Supercharged Classic: 1940 Graham Hollywood
The Hollywood was a sedan produced by Graham Co. (aka Graham-Paige) in 1940/41. It was a 4-door sedan based on the Cord 810/812 from the decade prior. They were supposed to be built for Hupmobile, but they went out of business sticking Graham with the dies, so production shifted to the Graham brand until Graham itself folded up. This restored example looks quite nice and is one of just 1,859 that were produced, mostly with superchargers. Located in Atascadero, California, this solid rarity is available here on craigslist for $24,000. Another cool tip courtesy of Barn Finder “numskal”.
Needing the work, Graham contracted with Hupmobile to build a new auto on their behalf to be called Skylark. Hupmobile had acquired the tooling for the defunct Cord automobiles and wanted to bring a similar car to market but with rear-wheel-drive (the Cords were FWD). Since Graham was already engaged when Hupmobile went “sneakers-up”, they decided to produce the vehicle themselves and named it Hollywood. With a supercharger, the Hollywood would have the best power-to-weight ratio of any cars sold in the U.S. at the time.
Hollywood was a hot item for a very short period of time. Because of its performance, the car caught the eye of Bill France of NASCAR but that didn’t seem to go anywhere. That’s because Graham quickly went out of business itself with its assets eventually passing along to Kaiser-Frazer several years later. We’re told this Hollywood was restored many moons ago and there’s documentation to back it up. The car was not always a garage queen, collecting more than 102,000 miles so far. A few blemishes reside in the paint today, but otherwise it should be an interesting car to show off.
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Comments
I’ve been to Atascadero several times… heading to Moro Bay. Had no idea there was a auto manufacturing factory there. This is sorta a poor man’s Cord. I love the arrogant name. I expect some junior sales genius thought Clark Gable or Jean Harlow would come running to buy these. Surprised at how many were built. That’s alot of cars for a small indie. You mention Bill Francis sr… the first thing he would do is pull that 6cyl engine out. I loved the Cords with the supercharger and exhaust pipes coming out of the hood. This car looks like the roving insurance man special hopefully not having to pay Double Indemnity.
jv smashpalace
When I was a teenager racing go karts, we used to frequent the local McCulloch dealer and they had a Graham Hollywood sitting in their yard.
The sad part is this is the car that “broke the camel’s back” for Graham. I’ve read that they had orders for 40,000 cars but could only make 1800 before the war broke out. It’s said the stamping dies left a lot to desired and the bodies were very complicated to assemble. The Grahams gave up on he car business. The V.P. at Graham, Henry Fraizer wanted make cars after the war and as they say the rest is history.
I always thought these were better looking than the Cords they were based on. And the flathead six is a legend, it would later become the Continental six and be used in the Kaisers, Fraziers, Checker cabs and even some Jeeps I think.
Graham Paige did produce Frazer’s after the war, until the Kaiser side bought them out.
Joseph W. Frazer was the president and chairman of Graham-Paige. After WWII, he teamed up with Henry J. Kaiser and brought G-P resources into the new Kaiser-Frazer.
Joseph W. Frazer was the president and chairman of Graham-Paige. After WWII, he teamed up with Henry J. Kaiser and brought G-P resources into the new Kaiser-Frazer.
A friend of mine has one of these, perfectly restored.
I still have a soft spot for the Cord but the continuation of the body style is a testament to just how good these looked. No running boards on a pre-war car made it look even more sleek. Winner.
Actually the nose job was courtesy of John Tajarada. You are getting an unlikely collaboration of two great designers, the other being of course, Gordpm Buehrig.
Graham built about 300 Skylarks for Hupp before Hupp ended production. So the Skylark is rarer but the Hollywood offered more power with its optional supercharged engine.
These are cool cars and $24k seems like a deal as a restored one just sold on the “trailer” site for $60k. Since these have a conventional RWD drive train and 3-speed manual I would think they would be easier to own than the FWD Cord with its Bendix pre-selector gearbox.
The Skylark with its 245 six is faster than the unsupercharged Hollywood 217, but the unique blower (developed by Graham engineer Floyd Kishline, who ended his career with American Motors) boosted Hollywood horsepower to 124 over the Skylark’s 101.
My mom told me she had a G/P when she was a young woman, always regret not asking what year & type. Mid twenties must have been something else.
The Hollywood has long been in my list of top 10 best looking cars of all time. What an elegant design.
One of my uncles had Cords and one of these, and gobs of parts. I was only 5 years old. They seemed so huge. Our family car was a VW Bug, and this was twice as long.
That interior / dash is so elegant and simple. Timeless. $24k seems quite fair. I may suggest measuring the garage however.
This car looks like a VW beetle that got a nose job.
The form followed the function well because certain design elements carried over even to recent cars.
I see BMW’s bean grill, the beetle body and rear, and the CPD prowler/PT cruiser looking hood and fenders without imagining very hard.