A Rare Lincoln Accessory from the Fifties

We found this rare Lincoln accessory in a tiny antique store in a tiny town. It is clearly a speaker, and the emblem gives away its origins as a Lincoln product, but why does it have such a long cord attached to it?

The answer can be found in the 1950 Lincoln “Styled Accessories” brochure which features this speaker on page five. It is a detachable rear seat speaker, and it came equipped with a 20-foot extension cord so that it could be taken outside of the car and used while camping or enjoying a picnic. It also has a volume control, which is the knob on top of the speaker housing. Just imagine cranking up the tunes while picnicking next to your new 1950 Lincoln!

The Greyhound Murphy Cap

The iconic greyhound pictured above is adorning a 1929 Lincoln. Of all the hood ornaments and radiator caps ever produced, the greyhound might be the one most reproduced. It is definitely “buyer beware” when it comes to the greyhound as even sellers frequently don’t know what they have. I picked up this greyhound radiator cap years ago:

The underside of the cap is marked “THE MURPHY CAP MFG BY RUPERT DIECASTING CORP KC MO.”

Rupert Diecasting was located in Kansas City until moving to Kentucky in the 1960s. I have been told that this cap was only produced in 1933, which makes it pretty rare. I haven’t been able to verify that, but it makes sense as I recently found a copyright infringement lawsuit that was filed against Rupert by Franklin Diecasting in 1933 regarding Franklin’s copyrighted “Greyhound Combination Ornament and Radiator Cap”. If you have any additional information on the Murphy Cap, I would love to hear from you. Contact me at americancarhistorian@gmail.com.