I was asked on another non-automotive forum (where I am kind of the car guy) what kind of car that Isadora Duncan was killed in. The story goes that she had a long flowing scarf and it got caught in the spokes of one rear wheel and either broke her neck or strangled her. I replied that I thought it was a Bugatti 35 - but then realized that I had no proof as soon as I had posted it. Does anybody know? And, (if it is not too morbid) - does the car still exist, and do we know where it is?
Sort of....according to Wikipedia: On the night of September 14, 1927, Duncan was a passenger in the Amilcar[9] automobile of a handsome French-Italian mechanic Benoît Falchetto, whom she had nicknamed "Buggatti" (sic).
Fascinating - then if it was after midnight, she died on the birthday of Ettore Bugatti himself. And, her boyfriend was nicknamed "Buggatti". This explains the urban legend that it was a Bugatti, I guess.
found this on buagtti's website http://www.bugatti.com/en/tradition/history/bugatti-stories/death-of-a-dancer.html
There are some that are convinced the car was an Amilcar CGSs. A very French and similar car to a Bugatti but the likelihood is that this is what the car was. The two cars look very similar and competed against each other in period. I own one but can't for the life of me figure out how to post a photo to this site.
when you "post reply", then look below at "additional options", under that click "manage attachments".....a window will open, and you can attach pictures from your computer, once you click "upload" wait until the file shows in the window as loaded, then click "close window" ...that should do it
O.K. let's give it a try. A 1927 Amilcar CGSs. I was invited to Amelia this year, here's a look. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hooray! It worked. Now a shot with my celebrity judge, Bob Varsha at Amelia in March. Oh, I'm the little, fat guy (as if you didn't know!) Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thank you very much! Yes, in general shape (except for the grille) it DOES look a lot like a type 35.
Here is an image from the "Isadora" motion picture (1968) with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role. Seems like there must have been an official inquest into her death, and if there was a record of this inquest, it should state specifically what kind of a car was involved. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Believe it or not, the official inquest didn't even make mention of the DRIVER's name!!! They saw the obvious and that was that! Things were a lot different then I guess. Think what would happen today if you showed up with a dead movie star (Angelia Jolie for instance) in your car. What do you think would happen??? The book deal alone would be astronomical!
here's the content of this link, off the official Bugatti website....just to muddy the waters Image Unavailable, Please Login
The fact is that no one knows for sure whether it was a Bugatti or an Amilcar. There were long discussions about that topic on several places but as there are no official records or pics it is still undefined. The longest and most detailed research I ever read about it came to conclusion that it is more probable that it was an Amilcar, however, and I'm into this theory. One of the main reasons is that Amilcar and Bugatti had different seat arrangements, passenger seat in Amilcar was further back than driver seat, actually preventing driver from realizing in time that something strange happens.
If her neck was snapped by a silk scarf, I doubt that even a driver with lightning-fast reflexes (and even modern-day brakes, let alone 1920s-variety) could have done anything "in time", regardless of the relative positions of the seats. It would have happened almost in the blink of an eye.
Agreed. Also, the legend says that the scarf was caught in the "spokes" of the wheel - which I took to be indicative of the 8-spoke Bugatti "mags". I guess I am a little over 50% that it was a Bugatti, as the driver seems to authentically be a Bugatti test driver.
An old discussion about this case, with a lot of theories and details: http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=9925 Unfortunately, quite old so links mentioned with further readings are mostly dead ones. But IMHO it is much more believable that it was an Amilcar. Although none of "definitive answers" mentioned in discussion was never really exposed...
Well, I have been all over the map on this one. A lady on another forum asked me the question (because I am sort of the car authority there) - and I immediately said Bug T35. Then, I thought about it a moment - and posted this thread. I became convinced that it was the Amilcar (I had never seen a picture of one, and it does sort of resemble a T35...), so I posted a correction - it was an Amilcar. Then, somebody convinced me that it probably was a Bugatti - so I had to reverse myself over there on the subject again. I am too proud to now go back and say it was an Amilcar after all. Anyway - the legend seems to say Bugatti by now, and like you say - cannot really be proven at this point in time.
