posted 05-21-2002 03:25 PM                  

"I accompanied the Prowler for the Christies auction this past weekend at Upper Manhattan's Rockefeller Center in New York City. Included among the lots to be sold were vehicles owned by Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman and Dudley Moore. The Nameplates spanned the decades primarily between between the 40's and late 50's,....mostly European I'd say, with the elegant likes of Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes and Rolls Royce being most prominent. Speaking of the latter, the earliest vintage for sale was the first production off line RR with a start bid range I recall as being somewhere upwards of $600,000. All of the vehicles were displayed out of doors and cordoned off on red carpet rolled through the length of 3 city blocks. Inside the House of Christies, the bidding audtiorium this past May 17th was packed. A wall's length of operators manning telephones stood at the ready to accept call in bids in absentia. At the top of the room standing behind an elegant curved podium stood a tall proper Englishman with a small wooden gavel in one hand. With one solitary tap of it we were brought to order and at precisely 2pm the auction began............

The Prowler was the 9th vehicle up. Bidding started at $25,000 and I thought "Uh Oh............this could be a bad thing." But then it quckly ratcheted up by 5's at a time to $60,000. Relief. Then $80,000. At this point about 2 minutes in, our moderator at the podium noted the call in bidding was becoming "quite heavy indeed," his sense of anticipation keenly preceding us in the gallery. Suddenly with the hint of a smile he announced a new bid for $125,000 followed immediately by a bid to $150,000, which was trumped yet again by a nod to $160,000. Moments followed in stillness. "We have $160,000" he panned dryly. And then momentarily again, "Still holding at $160,000". Faces in the crowd looked about each other and the operators began to slowy cradle their phones silent.... The action had come to a musical rest. In parliamentary fashion the Englishman raised his gavel for the strike but then halted as a broad smile suddenly crossed his faced in recognizing an operator at the back signalling a new call in bid at $175,000. The bidders in the crowd began to applaud recognizing a new victor in their defeat. The volley ceased, the gavel fell and the game was over. We of the Chrysler Group stood up, smiled and shook hands around.

Outside on the Ave. below, the stilled royalty of curved old continent steel and rolled leather made famous by namesake and the ghosts of emminent history now seemed to encircle the little blue American as if to say "If they get it or if even they don't, you're still fine with us.......".

End of Story.

posted 05-22-2002 09:33 AM                  

It is always nice to get that last bid in just under the gavel... It is almost like hitting that final shot at the buzzer to win the Championship... In this case... I think it's better...
Those words should be engraved and hung next to her in the new Prowler museum...

posted 05-22-2002 10:03 PM                  

I was the one that placed those three bids during the auction... I waited until the frenzy slowed down and the bidding was around $80,000, then I made my first bid, which was $125,000. Jamie (my Christie's phone bidder) said the room came to a hush. My second bid was at $150,000 and then my third and winning bid was $175,000. Would I have continued to bid? You Bet!

The auction was quite an experience and I was very impressed at how well the Christie's people handled the entire process.

A special thank you goes out to everyone at DC, Pat McDonald at the Multiple Sclerosis Society and everyone else for making all this possible! I'm also very thankful for the support that you all (the Prowler Community) gave us after the auction was over.

posted 05-23-2002 12:05 AM                  

Can we part it out?

U R the MAN!

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Call 911 - there is a Prowler in my garage....