A total stranger was nice enough to send me this photo of Anthony Perkins polishing a 1957 Thunderbird. He did this because he'd heard that I own a 1957 Thunderbird which I bought from Mr. Perkins and he'd assumed it was the same car. Is it? Well, let's consider the evidence…
Perkins told me that he was the original owner of the car I bought from him in 1981. Of course, that doesn't mean he didn't own two '57 Thunderbirds or that he even owned the car he's polishing in the above pic.
He also told me he that in several movies, he drove the car he was selling me. That may be significant because it suggests he didn't drive some other T-Bird in those films and was therefore likely to be photographed with the one that's now in my garage.
The car I bought was light blue. (The Ford people called it "robin's egg blue") The T-Bird in the above photo certainly looks to me like it could be light blue. On the other hand, whether it does or not may not matter. When I had some body work done on it, they stripped it down to the metal and told me it had originally been light blue, then had been repainted at least four times — at least twice in other colors — before being painted back to light blue by the fellow who restored it for Perkins before I bought it.
As you'll note, the car above sports a New York license plate. Perkins was born in New York but came out to Hollywood and began making movies in 1953. By the time the '57 Thunderbirds came out, he was shooting films like Fear Strikes Out and Friendly Persuasion — all in Los Angeles. Of course, he could have maintained a residence in New York, registered the car there and later had it shipped out here. When I bought mine, it had California plates that had been issued in the mid-sixties. (It sat in a garage for most of the seventies.)
So, whadda ya think? Am I outta line to say that's probably my car in the picture?