Now one wouldn't expect Walter P. Chrysler's wife Della to drive to the Club or to the polo match by herself, now would we? Of course not. That's what common people would do even if they were members of the Club, which, obviously, would be impossible. And, for those occasions, why not get chauffeured to your destinations, and do so in the style that you so much deserve and have earned! And when you said "I do" you then moved up to that grand status and position. And, I might add, what better way would it be to do that then in a one-off custom bodied Imperial by LeBaron? (well, maybe in a Bugatti Type 41 Royale, but that changes the story completely!)
And from that day forth, her finely manicured hands never touched a steering wheel again!
And now the rest of the story penned by Angelo Van Bogart:
With Chrysler as her last name — Mrs. Walter P. Chrysler, to be exact — Della Chrysler’s automotive choices weren’t as limited as one might expect.
Certainly, Mrs. Chrysler drove a Chrysler automobile, but in 1937, she chose not to be carried in one of the dizzying number of production sedans and limousines in the Custom Imperial Eight or Royal Six line. Nor did Mrs. Chrysler order one of the semi-custom Derham town cars also carried in the 1937 Chrysler catalog. Instead, Mrs. Chrysler had a one-of-a-kind town car built on a Custom Imperial chassis of an art deco form that rivaled the wildest town cars built on Duesenberg and Rolls-Royce chassis.
The teardrop-shaped town car body on her 1937 Custom Imperial built by coachbuilder LeBaron dripped elegance and was perfectly mated to the new streamlined styling of the 1937 Chrysler line. The bulbous aluminum LeBaron passenger compartment was painted black and mimicked the production Chrysler pontoon front fenders. The period-perfect Chrysler streamlining began at the “ship’s prow” front-end, which was striped with horizontal grille bars and matching chrome speed lines along the hood sides. The horizontal theme was picked up by LeBaron with speed lines behind the rear door at the sail panel and with horizontally ribbed aluminum trim that circled the body from the back of one front fender to the rear of the opposite front fender. The subtle trim piece literally brought the whole car together — production chassis and front-end styling with unique town car coachwork — as it streaked from the front fender, across the running boards and unique rear fender skirts, around the back of the car and all the way to the rear of the opposite front fender.
Inside, this special town car continued the art deco theme, from the production three-spoke steering wheel with ribbed bars and elegant gauges to the unique console built into the division window. Carpet as thick as a mink coat covered the floor, and seats as plush as the softest bed cradled rear seat passengers.
his slice of wheeled heaven wasn’t available to everyone, but was made available to those such as Mrs. Walter P. Chrysler, who could afford the craftsmanship of a hand-built LeBaron body fitted with the utmost of luxury by that Detroit concern. At the time, LeBaron was not yet absorbed by the Chrysler Corp., which later relegated the LeBaron name to a model. Rather, at this time, it was an independent subsidiary of the Briggs Body Co. that built bodies for Packard, Lincoln, Duesenberg and Pierce-Arrow, among others.
Mrs. Chrysler’s 1937 town car was not the first LeBaron-built body for Chrysler family, but it was probably the last. Just five years earlier, LeBaron had built a pair of custom 1932 Imperials for the Walter P. Chrysler family: a unique close-coupled sedan for Walter P. and a speedster for his son, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. Shortly after the 1937 LeBaron town car was built, in May 1938, Walter P. suffered a stroke. In August of that year, Della Chrysler passed away. Walter P. followed her to eternal rest two years later, in 1940.
Sometime after Della Chrysler passed away, her 1937 LeBaron town car passed on to her daughter, Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. Her initials “BCG” were added with cast letters to each rear door. However, neither she or her chauffeur drove the car much and today the odometer has registered just 25,501 miles. Very few of those were added after the car left Garbisch’s garage and went into the collection of Long Island car collector Harry Gilbert in the 1950s.
