The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here is Caruso again. The picture is said to have been taken outside Atlanta Terminal Railway Station in about 1913. Can anyone identify the car?

Opera singers were, and still are, wary of exposure to draughts. It could be draughty in the back of the car once on the move.

epigramophone wrote:Here is Caruso again. The picture is said to have been taken outside Atlanta Terminal Railway Station in about 1913. Can anyone identify the car?

Opera singers were, and still are, wary of exposure to draughts. It could be draughty in the back of the car once on the move.

I think the car is a Buick touring?

My guess is a Cadillac.

It is definitely a high-end car.

The British band leader and impresario Jack Hylton (1982-1965) outsold every other dance band in Europe. His record sales for HMV were said to be approximately 4 million in 1929 alone. He surprised the industry by signing for Decca in 1931, but returned to HMV in 1935.

The photo, featuring a Rolls-Royce (probably a Phantom II) on European plates, may have been taken in France in 1932 when Hylton was awarded the Legion d'Honneur.

epigramophone wrote:Here is Caruso again. The picture is said to have been taken outside Atlanta Terminal Railway Station in about 1913. Can anyone identify the car?

Opera singers were, and still are, wary of exposure to draughts. It could be draughty in the back of the car once on the move.

It's a 1913 Locomobile.

The contralto Sarah Jane Walker (1870-1951) married Charles Cahier in 1905, after which she appeared as Madame Charles Cahier.
I think the car in which she is seated is a Benz limousine of pre-1914 date, and the large cylinder on the running board could be the power source for a compressed air self starter. These devices were fitted to some luxury cars before the adoption of the electric starter by Cadillac in 1912.

Anna Case, said to have been Edison's favourite singer, with her Packard :

The great Scottish entertainer Sir Harry Lauder was a pioneer motorist. Here he is at the wheel of his 1905 12/16hp Decauville. His chauffeur is seated in the rear of the car, should he be needed in case of mechanical failure. It was Sir Henry Royce's dissatisfaction with his own Decauville which prompted him to design and build something better. After he had been introduced to The Hon.Charles Rolls, history was made.