Bruce A. Meyer, born in Los Angeles, California USA, to Ruth and Fred Meyer, the former owners of the retail store Gaery’s Beverly Hills, is a real estate investor and car collector, the former chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum and president of Geary’s. He is best known for being an iconic car enthusiast in car collector circles nationwide.
A legendary car collector, how loaded is Bruce Meyer? According to sources, Meyer has amassed a net worth of over $100 million, as of late 2016. His wealth has been established through his involvement in the Geary’s, and during his career as a real estate investor. Meyer’s assets include his world-class collection of dozens of rare cars, motorcycles and related memorabilia from all around the world.
Bruce Meyer Net Worth $100 Million
Meyer developed a strong passion for cars during his childhood years. Hiding from his parents, he rode motorcycles on weekends and attended various races and car shows. Upon his graduation from the University of California, Berkeley in the mid-’60s, he began to work as a bartender and later took a job as unit control supervisor in a department store. Shortly after, he became involved in the family business, the retail store Gaery’s Beverly Hills, expanding the store’s offerings through the launch of a successful mail order business and partnering with major names such as Baccarat and Lalique. In doing so, Meyer turned Gaery’s into one of the country’s pre-eminent destinations for luxury dinnerware and gifts. As the company’s president, he ran the business successfully for 30 years, establishing a considerable net worth. He sold the company in the ’90s, retaining some management responsibilities and a minority stake in the company.
In the meantime, Meyer became involved in real estate, launching his Meyer Pacific real-estate investment and development company in Beverly Hills. Over the years, he has established himself as a successful real estate professional, building an impressive portfolio of prime commercial properties, which has been another source of his extraordinary wealth.
Bruce was the first chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and is the founder of its support group the Checkered Flag 200. The museum has one gallery with a rotating selection of Meyer’s cars. Meyer began to collect cars right after his college graduation. The first one he bought was a 1955 300 SL Mercedes Gullwing. Upon returning from a Europe tour, he bought his first Porsche 911, and his next collecting choices came to be 1920s and 1930s high-performance classics, such as Pierce-Arrows and Duesenbergs. In the ’80s, he started buying historic hot rods, such as the Pierson Brothers’ coupe. Known as purveyor of hot rod history and heritage, he even succeeded in adding the hot rod class to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Today, the hot rods make up almost a third of Meyer’s collection.
Meyer’s collection now numbers in the dozens, and is located in a Beverly Hills garage which looks like a gallery, displaying works of automotive art, ranging from rare American muscle cars and classics such as a 1929 Duesenberg Murphy convertible coupe and a 1929 Bentley that Meyer piloted in a classic rally with Louis Vuitton, and race cars like the 1952 Indianapolis 500-winning Agajanian Special, the first Corvette to run LeMans, a 1957 Ferarri Testa Rossa and a class-winning 1961 250GT Ferrari SWB Berlinetta. The custodian of hot rods, Mayer’s collection includes a 1932 Ford Doane Spencer roadster and a Bonneville Salt Flats belly tanker. His sports cars include the first production Shelby Cobra, a 250 GT SWB and a 275 GTB/4 from Ferrari. There are also dozens of perfectly restored motorcycles, and other rarities from Mercedes-Benz, Duesenberg, Jaguar, Bentley and Bugatti. His collection also houses a hydroplane named “Miss Daytona”. The extraordinary collection is worth a fortune.
Meyer has participated in numerous car shows and events throughout the country. He has won eight times at the famous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance event.
Meyer has also been on the boards of the Nethercutt Collection and the Mullin Automotive Museum, as well as on the steering committees for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the LeMay Museum.
In his private life, Meyer is married to Raylene, and the family resides in Los Angeles.
