
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excellent!
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Divider window works properly
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Jump Seats for the occasional passengers
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Microphone, ashtray, and pearl button to ding the chauffer! Fortunately for the modern driver of this car, the speaker & dinger aren’t operating now
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The 320 Cubic inch straight 8 is powerful, yet very, very quiet! The black oil filter below the oil cooler is a modern L-8 replacement that uses a PF-2 modern filter inside. Looks right, and filters better.
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Note the clean edge of the head gasket – that’s because it was renewed at the 2020 wake-up and re-gasketing of the engine. The manifold gaskets , valve cover gaskets and oil pan gasket were replaced, and the oil pan cleaned inside & out. The radiator was flushed, new hoses installed, new fan belts, and gas tank cleaned out .
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That’s the brake vacuum adjuster housing, which has been renewed and works!
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Larkins was given a Packard Sedan-Limousine to remake into a town car based on the body type 715 showing on this original data plate.
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Note the automatic choke housing, the Stromberg dual downdraft carburetor, and silenced air cleaner – modern times were here for Packard!
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Also note the engine splash pans present & accounted for.
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There are some cracks in the rear panel – it’s actually made of wood, a very, very large piece of thin finished wood. The cracks were noted on Harrah’s intake inspection, so it’s been that way for a while.
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Right side wood panel.
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A beautiful, Formal, historically significant and useable car ready to enjoy now!