Jim Callahan's Automobiles

Owner of Piedmont Piano Company also has vintage vehicles

Over Labor Day weekend I did a couple of nice gigs including a solo set at Piedmont Piano Company.

It is not easy to get to Oakland from New York for a one-off concert, but I was intrigued by something Jim Callahan said on the phone while negotiating. The day we spoke, he was driving newlyweds around in an Auburn for a photoshoot. What? Yeah, he said, I have a lot of old cars. Huh. I told him that if I got to ride in a vintage model, I’d come play Piedmont Piano Company.

At SFO Jim picked me up in a 1930 Packard.

The engine is a straight-8, standard for luxury cars of the day. Modern cars with eight cylinders stack them next to each other for a V-8. In a straight-8, the hood stretches out far down the road.

Top speed is maybe 70 miles an hour, although we didn’t do much more than 50. The engine is loud. The machine was top-of-the-line and still has a lot of glamour, but the inner workings are fairly simple compared to more recent vehicles. Everyone who drives one can open it up and explain how it works.

The next day Jim took me to his garage and displayed a few more of his treasures.

Each car seemed more beautiful than the next.

1929 Packard and 1925 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. The Packard was owned by silent movie star Irene Rich, who was also in the famous John Ford western Fort Apache opposite John Wayne and Henry Fonda.

Jim drives most of his cars around. Almost the first thing he said to me about the 1930 Packard at SFO was, “This is not a show car.” Occasionally Jim joins a bunch of other mavens who all caravan together for thousands of miles in pre-WWII automobiles.

There’s nothing quite like the headlamps, grille, and ornament of a Silver Ghost. We think of the Rolls as being English, but this was actually one of 1700 Silver Ghosts made at the Springfield factory in America

A few of his cars have never been restored or rebuilt, and have won awards in the all-original category.

1927 Stutz Vertical 8. Never restored, still runs.

My dad liked old cars, so I come by my interest honestly. At Jim’s garage I got in touch with some primal feelings. Innovation. Human ingenuity. Sweat and metal, a bold leap into design and character.

Modern cars are good at getting one from point A to point B, but these vintage beasts have personality!

wheel well of a 1935 Auburn

Art Deco dashboard of the Auburn

1930 Model A — Ford made almost 5 million Model As — and 1936 Oldsmobile

Dashboard and glove compartment contents of the Oldsmobile. Oldsmobile finally ran out of gas in 2004, a solemn moment I remember well, for it was among the oldest of then-extant automobile brands. Many of the pre-WWII names housed in Jim’s garage ceased production much earlier.

Hidden in the far corner was a 1957 Dodge Custom Royal, all fins and sexy arrogance. I really liked this one, it would have been my first choice to borrow for a week of driving around the back roads of California.

However, there was a catch. When I asked Jim about gas mileage, he winced and replied, “Well, I suppose it gets almost 10 miles to the gallon.”

Dashboard of the Dodge Custom Royal

---

The Piedmont Piano Company is a wonderful venue, and — not unlike the car garage — is stocked with luxuries and rarities of keyboard manufacture, as well as excellent practice studios. Piedmont Piano Company is also a factory authorized representative for brand new Yamaha and Fazioli pianos ranging from the humble to the refined. The concert calendar is here.