I always thought this car was beautiful - although, it wasn't until I saw the colored pictures in this thread that I realized the car was blue - I always thought it was black/

Back to John O'Quinn for a moment, yes he is a personal injury lawyer.

I have had the privlidge of touring his quite extensive collection in Houston. An amazing collection ranging form early Brass Era cars to the GM Motorama cars to a car that belonged to Pope Paul to Hot Rods to Duesenburgs and Jackie Kennedy's Limo. All told 500 -600 cars last time.

He shows a lot of his cars at the "Keels and Wheels" concurs that happens south of Houston each May. Dee and I judge most years which is how we had the chance to wander through his warehouse.

An interesting collection to say the least.

Barney is correct, it is a 6 hour drive to Texarkana unless you are driving 47 Buick with water pump issues, then it takes all day.

Charles,

Thanks so much from all of the rest of us!!!! Hope to see you in Flint along with all of the rest of your wards.

Stevo

What a coincidence...

Interesting Motorama Item on eBay now

ORIGINAL MOTORAMA MEMORABILIA!

Thermos & Cups from the

1954 Buick Landau

Dream Car/Concept Car

This thermos and cups were made EXCLUSIVELY for the General Motors Motorama 1954 Buick Landau Dream Car/Concept Car. The thermos and the set of three stainless steel cups pictured for sale in this ad are the HAND MADE thermos & three stainless steel cups that were originally made for the back seat console in the Gerneral Motors Motorama 1954 Buick Landau Dream Car/Concept CAr. These items were separated from the 1954 Buick Landau Dream Car/Concept Car decades ago and are now being sold. This is a rare opportunity to own ACTUAL MEMORABILIA FROM A GENERAL MOTORS MOTORAMA CAR!!! The thermos and three cups are in excellent conditon and the thermos appears to be of an Art Deco design and the thermos and the three cups were made exclusively for the 1954 Buick Landau Dream Car/Concept Car. Please see photos - the three cups are stacked together.

Excellent items for a museum, a collector or possibly for the current owner of the General Motors Motorama 1954 Buick Landau that would like to reunite these pieces with the car.

General Motors Motorama memorabilia is rarely available for sale to the general public.

Read the description carefully!

Charles, if you are continuing to check in here, I'd like to ask you a question regarding another car that you might be familiar with.

Will you please send me an e-mail to brianL@americanconstco.com ?

Thank you!

Please note date correction as to when the 1954 Buick Landau will appear in Texarkana. Due to circumstances beyond our control the dates have been changed to Saturday October 11, 2008, through Sunday, October 12, 2008, for the car to be displayed at the Tex-Ark Antique Auto Museum located at 217 Laurel Street in Texarkana, Arkansas. Our Quadrangle Festival changed its dates so we have to. Please spread the word to all Buick Lovers. I will post shortly a new corrected flyer. Thanks, Charles D. Barnette, Activity Director for the Museum

Re: 1954 BUICK LANDAU THERMOS AND CUPS

Take notice that this ebay seller also has a "1993 Lincoln with a trick disappearing door" up for auction.

Don't be surprised if the thermos and four cups also "disappear" from the ebay site before March 9th. Just my two cents worth.


Al Mack
"500 Miles West of Flint"

This is the corrected flyer

Dear Buick Lovers: I cannot seem to get the corrected flyer with corrected dates on the 1954 Buick Landau coming to Texarkana to pull up on this site. We will try again on Monday. Just note again the car is coming in October not September as originally posted. THE BIG NEWS is that the "Motorama Gods" have smiled once again and allowed me to be the winning bidder on ebay for the original thermos and cups for the car. Who would have thought that when this thread on this site began that these items would suddenly appear for bidding? Please rest assured that the cups will be restored, and they along with the thermos (it does not look like it needs restoring) will be donated to the car. This is the least I can do for Mr. John M. O'Quinn, the owner of the car who has been so gracious in allowing our Texarkana Museum to show such great cars over the last three years. These items will be reunited (separated for "decades") with the car when it comes to Texarkana on October 11 and 12, 2008, with great "pomp and circumstance". You are cordially invited to watch and witness this great reunion! The cups appear to be annodized not stainless steel. Can anyone suggest a reliable, suitable place of business that can restore the three cups? Charles D. Barnette

Charles,
Glad to see the Thermos will be restored and reunited with the car.
If you can't get the flyer to come up email it to me and I'll give it a shot. BTW did you get my personal message? (Accesed by clicking the flashing envelope at the top of the page)

Here it is Charles.

These items are now in my hands as of "Good Friday". The thermos is intricately made standing 10 inches tall. The top screws off as a cup and reveals a stopper with a fold down clamp and reveals the following information: "MFD By Moeller MFG. Co., Racine, Wisc. SNAP-TITE". Each of the stainless three cups (each a little over three inches tall) have stamped on them "Made in Germany-US Zone". My secretary made a movie of me opening the box in which the items were delivered to me. It should appear on "You Tube" by Monday. The title will be "A Private Motorama Moment". It should be a hit! Happy Easter to everyone. Charles D. Barnette

Thanks for the update Charles. Looking forward to the video. May I suggest filling it with Johnny Walker Black for the toasting event.
This has really been a miraculous coincidence of it becoming available at this particular time. Those Buick spirits work in mysterious ways sometime.

The items have now been delivered to Mr. Bill Fell of Pritchett, Texas, for restoration. He is an expert on metal polishing and refinishing. Anyone else needing this type work can contact him at 903-734-3802. He informs me that the thermos is aluminum and contains a glass interior. He further informs me that the cups are "silver plated". To me this is further proof of the extraordinary detail given to Motorama vehicles under the watchful eye of Harley Earl. No detail was too small. Only the finest items would do, and GM had a "blank check" to accomplish greatness! Charles D. Barnette

Finally (two days late) the video I promised made of the arrival of these "Holy Grail" items to my office has made it to "You Tube". Enjoy viewing same! In summation, all I can say is I am like a kid at Christmas, because another "little bit" of Motorama has been identified and saved! You can post your reviews here. Here is the link to the video on "You Tube"-
A Private Motorama Moment
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heDegldr6To]

Charles, the video is terrific -- and the opportunity to unite these items with the car is truly amazing.

Is it known why the items were separated from the car about ten years ago? How did the seller know that these were the original items for the car?

I will be most interested to learn the response of the car's current owner when you present these items and re-unit them with the Motorama Buick!

Charles,

As Lamar said, maybe some Johnny Walker Black would go great. I sure would have liked to hear the blow by blow goings on as you opened and unwrapped.

Congratulations.

Stevo

Brian, are you ready for this? I could easily tell that the items were genuine by the pictures I had before I won them on ebay. When I did win them I discovered that the seller was an agent for one of the previous owners of the car! That owner had kept the items all these years. That owner wishes to remain anonymous. So I have no doubt about the authenticity of these items. Charles

Charles, this is a great story! I'm glad that there's no question regarding the authenticity of the items. Does the car's current owner know that you've acquired these items?

Brian, the current owner is aware of all. He and his wonderful staff are overjoyed with the items being returned to the car. I wanted the honor of obtaining and donating these items for the car so badly that I asked the owner not to bid on them out of fear that we would be bidding against each other to the same end. It all worked out perfectly. Our museum will be able to accomplish something that no other museum or show could accomplish when the reuniting takes place. Charles

Charles, please be sure that another video is filmed to document the re-uniting of the car with its accessories!

Is there any chance that David Temple (author of the Motorama book) can be present to witness the event?

I'm glad I don't have to clean your office...I hate Styrofoam popcorn....

Please don't take this the wrong way Charles...the music and some of the sound effects led me to thinking of a Charlie Brown / Peanuts show...thoroughly enjoyable

Brian, yes the reuniting will result in a second video for historical reasons. David Temple would not miss it for the world! He will have a book signing and will answer any Motorama questions at that time. It is David Temple and his book that instilled in me the respect for the GM Motoramas. I get to feel what it might have been like when I attend annually The Detroit Auto Shows. Charles

I found a 1954 Motorama video on the internet some months ago... the Landau is not shown, but still interesting, I think. Enjoy!

Wow, El Diablo, that's great! Thanks for posting the video.