‘The nice thing about this car is that everybody gives you the thumbs up.’ We’re sitting in traffic in Beverly Hills – does anyone need to be told where that is? – and your average buttonedup Brit might expect that a heavily chromed, garishly flamed, fenderless hot rod would be causing lips to curl and eyebrows to lift in this enclave of Ultra High Net Worth individuals. But it isn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact.
That’s undoubtedly in part due to the fact that Los Angeles was built on the motor car, and its citizens have always had a special appreciation of what made it great. But in Beverly Hills it’s just as likely that the inhabitants are acknowledging one of their own: local boy made good, Bruce Meyer. Throw a stone on Rodeo Drive and you’ll probably hit a property belonging to Bruce; his family have owned the upscale Gearys family store since 1953, Bruce himself opened his. The lovely thing about Bruce, though, is that he’s friendly and open with everyone and anyone, no matter what side of the tracks they’re from. And, while he was born to parents who were comfortably off, they instilled in him a work ethic that has never left him.
