Jim Kennedy’s Car Collection

In August of the summer before I started high school (when I was what is now inexplicably—to me, at least—called a “Rising Freshman”), the 1973 movie American Graffiti arrived in theaters. My most enduring memory from that film is Suzanne Somers, playing the mysterious blonde in the elusive white ’56 T-Bird—a heart-stopping vision in the days before I had harnessed hormones or mastered metaphor. Rising Freshman, indeed. In the following years, wisdom earned through experience convinced me I had better odds chasing the T-Bird than the blonde, which I did. Forty-five years later, I finally captured that flag.

 

Nineteen Fifty Six was the second production year for this two-seater “personal luxury vehicle.” In response to consumer complaints regarding the inaugural edition, the 1956 version introduced two new features that became iconic representations of the model: a “continental” spare tire kit affixed to the rear bumper, to increase trunk space, and optional porthole side windows on the removal hardtop. Like the American Graffiti T-Bird, mine includes both features. Unlike the Suzanne Somers Special, which had a red interior, mine sports a Peacock Blue and White combination (more akin to the white Thunderbird in Bruce Springsteen’s "I’m on Fire" music video, for those who remember MTV). My Thunderbird also includes many optional features, including power windows, power steering, power brakes, a four-way power seat, a Town & Country AM radio, and a dealer-installed under-dash FRIGIKING air-conditioning unit.

 

This Thunderbird was a late-year arrival, rolling off Ford’s Dearborn assembly line on August 14, 1956, ten days before the end of the model year production run. It may have been a special order, as the buyers took possession in Los Angeles about two weeks after the car was built in Michigan. The owners, George D. and Dorothy M. Bjurman, lived in the upscale Bel Air section of Los Angeles, on a hillside across from the Bel Air Hotel. Although the original developers of the area attempted to prevent “Hollywood types” from invading the neighborhood, by the mid-1950s the Bjurman’s neighbors included television and film actor Red Buttons and film actress Kim Novak. 

 

Mr. Bjurman was an investment executive at Occidental Life Insurance Company in Los Angeles, and, later, also an executive at Occidental’s parent company, Transamerica. He took early retirement in 1970 to form his own investment management company, George D. Bjurman & Associates in Century City, which he ran until 1980, when he was succeeded by his son. Mr. Bjurman’s father, Andrew, was a well-regarded sculptor and art teacher in the Los Angeles area; the Bjurman’s daughter had a career as an actress. Mr. Bjurman drove the Thunderbird until 1989, shortly before his death in 1990, at age 84. After Mrs. Bjurman died in 1992, their children kept the car until 1998, when it was purchased at an estate sale by another investment manager in Southern California. That individual maintained the car until 2019, when he offered it for sale in Northern California.

 

The original selling dealership is not known, but I chose to accept the simplest alternative. Less than a half-mile from Mr. Bjurman’s office in downtown Los Angeles, straight down West 11th Street at the intersection of West Pico Boulevard and South Figueroa Street—where the Staples Center now stands—sat Les Kelley Ford, then the world’s largest Ford dealership. Late August 1956 editions of the Los Angeles Times advertised “Big Savings!” at the Les Kelley dealership on Close Out Sales of 1956 Ford Thunderbirds to make room for 1957 models. The Bjurmans purchased their new T-Bird shortly thereafter, so thinking Les Kelley sold the car requires only a light logical leap.

 

Les Kelley is best remembered for a side business he started in the 1920s, when he created a list of used cars he was interested in buying for his dealership and the prices he was willing to pay. Responding to requests from other dealers to share that information, Les published copies of his work, branded with the name of a Los Angeles society publication of the time—thus, the Kelley Blue Book was born. By the 1950s, Les Kelley had turned over management of the dealership to his brother, Buster, in order to focus on the publication. Les died in 1990, at the age of 90; Buster followed him in 2001, at 92.