When Buick restyled the beautiful ’49 Buick for 1950, it made a change that continues to inspire strong emotion, both positive and negative. Buick replaced this beautiful grille . . .
. . . with this toothy beast:
The sales brochure referred to the new design as a “bumper-grille”, and it consisted of heavy-duty vertical bars that were attached to the bumper so that they both formed the grille and served as bumper guards. The bars, according to Buick advertisements, were heavy enough to absorb “normal impact” and individually replaceable to save money in the “unlikely event of damage” (now note the damage to the grille shown above).
Unfortunately, the bars each had a different part number and were not at all interchangeable, and that made stocking and replacing them relatively expensive. This diagram showing the part numbers and prices was found in the 1958 edition of Motor’s Flat Rate & Parts Manual:
Buick had advertised the bumper grille as “something that makes so much sense that it’s safe to say that it will start a new trend in styling,” but no such trend materialized and even Buick abandoned the idea for 1951.
Recent
events related to the coronavirus pandemic have put me in mind of the Dodge
Brothers, two of the most talented, and historically under-appreciated, car
manufacturers of America’s early automobile industry.
John Dodge
Horace Dodge
2020 marks
the 100th anniversary of the death of the Dodge Brothers, Horace and
John, from complications related to another pandemic, the Spanish Flu that caused
at least 50 million deaths worldwide. In
January of 1920, the brothers attended an auto show in New York. While there, they both contracted influenza,
and it developed into pneumonia. John died
in his hotel room at only 55 years of age.
Horace, only 52, struggled with health complications until dying in
December with cirrhosis of the liver listed as the official cause.
After the death of his brother, Horace wrote a
letter to dealers in which he said, “The passing of my dear brother, Mr. John
F. Dodge, is to me personally a great loss, so great that I hesitate to look
forward to the years without his companionship, our lives having been, as you
all know, practically inseparable since our childhood.” The brothers were very
close and supportive of each other and, unlike many family members that go into
business together, they stayed that way until the end.
Short articles
sprinkled throughout the early newspapers give additional insight into what type
of people the Dodge Brothers were. One
story from 1916 relates how John Dodge, now a very wealthy and successful
automobile manufacturer, was visiting the Port Huron Engine & Thresher Co.
plant when he recognized a man, Otto Thrun, that he had worked with years previously. Dodge greeted the man and shook his hand,
whereupon the man addressed him as “Mr. Dodge”.
Dodge replied, “You can’t call me Mr. Dodge any more than you did when
we worked side by side.”
1917 Dodge Brothers Closed Car
The brothers were civic-minded and, unlike many of their peers, were active in the community. John served as water commissioner and as a member of Detroit’s Board of Street Railway Commissioners. Horace Dodge served as under-sheriff. At Christmas time, 1917, he was touring the jail with the mayor and sheriff. A man named Dubbs, who was a former patrolman, was being held on manslaughter charges. When Dodge found out that Dubbs was a former employee at the Dodge Brothers plant, he immediately bonded him out so that he could go home for Christmas. A story from the next year, 1918, describes how Dodge personally shook every prisoner’s hand (there were about 200 of them) and wished them each a Merry Christmas. The handshake was particularly welcome as Dodge had a dollar bill concealed in his palm which was pressed into the hand of each man as Dodge left for the next cell.
1918 tourists climbing Sonora Pass in a Dodge Brothers car.
Both John
and Horace were very philanthropic, making large donations to a variety of
causes such as the Salvation Army, The Detroit Federation of Women’s Clubs, the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the engineering college at the University of
Michigan and the Protestant Orphan Asylum.
They also donated to many churches.
According to Charles K. Hyde in his book titled The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars and the Legacy, the
brothers also donated to the churches that their employees attended such as the
African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Hamtramck Polish Catholic Church.
Unlike many of their contemporaries, the Dodges very astutely maintained complete ownership of their business so that they never had a board or stockholders to answer to, and they also never borrowed money from banks. They weren’t just smart businessmen however, they were also just plain smart, and the genius of the Dodge Brothers is effectively illustrated by their contribution to the war effort during World War I.
Weapons
using spring recoils were used during the first part of the war but were
constantly out of commission due to broken springs, so the US Government adopted
French heavy artillery including the 155 mm howitzer (the Schneider) and the 155
mm gun (the French Filloux). These
weapons utilized a fine, intricate hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism that was more
reliable but very difficult to produce.
It was
reported at the time that the Germans had captured many of the French guns but
had been unable to replicate the recoil mechanism. The French factories had only been able to
produce five per day. It was also
reported that two large American manufacturers had tried and failed to produce
the intricate parts. It was suggested that,
if anyone could succeed, it would be the Dodge Brothers.
The War
Department contacted the brothers in the fall of 1917, and John and Horace
accepted the challenge. According to author Charles K. Hyde, John met with
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker and a group of French manufacturers. When they offered to send French machinists
to Detroit to teach the Dodge brothers how to manufacture the mechanisms, John
responded that he and his brother needed only the blueprints (which consisted
of 42 and 71 pages, respectively, for the howitzer and gun mechanisms). Within 24 hours of reaching an agreement, the
Dodges began working on the new plant. It was designed to house 11 acres under
its roof and the first section was ready for use by January. The plant was valued at $10,000,000 and employed
8,000 people.
The Dodge Brothers also designed and built much of the machinery including 62 new machines for drilling and reaming the borings. The industry practice had been to revolve the gun barrel while the cutting tool was held stationary. The Dodges’ design revolved the tools and used six drills at one time. Before long the Dodges were completing 35 recoil mechanisms per day, seven times what the French had been able to produce. Just think how quickly the brothers would be cranking out ventilators, if only they were here today!
In the early days of the automobile industry there was some disagreement concerning what the new contraptions should be called. The Chicago Times-Herald even held a contest to name them and the winner was Moto Cycle! That is a lot easier to say than this early attempt from the Dutch-speaking people of Flanders as reported in a 1911 newspaper:
One of the truck companies that appeared on the long list of truck manufacturers in 1917 is the Federal Motor Truck Company, a Detroit-based independent truck maker that was founded in 1910. It is not very common to see survivors, but the picture above shows a 1920 Federal truck located near me at the Nebraska Prairie Museum in Holdrege.
Shortly after the company’s inception, a Federal truck won a 1911 Tour called the Chicago Reliability Run. Twenty-eight trucks competed in the 937-mile race from Chicago to Detroit and back. The race took nine days to complete and it rained for four of those days which made many of the roads nearly impossible to travel. One 26-mile stretch in Michigan was virtually impassable and ended the race for many of the trucks. The Federal powered through, taking 7.5 hours to do so. Other companies entered multiple trucks, but Federal entered a single 1-ton truck and it won carrying a load of 2,650 pounds, an overload of 650 pounds above its rated capacity. It also made the entire trip under its own power, the only truck in its class to do so.
Another story from 1917 described Federal’s efficient parts department. The company kept bins full of parts that were monitored so that they never ran out, and dealers were also required to fully stock replacement parts at all times. A complete parts book was given to each purchaser and a record was kept of every truck leaving the factory so that orders could be filled quickly while reducing the possibility of error. This system enabled the company to fill an incredible ninety percent of orders on the same day they were received.
The competitive environment of the 1950s were the end of many car and truck companies, and so it was with Federal. The company was purchased by Northwestern Auto Parts Co. (NAPCO) in 1954. At that time it was reported that there were 50,000 Federal trucks in use worldwide and 300 franchised dealers. Napco moved Federal operations to Minneapolis, but the division lost money and no trucks were manufactured after 1959.
Sources:
Advertisement. Cartinhour-Bowman Co. The Indianapolis News, 12 April 1919, p. 11.
Advertisment. Standard Motor Car Company. Oakland Tribune, 10 September 1911, p. 36.
“Federal Company Assures Service.” The Honolulu Advertiser, 3 June 1917, p. 6.
“Federal Truck Fleet Grows.” Los Angeles Sunday Times, 18 March 1917, p. VI-7.
“Made in Minneapolis.” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, 8 January 1956, p. 6C.
Paul, Herb. “City Men Buy Out Detroit Truck Maker.” The Minneapolis Star, 14 September 1954, p. 23.
I found this very long list of “Trucks and Delivery Cars Manufactured in the United States” in an old book published in 1917. Those listed have four cylinders unless otherwise stated and the prices were accurate as of April 1st of that year. How many names do you recognize?
My family loves watching old black and white television shows, especially anything by Alfred Hitchcock. Besides being great entertainment, it is fun to see all the classic cars filling the roads and lining the streets. In one episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour called “Who Needs An Enemy”, a man was stealing money from his business partner and used part of the proceeds to buy this new convertible:
While I definitely don’t condone embezzling, I can’t fault the thief for his taste in automobiles since he used some of his ill-gotten gains to buy a gorgeous 1963 Thunderbird.
Although Ford called the ’63 Thunderbird the most changed for 1963 with 2,500 engineering and design modifications, most of the visible changes were small ones.
Both the ’61 and ’62 had horizontal lines in their grilles, but the ’63 had only vertical bars:
The side mouldings also differed from the two previous years as did the tail light retainers which featured a new sunburst design.
The standard engine was a 300-hp 390 V8, but there was a 340-hp high-performance V8 option with three two-barrel Holley carburetors. The transmission was a 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic automatic.
The ’63 was available in four models, Landau, hardtop, convertible and sports roadster:
The 1961-63 Thunderbirds are called “Bullet Birds” due to the body shape, and that makes them the perfect choice for a Hitchcock production.
In the pretelevision decade of the 1920s, companies looked for more imaginative ways of garnering publicity for their products. New world records and other assorted publicity stunts were common ways of drawing attention, and car dealerships were no exception. When GM introduced the Pontiac in 1926, a “Master of Endurance” by the name of Rosser J. Newman publicly tested the brand new automobile at dealerships around the country.
You may be wondering how someone earns the title “Master of Endurance”. Apparently Newman did it by setting records in both marathon dancing (217 hours) and roller skating (72 hours). Once he was something of a household name, the automobile industry began hiring him. “Master of Publicity” might have been a more suitable moniker since he was able to draw both sponsors and crowds everywhere he performed his endurance test.
It was the same story in every town. Newman was a one-man publicity machine and large crowds would gather to watch him get handcuffed to the steering wheel of a car that he would then drive for up to 8 days (100-200 hours) without sleep. Since he was driving on public roads, surely law enforcement considered that a public safety issue, right? Wrong. In most towns it was the police chief himself who joined the festivities by cuffing Newman to the steering wheel.
It was supposed to be an endurance test for the car, so the car’s engine (a straight-six with 186.5 cubic inches) had to run continuously for the entire length of the test. It was also set to high gear with the shift lever removed, and the hood (and sometimes the crankcase) was sealed so no oil could be added.
Every advertising avenue was exploited. The car itself was covered with advertisements:
Whichever food and beverage companies sponsored the event were given credit for getting Newman through the grueling ordeal. In Springfield, Missouri, it was Banquet Ice Cream and Big Boy Bread. In Louisiana it was Saints Coffee. In Oklahoma, Coca Cola got the credit and in Nebraska, those honors went to South Side Milk and Collins Ice Cream. Even Dutch Masters cigars got in on the act in St. Jo, Missouri.
Gas and oil companies like Karetex, Red Seal and Penreco also sponsored the tests as did tire companies like US Tires, Michelin and The General.
Other businesses were eager to get in on the action, too. In Springfield, it was advertised that Newman, the marathon dancer, would be un-handcuffed at the Half-A-Hill Dance Hall so that he could dance with the girls. Since the car had to remain running and was locked into high gear, I can only assume someone had to be there to hold in the clutch while Newman was off tripping the light fantastic.
Working every angle, the public was even invited to come to the showroom and watch an exhausted Newman sleep at the end of the test:
The Pontiac, of course, became a success. It was economically priced, and that fact helped it survive the depression that proved the death knell for so many other car companies. I’m not sure how much credit should go to Newman, but the smart marketing strategies certainly didn’t hurt. Pontiac offered a V-8 in ’32 and then went with straight-eights for ’33 but, until then, Pontiac was the “Chief of the Sixes”.
Promotional coin given out by Pontiac dealerships.
My husband and I took a drive to hit an estate sale the other day. We were hoping to find some cool old stuff, but we were not expecting to find cool old car and truck stuff. Imagine our joy when we pulled into the yard and found it full of Studebaker trucks. The bunch included a couple of 1949-53 2R-series trucks which could look like this one if restored. There were also a couple of the older M-series trucks and what looks to me like a 1954. They were not part of the estate sale that day and will instead be part of an auction in April. I know where we’ll be on April 11th!
