Neiman Marcus and Revisionist History

[mcosgrove@domain.elided]

I finally got hold of something other than an answering machine at Neiman Marcus
in Dallas to ask what cars they were to actually have at their Festa d'Italia.
Their media relations lady was under the impression that the car in the photo
she sent to Texas Highways was in fact the car they would have on display.  That
car is a 158/59 Alfa.  The photo, showing an Alfetta on a stand with some period
photos behind it, was sent to her by the Ferrari factory.  What disturbs me are
the almost illegible graphics behind the car, "the first Ferrari...".  If you
don't like the way history turned out, rewrite it.  In looking at my copy of
Ferrari, the Man, the Machines I realize that Ferrari the man somehow thought he
was the designer of the Alfetta, although nobody else in the world ever really
thought that.  After all, does anybody think the Mustang is an Iacocca, just
because Lee was in charge when Ford designed it? Now that Ferrari is dead, the
factory press people, obviously with the approval of Fiat, are rewriting his
life to make it as exciting as they feel it needs to be to sell cars.

A few years ago, Smithsonian did an article on WWI aircraft.  A short time
later, they printed a letter from some doctor stating that Enzo Ferrari had been
the personal mechanic of Italian ace Francesco Baracca who had flown those
planes and Baracca had given him the prancing horse emblem in gratitude.  I
wrote Smithsonian telling them they had been hoodwinked, that Ferrari spent most
of the war sick in a hospital and had nevr been an aircraft mechanic for
anybody.  I got a snooty reply back that Smithsonian researched everything
carefully, and they had the word from the Ferrari factory that what they printed
was true.  So much for accurate history.

I am going to get in touch with Neiman Marcus to try to confirm what they will
have on display.  I don't know what luck I'll have as the lady I spoke to can't
tell an Alfetta from an Avalon.  I'm not sure where the surviving Alfettas all
reside, but would Fiat pull an Alfetta out of the Alfa Museum, label it as a
Ferrari and send it to a department store just to sell a few ballcaps and tee
shirts?  Then, if they are to actually have a 158/59, I'll tell Neimans as
nicely as possible that they are displaying an Alfa Romeo, not a Ferrari, that
there is nothing wrong with calling the car what it really is, as they are both
Italian, both red, and the pedigree of the Alfa goes back much farther than any
Ferrari.  And lastly, that if they want a still questionable "first" Ferrari
they should get the Bimotore.

Mike

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