bill stevens car collector

How much did these cars originally cost when new? Success! [1] VECO had a major impact on the economy of Alaska and employed over 5,000 people worldwide. In 1996, he wrote, produced, and narrated the award-winning documentary series "Wheels", aired on PBS affiliates around the country. What initiated the Muscle Car phenomenon? Bill Lockharts ragtop section of his collection is photographed on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at his home in Cheney, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review). There he was at the collection, and we knew that a new owner would not maintain the collection the way Mr. Harrah had done it, or even keep it, and so we knew the end was coming one way of the other. Power & Associates, Auto Trader.com, MSNBC.com, and eBay Motors. His favorite is a 1930s royal blue Pierce Arrow coupe. [5] Sales (505) 372-0041. By Gerry | August 10, 2019. The Volvo is unique in his collection because the majority of his models are the smaller 1/43 scale and made of sturdy die-cast metal. This car was prepared by Roush.). A reformed gambler himself, he worked to overcome the gaming industrys sleazy reputation by creating the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 1955. Oh tidings of profit and joy You've seen the photos and videos from this amazing facility before, but in our latest video, we show (and talk about) even more!This ever-evolving car colle. He loved to go as fast as he could, and he loved to speed from Reno to Lake Tahoe in his Ferraris. and from private owners. Clyde Wade (Harrahs Automobile Collection general manager):We had [ads in] every major newspaper clipped every day and sent to Bill Harrah. Another example is a 1946 Mercury Town and County. [2] VECO's quick actions are credited with limiting the devastating environmental impact of the Exxon spill. Eventually Peter Helck approached Bill Harrah and asked if he could help him and tell him anything about the artwork. Bill asked an interesting question of the audience to identify the first car that could be considered a muscle car. Posted in Cars and Guitars. We still have several hundred left but most of them will go Dixon:The board authorized the expenditure of $45 millionan unheard-of sum in those days [$181 million today]to build this hotel-museum-casino. 26 March 2021. Bill's collection exudes an element of diversity as well, with the likes of opulent luxury cruisers as well as quick-paced supercars exemplifying his extravagant taste. As I alluded earlier, Bills daily driver here in Michigan is the 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat with wide body option. 4227 4th St NW Albuquerque, NM 87107. Vintage Relish/Celery Dish Old Nuremberg Bavaria Germany. J. Stevens Arms & Tool and Steven's Collectors - Facebook He let it be known that he considered the collection to be a vital part of Nevada, responsible for attracting thousands of tourists, and he would frown upon it being sold (his frown might possibly include cancelling the companies gambling licenses, my friends in Memphis feared). How many car buffs do you know that have owned more than 200 cars, most of them to-die-for performance cars, and presently his two daily drivers are a 2019 Corvette Z06 coupe and a 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat? Copyright 2023, The Spokesman-Review | Community Guidelines | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy, Spokane Valley Fire roundup: Multiple engines, water tenders fight rural home blaze in Otis Orchards, Downtown Spokane stadium groundbreaking set for Tuesday , Pandemic project: Dental lab owner Robert Carnell paints pop art abstracts of celebrities , Gardening: Bird feeders safe to hang this winter after salmonella epidemic in 2020 , Pandemic projects: Retired Freeman High School teacher self-publishes Welsh mystery series , Getting There: WSDOT reminds Spokane it could close local access to U.S. Highway 195 if safety issues arent addressed, Cheney High School student dies after incident during PE class, Craig Chamberlin, former voice of Spokane County Sheriff's Office, dies, Seattle Mariners No. It would have been disaster for the company. The 10 Biggest Car Collectors In The World | TheRichest His first marriage was to Joyce Anne Carberry in Boston, MA in February 1973, soon divorcing in the fall of 1974. Get breaking news delivered to your inbox as it happens. Warren Brown (auto editor,Washington Post,deceased): People here still laugh about how punk kids in their high-powered street machines would pull up at a stoplight alongside Harrahs Jerrari (a custom-built Jeep Grand Wagoneer with a Ferrari GTC/4 V-12 powertrain). or Best Offer. Hewas the one who loved it. Stephens frequently accompanied his father on various truck trips as a child which helped to fuel his interest in automobiles. Mark Smith(owner, Smith Automotive Investments):He was a true gentleman, just the nicest man, and a true car guy. Some of the near great cars have seen some softening in prices, but not a significant collapse in pricing. Miles Collier (Collector, REVS Institute founder):A lot of collectors, back in the day, when it was revealed that Bill Harrahs collection was part of Harrahs Casinos Inc., which was being sold to Holiday Inn, and the whole collection was going to be sold, got pretty pissed at Bill Harrah posthumously; What kind of a jerk are you? [1], Bill Allen had three children, who received $30 million each[citation needed]from the sale of VECO: Kerrigan, Mark Allen, and Shannon West. I know, not too many. Last Thursday night I went to the Larz Anderson Museum of Transportation in Brookline, MA to listen to a lecture by Velocity Networks Bill Stephens. The Toyota Collection's Off-Road Day Is A Land Cruiser Lover's Dream. [citation needed], As a teenager, Stephens developed a fascination with radio broadcasting after seeing several remote broadcasts presented by WBZ Radio in Boston during the rock and roll era of the 1960s. According to family members, at the age of three, Stephens was able to identify every make of automobile on the road before he could even read. Many of you will know Bill Stephens from his commentary on the Velocity Networks Mecum Auction Shows plus the show Whats My Car Worth? It was clear from listening to Bill that he is very passionate about cars. What can we expect to see happen to those values as we move forward? Your email address will not be published. [5], On May 11, 2007, the VECO Corporation announced that CEO Bill Allen and Vice President for Community & Government Affairs Rick Smith had resigned from the corporation. Alert A Tribute to Bill Stevens Parkflyers. John Gianotti (Vice-president of Community Affairs for Harrah Corporation): He was looking at buying theSpruce Gooseand putting it in the lobby. Scottsdale. To this day, those events stand as the greatest going-out-of-business sale the classic car world has ever seen. Bill Stephens William Weyman Stephens Jr., known professionally as Bill Stephens (born October 16, 1949) is an American network television host and commentator specializing in automotive and motorsports presentations. My dad invited him to be the Grand Marshall of a Concours dElegance that he was organizing. I rst met Bill a few years back, at the local Lake Bluff Concours car show. Sign up for the Insider newsletter to get a deep dive into the collector car market every Sunday.]. [citation needed], In February 1973, Stephens was instrumental in one of the most ambitious promotional stunts in Connecticut radio history when he locked himself inside the WCCC AM&FM on-air studios in Hartford and played the Top 40 song "Bitter Bad" by Melanie for 35 consecutive hours to protest the station's reluctance to offer him a full-time job. In 2003, he co-wrote a similar book with 3-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney titled "Shirley Muldowney's Tales from the Track". [8][9], In September 2007 VECO Corporation was sold to Colorado-based CH2M HILL corporation. only to return to ColoSpgs last night and get Rear-Ended. The most beautiful car to Bill? How much were these cars worth when the Energy Crisis arrived in the early 1970s? $6.35 shipping. His parents permanently separated when he was 13 years old, and following graduation from Somerville High School in 1967, Stephens held several jobs including driving a truck, driving a taxi, making pizza, and working in local auto body shops as a body repairman and painter. Those pioneers could never have envisioned the flashy Studebaker Lark convertible. Im in Las Vegas right now and did not even know Harrahs here (or the Linq) had closed the car museum. This applies even if you move to a different city within Germany, due to the fact that all German number plates display a code indicating where the car is registered (e.g. Dar Davis funded the Lake Bluff Concours and chaired the event for many years. Seeking broader success, Harrah bought his way into the semi-cloistered Reno gambling fraternity. Bill Sefton posing with his 2018 Dodge Challenge Hellcat. His love of performance cars was forged early on. He is an avid car collector and has owned numerous collector-grade vehicles including a 1965 Shelby American Continuation Series 427SC Cobra, a 1965 ERA 427 Cobra Replica, a 1993 GMC Typhoon, 1998 Jaguar XK8 convertible, 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9, 1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT and 12 Chevrolet Corvettes in model years ranging from 1960 to 1980. CLOSED NOW Tomorrow: 8:30 am - 6:00 pm 73 YEARS IN BUSINESS (505) 344-0447 Visit Website Map & Directions 4227 4th St NWAlbuquerque, NM 87107 Write a Review Is this your business? For serious collectors of vintage cars, the calendar is filled with top-flight auctions, many of which could vie for the title of most important. [citation needed]. Mr. Harrah came with his wife, Verna, and Bill Cosby, and we all spent time with him. There were many cars, like a 1924 Franklin, that would be subject toin todays dollarsa $450,000 restoration, on a car that was worth, say, $25,000 to $40,000. Among some of his entertainers, there were some enthusiastsJay Leno, Bill Cosby, and others, so its interesting, but among the management team here, I think their view was why arent we building more casinos in more places?. From there, he flew directly to the Mayo Clinic [for a scheduled heart operation] and never came back. Three blockbuster eventsall done rapid-fire style and with every car selling at no reserveplayed to a packed house of the eras top collectors and those who aspired to join them. 4227 4th St NW. Ive got a Ferrrai now and the next time I take her out, Ill be dedicating the ride to Harrah, his hotels, and his car collection. Stephens' father was a long-distance truck driver and his mother worked in the restaurant business in the Boston area. We had some great ideas on how to display the cars at different angles and in different lighting, and some of the wheels would be turning They were also going to put an old steam train out there and some airplanes. Bill Gates' Favorite Car, A 1979 Porsche 911 Via PCCarMarket.com Also known as Bill Gates' favorite car, the Porsche 911 was introduced to the masses back in 1964. And the only way that they made up a little bit of that money was that long before Holiday Inn bought the company, they were holding auctions. Old Nuremberg Bavaria Germany for sale | eBay For the uninitiated, a resto-mod automobile has been upgraded with improved suspension systems, fuel injection, radial tires, disc brakes, etc. Over the next 28 years, he served as an on-air personality at such stations as WDRC AM and FM and WCCC-FM in Hartford, CT, WRKO, WVBF-FM, WEEI-FM, WBOS-FM, and WMJX-FM in Boston, KIQQ-FM, KGIL-AM&FM, and KWST-FM in Los Angeles, California, and KMJJ-FM in Las Vegas, NV. Why racetracks are giving hybrids and EVs the cold shoulder, Rearview cameras have been around longer than you think, At $720,000, this Ferrari 550 Barchetta Pininfarina is looking for its top, For roadster lovers, Mazdas Miata is (still) the answer, National Council of Corvette Clubs lifts competition ban on E-Ray, How fast is the Corvette E-Ray? All of his items are miniature versions of real vehicles. Gooding:They had broken ground on a massive facility that would tell the story with much more spacing for the cars. 6 Telly Awards for Television Production, Writing, and/or Narration, Imperial Palace Award for Historical Automotive Television, 1996, 3 International Radio Festival of New York Awards 1988, 1989, 1990, It may need editing to conform to Wikipedia's, Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bill_Stephens&oldid=1089575057, This page was last edited on 24 May 2022, at 15:44. He was also the only music disc jockey on the airstaff to move to the new format, co-hosting WRKO's Morning Magazine program with Norm Nathan for two years. Bill Stevens Auto Sales - 4227 4th St NW - CARFAX This event attracts the best of the best muscle cars, stock or modied. His success with the company enabled him to retire seven years ago at the age of 61. Goodbye Chevy Bolt: An Owner Laments The End For A Unique And - Forbes Stephens frequently accompanied his father on various truck trips as a child which helped to fuel his interest in automobiles. It was not clear if the position of Vice President for Community & Government Affairs would be refilled. Bill then went on to discuss the history of muscle cars up to their demise in the 1970s. Bill Stephens Profiles | Facebook I enjoyed listening to Bill Stephens experience and thoughts about muscle cars. Harrah would slip the Jerrari into first and then pop it into second. Bill Stephens: TV anouncer (1949-) People / Bill Stephens. Going off at 50-1 odds, it was the longest ever odds on a winner of that race. Stephens' father was a long-distance truck driver and his mother worked in the restaurant business in the Boston area. All cars in Germany must be registered with the competent authority in the area where the car's owner lives. William James Allen (April 6, 1937 - June 29, 2022) was an American businessman who was the CEO of the Alaska oilfield services company VECO Corporation. He lived a very extreme life. He even owns one of CocoChanel's Mercedes 600. On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling eleven million gallons of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound. He is a nationally published author of several motorsports books and a columnist for a number of automotive periodicals. Contact Information. In 2013 he asked Dana Mecum to handle the sale of 44 of his cars at the big Indy Mecum affair. In 1988 he founded a company that contracted with banks to track credit card loyalty programs. GM has decided to end production of the Bolt EV, its first mass-produced all-electric car that first came on the market in 2017. You've successfully signed in. But it grew big enough that, by 1962, Harrah moved the fleet into a jumble of former ice storage buildings in nearby Sparks, Nevada. He issued a press release, stating "Additionally, my decision to enter Indy Express in the Preakness was strictly business but after consulting with my Dad (sic) and Doc Blach, I have decided to withdraw Indy Express to prevent any further miss (sic) understandings. "[11] Rachel Alexandra, with Borel riding her, won the 2009 Preakness Stakes with Mine that Bird ridden by Mike Smith, finishing second, a length behind. Phil Satre: In his organization in Reno, there were no car enthusiasts. 49 talking about this. Informazioni su danni e incidenti per le auto importate, Informazioni sulla protezione dei dati per i proprietari di veicoli. Its rare because most folks gave them to their kids or threw them away.. Always focusing on customer service, renowned as a benevolent employer, and described as an impeccable host, Harrah raised industry standards, attracted and befriended headline entertainers, like Frank Sinatra, Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis, Jr., the Smothers Brothers, and a young Jay Leno, while expanding his operations to Las Vegas. That was delirious fun, and it brought him a great deal of joy. A new CEO had not been chosen. There were consortiums, including the state of Nevada, who tried to buy the collection , Tom Perkins (venture capitalist): I put a group together and I negotiated a purchase with Holiday Inns management in Memphis: $10 million cash, another $10 million cash from a bank loan secured by the collection, and a note from the seller for the balancea total of $30 million dollars. Rally Navigation/Co-Driver Equipment For Sale, Bill Stephens Muscle Car Lecture at Larz Anderson Museum. It has a 426 Wedge Motor), 2011 Challenger Super Stock (not streetable) with V-10 from Viper (Chrysler built 50 of them and Bills is 50. Theyre extremely rare because they were made for kids to play with and the rubber didnt always outlast the kids.. Back to wagons, the collector has several woodie models. It appears that this vehicle was made in the 1979-1980 production era, an exciting transition between generations. Stephens has been the recipient of several major broadcasting awards for his radio hosting and production, including three International Radio Festival of New York Awards in 198890, an Achievement in Radio Award in 1990, and National Silver Microphone Award in 1994. Stephens is a frequent writer of motorsports features and automotive content for such publications as AutoWeek, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Drag Racer Magazine, and Drag Racing Action. Also in 2003, he authored a biographical picture book on the life of drag racer Kenny Bernstein titled "Kenny Bernstein, The King of Speed". Over the next 28 years, he served as an on-air personality at such stations as WDRC AM and FM and WCCC-FM in Hartford, CT, WRKO, WVBF-FM, WEEI-FM, WBOS-FM, and WMJX-FM in Boston, KIQQ-FM, KGIL-AM&FM, and KWST-FM in Los Angeles, California, and KMJJ-FM in Las Vegas, NV. Oldsmobiles first Rocket V8 had a 303 cubic inch, 135 horsepower overhead valve engine in a body that for those days would be considered lightweight in that era. What cars were most responsible for launching this new market segment? William James Allen (April 6, 1937 June 29, 2022) was an American businessman who was the CEO of the Alaska oilfield services company VECO Corporation. For those not in the know, this is the pony car that has 707 horses under the hood. Dean Batchelor (automotive journalist, author, deceased): At its peak, the museum had 1154 vehicles [some sources say the total was closer to 1800], with a focus on the history of American cars Because of the cost of duplicating it, there wont be another collection to rival it. Harrah felt that these cars should be preserved, and he thought that a full-blown restoration was the best form of preservation and celebration of these carsand that it was very important to restore a car to the highest, most authentic level, so it could be understood, seen, and preserved in perpetuity. Harrahs many other businesses included auto saleshe was a Ferrari dealer, and he became the Ferrari distributor for the Western United States. Lockhart took a tour of the facility in Bath, England, and said it was amazing to see the handmade metal models being produced. An Amazing Car Collection and Facility! 2018 Update Lloyd Dyer (Harrah Corporation president, 19751980): We acquired 360 acres on the southwest and southeast corners of McCarran Boulevard and I-80, and we hired an architectural firm out of San Francisco to design a [new] museum for us. Satre:Meade Dixon went with him to the Mayo Clinic along with Verna. He couldnt compete with the larger automobile manufacturers, so his foray into that world was short-lived. Only a few hundred of these were made, Lockhart said. The folks at the Larz Anderson Museum of Transportation made everyone feel very comfortable and atmosphere was great for a lecture about cars to a bunch of car people. This article was originally written by Dar Davis of The Herald-Palladium, a newspaper distributed in the Southwest Michigan region. Collier:When Holiday Inn first got involved, they knew that this was a fraught issue. He co-hosts the series "RVing in the USA" on Motor Trend TV and has written, produced, and narrated numerous automotive and motorsports home videos in national distribution. During the promotional marathon, demonstrators assembled outside the Asylum St. facility, picketing the management of WCCC to hire Stephens. Other rare items include a 1953 Nash Healey, thought to be the first American sports car. Stephens served as a national event PA announcer for the NHRA Championship Drag Racing Series for 4 years between 1994 and 1997 and is a frequent Master of Ceremonies for various automotive and racing tributes, banquets, and award presentations. Even 50 years later, a Harrah restoration still has cachet. He is an avid car collector and has owned numerous collector-grade vehicles including a 1965 Shelby American Continuation Series 427SC Cobra, a 1965 ERA 427 Cobra Replica, a 1993 GMC Typhoon, 1998 Jaguar XK8 convertible, 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9, 1994 Mitsubishi 3000GT and 12 Chevrolet Corvettes in model years ranging from 1960 to 1980. He would check off [the cars] he wanted looked into, and we bought a lot of cars that way. His pick of the 1968 Dodge Charger 4-speed Hemi R/T with bumble bee stripe (black with red interior and red stripe) was the answer for his nominee for the most successful, iconic muscle car of all time. Just because you can go fast doesnt mean you should. He had about 25 to 30 paintings and pen-and-inks, and Bill Harrah walked up, and I believe Helck didnt actually know who he was. The interesting thing is that Gold Star restorations were not just done on valuable cars, but on anything that they deemed important. Some of the most fantastic cars on the list of extraordinary automobiles in the collection include the various Chevrolet Impalas, a couple of classic Firebirds consisting of the first and second generation, and a Ford Thunderbird, which has been called by the videographer the Thunderchicken. Unfortunately, it would appear that incredibly famous vehicles have been put through the wringer quite a few times as they are all covered in decades of dust and dirt which has been caked on in the hot summer sun and then locked onto the body by the frigid cold of winter. Used car and truck sales. He built a for-profit prison in Barbados as well. In 1972, at the age of 23, he enrolled in the Columbia School of Broadcasting, a correspondence course, and after completing the program, began his radio career at WRYT in Boston as a staff announcer and control board operator. [He said] No, those were things that I wanted, and they were how I approached the company, but Im not going to try to dictate what happens to them after I die., [In fact, Bill Harrah did not make it. How much? Helck said, Which one? and Harrah replied, How much? He boughteverything. Under Allen's guidance, VECO (along with its unionized subsidiary, NORCON) was responsible for large parts of the spill's cleanup, hiring 2,500 workers to clean up the environmental disaster. In February 1994, he was hired by Diamond P Sports as associate producer of "NHRA Today" for The Nashville Network, necessitating a relocation to Nashville, TN from his home in Osterville, MA on Cape Cod. Stephens' first appearance on television was on local cable news television in 1982 when he served as the nightly weatherman on Cape Cod Cablevision's Cape 11 Alive News in South Yarmouth. In a sense, however, they all flow from a series of sales that took place in the mid-1980s. Those auctions liquidated the holdings of the Harrahs Automobile Collection, considered by many to be the most significant amassment of vintage cars ever assembled. As a teenager, Stephens developed a fascination with radio broadcasting after seeing several remote broadcasts presented by WBZ Radio in Boston during the rock and roll era of the 1960s. Stephens is a six-time winner of the national Telly Award for Television Production and has won the Imperial Palace Moto Award for Excellence in Historical Automotive Television. Monterey. Part 2- Steven's Collection, 1940-50-60-1970's , A Massive - YouTube In February 1994, he was hired by Diamond P Sports as associate producer of "NHRA Today" for The Nashville Network, necessitating a relocation to Nashville, TN from his home in Osterville, MA on Cape Cod. Stephens, the youngest of three children and the only boy, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts to William and Claire Stephens and raised in Somerville, Massachusetts, several miles west of Boston. The notes of this interview were never given to the defense, as required by U.S. criminal law. Required fields are marked *. Used Cars for Sale. In February 1973, Stephens was instrumental in one of the most ambitious promotional stunts in Connecticut radio history when he locked himself inside the WCCC AM&FM on-air studios in Hartford and played the Top 40 song "Bitter Bad" by Melanie for 35 consecutive hours to protest the station's reluctance to offer him a full-time job. [In 1980, two years after Bill Harrahs death, the Holiday Inns Corporation bought Harrahs Casinos, Inc. for $300 million.]. Initially (my Dad) was the car spotter in the L.A. area, so hed write in and say, I know about this car, and they would say tell us more. Hed take photos and write up reports, and they liked his reports, so they eventually hired him to come work in Reno. Peter Helck [the famous auto artist] had a booth in the flea market, selling his wares. He offered his suggestions for our consideration; some of those cars are as follows: Of course, no one really knows for sure about the future values these cars, not even Bill Stephens, but given Bill Stephens experience and knowledge about cars, his thoughts are worthy of serous consideration. We want to hear about what you collect and why. Bill Stevens Auto Sales, Inc. - 4227 4th St NW Albuquerque, NM 87107. Rtromobile. Born in South Pasadena, California, in 1911, Bill Harrah had to drop out of UCLA during the Depression, worked briefly in his family's small-time entertainment businesses, then took over his Dad's pool hall and bingo parlor in the 1930s. Everybody knew it was going to lose money, but the question was, What does Bill want? Bill wanted the museum, so the board authorized that project. Email Cindy Hval at dchval@juno.com or call Voices editor Kimberly Lusk at (509) 459-5457. 7 Dmitry Lomakov My uncle, Lenard Davis had restored these 2 cars. He is an avid car collector and has owned numerous collector-grade vehicles including a 1965 Shelby American Continuation Series .

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