As a customer of International Motors, whose Service Manager was Ken
Miles, and my mechanic was Phil Hill, I was very familiar with the
agency in the 1950's.
Gough Industries was, indeed, the distributor. However the only "face"
that represented himself as the owner was Roger Barlow, and his two
Simca racing sports cars. During the mid fifties he began taking
deposits for the promised introduction of the Mercedes 300 SL.
International Motors was ALSO a distributor for Mercedes Benz and
Jaguar. All Gough Industries sold was the MG.
As the story goes, Roger skipped off to Mexico with the deposits. I
could never understand why he would leave a gold mine agency for some
deposit money, but it was the case. If he were an employee, instead, he
was stealing the owner's and customer's money. After his flight the
agency shut down. If he were only an employee, then the business
insurance would have covered the loss, and the true owner could remain
in business.
I have never met, nor heard of J. Robert Neal in association with sports
cars. He does appear to have been a banker, and man of influence in
Houston, but died in 1940???? His Building, at 1220 Polk Avenue, TX
housed an automobile dealership, owner unknown, until 1950-1951 - before
the hey-day of International Motors in Hollywood CA. 1n 1964 it housed
the South Texas College of Law.
Roger Barlow (1912-1990)
An L.A. Times Eulogy, by Roger Spottiswoode, states:
..... "Settling in Hollywood after the war, Barlow founded International
Motors, Inc. importing the first generation of post-war foreign sports
cars in the U.S." ..........
Roger was quite active in sports car amateur racing (CSCC, SCCA) with
his "Barlow Simca's", which were very pretty, and fast cars. Ken Miles,
of course, would beat them every time.
Hope this helps.
___
Steve Laifman
Editor - TigersUnited.com
arcarrozza@aol.com wrote:
>I am writing a biography of J. Robert Neal, who was the owner of International
>Motors. According to him, he had bought the dealership from Gough Industries
>in 1947. Bob says that Roger Barlow did not own the company.
>
>If I may, I would very much like to talk to you about this subject. I have
>very little information to go on and any input you may offer would be
>appreciated.
>
>Please let me know when it would be a good time to phone you.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Anthony Carrozza
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