This unusual car was built by Pasadena coachbuilders Bohman and Schwartz. The film director Norman Z. McLeod wanted to use a new coffin-nosed Cord to feature in the 1937 comedy "Topper", where Cary Grant and Constance Bennett were starring as fun-loving ghosts.
The studio sold later the car in 1939 to Gilmore Oil, who added a PA system, trailer hitch, and restyled the grill. The cost of these modifications in 1954 was over $10,000!
Now known as the "Mobil Special", the car was estimated to have traveled 300,000 miles in its advertorial campaigns. Shortly after the final restyilng in 1954, the company Mobil sold the car to its long time driver Leon Wilson at the time of his retirement.
It is rumored that GM chief stylist Harley Earl was inspired in large part by this car when he designed the 1938 Buick "Y-Job".