A Vintage MG That Still Turns Heads in Hollywood
Inspired by the movie ‘Rebecca,’ a Los Angeles designer and her husband bought the stylish car she has enjoyed for half a century!
Jean Clyde Mason, 84, an artist and designer from Los Angeles, on her 1937 MG SA, as told to A.J. Baime.
My late husband Spencer and I always loved cars. Soon after we married in 1955, we were on a game show called “You Bet Your Life,” and Groucho Marx asked the questions. We won some money and bought our first car: a three-wheeled Morgan. Soon after, we bought a used Jaguar and while I loved the look of it, I always joked that it was like being in love with an actor. It never worked.
Around 1960 we were watching the 1940 film “ Rebecca, ” starring Laurence Olivier, when we saw this British car move across the screen. It was a 1937 MG SA. We both thought: That is a beautiful car.Soon after, my husband saw an ad for one for sale in England. The British pound was weak at the time, so he bought it for very cheap.
The car came by boat and my husband picked it up at the dock. He drove home and said, “Come down and see your new car.” I was blown away. I was working as an advertising artist and I had graduated UCLA with a design degree. To me, this was the epitome of fine design. My husband put big white-wall tires on it and I thought, this is the most glamorous car I had ever seen.
The car ran beautifully, and I started driving it from our home in the Hollywoodland neighborhood [near the Hollywood sign, which originally read Hollywoodland] to my advertising job downtown. We had owned English cars, so it did not bother me that the steering wheel was on the right-hand side. One of the things I loved about the MG was how it looked in our neighborhood. Many of the original homes in Hollywoodland were built before World War II, so the car fit right in.
All these years later, I still live in the same house and still drive this car. On Sundays I will drive to the top of the hill near my home and enjoy the view. Then I will drive to the Tam O’Shanter, which is a stylish English restaurant founded in 1922. They let me park in front so people can see the car.
I have had a magical life and this car has been a wonderful part of it.