Hillsborough Concours Celebrates it`s 57th Consecutive Year

Personality, Style and Perseverance
Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance Celebrates 57 Years
The prestigious Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance
is indeed the longest continually-running Concours
in the world.
The 57th edition of this historic event will held
on Sunday, July 21, on the expansive greens at
Crystal Springs Golf Course in Burlingame.
Following up on his research about Hillsborough’s
landmark status, Concours Chairman Rob Fisher said,
“There may have been an earlier Concours ‘Elegance at
Morgans were, are and will always be timeless.
Photos: Cookson Family Archives
Villa d’Este on Lake Como, but there were interruptions in that showing.
“We’ve had so many accomplishments over this long run but I think it’s important, too, to remember how we got
started – and why we should pay tribute to the Hillsborough parents who, against many odds, had the staying power to
makethis such a venerable success.”
By May of 1956, Doris Legallet knew the Hillsborough Parents’ group was far behind in two major fundraising
projects for the town’s public schools.
The first looming challenge was completion of the Halfway House recreation center on the North School grounds.
The building was up but lacked heat, lighting, plumbing and flooring. But even more distressing was a $300 shortfall in
the group’s budget.
Up to this point, parents with kids in any one of Hillsborough’s four public schools – North, West, South and
Crocker – augmented the Town’s lean schools budgets with fundraisers like rummage sales and a school carnival.
Initially fund raising efforts were on a rotating basis among the four schools, but in 1959 the groups consolidated.
Funds from charity events went towards everything from capital improvements to purchase of sports supplies.
Legallet went to the district’s Dr. Kramer and he came up with the idea for a Concours d’Elegance benefit
showing of fine automobiles, but they’d have to hurry: the date was set for October. The idea was daring and new, but
would also catch an emerging wave of California enthusiasm for imported vehicles -- and even more specifically, daring
new sports cars with names like Jaguar, MG, Alfa Romeo and Porsche. By the late ‘50s road racing courses
proliferated all about California and from the Del Monte Forest to Torrey Pines and on airport courses at Santa Ana,
Moffett Field, Kingdon (Stockton), Palm Springs and Cotati, enthusiasts could savor the sound, speed and spectacle of
premier European racing marques like
Ferrari, Aston-Martin, Maserati, Allard,
Mercedes-Benz -- as well as an
emerging American hot rod contender,
Corvette.
A new breed of automobile
dealership specializing in imports and
sports cars was emerging all about
The early Hillsborough showings were part carnival and car gathering.
Note the simple awards podium ramp in foreground (probably 1968 show).
Northern California and they saw the
Hillsborough gathering as an ideal
showcase for discerning enthusiasts. Early Hillsborough exhibitor Bev Spencer had a Buick agency but soon began
fielding a stable of Ferrari sports racers in local competition as well as showing them here.
That first event, though, was nearly blown over before
a single vehicle rolled on the Crocker greens. A squall rolled
through Hillsborough that night and when Legallet and her
team arrived at 5 a.m. all the booths, decorations and
pennants were down. The committee righted the damage
and by midmorning, the sun broke through.
Even without Sports Car Club of America (SCCA)
sanction and support (that would come 1965), the event drew
102 entrants and was a financial success.
Margot Cookson was a chairperson in the ‘60s and
1937 XKSS entered in '68 by KGO Radio personality Jim Dunbar
was the first to bring husbands into the working team.
“We began to expand with fashion shows. Hillsborough
became a must-do in the San Francisco social set,” she
recalls.
“Ask Abby” author Abigail Van Buren was among the
first 23 concours committee members, setting a
precedent for personality that would continue as a
hallmark of the event for the coming years.
Brass has always signified class.
In the ‘70s, Bing Crosby easily
assented to lending his pipe-smoking
presence to a California Living magazine
publicity spread on the concours, one also
showcasing latest fashions worn by Kathy
Lee Crosby and Mrs. Ken Venturi. The
event drew media stars like veteran KGO
radio broadcaster Jim Dunbar, who in 1968
displayed his 1937 Jaguar SS100 roadster.
For kids, a classic Rolls Royce will always be a bit awe-inspiring.
The same year, San Francisco Chronicle
executive editor Scott Newhall, a longtime
motoring enthusiast, brought his 1930 Doble Steam Car. Among honorary judges that year was actress Pia Lindstrom,
Ingrid Bergman’s daughter. With the mid-‘60s involvement of the SCCA’s San Francisco region, a cadre of early sports
car movers and shakers played roles in the expanding Hillsborough event, including benefactor and sometime-racer
Sid Colberg, track announcer Larry Albedi, stylish SCCA track starter Don Seike and former chief SCCA judge Doug
Salmi. San Francisco society convened at Hillsborough and the event was covered by society writers like the
Examiner’s Alfred Morch and the Chronicle’s Frances Moffatt.
“It was a gathering of who’s who in Hillsborough,” notes current committee organizer Susan Fisher. “Every family
chipped in three to four hours of volunteer time at the Concours. It was the only thing that raised money for the
schools.”
Hillsborough collectors and enthusiasts gave not only their time but rolled out an incredible field of spectacular
vehicles.
Harry H. Hastings fielded two lovely classics, a 1923 Moon Sport Phaeton and a 1926 Diana 6
Phaeton. Wayne Weathers took top class and overall accolades for his 1913 Rambler open touring.
Peter Lind showed his grand 1937 Rolls-Royce. In the ‘60s, Dr. Ron Greenspan exhibited his 1954
Porsche SC/GT.
These first shows were not without style and drama. The 1960 event featured a Hillsborough
Designer’s fashion show – but the drama came later. In an effort to more closely involve Hillsborough
students, committee members decided to have eighth graders stage a Go-Kart driving demonstration.
What could go wrong? The kids
had already put together a
showing of Doodle-Bug motor
scooters and they’d participated
in closed circuit practice on
school asphalt, all supervised by
Hillsborough police.
But when the flag went
down, eighth grade male hormones
kicked in and the Go-Kart race on
Crocker grounds immediately took
on every aspect of a full out Formula race through the winding streets of Monaco. Spectators, many
parents, scrambled over cycle fences as the little Fangio speedsters were drifting and spinning with
alacrity.
Oops! Black flag! No harm, no foul.
Today, the Hillsborough Schools Foundation is one of three beneficiaries of the event’s charity
contributions, which in 2012 totaled $100,000. The other recipients are Autism Speaks, North America’s
largest autism science and advisory organization, and the 49ers Foundation, which provides extensive
support for at-risk youth in the Bay Area.
The Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $30. Children under
13 are free.
For information, download the event site: www.hillsboroughconcours.org.