Updated 03/06/12: Second picture down added.
Since I posted Katharine on a scooter and in a Singer, here’s Debbie Reynolds on a scooter and, um, next to a Singer. While Kate cruised on a Vespa, Debbie went with two different Lambrettas. I am told that the first - on the cover of the February, 1958 issue of Picturegoer Magazine - is a 150 Mk11 Id:
While the one from the 1966 movie The Singing Nun is a light blue Innocenti Lambretta Li 125:
Not that I can tell the difference. Lambretta experts feel free to comment.
Then there is the The Singing Nun medium gray Lambretta 150 LI Special that was on display in the now-defunct Buena Park, California Movieland Wax Museum collection:
After spending much time there with a wax nun on board, it sold for $1,050, sans engine and Debbie, at their liquidation auction in 2006.
It was rumored to be in the Phoenix, Arizona Hard Rock Hotel collection, but a couple of scooter enthusiasts bought it, so I doubt that since it’s not on the Hard Rock's searchable memorabilia list.
I’ve read that Jeanine Deckers (aka Sister Luc Gabriel , aka Sister Smile, aka Luc Dominique), the real Singing Nun, didn’t really drive a scooter. I remember being taught the English version of the song Dominique in school. That sure wouldn't happen today.
Now the Singer roadster. This photograph was taken by Frank Worth on, I believe, the same day that the April, 1953 cover photo shoot above was taken at the same 20th Century Fox Studios parking lot:
I’m not sure whether this is O’Connor’s or Reynolds’ car - the whitewalls tilted me towards Debbie at first – but then, the striped two-tone paint job and that racing helmet in Donald’s hand has me leaning the other way. The latest O’Connor and Reynolds film, MGM’s I Love Melvin, had just been released in March. (Interesting bit of trivia on that film from Lileks.) Reynolds would go on to make two more MGM musicals that year. I couldn’t find a picture of Donald O’Connor on a scooter.
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