Period-correct memorabilia is everywhere. During a week that saw national gasoline prices break the two-dollar “barrier,” a pump price of 24.9 cents seemed particularly nostalgic. (Photo by Dave Wallace/Good Communications)

Besides involving one of the few non-operational cars in the original collection, Garlits’ transaction was atypical in that the buyer revealed himself prior to sealing the deal. Typically, Harrah would dispatch an agent to inspect and make an offer on a vehicle; only after it went on display did many former owners learn the true identify of the new owner. Although he’d been driving since age eight (!) and owned more than 325 cars by 1962, when the Harrah Automobile Collection opened to the public, another decade passed before Harrah began pressuring the scouts he paid to scan classified ads in newspapers throughout the nation. His goal became nothing less than acquiring one of every type of car ever manufactured!

People who knew him at the time have speculated that this quest intensified after the Mayo Clinic’s 1972 discovery of an aneurysm, and subsequent heart surgery to repair it. He was told by Mayo surgeons that a follow-up operation would probably be necessary five or six years down the road—and that his chances of surviving a second surgery would not be good (with the medical technology then available).

Fewer than 60 vehicles remained on Harrah’s wish list when that dire prediction came true, right on schedule, at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Meanwhile, he’d purchased a large piece of property alongside Interstate 80 for the 1400-plus machines then warehoused in nearby Sparks. His collection was envisioned as the heart of a huge resort complex to be called Harrah’s World. That dream died with the man, but the vehicles that survived should serve to keep William Fisk Harrah’s true legacy alive as long as other “car guys” keep coming to Reno.

The mild Barris custom wheeled by James Dean in 1955’s “Rebel Without A Cause” is the vehicle most-often requested for outside events, according to museum staffers. The young actor’s premature death and best-known film both reach the half-century mark next year, so you’ll be hearing a lot more about him—beginning with exclusive grand-opening coverage of the new James Dean Gallery (Marion, Ind.) in next month’s Drag Racing Online. (Photo by Dave Wallace/Good Communications)