Oh, the memories this board dredges up !!!
I used to have a pint now and then with a yank musician who was a jazz drummer way back when, and would tell what it was like to watch Buddy Rich onstage. He had lived some wonderful adventures, but was quite honest about things. (He admired Buddy's playing, but thought he was a dreadful person.) So one time, early 1960's, he's driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for a 'gig'. He stops in a small town out in the desert to buy some petrol, and walks behind the filling station for a smoke. There's a car under a canvas behind the station, which looks to have been there for quita awhile. He pays the attendant and asks about the car. "Oh that" replies the attendant, "that's an old car some hollywood types abandoned here years ago." Intrigued, he walked back to the canvas, pulled back and sure enough, it was a Cord !! One of those front wheel drive with the engine mounted backwards things. The attendant says "Yeah, these folks from hollywood were driving up to Las Vegas, revved the engine too high and put one of the rods through the block. We've had it sitting here for ages, and for a coupla hundred bucks it's yours." He was astonished !!! Sure, he'd but it, but had to get to Las Vegas for his 'gig'. When he got back home he told his wife, and had a terrific row. She was adamant he wasn't bringing home some rubbish like that. About a year later he had the same 'gig' and went looking for the station, determined to buy the car, even if it meant divorce. He couldn't find the station. He never found the station, or anyone in those parts that had ever heard about the car behind the station. He told me this not as a Fortean event, but as an opportunity missed. But now, years later, it strikes me as very odd that he never found anyone who knew about this station, or the attendant, or the car from Hollywood.l