We recently paid a visit to the LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, which has the earliest of cars to the latest. I even saw the car I really, really wanted in high school: a Carmen Ghia (the car I actually got? A 66 Rambler Classic. Salmon pink).

The visit reminded me of the elegant automobile in which Commodore Crutchfield made his grand entrance on the stage of Audacity Jones to the Rescue. Here is a photo of that car, a 1910 American Traveler Touring Car, made by the American Motor Car Company in Indiana. I am not sure what the car cost new, but similar cars sold for $2500, approximately $60,000 in today’s dollars!