The fast lady and the Stutz Special

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We admit to having a soft spot for film stars and automobiles here, so we were happy to find out that the girl portrayed here, leaning on what seems to be a big streamliner, was in fact actress Eleanor Blevins (1892-1972). She starred in a number of (silent) Hollywood productions in the 1910s but was also known as a pioneering racing lady and aviator.

And we found out a bit more on the car she’s seen with also. It was known as the Weightman Special, made for millionaire and budding racer William Weightman, who’d inherited his fortune from ‘a Philadelphia dynasty known for its monopoly on the production of quinine.’ A Stutz Bearcat – right hand driven - was used as a base, and the long wheelbase chassis was clad with an aluminium body with boat tail and streamlined nose section.

Also, note the odd exhaust running through the car’s interior and coming out on the left-hand side – passengers had better be careful when reading the map! Both Weightman as Blevins raced the car at the Benning horse racing oval near Washington in around 1915. The machine is believed to still exist too.

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures PWC archives, Shorpy and Wikipedia.

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