* Hélène’s transfer to Bugatti, for whatever reason, was well-timed. The Omega Six’s sales, already dwindling, were on the verge of being reduced to nothing by Daubecq’s powerful rival, Hispano-Suiza. In 1930 the manufacturer who had risen from being a woodcutter to become a provider of sleepers for railway lines and then a car designer, committed suicide. He was already ruined; his strongbox, when opened, contained only a hunk of stale bread.
7. INTERLUDE AT MOLSHEIM
*William Charles Grover is better known by his racing pseudonym, ‘Williams’.
8. LAPPING THE GOLDFISH BOWL
* A couple of photographs appear to show Hellé Nice performing similar feats on the car; as a newly fledged acrobat, she might have relished the challenge to show off her skills – and her shape.
9. RALPH’S HONEY
* Benoît Falchetto went on to become a successful racing driver and a friend of Hélène’s. The car in which Duncan was killed was an Amilcar. The fact that she referred to Falchetto as ‘Bugatti’ shows how impressively Ettore’s marque had become identified with racing by 1927.
* Fairbanks drove on the Beverly Hills speedway, which thrived from 1919 to 1924. Superbly maintained, it caused no fatalities. Used by film companies for such forgettable features as The Pace that Thrills (1925) and Racing for Life (1924), the wooden oval was popular with Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow, Mack Sennett and Jackie Coogan, all keen drivers.
* Also known as a Clemons Special, this was a modified car with a Clemons engine in a Ringling chassis.
* The cinema reference could be pique. It’s always possible that she did make contact with William Morris and was given the brush-off.
10. SEX AND CARS
* Evidence of her temper appears in a report of her behaviour when she lost to a local at the Klausen hill climb held in August 1932. Her fury was so extreme that a police officer threatened to shoot holes in her tyres. The crowd, however, enjoyed the spat.
* Lehoux had taken part in the Casablanca Rally of 1930, but Hélène was then fully occupied by her relationship with Bruno d’Harcourt and preparations for her first professional race.
† Jean-Pierre Wimille nearly ended his burgeoning career that day when his Bugatti spun off the road on a sharp corner and caught fire.
* Unic taxis became ubiquitous in the early twentieth century; Proust made use of them on the pilgrimages to Cabourg where he began his own love affair with cars, and with the dedicated young chauffeurs he employed to drive them.
* Here he is identified as Georges d’Arnoux; confusingly, another Georges, ‘Lolo’ Caruana, seems to have been her lover when they both competed in the 1934 Moroccan Grand Prix.
* ALFA (Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili) took the second part of its name from Nicola Romeo, a mathematics professor who bought the Milan-based munitions and truck maker in 1915, and began to develop racing machines after the war.
† Possibly because she had already acquired a less exciting 1750 Alfa, of which she kept some maintenance records. But she had also kept a third Bugatti which she sold to an English driver, Freddie Clifford, at Dieppe in 1934 (‘Les Souvenirs Sportifs d’un pilot amateur’, in Le Fanatique de L’Automobile (Editions Larivière SA, No. 119, p. 38).
* It is not certain that she accepted the invitation; no mention is made of her in memoirs of the race, although interviews given to South African papers suggest that she may have travelled there.
* The invitation, and the almost royal level of her reception in Brazil, may have had something to do with Hellé Nice’s friendship with the distinguished Souza Dantos family. Luis Martinez de Souza Dantos, the Brazilian ambassador in Paris from 1922 to 1940, was listed in her address book and had a reputation for dalliances with French actresses. In later years Souza Dantos saved over 800 lives during the Occupation by providing exit documents, work permits and identity passes.
11. ‘L’ANNÉE MALHEUREUSE’
* References in Thouvenet’s letters to the elections and to what goes on at meetings between the strike leaders and ministers suggest that he had political connections; a reference to the payment of a libel fine for violating the laws of the press raises the possibility that he was a political journalist. Disgusted comments on the Reds and on strikers taking orders from Moscow show his political colour, as does his tart observation that the only available newspapers have become – of all things – L’Humanité, Le Populaire and L’Action Française. All three papers were radical in outlook, openly endorsing the workers in their rebellion.
12. THE ROAD BACK
* Jean Bernard, their common-law stepfather
* See Appendix 1 for text of a letter written by Binelli about the accident and its causes to L’Auto magazine. The film, a close sequence of shots of the final moments before the accident, and of the crash, survives in the Agostinucci collection.
* Henri Thouvenet’s references to Nancy lead me to conclude that he was working with the firm formerly known as Lorraine-De Dietrich. The company, as Lorraine, was producing railway cars and military vehicles at Lunéville, close to Nancy, in 1936; since Henri de Courcelles and Marcel Mongin drove a Lorraine-De Dietrich to second place at Le Mans in 1926, this would fit well with the fact that most of Hélène’s lovers and friends seem to have had close professional ties.
* A note in the Agostinucci collection, dated 11 August 1936, gives the compensation sum as 31 contos, 392,000 milreis, equivalent at the time to 23,000 francs. This seems surprisingly modest, especially since a lawyer had been retained to argue her case. If her Bugatti, second-hand, had cost 40,000 francs, half that sum would not have gone far towards purchasing a sophisticated racing machine in 1936. But the sum mentioned may be misleading: many years later, Hélène Delangle wrote to her friend Madame Janalla Jarnach of having been given five or six million francs. All that can be confidently established is that the compensation was sufficient to subsidize her life with Binelli for almost twenty years. It is possible that the full amount was never officially declared.
† The Monza was bought and successfully raced the following year by a Brazilian, Benedetto Lopez. Hélène later accused Binelli of having kept the money from this sale for himself.
* It is likely that Marcel Lehoux, Hélène’s regular companion on many of these journeys, was also on the original list of drivers who were to be charged. Apprehension might have unsettled him and affected his driving in what proved to be his last race. The detailed list of mechanics and contact numbers at the Ferrari works in Italy preserved by Hélène reinforces the likelihood that both she and Lehoux were involved in bringing Alfas into France from the factory they shared with Ferrari at Milan. Lehoux was employed by Ferrari in his final driving years.
* ‘Hans von Stuck von Villiers and Paula’ was how Hélène’s address book listed the couple, together with their home addresses in Berlin and Potsdam.
* The car was raced as part of the motorized section of the SS; Hanstein felt no shame about driving with the SS insignia on his uniform in the 1940 Mille Miglia; he did so, he later explained in his autobiography, in order to encourage his team.
13. AND WHAT DID YOU DO DURING THE WAR, MADEMOISELLE?
* Corbeaux, or ravens, was a term which came into use for German soldiers in France during the war.
* Morris also allegedly worked as a torturer at the Gestapo headquarters on Avenue Foch.
* The only previous connection to Arcueil is that this was where Hélène had maintained her Hispano-Suiza, at the Heigel Garage.
† This was made possible for the first time as Germany occupied the Riviera and did away with the restrictions on travel between occupied and unoccupied zones.
14. THE ACCUSATION
* It is sometimes suggested that the turban which Arletty wore as ‘Truth’ in the film’s opening scenes concealed a shaven head. The film was made in 1944, the year of savage recriminations.
* Hélène identified a photograph of herself with Itier in the Rallye de Monte-Carlo in her scrapbook and noted that
the rally had ended disastrously that year when the Renault skidded into a canal in Amsterdam. She dated the Rally, inaccurately, to 1950. The sports magazine L’Equipe, in ten days of reports on the 1949 rally, noted that car no. 156, driven by ‘Hellé’ and Itier, had crashed, but gave no further details. Renault, however, wrote to Hélène on 9 February 1949, congratulating her on a splendid drive and offering publicity shots of her triumphant return. This could have been a careless oversight on their part, or awkward diplomacy; certainly, the return was neither victorious nor triumphant.
15. SANS EVERYTHING
* Loosely, ‘Luck seems to have lost my number.’
* In 1981, she was ready to say that Binelli had ‘stolen’ the sum of five or six million francs (£70,000 or £80,000 in modern currency: Hélène–Janalla Jarnach, 18 May 1981).
* Garat is the most probable original of the charming young singer in An American in Paris (1951) from whom Gene Kelly finally wins Leslie Caron.
† The reactions of Arnaldo Binelli’s brothers, Orazio and Secondo, are not known.
* The stamp book, dismantled after her death, was one of her greatest treasures. The interest, for a postmaster’s daughter, may always have been there. It is reasonable to suppose that she began to collect as she began to travel.
* Hélène was speaking in 1962 but the franc was revalued in 1960. If she was thinking of old francs this would be 150,000 new francs, but whether she meant old or new francs is not known.
* The orchard, well, and stretch of riverbank had apparently netted two million in old francs for Solange (Hélène–JJ, 14.6.1976).
* I am indebted to Dick Ploeg for the details given in this appendix. Hellé Nice’s own record is rather less accurate, but has been preserved in the Brunkhorst collection.
* An earlier delivery of this car was made on 2 July 1927 to a certain Marco Andriesse of Amsterdam, but this earlier delivery, albeit unlikely, has also been associated with Hellé Nice (Conway, Grand Prix Bugatti). More recent research by Pierre-Yves Laugier shows that the 1927 Andriesse sale seems correct, while prior to Hellé Nice’s purchase of 4863 it first came into the ownership of van Hulzen on 29 March 1929 with road registration 2048 NV.
PICTURE CREDITS
The author and publishers wish to acknowledge with gratitude the following picture suppliers. Every effort has been made to contact all persons having any rights regarding the pictures reproduced in this work. Where this has not been possible the publishers will be happy to hear from anyone who recognizes their material.
Text pictures (page numbers)
Andrée Agostinucci: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Brian Brunkhorst: here, here, here, here
Bugatti Trust: here, here, here, here, here
Janalla Jarnach/ La Roue Tourne: here
Jean-Pierre Potier Archives: here
Oscar Davis Collection: here, here
Popperfoto: here
Private collection: here, here
Wolfgang Stamm: here, here, here
Plate pictures
Andrée Agostinucci: here, here, here, here, here, here
Brian Brunkhorst: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here
Bugatti Trust: here, here, here, here
Janalla Jarnach: here
Jean-Pierre Potier: here, here, here, here, here
Wolfgang Stamm: here, here
Michael Woolley: here
INDEX
HD = Hélène Delangle
Numbers in italics indicate illustrations
Numbers followed by ‘n’ indicate notes
Abetz, Frau, ref1
Agostinucci, Andrée, ref1
Agostinucci, Raymond, ref1, ref2
Albertson, ‘Wild’ Bill, ref1
Alsace, ref1, ref2
Aly Khan, ref1
Apollinaire, Guillaume, ref1
Aragon, Louis, ref1
Arcueil, ref1
Arlen, Michael, ref1 n
Arletty (Arletti-Léonie Bathiat), ref1
Arnoux, Georges d’, ref1
Arra, Fred, ref1
Aunay-sous-Auneau, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Auneau, ref1
Auric, Georges, ref1
Automobile Club of Monaco, ref1, ref2
Azais, Paul, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Baker, Josephine, ref1, ref2, ref3
Balbo, Air Marshal Italo, ref1
Balmart, Kléber, ref1
Barbette (artiste), ref1
Barenton, Raymond, ref1
Baroda, Maharanee of, ref1
Barrow, Lorraine, ref1, ref2
Beach, Sylvia, ref1
Beauce region, ref1
Beaulieu sur Mer, ref1, ref2
Beaumont, Count Etienne de, ref1
Behra, Jean, ref1, ref2
Belgium, Princess of, ref1
Bell, Marie, ref1
Benoist, Maurice, ref1
Benoist, Robert, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Bernard, Jean, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4 bis, ref1
Berson, Maurice, ref1
Beverly Hills speedway, ref1n
Binelli, Arnaldo
looks and temperament, ref1, ref2, ref3
meets HD, ref1
HD hides their relationship, ref1, ref2
in Brazil with HD, ref1, ref2, ref3
and HD’s accident, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
life with HD, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
abandons and allegedly ruins HD, ref1, ref2, ref3
death, ref1
Biscot, Georges, ref1, ref2, ref3
Blériot, Madame Louis, ref1
Bloch, Denise, ref1
Blum, Léon, ref1, ref2
Boillot, Georges, ref1
Boissy-le-Sec, ref1, ref2
Bonnet, Roger, ref1
Bordeaux, ref1
Borzacchini, Baconin (driver), ref1
Bourbon, Prince of, ref1
Bouriat, Count Guy, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Bousquet, René, ref1
Bradley, W. F., ref1, ref2
Brasillach, Robert, ref1, ref2
Brazil, ref1, ref2, ref3
Rio Grand Prix, ref1
São Paolo Grand Prix, ref1, ref2
Brighton, ref1, ref2
Brooklands circuit, ref1, ref2
Brooks, Louise, ref1
Brunet, Madame, ref1, ref2, ref3
Brunet, Robert, ref1, ref2
Brunner, SS Hauptsturmführer Alois, ref1
Bugatti, Barbara (née Bolzoni), ref1, ref2
Bugatti, Carlo, ref1, ref2
Bugatti, Ettore
in 1903 Great Car Race, ref1
and brother’s death, ref1
at wheel of car, ref1
quoted on cars, ref1
professional relationship with HD, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
love of horses, ref1, ref2
and son’s death, ref1
two marriages, ref1, ref2, ref3
after war, ref1
death ref1
car production and relations with Germans, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Bugatti, Jean (Gianoberto), ref1
hires HB as driver, ref1, ref2
closeness to HD, ref1, ref2, ref3
with Bugatti Royale, ref1
relations with father, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
death, ref1
love for Reva Reyes, ref1
Bugatti, Lébé, ref1, ref2, ref3
Bugatti, Rembrandt, ref1, ref2, ref3
Bugatti, Roland, ref1, ref2, ref3
Bugatti cars
production ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
HD’s love of, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
HD’s own, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
‘the Thoroughbred Car’, ref1, ref2
Philippe de Rothschild’s, ref1
models
35/35C: ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
59: ref1
Royale: ref1, ref2, ref3
T57: ref1
Caldwell, Teddie, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Campari, Giuseppe, ref1, ref2
Camus, Albert, ref1
Caracciola, Rudi, ref1, ref2
Carné, Marcel: Les Enfants du Paradis, ref1
Carpentier, Georges, ref1
Carrère, René (artist), ref1+n, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Carrière, René (driver), ref1
cars/manufacturers:
Adler, ref1, ref2
Alfa Monza, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
Alfa Romeo, ref1, ref2+n, ref3, ref4n, ref5, ref6
Amilcar, ref1, ref2n
Auto-Union, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Bugatti see Bugatti cars
Buick, ref1
Citroën, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
De Dietrich, ref1, ref2n
Delage, ref1, ref2
Delahaye, ref1, ref2
Donnet, ref1
Duesenberg, ref1, ref2, ref3
Ferrari, ref1, ref2, ref3n
Ford, ref1, ref2
Guyot, ref1
Hispano-Suiza, ref1n, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Hoosier Pete/Clemons Special, ref1
Lorraine, ref1n
Lorraine-Dietrich, ref1
Matford, ref1, ref2
Mathis, ref1, ref2, ref3
Mercedes, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Miller, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
Daubecq Omega Six, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4n
Panhard, ref1
Peugeot, ref1
Renault, ref1, ref2n
Riley, ref1
Rosengart, ref1
Simca, ref1
Sunbeam, ref1
Talbot, ref1
Voisin, ref1, ref2
Carstairs, Betty, ref1
Caruana, Georges ‘Lolo’, ref1n
Casino de Paris, ref1, ref2
Cecci, Joseph, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Chambret, Dr Pierre, ref1
Chanel, Coco, ref1
Chaplin, Sidney, ref1, ref2
Chaponnay, Jeannine, ref1
Charles (mechanic, fictitious), ref1
Chartres, ref1, ref2
Chevalier, Maurice, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Chiron, Louis, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8