Nethercutt Collection facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Nethercutt Collection

Grand Salon of the collection
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Established	1972 (1972)
Location	Sylmar, California, USA
Collections	Automobiles and mechanical musical instruments
Collection size	250+ automobiles
Founder	J.B. Nethercutt
Owner	Nethercutt-Richards family

The Nethercutt Collection is a special museum in Sylmar, Los Angeles, California. It was started by J.B. Nethercutt in 1971. This amazing place is famous for its huge collection of classic cars. Many people, including big newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, say it's one of the best collections in the world.

Besides cars, the museum also has many cool mechanical musical instruments. You can see orchestrions, player pianos, and music boxes. There's also antique furniture. A very unique item is a huge steam train, the Canadian Pacific Railway's No. 2839. This train was built in 1937. It's shown with a fancy private sleeping car from 1912.

The best part is that visiting the Nethercutt Collection is completely free of charge! It's often listed as one of the top things to do in Los Angeles.

How the Collection Started

In 1956, a man named J.B. Nethercutt (1913–2004) bought two old cars. J.B. was one of the people who started Merle Norman Cosmetics. The cars he bought were a 1936 Duesenberg and a 1930 DuPont Town Car. They both needed a lot of work to fix them up.

J.B. thought fixing the DuPont car would take a few weeks. Instead, it took 18 months and cost a lot of money. But all that hard work paid off! In 1958, his beautifully restored DuPont car won a big award. It got the "Best of Show" prize at the famous Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance car show in California. This win showed how much J.B. loved restoring old cars.

The Tower of Beauty

In 1971, the Nethercutt Collection got its own special building. It's a 10-story tall tower in Sylmar, Los Angeles called "The Tower of Beauty." It's connected to a Merle Norman makeup factory.

• The first two floors, called the Lower and Grand Salon, hold the most valuable cars. The Grand Salon looks like the fancy car showrooms from the 1920s and 1930s in New York City.
• The third floor has an awards room and a collection of cool hood ornaments from cars.
• The fourth floor is a music room. It has many large antique music boxes and player pianos. The main attraction here is a huge Wurlitzer theatre organ. This floor also has a dining room styled like the time of Louis XV and a big kitchen.
• The fifth floor has a theatre with a stage arch covered in 24-karat gold! Next to it is a huge room filled with pianos.

For a while, J.B. Nethercutt even used a special apartment on the sixth floor as his second home.

Expanding the Museum

In the early 2000s, the Collection grew even more. A new building was built right across the street. This new building is called the Nethercutt Museum. It also has the Nethercutt Automotive Research Library and Archive. This library is considered one of the best in the world for car information.

The original Collection building needs you to book a guided tour to see it. But the newer Nethercutt Museum is different. You can explore it on your own with a self-guided tour. Outside the Museum, you can see the big CPR steam train, No. 2839, and the 1912 Pullman Private Car.

After J.B. Nethercutt passed away in 2004, his son, Jack Nethercutt II, and his wife, Helen Nethercutt, continued to care for the collection.

Famous Vehicles

The Nethercutt Collection has more than 250 amazing, old, and rare cars. You can find cars from famous brands like Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Cadillac, Duesenberg, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, and many others.

One of the most special cars is the custom 1933 Arlington Torpedo Duesenberg Model SJ. It's nicknamed the “Twenty Grand.” This car was a main display at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Its unique design, made by Gordon Buehrig, is thought to be the most beautiful Duesenberg ever built. It's also one of the most valuable cars in the world, worth over $30 million today!

Fun Events

The Collection hosts cool events for visitors. In the music room, they show silent films. They use the huge Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ for the music. This organ is the biggest theatre organ in the Western United States. The Collection also has organ concerts and sometimes live orchestras in the fifth-floor theater.

Every year until he passed away, J.B. Nethercutt would take dozens of cars from the Collection on a special trip. He would go with family, friends, and invited guests. They would drive through the hills to a picnic at Frazier Park. Professional chefs from the Collection would prepare the food. This event was very exclusive. As Autoweek magazine said, "You can be as rich as Bill Gates or have a collection as big as that of the Sultan of Brunei, but you don't get a personal invitation from J.B. Nethercutt himself."

Car Competitions

The Nethercutt Collection team and the Nethercutt-Richards family often enter their cars in important car beauty competitions. These events are called concours d'Elegance. The Collection is known as one of the best teams ever in these competitions. They have won hundreds of awards since they started!

They have won the "Best of Show" award many times. This includes a record 6 wins at the top Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and 5 wins at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. They have won more times than any other competitor at these two big events.

Top Competition Wins

Here are some of their most famous "Best of Show" wins:

Gallery

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  Tower of Beauty

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  Back view of the museum and collection complex

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  Grand salon view 1

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  Grand salon view 2

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  4th floor Music Room

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  Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ

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  Part of the Wurlitzer pipe organs

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  Louis XV dining room

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  Museum display

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  Cars in the museum

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  Outside display with Royal Hudson and Pullman Car

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  One of the Collection's storage rooms with an Aston Martin DB9

Images for kids

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  Bugatti Type 51 Dubos at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

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  Museum display

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  Grand salon view 1