car auto blaas

found on http://corvettebrasil.blogspot.com/2011/04/test-driver-de-zora-arkus-duntov.html

But as Paul Harvey told us, you haven't heard the rest of the story!

Betty was fascinated with flying since childhood, and strove with incredible focus to be a pilot since age 12, getting her Civilian Air Authority private pilots license at age 16. In the next two years she was certified single and multi engine, land and sea, and at 18 got her Commercial Pilots License and in the next year was an instructor and the year after that, at age 20 was a major in the Civil Air Patrol and began her professional acrobatic career, also as a test pilot, and flew blimps, gliders, jets, and helicopters.

In '48, 49 and '50 she was the US Female aerobatic champion, and retired because there was no longer any challenge and she was exhausted from the constant touring, her plane "Li'l Stinker" is now part of the Smithsonian.

She set the high altitude record in 1950, and the speed record in a racing p51 Mustang.

In 1953 she was flying people around, and met Bill France who was having some racers flown to Daytona Beach, they became friends, and she drove a pace car in Feb 1954, then climbed into a Dodge and set the stock car speed record, which must not have been hard, she is likely the only woman at that time to drive one, and AAA certified her the first race drivers license for a woman

The National Aviation Hall of Fame reports that "Betty earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records and set a transcontinental speed record."She competed in races across the Andes mountains in South America and drove the length of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Betty set records at the Chelsea Proving Grounds and was the first woman to drive a jet car over 300 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats. She also set three women’s land speed records at the Daytona Beach Road Course, the last one being 156.99 mph in 1956. That same year, she broke Cannonball Baker's 40-year record for the Transcontinental Auto Race from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1956, she became an advertising executive with Campbell-Ewald and worked with General Motors on and in their TV and print ads. She was GM's first woman technical narrator at major auto shows, where she would talk about and demonstrate automobile features, later becoming official spokeswoman for Chevrolet. While Skelton was working with Chevrolet, she set numerous records with Corvettes, and owned a total of 10 models.

Between 1956 and 1957, Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell designed a special, translucent gold Corvette for Betty, which she drove to Daytona in 1957 to serve as the NASCAR pace car.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Skelton_Erde

Coogan, you may not have known, married Betty Grable, flew gliders for the Air Force in WW2 in Burma, and was Uncle Fester.

As a child star, Coogan earned an estimated $3 to $4 million, but the money was taken by his mother, Lilian, and stepfather, Arthur Bernstein, for extravagances such as fur coats, diamonds, and cars. Coogan sued them in 1938 (aged 23), but after legal expenses, he only received $126,000 of the approximately $250,000 remaining. When Coogan fell on hard times, Charlie Chaplin gave him some financial support.

The legal battle brought attention to child actors and resulted in the state of California enacting the California Child Actor's Bill, sometimes known as the Coogan Bill or the Coogan Act. This requires that the child's employer set aside 15% of the child's earnings in a trust, and codifies such issues as schooling, work hours and time-off. Coogan's mother and stepfather claimed the child was having fun and thought he was playing. However, virtually every child star from Baby Peggy on has stated that they were keenly aware that what they were doing was work.

Coogan took up the cause of the Armenians, Greeks, and others made destitute during the horrors of the First World War, working along with Near East Relief. He toured across the United States and Europe in 1924 on a "Children's Crusade" as part of a fundraising drive, which ended up providing more than $1,000,000 in clothing, food, and other contributions (worth more than $13 million adjusted for 2010 dollars). Coogan was honored by officials in the US, Greece, and Rome, where he met with the Pope. info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Coogan

Photo from http://caughtatthecurb.blogspot.com/2011/04/movie-stars-and-their-cars.html#more

Digging out his Ferrari 250 gt

In a Ferrari Mondail at Santa Barbara

The son of the Dominican Republic's ambassador to France, he was fluent in 3 languages but conversant in 2 more, raced Ferraris, played polo well, dated the most famous women in the world of which some were royalty, and pulled it all of because he was that damn charming and suave. He even enjoyed the time when he was being chased by the FBI because they thought that he was some sort of a spy for the Dominican dictatorship due to his high-style life and mysteries. According to those FBI files, he was the muse for Ian Fleming to create the James Bond character.

Think Errol Flynn in his prime with aspirations to a global scale of bedding women with million dollar bank accounts, partying with world leaders, and enjoying the life of the rich and famous. He pulled it off in part because the dictator of the Dominican Republic was his first (of 5 marriages) father in law and titled him with "Inspector of Embassies" so he had travel and international access to any country. Diplomatic immunity too.

He schtupted Zsa Zsa Gabor, Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, Kim Novak, and Eva Perón... but married 5 times and 2 were relative billionaires Barbara Hutton inherited the Woolworth fortune, and Doris Duke "world's richest girl" (you oughta read her bio, stunning life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Duke )

She was so rich it was said she paid his wife, Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke's marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote political agendas, and they pointed out that in case of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Thus Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement; during the marriage, though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris. She had affairs with Gen. Patton and Errol Flynn.

Read more at http://www.observer.com/node/37662 or http://vanguardink.com/2010/06/05/45th-anniversary-of-porfirio-rubirosas-death/

thanks to reader JohnDandy who guessed that this guy was the one to gift Rita Hayworth with the Ghia bodied Cadillac (it was some prince who did that)