1940 Buick Super Estate Wagon - Model 59 🇺🇸

Beginning in the late 1930s,  car dealers gave or loaned vehicles to the movie industry to be used in motion pictures.  This was one of the earliest examples of product placement in a film, the thinking was simple, movie audiences see the films and they want to buy the cars the characters are driving.

Howard Buick, the dealer in Los Angeles,  gave this car and many other Buicks, to the Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood. This car ultimately appeared in at least five  Warner Brother’s productions including, “White Heat” with Humphrey Bogart driving the car, “ My Reputation”, “George Washington Slept here” and most famously, “Now Voyager” where the car plays a pivotal role driven by Bette Davis.  Following the completion of “Now Voyager,” the car was gifted to the film’s star actress. The car spent several years in ownership of Ms. Davis before passing through the hands of several more owners. The car was eventually restored. The wagon found its way to The NB Center collection in 2002. 

Company
General Motors

Make
Buick

Model
Super, 50-59

Body Style
Estate Wagon, 4- door,  6-pass.

Body Manufacture
Biehl Auto Body Works

Model year
1940

Wheelbase
121 inches

Length
204  inches

Engine
inline-eight, OHV, 248 cid

Horsepower
107 @ 3400 rpm

Transmission
3-speed manual on the column

Original Base Price
$1,242

Brand Production
283,404 model year

This Car Production
495

Legend goes that Buick President Harlow Curtice, Sales Manager William Hufstader and Advertising Manager Art Kunder were on a business trip visiting dealers on the West coast, when they were invited to Norman McLeod’s home in Hollywood for a party. McLeod was a famous film director, and a close friend of Mr. Curtice. When they visited McLoed’s garage, they saw Buick banners but no Buick car. They asked why? McLeod’s wife, Bunny, replied that she needed a lot of room and would love to have a station wagon, but Buick didn’t offer one.

Curtice immediately called his office in Flint, and upon their return, drawings of a new Buick Station Wagon were already for his review. The chassis to be used under the new car was from the new Super series, with a 121 inch wheelbase and 248 cubic inch displacement engine producing 107 horsepower.  When plans were finalized, they were given to Biehl Auto Body Works in West Reading, Pennsylvania to produce a prototype body. When the Flint management gave the green light, Biehl had a commission to build 495 Ash and Mahogany bodies. The first prototype Buick wagon was given as a gift to Mrs. Evelyn “Bunny” McLeod during a special ceremony held at the Coconut Club in Los Angeles.

The Biehl Company built just the bodies with final assembly at the Buick manufacturing plant in Flint, MI. Station wagons were popular vehicles with farmers and small businesses, and as such, their styling was just practical, without making any effort to improve beauty and comfort. Advertising Manager Art Kunder decided to market the new Buick as an upscale car well suited to wealthy people, who would use the wagon for going to the golf club or on vacation to their summer homes. Door panels and roof structure were varnished wood, interior was leather, and carpet covered the complete floor of the car, even the cargo area. To further differentiate the new Buick model from the more utilitarian versions on the market, Kunder decided to call it “Estate Wagon”, instead of station wagon, starting a tradition that would last until 1996.

The 495  Buick Estate Wagons built in 1940 were mainly to test the market reaction to an upscale station wagon.  The advertising slogan made a clear mention of the limited  production, to reinforce that only a  select few customers were able to purchase it.  With higher volumes of sales predicted for 1941, production of the wooden bodies was assigned to Hercules or Ionia, two large companies who built most of the wagons on the market, and that had larger facilities than the Biehl company. Wooden wagons continued to be built until 1953, when metal took the place of wood as a structural element.