The post-war economic boom in America resulted in an increase in the number of multi-car households. According to the 1959-60 edition of the Automobile Manufacturers Association’s publication titled “Automobile Facts and Figures,” that number grew 67 percent in the short span of five years. By the end of the 1950s, more than 18 percent of car-owning families and 13.5 percent of all families owned two or more cars. The idea of owning multiple cars was not just a product of the fifties, however. Prior to the war and the Great Depression, multi-car ownership had been a very hot topic during the roaring twenties.
1929 Franklin advertisement
The automobile was initially regarded as a luxury, but the introduction of large-scale production resulted in lower prices, which in turn made one automobile, and sometimes more than one, available to the average family. Surveys conducted by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1926 reported that 18 percent of car-owning families and 10 percent of all families owned multiple automobiles. That information caused ripples of excitement throughout the car industry, and many industry insiders commented on the record. In one interview, A. R. Clancy, president of the Oakland Motor Car Company, explained that four factors made up the automotive market: exports, replacements, natural growth or “virgin” market, and two-car families. He believed all had tremendous growth potential. In a separate interview, R. S. Cole, general sales manager of the Hupp Motor Car Corporation, said he believed the two-car family to be the largest factor due to the increasing desire for a car for every member of the family.
1928 Oakland advertisement
As director of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, Walter P. Chrysler stated that the increase in the number of owners of two or more cars represented “an advance in American standards.” He added that, “Many of our newer communities have been constructed on the premise that every adult will have his own car. In some of our best suburbs it is essential that each home has a multiple-car garage. The two-car families are increasing.”
1928 Chrysler advertisement
It was in the best interest of any that benefited from the manufacture and sale of automobiles to encourage families to purchase multiple cars, and the Detroit Free Press weighed in with a series of nine advertisements published “in the interest of the motor car builder, retailer and used car dealer.” They appeared from April through July of 1928, and reveal much about everyday life at that time. As seen below, they are also just really enjoyable pieces of propaganda:
We picked up this seldom-seen Highlander emblem the other day, and despite the name, it has nothing to do with Toyota. The lower part of the emblem reads “New Yorker, ” and that gives away its origins as a Chrysler product. Introduced in 1940, Chrysler also referred to the Highlander as the “Scottie,” and described it as “another notable contribution to advanced, original and swanky automobile styling.”
The Highlander featured Scotch tartan plaid upholstery on the pleated seat cushions and seat backs and matching moleskin leather on door panels, armrests and other trim. This 1940 advertisement gives you an idea what that combination looks like:
The Highlander was the creation of Chrysler president David A. Wallace who, like Walter P. Chrysler himself, was born in rural Kansas. While Chrysler hailed from Ellis, Wallace was born in Castleton in 1887. A 1940 story about Wallace in the Detroit Free Press included an interview with Wallace’s first employer, the owner of the hardware store in Castleton. Wallace worked seven hours a day at the store and also lived with the owner’s family. The owner remembered Wallace as a hard worker who pitched in to help with all the farm chores without being asked.
The similarities with Walter P. Chrysler continued as Wallace’s next step was going to work for the railroad. After that, he gathered more experience in automobile manufacturing and mining before manufacturing tractors for Hart-Parr. When the war started, Wallace served in the motor transport service of the Army where he was ultimately promoted to captain. As a matter of fact, Wallace was promoted everywhere he went, a testament to his skills and work ethic. After the war he went to work for John Deere where he started as a mechanic and was promoted to superintendent. This is when he came to the attention of the Chrysler Corporation. Wallace went to work for Chrysler in 1929 as a staff master mechanic and was quickly promoted to vice-president of Chrysler’s manufacturing division. He was made president of that division in 1937 and held that position until his retirement in 1953.
Wallace’s extensive experience in manufacturing served him well, and he developed a method of superfinishing bearing surfaces so that defects were no more than two-millionth of an inch. The talented Mr. Wallace held around 70 patents in all. He must have also harbored an affection for his Scottish ancestry, and so it only seems right to end this post with a quote from another Wallace, specifically Malcolm Wallace from the movie Braveheart.
“I know you can fight. But it’s our wits that make us men.”
David Wallace clearly had plenty of those.
The Highlander was brought back post-war; this picture is taken from the 1953 Chrysler brochure.
Walter P. Chrysler was born in 1875 in Wamego, Kansas and grew up in Ellis. If you venture to that town, just west of Hays, you will find the Walter P. Chrysler Boyhood Home and Museum:
We were there on a very rainy day, but it was definitely worth the effort to see this well-maintained little museum. It is well known that Chrysler worked for Union Pacific before joining General Motors as works manager at the Buick plant, but Chrysler’s father, Henry, also worked for the then-Kansas Pacific Railroad as an engineer on wood-burning locomotives. As a teenager, Henry served as a drummer boy for the Kansas 12th Infantry during the Civil War, and the museum has a display of medals earned by him in that service.
Walter Chrysler developed his famous work ethic in Ellis where he worked as a delivery boy for the grocery store, pushing around a heavy two-wheeled cart after school and on weekends. Not surprisingly, he was also a good student and, apparently, a crack shot. A newspaper story from 1889 about the local Fourth of July celebration describes how the local gun club took part in a shooting tournament and suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of children. The “Kids” club won by a score of 62 to 51 with the high score, nine out of ten shots, earned by Walter Chrysler.
Chrysler married his childhood sweetheart, and, by all accounts, it was a lifelong romance. Her name was Della Forker. They had four children together and remained married until her death in 1938, two years before Walter Chrysler’s death.
There is only one car on display at the museum, a gorgeous 1924 Chrysler Six:
The Chrysler automobile debuted in 1924, making its widely heralded first appearance at the New York Automobile Show in January of that year. Papers reported that its reception “was probably the greatest and most enthusiastic ever given an automobile. ” The show was held in the Bronx, and “thousands upon thousands” of people swarmed to the armory to view the new reasonably priced Chrysler line-up:
Newspapers reported that the excitement was so intense the NYPD assigned motorcycle policemen to act as bodyguards for the demonstration cars giving rides to the clamoring public. Speed restrictions were also withdrawn so that the quickness and control of the cars could be showcased without fear of traffic citations. Chrysler engineers described the new car as one that improved upon automobile design in the following ways:
“Elimination of practically all friction at the junction of moving parts; rapid, efficient and full power development through thermodynamics (the science of heat distribution in relation to power development)-a tremendously important engineering achievement; absolutely vibrationless power at any speed; achievement of 68 horsepower and a maximum speed of more than 70 miles per hour from an engine of only 201 cubic-inch displacement.
An entirely new spring arrangement, insuring riding comfort in a light-weight car; heavier crankshaft than in most cars of twice the weight, totally eliminating crankshaft whip and vibration; seven bearing crankshaft with shimless bearings; tremendous flexibility, both in the engine and throughout the car; more than 20 miles per gallon of gasoline; novel and improved methods of lighting control; filters through which both oil and air must pass, by which impurities in each are removed.”
The new automobile was a triumph for Walter Chrysler, and it was enthusiastically embraced by the car-buying public with sales records shattered in the process. Chrysler went on to take over Dodge Brothers in 1926 and Chrysler Corporation was soon part of the “Big 3.”
Walter P. Chrysler was a capable and hard-working executive known for his leadership abilities, good judgment and brilliant mechanical mind. Ellis, Kansas is right to be proud of its native son, and I appreciate their efforts to preserve history with the maintenance of this humble little home on the prairie.
The excerpt below was taken from a 1923 story featuring an interview with Walter Chrysler before THE Chrysler, when he was with Maxwell. It has some interesting facts regarding the state of the American automobile industry in 1923. Notice the complete dominance by Henry Ford at that point in time:
This headline from 1910 caught my eye the other day:
The author of this story was expecting the two companies to start one of the greatest manufacturing wars ever seen, a war that would set the automobile world on end and “create sensations never before anticipated”. Maxwell did eventually become stiff competition for GM, but certainly not in the way the author of this headline was predicting it would happen. It all makes for an interesting story about the birth of one of the American auto industry’s “Big Three”.
The Maxwell-Briscoe automobile came into being when Jonathan D. Maxwell, who had worked for Oldsmobile as an engineer, combined forces with Benjamin Briscoe, owner of a Detroit sheet metal manufacturing plant. JP Morgan was an investor and the Maxwell-Briscoe became the third largest seller behind Ford and Buick. This success was due in part to an imaginative sales manager with the decidedly east-coast name of Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey who dreamed up an unending parade of publicity stunts.
The 1910 combine that was mentioned in the headline above became the United States Motor Company (USMC) and involved both Maxwell and a company called Columbia. Columbia was owned by the Electric Vehicle company. This was significant, and the reason some were forecasting war, because Electric Vehicle owned the Selden patent.
In the 1870s, attorney George Selden had begun the process of obtaining a patent covering the use of an engine to propel a vehicle, but Selden kept the patent pending so long that it was not granted until 1895. By this time, many others were creating automobiles and everything Selden claimed was already being used by others. Regardless, Columbia paid Selden for the rights to this patent for a lump sum plus a royalty for every car produced and claimed the patent covered every gasoline-powered automobile in the country.
Many major manufacturers formed a group called the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM), an organization that granted licenses to manufacture automobiles to those paying the royalty fee. The ALAM made it clear that they would not be granting licenses to all applicants, thereby keeping all the business for themselves. The decision-makers at the ALAM made the strategic error of denying a license to the always-combative Henry Ford, and that’s when the real war began.
Ford taunted the ALAM into suing him. Ever the master of publicity, Ford successfully portrayed himself as the underdog and made people sympathetic to his position. Both sides took out pages of advertising to argue their case in the court of public opinion, and the actual court case drug on for years, beginning in 1903 and not ending until 1911.
The dueling advertisements often appeared side by side:
The ALAM won in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York with a judge that admittedly knew nothing about engines. Ford appealed and the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit saw things differently. The panel of judges ruled that the Selden patent was limited to the use of a Brayton engine to propel a vehicle whereas the defendants were utilizing the Otto engine, that Selden had simply made the wrong choice and that the defendants neither legally nor morally owed him anything. They sent the case back to the trial court to be dismissed and even ordered the court costs charged to the ALAM.
The United States Motor Company collapsed a year after the suit in 1912, and Briscoe left to make a new car (the Briscoe). Jonathan Maxwell reorganized and moved to Detroit where he manufactured Maxwell Fours as well as trucks and buses. Things went well for a time, but the company was hit hard by the post-war recession. Enter Walter Percy Chrysler.
Chrysler had started his career in the railroad industry before catching the eye of GM executives. He went to work for GM in Detroit and was put in charge of the Buick division. He was an indefatigable worker who operated efficiently, making judicious use of his time. Before long, Chrysler made Buick into GM’s strongest unit. When he arrived, Buick was making 40 cars per day, and, when he left 8 years later, 560 Buicks per day was the output.
Chrysler made the move to Maxwell in 1920, and there were many problems for him to solve. A merger with Chalmers did not work out well, and the Chalmers automobile was phased out. The Maxwell’s reputation had suffered due to mechanical issues, so it was revamped and rebranded the “Good Maxwell”.
By 1924, Chrysler was ready to introduce a new car, one named after himself. The new Chrysler had a high-compression six-cylinder engine that cruised comfortably at 70 mph, hydraulic four-wheel brakes, and a reasonable price tag of $1395. It was an immediate hit with the public that shattered records with 10,000 new Chryslers being produced and sold within the first six months. People lining up to buy Chrysler’s creation included racecar drivers like Joe Boyer and Jimmy Murphy.
It is a household name now, but advertisements at the time had to instruct people how to pronounce the name of the new automobile:
1926 was the last year for the Maxwell as it was re-made into a 4-cylinder Chrysler.
In 1928, Chrysler continued his streak by purchasing Dodge Brothers and also introducing the Plymouth. So, the author of that 1910 story was sort of correct about Maxwell going to war with GM. It just took a number of years, a name change and the genius of Walter P. Chrysler to get there.
“Men who get very far ahead have some other qualities in addition to ordinary ability, capacity, energy and opportunity. Some are idea-resourceful. They possess imagination. They dare to take a chance and be different. They are willing to tackle anything. They refuse to acknowledge defeat until actually licked, and even then they are thinking about their next chance.”
-Walter P. Chrysler
Sources:
American Motor Car Manufacturers’ Association advertisement. Los Angeles Herald, 26 December 1909, part II p. 4.
Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers advertisement. The San Francisco Call, 24 February 1907, p.46.
“Big Auto War Expected Between Maxwell-Columbia Combine and General Motors Co. of Detroit.” The Los Angeles Record, 26 February 1910, p. 9.
Chrysler advertisement. The Detroit Free Press, 14 September 1924, p. 47.
Chrysler advertisement. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 28 June 1925, p. E5.
“Chrysler Six Breaks Record.” The Rutland News, 5 July 1924, p. 1.
“From Engine-Wiper to Motor Car Wizard.” The Spokesman Revie, 6 January 1924, p. 3.
Independent Automobile Manufacturers of America advertisement. The San Francisco Examiner, 29 May 1910, p. 42.
Licensed Motor Car Association of Los Angeles advertisement. Los Angeles Herald, 26 December 1909, part II p. 4.
Maxwell advertisement. The Tennessean Sun, 20 August 1922, p. 2.
“The New Chrysler Car.” The Tampa Tribune, 27 January 1924, p. E1.
“Selden Patent Decision Causes Furor in Auto Trade.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 10 January 1911, p. 3.
“Selden Patents Decision Not Particularly Important.” Williamsport Sun Gazette, 11 January 1911, p. 5.
“Talks of Plight of Independents.” Los Angeles Herald, 31 January 1910, p. 8.
“To Test Patent in Supreme Tribunal.” Moline Daily Dispatch, 10 January 1911, p. 5.
