Evening also includes screening of ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’
Opportunity to meet Preston Thomas Tucker’s great-grandson and car’s designer

Rob Ida’s Tucker ’48

ArtsQuest is offering car collectors and enthusiasts the opportunity to immerse themselves in automotive history as it celebrates the innovative Tucker automobile, the 1940s car of the future created by Preston Thomas Tucker, with a special movie screening and display of a custom built Tucker ’48 inside the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks Sept. 11, 5:30 p.m.  The evening includes a screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream,” as well as the opportunity to meet Tucker’s great-grandson, Sean Tucker, and Tucker coachbuilder Rob Ida, who are currently working together on a new Tucker Torpedo, the Tucker ’48 prototype which was never built.

To call the Tucker a unique, classic car is a bit of an understatement. Hailed as the car of the future when it debuted in the late 1940s, only 51 original Tuckers were built before the company closed in 1949. Today, the car is prized by collectors, with one of them selling at a Barrett Jackson auction in 2012 for almost $3 million and another on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Ida Automotive and a small team including Sean Tucker are currently working on a scratch-built Tucker Torpedo. The new car has strong ties to the Lehigh Valley as Sean Tucker is a Bethlehem resident and the car’s one-of-a-kind glass turn signals were custom crafted at the ArtsQuest Glass Studio at the Banana Factory this past winter by Tucker, Ida and Glass Studio Manager Dennis Gardner.

The Tucker event kicks off with a Happy Hour in the ArtsQuest Center Creativity Commons at 5:30 p.m., where guests can see Ida’s Tucker ’48 on display, as well as speak with Sean Tucker, Ida and Gardner about their project, and enjoy beverages from the ArtsQuest Center’s Mike & Ike Bistro (beverages not included with ticket price). The Tucker film starts at 6:30 p.m. inside the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas; tickets for the screening are $10 and on sale now at www.steelstacks.org and 610-332-3378. Proceeds from the event will benefit the ArtsQuest Glass Studio.

The ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks is located at 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem. For more information, visit www.steelstacks.org.