Chevrolet – American Car Historian

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025

Unsolved Mysteries: The First Talking Car

There are many famous “talking” cars such as KITT, Herbie, and Mater. One you may not have heard of, however, and likely the first of its kind, was a Chevrolet named Chevee.

Chevee appeared in salesrooms across the United States and Canada from 1924 to 1927. It was sometimes referred to as “Blue Chevee,” so it was likely a Chevrolet Deluxe Touring which was introduced mid-year 1924 and was gray-blue in color with cardinal striping. The gray-blue color scheme was carried out in both the upholstery and the steel disc wheels with which the car came equipped. This beautiful 1924 Chevrolet Deluxe Superior Touring located at the Museum of Automobiles in Morilton, Arkansas, provides a good idea of what Chevee looked like.

Photo credit: Aaron Headly, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chevee could talk, sing, laugh, and whistle. It called people by name and said, “How d’ya do?” when meeting someone new. It could answer questions asked at random about anyone or anything and could identify items pulled from the pockets of spectators. Chevee even told fortunes.

Chevee would light its lights upon request and would wink flirtatiously at the women in the audience by blinking its lights. Chevee played music in a phonographic voice even though there was no phonograph to be found, and people did try to find one. In fact, they were encouraged to try. The car was mounted on four wooden jacks so that skeptics could crawl under the car looking for answers. Truth seekers were allowed to look under the hood and floorboards and even remove the seats.

The Shreveport Journal reported that the voice sounded like it was coming from under the motor, but no one inspecting it could locate any connecting wires or other apparatus there, under the seats, or anywhere else on the car. There were also no wires connecting the automobile to anything else.

Chevee was wildly popular and often had to be held over to accommodate the sizeable crowds it drew. In Kenosha, it reportedly drew such large crowds that police had difficulty keeping South Street clear in front of the Chevrolet dealership.

Everyone detests an unsolved mystery, but I could find no subsequent explanation of how Chevee functioned. The answer clearly lies with the man conducting the shows, a vaudeville comedian by the name of Billy Van Duzer, as he miraculously appeared with a talking Essex, a talking Dodge, and even a talking Durant the following year. The Chevrolet was the first, however, and the only one graced with a name. The act was apparently played out by the end of 1928, because there were no more appearances made by Van Duzer with Chevee or any other communicative automobile.

Sources:

Advertisement. J. V. Baldwin. Los Angeles Evening Express, 10 Feb 1926, p. 27.

Advertisement. Robertson Motor Co. Imperial Valley Press, 15 July 1924, p. 2.

Advertisement. Roberts Motor Co. Valdosta Daily Times, 17 Feb 1925, p. 2.

Advertisement. S-W-S Chevrolet Co. Dayton Daily News, 29 Mar 1925, p. 54.

Advertisement. The White Chevrolet Co. The Times Recorder [Zanesville], 15 April 1925, p. 2.

“Big Crowds Hear Talking ‘Chevee’.” The Flint Journal, 19 Dec 1924, p. 3.

“‘Chevee’ Stays Here Three More Days.” Kenosha News, 13 Oct 1924, p. 7.

“‘Chevee’ Talks at Roberts Motor Co.” The Valdosta Daily Times, 18 Feb 1925, p. 3.

“Chevrolet Deluxe Models Appear.” Blairsville Dispatch, 2 Sept 1924, p. 7.

“Educated Durant Puzzles Audience.” Corpus Christi Caller Times, 26 Oct 1928, p. 8.

“Explanations Easy for ‘Talking’ Chevee.” Decatur Herald, 12 Feb 1925, p. 7.

“Famous Talking Chevrolet to be Displayed Here.” The Pittsburgh Press, 25 Jan 1925, p. 79.

“Man Who Can Make Auto Talk Arrives in City.” Corpus Christi Caller Times, 19 Jan 1928, p. 7.

“Mystery Shrouds Uncanny Dodge Performance.” McAllen Daily Press, 14 Mar 1928, p. 1.

“Talking Chevrolet Mystifies Visitors to Brownlee-Wells Co.” The Shreveport Journal, 26 Jan 1926, p. 7.

September 10, 2024September 10, 2024

“Repurposing” Car Parts

I started this post a couple of days ago and was going to begin by saying that, if your experience is anything like mine, you hear one question over and over when out buying car parts: “What are you going to make with that?” Well, it happened again this past weekend.

We attended the 42nd Annual Old Trusty Antique & Collectors Show in Clay Center, Nebraska, which includes a flea market. We were happy to find many desirable hubcaps that required multiple trips to the truck with arms full:

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise: Three Oldsmobile Fiesta-style tri-bar checkerboard aftermarket caps; a 73-87 Chevy 3/4-ton 12-inch dog dish; 1930 Buick wire wheel hubcap; 30-32 Chevy wire wheel hubcap set of four plus one aftermarket version with the dash in place of the bowtie; and three 64-66 Chevy truck hubcaps (one clip and two nub-style.

At one point a woman approached me to ask what I was doing with all those hubcaps. She said she was worried that she was missing out on some great new craft idea and seemed more than a little disappointed when I answered that I was going to sell them to people who needed them. . . for hubcaps. We never want to see car parts sent to the crusher but also aren’t crazy about perfectly good parts being used to make another clock or yard-art gizmo. Vintage and antique car parts have historical value, and we vastly prefer to get them into the hands of the restorers that need them to maintain the authenticity of their projects.

That being said, we do understand the love for old cars and their various sculptural parts, as well as the enjoyment that comes with surrounding yourself with them where you live. The internet is brimming with ideas for repurposing vintage car parts, but many of those ideas involve the partial, or total, destruction of the parts being used. If you are a person who likes to immerse yourself in the classic car aesthetic, here are some ideas for adding car parts to your decor while maintaining the integrity of the parts for future use:

These old Motorola radios have vibrant colors and a great vintage look, and here they were just piled up to make a small table or stand:

This vintage headlight bezel with chrome trim has been made into a mirror for a car-themed bathroom by sticking a round piece of glass into place with silicone. This bezel is from a 1956 Ford and has the original “buckskin tan” paint.

You can’t go wrong with a wall of hubcaps. From top to bottom, this one features Pontiac, Hudson Terraplane, Chevy, Nash Lafayette, Oldsmobile, and Ford dog dishes.

Emblem letters that are the stick-on type, or ones that are missing their mounting posts, can be made into magnets like these that spell “RAT ROD.”

Everyone loves a beautiful hood ornament, and a good way to display them is on chunks of wood with holes drilled into them to accommodate any mounting bolts still on the ornaments. They look so much better on a shelf than another made-in-China-by-slave-labor knick-knack.

Clockwise, from the top: a Brockway husky, a George Petty-designed Nash flying lady, and a Chevrolet golden gazelle accessory hood ornament.

This photo features a small cloche made with a sediment bowl. The glass bowl has only been modified with a wood craft piece stuck to the closed end with silicone. It sits on a base which is also made of wood.

Finally, if you embraced the galvanized metal trend and used it as wall covering or to encase a bar, it makes a great place to display old license plates with magnets. No nail holes required!

June 30, 2024June 30, 2024

The Year the American Auto Industry First Hit One Million in Inventory

The American auto industry hit the million mark in inventory for the first time in 1960. This story about the new record appeared in March of that year:

Although this article tries to paint a rosy picture, the country was on the precipice of a recession caused in part by industrial overexpansion to meet post-war demand. Another reason for the high inventories in the auto industry was the record output of compact cars which were surging in popularity. During the first week of March, it was reported that the six compact cars accounted for 25.1 percent of the total output for the week. In addition to the AMC Rambler and the Studebaker Lark, the Big Three were offering the Ford Falcon, the Mercury Comet, the Plymouth Valiant, and the Chevrolet Corvair. Chevrolet was outpacing everyone in terms of both production and sales.

Automobile inventories have been in the news regularly for the past few years, due mainly to the lack thereof. It was downright spooky to drive by the empty dealership lots, barren wastelands caused, at least in part, by production cuts during the pandemic and global microchip shortages. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis recently published this visual depiction of the fluctuation in domestic auto inventories since 1994.

Domestic Auto Inventories (AUINSA) | FRED | St. Louis Fed (stlouisfed.org) U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Domestic Auto Inventories [AUINSA], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AUINSA, June 17, 2024.

As you can see from the chart, inventories have started to rebound from the depths plummeted to in February of 2022. Even so, those unpleasant sky-high prices do not appear to be coming down anytime soon.

For comparison purposes, you could buy a new Chevy Biscayne in 1960 for around $2,300. For a couple hundred dollars more, you could get yourself a new Bel Air two-door hardtop Sport Coupe.

That is roughly equivalent in purchasing power to $26,000 today. There are still some new car options under $30,000 in 2024, but none will give you the same thrill you would get from cruising around in that ’60 Sport Coupe. Let’s hope improving production numbers and rising inventories translate into lower prices and better access for today’s buyers, but even if inventories return to that million mark, buyers will never again have access to the fine and diverse automobiles available the first time it happened:

February 26, 2024February 26, 2024

The Year Automobile Designers Became Dress Designers

I happened across a story in a 1940 newspaper about automobile designers making a foray into women’s fashions. The feminine styles were supposed to match the 1941 automotive offerings and were designed by the same men who created those body styles. This was all done to promote the New York auto show. There were pictures to go with the story, but no names, so I had to keep digging. I discovered that the first one was designed by none other than Harley Earl, and this streamlined creation in silver rayon featured wings to mimic the hood emblem on a ’41 Caddy.

Photo credit: Rex Gray, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The stories I found do not give credit for this stylish jacket with a yolk based on the shape of the Packard grille. Perhaps the designer was Howard “Dutch” Darrin?

Photo credit: David Berry from Rohnert Park CA, USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This swimming suit is based on the 1941 Chevrolet. You can see the shape of the grille on the model’s midsection, and her shoes were even made out of Lucite!

This ensemble was designed, I believe, by E. T. Gregorie and was meant to complement the Mercury. Notice the belt, which was based on the Merc’s bumper guards, and a purse modeled on the hubcaps.

Photo credit: JOHN LLOYD from Concrete, Washington, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

One article said this coat was made with upholstery plaid, so it must be based on Chrysler’s Highlander. Oliver Clark was likely the one who designed this modish outerwear.

This promotion was done in cooperation with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, and the clothing was actually available to be purchased on Fifth Avenue. I have no idea how well it sold, but I would absolutely purchase all of it today if still available (and I might run someone over to get to that hubcap purse).

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023

The First Chevrolet Impalas

This advertisement for the 1958 Chevrolet, made in conjunction with the Kansas City Auto Show, describes the 17 models available in ’58:

Note that the lineup includes Impala models as part of the Bel Air series:

This marked the first opportunity for a member of the car-buying public to purchase a Chevrolet Impala, but it was not the first time General Motors utilized that particular name. A “dream car” presented at GM’s 1956 Motorama car show was a futuristic five passenger sport sedan that was, believe it or not, called a Corvette Impala.

Like the production Corvette, the Corvette Impala had a fiberglass body. It was almost the same width as a Chevrolet sedan, but four and a half inches longer and six inches lower. The power plant was a 225-hp Super Turbo-Fire V8 with 9.25-to-1 compression ratio, high-lift cam shaft and a four-barrel carb. Being a GM product, it naturally had a Powerglide transmission.

In a departure from the typical more-is-more styling of the 1950s, little chrome was used. It did have a toothy, Corvette-like grille, however.

So, would you have been in the market for this Impala concept car, described as having “fleet, buoyant lines that accent motoring adventure with safety and luxury?” Or do your preferences in motoring adventure run more along these lines?

August 16, 2023August 16, 2023

Chevrolet Knee Action in the 1930s

We just picked up two fabulous 1930s Chevrolet dashes:

These would be correct for a 1933 Chevrolet Master or a 1934-1935 Chevrolet Standard, and this was an interesting time for General Motors as 1934 was the year the company introduced a new feature marketed under the colorful name of “Knee Action.” This revolutionary new design feature was a much-needed independent front suspension. The ride quality in early automobiles suffered because stiff front springs transmitted road shocks to the frame causing the front end to rise and fall. The consequent rise and fall at the rear of the car made backseat riding uncomfortable as passengers were jostled with each bump in the road. General Motor’s new Knee Action design allowed the front wheels to move up and down with the irregularities of the road without imparting the shock to the frame and passengers.

This diagram and accompanying explanation were part of a 1934 advertisement:

It appears an entire advertising campaign was built around this new feature. Here are a few more:

August 7, 2023August 7, 2023

The “Big Three” and “Little Three” Car Companies of 1954

I found this blurb in a 1954 newspaper:

If you’ve been watching the automobile news, you know that there are now only six passenger car manufacturers in the U.S. – the “big three” and the “little three.”

So, can you name the six surviving car companies of 1954?

The Big Three are easy to identify:

Ford

General Motors

1954 Chevy Corvette

1954 Chevy Bel Air

Chrysler

Recalling the Little Three is more problematic as there was a lot going on in the way of mergers and acquisitions. In no particular order, they are:

Studebaker-Packard – Detroit’s Packard Motor Car Company bought Indiana-based Studebaker in 1954 and became Studebaker-Packard.

1954 Studebaker Station Wagon

1954 Packard Clipper Super Touring Sedan

Kaiser-Willys – Kaiser-Frazer had started up after WWII, riding high on the post-war boom. The company struggled in the early 1950s after a series of missteps, and the Frazer name was dropped. In 1953, Kaiser purchased Willys-Overland and, in 1954, the companies merged into Willys Motors, Inc.