2009-03-04 12:40:07 | Rob Reilly writes:

The first owner was Mr. Robert Lamouret who apparently picked it up at the factory.
I bought this car from a repair shop in Evanston IL in 1980, where it had been repossessed on a mechanic's lien for non-payment of bills. It has Marchal side parking lights behind the rear quarter windows as required by the French markets. The story I got from a previous owner was that it was sent to French Indo-China and brought back from Vietnam by an American serviceman in the 1960s, but there are no supporting documents. I have restored it cosmetically as a driver and it is frequently seen at US midwest British car shows.

2012-02-22 09:45:57 | Rob Reilly writes:

I have learned a little more about the first owner Mr. Robert Lamouret. He was a ventriloquist and performed with a duck puppet named Dudule which was dressed in a sailor outfit and bore a close resemblance to the Disney character Donald Duck. His performance is on YouTube. He sings an aria from The Barber of Seville while the duck shaves him and makes a mess. It's pretty funny.
He was born in 1915, lived in Paris and was married to one of the Ross sisters, also performers. He was in one movie doing his act, later came to America and performed in Las Vegas and on the Mickey Mouse Club and Ed Sullivan and other TV shows. He died in 1959 and is buried in Florida.
He apparently owned my car for only a year or two, so how long it was in France, whether it ever went to French Indo-China, and how and when it came to America is still unknown.