I've slowly been collecting colored ads from '53-'56 with Healey content. The
latest acquisition is a rip. A full page Lord Calvert ad pictures a tanned
dapper fellow in a buttoned plaid Palm Beach sports jacket, holding a tumbler
of Lord Calvert on the rocks. In the background is a red 100, parked in front
of a stuccoed white Carribean manion amidst Royal Palms. The caption leads
with "Latest 'M.O.D.' is dean of international sports-car designers". In
smaller print Donald Healey is identified as Lord Calvert's latest 'Man of
Distiction'. You can't help but wonder if DMH wasn't the prototype for James
Bond's debut in Dr. No. You just get that sense of savoir faire -- fast car,
dapper gent, whiskey in the Bahamas.
I'm also struck by how the times have changed. Just imagine Lee Ioccoca
pitching Chryslers with a vodka martini in hand, or Mercedes engineers
featured around the latest SL model with beer steins. It is, both alas and
thankfully, a different century!
Allen Miller
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