Monty286 - Solved: Florence Lawrence on a 1912 Lozier

[el_monty]

Fellow Autopuzzlers, for a point please tell me the make and year of this car, and who is the person at the wheel.

Don't be naughty! Stay away from Google Search by Image, kids.

[el_monty]

Up to the Experts.

[Allan L]

Looks like a US car of about 1912, and that dynamo should be a clue, but I can't get any further.

[Fёdor]

Lozier

[el_monty]

Looks like a US car of about 1912, and that dynamo should be a clue, but I can't get any further.

1912 is correct, and...

Lozier

Lozier is also correct. Locked for Fëdor, who identified the marque, to tell me the name of the woman driving it.

[Fёdor]

This car is an American movie star, Florence Lawrence. She invented the first mechanical turn signal and mechanical brake.
  ~ mod. 51 Briarcliff 1912

[el_monty]

That is correct!
Florence Lawrence, originally Canadian but whose family moved to NY before the turn of the century, started appearing in motion pictures in 1906, and in 1910 was the first film actor to be named publicly by their studio (actor's names had not been publicized beforehand), making her the first proper movie star. She was also a petrolhead who loved to drive and tinker with automobiles, something that was considered definitely extravagant for a woman in those times; her wealth allowed her to purchase a number of them, such as this Lozier, and eventually she would come up with pioneering designs of her own for a mechanical turn signal device and a mechanical stop signal device (they were not yet lights but little flags that popped up), as well as a windshield-wiper system, but she never patented any of them. In 1915 she suffered serious injuries in a fire, and from then on her career started to decline. She also eventually lost much of her small fortune during the Great Depression, and by the 1930s she was poor and forgotten by the world. She contracted an incurable bone disease, and committed suicide in 1938. How her unique and eventful life has not yet been transformed into a biopic, I have no idea.