Today's #DavesCarIDService comes back from Dead Man's Curve with the harrowing saga of Jan Berry. One half of the surf duo Jan & Dean, Berry survived an 80 mph collision with a parked truck in Los Angeles on April 8, 1966, in an eerie echo of Jan & Dean's 1964 hit, "Dead Man's Curve."
Berry suffered traumatic brain injury and partial paralysis as a result of the wreck, and remained unconscious for 2 weeks at UCLA hospital. But later he returned to perform with partner Dean Torrance. His brand new 1966 Chevy Corvette did not survive, although its VIN is known.
There are a few apocryphal stories about the circumstances that led to the wreck. One claims one of the knock off wheels came loose, but the "knock off wheels" on a 1966 Corvette are purely ornamental, and have conventional lug nuts. The Occam's Razor explanation is that Berry was a few weeks past his 25th birthday, and doing what 25 year old dudes with a fast car and way more money than sense do.
Berry passed away in 2004 at the age of 62. His car wreck in 1966, in a sense, represented the death of the surf & hot rod music craze. Later that year would be the Riot On the Sunset Strip, followed by the 1967 Summer of Love, 1969 Woodstock, 1970's Altamont, as youth culture moved on from those Fun Fun Fun days of 1962-65.
Now reminding myself that some readers are callow youths under 80 and might need a primer on what was happening at the time. Suffice it to say before Brian Wilson emerged the Pet Sounds tortured genius darling of music critics, he and the Beach Boys pound out hit after hit extolling California youth culture - surfing, hot rods, girls, high school hedonism.
Personally I prefer that chapter in their oeuvre. Jan & Dean were Brian Wilson-adjacent, likewise hitmakers in the surf & hot rod genre: Surf City, Sidewalk Surfin' (the only hit song I know about skateboarding), Little Old Lady From Pasadena, and the aforementioned Dead Man's Curve.
And they were more teeny-bopper accessible; good looking guys with funny stage patter. They rode the wave of that surf & car craze, famously hosting the T.A.M.I. Show (arguably one of the best concert films ever), and appeared on the wildly popular Batman TV show (they had a hit cover of the theme).
But now to the portentous 1964 song, Dead Man's Curve: it was written by Brian Wilson, Artie Kornfeld, Roger Christian (who undoubtedly wrote the lyrics), and was originally recorded in Jan Berry's mom's house.
It tells of a street race between the singer's Corvette and a Jaguar XKE, inspired by the clandestine street racing scene on Mulholland Drive in LA. A mighty car crash SFX is heard, followed by harps. In his hospital bed the Corvette driver recalls:
"Well, the last thing I remember, Doc, I started to swerve
And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve
I know I'll never forget that horrible sight
I guess I found out for myself that everyone was right...
WON'T COME BACK FROM DEAD MAN'S CURVE."
And thus Jan Berry became his own fortune teller.
FWIW, like Brian Wilson, Jan Berry was a talented writer and producer, for both Jan & Dean and other acts. One of which was the Rip Chords, whose members included Doris Day's son Terry Melcher - the likely intended target of the Manson Family in the Sharon Tate murders. But that's another 1960s rabbit hole altogether.
After the 1966 wreck, Berry's injuries made it difficult for him to continue in music on a consistent basis. But he did eventually win a Grammy - oddly enough for album cover design, 1971's "Pollution" by the band Pollution.
Oops - quick correction, Jan's 1966 crash was on April 12, making yesterday its 59th anniversary.
Anyhoo, it's time to move on from the spooky car history shaggy dog stories, and start identificatin' some of those mystery cars in the old family photos of readers.
If you have such photos in your closet shoeboxes and family albums, I'd be pleased to provide you my car ID service as well. Just apply the #davescaridservice hashtag, mind the content guidelines, and remember my ID threads are a NO POLITICS ZONE.
Oooh, those possibly scandalous "who was that girl on the bottom of Dad's snapshot stack who wasn't mom?" photos are one of my absolute favorite DCIDS cases. The hubba hubba mystery Jezebel in this case is leaning on a 1939 Ford Standard.
@ResolutelyRight
#DavesCarIDService
This was at the bottom of the father-in-law's photo box. Nope, that's not my wife's mother. https://t.co/vSWykNiehm
* One wonders how many other fellow dads had a Lotsa Love Lois keepsake photo hidden in their own shoeboxes.
To be fair, I've ID'd a few "who's that mystery dude with mom who isn't dad?" photos, which are maybe even cooler.
I-O-W-A! Ah, my beloved old stomping grounds *sniff*, but likely late 1940s. Foreground green car is 1938 Chevy coupe, and blue car over yonder by Old Cap (Iowa's original state capitol) is a '48 Olds Club Sedan, the newest car visible. (ht to many).
@uiowa
A Hawkeye POV walking downtown Iowa City in the 1950s 🚕 https://t.co/QYnsbgA3Qm
The two uncles put on their Sunday best suspenders, slicked their hair up with Fop, and then lil' Mom tap danced into the photo to steal the show with her sassy show biz pizazz. Behind 'em is a 1941 Hudson Super 6.
@JohnMills06
@iowahawkblog My mom with her brothers and the family car #DavesCarIDService https://t.co/WvoHInreCR
Shakespeare? Globe Theater? Tufnell Park? Shame the church wasn't St. Hubbins's.
This photo take the English all the way to 11, with a veddy British 1960-71 Morris Minor on hand. Can't tell exact model year but I suspect on the newer end of range.
@ajwimsatt
@iowahawkblog
Here’s a photo my mom took of St. George’s church in Tufnell Park, London. It later became a theatre & has a circular interior with similar dimensions to Shakespeare’s Globe theater. We lived near this church from 1974-75. What’s the car?
Nostalgia-ception! It's interesting to get car ID photos from old antique car shows where the new cars are now older than the old cars were at the time. Big Boy here is a 1927-28 Packard 443 or 526 phaeton, Daddy's Caddy is a 63-64.
@J_Dorny
@iowahawkblog #davescaridservice My parents went with several couples on a weekend away in Connecticut in the late sixties. The host had this oldie but goodie 4dr rag-top, what is it? The Caddy Sedan DeVille with JPD front plate was my Dad's. https://t.co/XZeX2NoWUt
*for completeness, the station wagon behind the Packard is a 1967 Ford Country Squire. Factoring in the apparel, photo is probably somewhere 1967-69. The Packard was 40 years old then, the Country Squire 58 years old now.
The vigilant firefighters of Broad Ripple Indiana are with a 1941 Buick in #1. Wearing 1946, 48, or 50 IN plates, so they kept it nice & shiny during the war. In #2, the ladder truck is an early 1920s Stutz. Yep, of Stutz Bearcat fame.
This not-with-Dad photo is likely not scandalous; as a tenacious old school reporter Mom was always looking to dig up scandals, not bury them! In #1, she's hectoring shady character for a quote in front of a 1946-48 Dodge or Plymouth; to left, 46 Ford.
@hoseapluma
My Mom holding forth while an unidentified pipe smoker, who is definitely not my Dad, looks on. In a more sedate photo, interviewing a VIP as a cub reporter. Possibly late 40's for the first one, early 50's for the second. #DavesCarIDService https://t.co/2pmECRGjXa
*in #2, the unidentified poobah in the 1952 Cadillac Series 62 is sweating bullets while trying to maintain a smile, while ace reporter Mom "Scoop" Feather grills him on his alleged involvement in some nefarious city hall brouhaha. Get 'em, Scoop!
Looks liked Grandpa just did a temporary pause on pushing a lawn mower to come over for the family vacation photo op. And looks like your Wagon Queen Family Truckster was a 1965 Plymouth Fury I / Savoy station wagon.
@PaulRSchmidtTM
@iowahawkblog #DavesCarIDService That’s mom in the middle, and her dad and a neighbor to see our family off on a camping trip circa 1965. I’m the one in the hat; Dad’s holding the camera. https://t.co/ocAnwIYRgC
A while back I did a thread about musical women and their cars. Karen Carpenter is here leaning on a 1969-73 Maserati Ghibli SS. I suspect it actually belonged to her brother Richard, who remains a very prolific car collector.
@craig_s_bell
@iowahawkblog Karen Carpenter on drums (she also sang a little)
#DavesCarIDService https://t.co/3kp9g0wVAY
Holy guacamole! Just an amazing panoply of characters here, looking more 1870s than 1930s. Took a while to figure out that the car is a 1934 Nash Ambassador, and I suspect a few of the folks in front had vivid memories of the Civil War.
@SelectOSpeed
#DavesCarIDService
Got another one for you good sir. This eclectic bunch is my Grandma's cousins from northwest Indiana. https://t.co/XsQXAeycXD
Another from the Wimsatts in England archive, this time with Big Ben + Andrew & Sis hiding behind a plinth, fixin' to run away and join a glam punk band. Best I can tell the the van is an early 70s Ford Escort; I'll let London experts ID the statue.
@ajwimsatt
@iowahawkblog
Here I am with my sister in London posing for the camera. What is the vehicle behind us?
Brooks Stevens! The enigmatic independent Milwaukee industrial designer had some hits and some misses, but I score this 1939 Oscar Mayer ice wagon a hit. Based on an International Harvester truck chassis. And came after the first Wienermobile.
@JoshLipnik
1930s Oscar Mayer Coolerator designed by Milwaukee industrial designer Brooks Stevens. The Weinermobile’s less famous cousin. https://t.co/iDb0otKBvl
btw, hat tip to @steve_marcy for tagging me on that.
Here's the first Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, or as it was called then, "Frankmobile," in 1936. Designed by Carl Mayer, Oscar's nephew, and built in Chicago. Whether Abe Froman was involved is unknown.
Da, comrade! Is real! Is 1963-4 Start GAZ 21 minibus, glorious 2-year plan by USSR central committee to overthrow decadent capitalism with space age Soviet auto technology!
Well, it's a toy model of one, anyway. Only a few prototypes were ever made.
@ConservativeLA
Please tell me this is not real. @iowahawkblog #DavesCarIDService https://t.co/dMTBuRiikY
Here's one of the very rare, but real, life-sized ones. Fiberglass body.
Time to knock off a few street and wilderness mysteries, like this 1939 Ford Standard street rod. Who knows? Maybe the same one that was with Lotsa Love Lois earlier in the thread.
The rather ponderous mug of a 1972 Dodge Monaco.
@norkus_michael
Saw this enormous thing on my run. Can see it’s a Dodge, but no clue on model… #DavesCarIDService https://t.co/5z5BLBfKoB
1958-62 Hillman Minx (or possibly a Humber 80 of same vintage, basically the same car)
@sersomet
Hey #DavesCarIDService I pass this car on my way to work everyday and would love to know what it is. No room to stop and take a picture so I had to take it while driving. Hope it's not too blurry. https://t.co/z3rvlp8Tot
*that 1960 Ford wagon is not much of a restoration candidate, but you could use the tailgate to make a Deora replica. That's exactly what the Alexander Brothers did to make the front of the Deora: grafting a 1960 Ford wagon gate on a Dodge A-100 truck.
1948-50 Ford F1 pickup having problems with the Atlanta po-po.
@PolybiusChamp
#DavesCarIDService @iowahawkblog Spotted while out driving around Atlanta today, luckily he had made it to the top of the hill. https://t.co/ShQbrJgWvJ
That's a yikes from me. I am very very pro-hot rod, but the 1939 Ford Deluxe phaeton is the very rare final year Ford phaeton. As such is should be restored to original condition rather that street rodded like this.
@RDassalenaux
This slightly modified Ford was parked in my neighborhood a few years back. Can you identify the year and model? #DavesCarIDService, @iowahawkblog https://t.co/uXJnopfF5u
Look man, there are some cars you just do not try to turn into a hot rod or street rod. Cool or not this is clear violation of the long established Strategic Modification Limitation Agreement between restorers and hot rodders.
Today's #DavesCarIDService comes back from Dead Man's Curve with the harrowing saga of Jan Berry. One half of the surf duo Jan & Dean, Berry survived an 80 mph collision with a parked truck in Los Angeles on April 8, 1966, in an eerie echo of Jan & Dean's 1964 hit, "Dead Man's Curve."
Berry suffered traumatic brain injury and partial paralysis as a result of the wreck, and remained unconscious for 2 weeks at UCLA hospital. But later he returned to perform with partner Dean Torrance. His brand new 1966 Chevy Corvette did not survive, although its VIN is known.
There are a few apocryphal stories about the circumstances that led to the wreck. One claims one of the knock off wheels came loose, but the "knock off wheels" on a 1966 Corvette are purely ornamental, and have conventional lug nuts. The Occam's Razor explanation is that Berry was a few weeks past his 25th birthday, and doing what 25 year old dudes with a fast car and way more money than sense do.
Berry passed away in 2004 at the age of 62. His car wreck in 1966, in a sense, represented the death of the surf & hot rod music craze. Later that year would be the Riot On the Sunset Strip, followed by the 1967 Summer of Love, 1969 Woodstock, 1970's Altamont, as youth culture moved on from those Fun Fun Fun days of 1962-65.Now reminding myself that some readers are callow youths under 80 and might need a primer on what was happening at the time. Suffice it to say before Brian Wilson emerged the Pet Sounds tortured genius darling of music critics, he and the Beach Boys pound out hit after hit extolling California youth culture - surfing, hot rods, girls, high school hedonism.
Personally I prefer that chapter in their oeuvre. Jan & Dean were Brian Wilson-adjacent, likewise hitmakers in the surf & hot rod genre: Surf City, Sidewalk Surfin' (the only hit song I know about skateboarding), Little Old Lady From Pasadena, and the aforementioned Dead Man's Curve.
And they were more teeny-bopper accessible; good looking guys with funny stage patter. They rode the wave of that surf & car craze, famously hosting the T.A.M.I. Show (arguably one of the best concert films ever), and appeared on the wildly popular Batman TV show (they had a hit cover of the theme).But now to the portentous 1964 song, Dead Man's Curve: it was written by Brian Wilson, Artie Kornfeld, Roger Christian (who undoubtedly wrote the lyrics), and was originally recorded in Jan Berry's mom's house.
It tells of a street race between the singer's Corvette and a Jaguar XKE, inspired by the clandestine street racing scene on Mulholland Drive in LA. A mighty car crash SFX is heard, followed by harps. In his hospital bed the Corvette driver recalls:
"Well, the last thing I remember, Doc, I started to swerve
And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve
I know I'll never forget that horrible sight
I guess I found out for myself that everyone was right...
WON'T COME BACK FROM DEAD MAN'S CURVE."
And thus Jan Berry became his own fortune teller.
FWIW, like Brian Wilson, Jan Berry was a talented writer and producer, for both Jan & Dean and other acts. One of which was the Rip Chords, whose members included Doris Day's son Terry Melcher - the likely intended target of the Manson Family in the Sharon Tate murders. But that's another 1960s rabbit hole altogether.
After the 1966 wreck, Berry's injuries made it difficult for him to continue in music on a consistent basis. But he did eventually win a Grammy - oddly enough for album cover design, 1971's "Pollution" by the band Pollution.Oops - quick correction, Jan's 1966 crash was on April 12, making yesterday its 59th anniversary.
Anyhoo, it's time to move on from the spooky car history shaggy dog stories, and start identificatin' some of those mystery cars in the old family photos of readers.If you have such photos in your closet shoeboxes and family albums, I'd be pleased to provide you my car ID service as well. Just apply the #davescaridservice hashtag, mind the content guidelines, and remember my ID threads are a NO POLITICS ZONE.Oooh, those possibly scandalous "who was that girl on the bottom of Dad's snapshot stack who wasn't mom?" photos are one of my absolute favorite DCIDS cases. The hubba hubba mystery Jezebel in this case is leaning on a 1939 Ford Standard.* One wonders how many other fellow dads had a Lotsa Love Lois keepsake photo hidden in their own shoeboxes.
To be fair, I've ID'd a few "who's that mystery dude with mom who isn't dad?" photos, which are maybe even cooler.I-O-W-A! Ah, my beloved old stomping grounds *sniff*, but likely late 1940s. Foreground green car is 1938 Chevy coupe, and blue car over yonder by Old Cap (Iowa's original state capitol) is a '48 Olds Club Sedan, the newest car visible. (ht to many).The two uncles put on their Sunday best suspenders, slicked their hair up with Fop, and then lil' Mom tap danced into the photo to steal the show with her sassy show biz pizazz. Behind 'em is a 1941 Hudson Super 6.Shakespeare? Globe Theater? Tufnell Park? Shame the church wasn't St. Hubbins's.
This photo take the English all the way to 11, with a veddy British 1960-71 Morris Minor on hand. Can't tell exact model year but I suspect on the newer end of range.Nostalgia-ception! It's interesting to get car ID photos from old antique car shows where the new cars are now older than the old cars were at the time. Big Boy here is a 1927-28 Packard 443 or 526 phaeton, Daddy's Caddy is a 63-64.*for completeness, the station wagon behind the Packard is a 1967 Ford Country Squire. Factoring in the apparel, photo is probably somewhere 1967-69. The Packard was 40 years old then, the Country Squire 58 years old now.The vigilant firefighters of Broad Ripple Indiana are with a 1941 Buick in #1. Wearing 1946, 48, or 50 IN plates, so they kept it nice & shiny during the war. In #2, the ladder truck is an early 1920s Stutz. Yep, of Stutz Bearcat fame.This not-with-Dad photo is likely not scandalous; as a tenacious old school reporter Mom was always looking to dig up scandals, not bury them! In #1, she's hectoring shady character for a quote in front of a 1946-48 Dodge or Plymouth; to left, 46 Ford.*in #2, the unidentified poobah in the 1952 Cadillac Series 62 is sweating bullets while trying to maintain a smile, while ace reporter Mom "Scoop" Feather grills him on his alleged involvement in some nefarious city hall brouhaha. Get 'em, Scoop!Looks liked Grandpa just did a temporary pause on pushing a lawn mower to come over for the family vacation photo op. And looks like your Wagon Queen Family Truckster was a 1965 Plymouth Fury I / Savoy station wagon.A while back I did a thread about musical women and their cars. Karen Carpenter is here leaning on a 1969-73 Maserati Ghibli SS. I suspect it actually belonged to her brother Richard, who remains a very prolific car collector.Holy guacamole! Just an amazing panoply of characters here, looking more 1870s than 1930s. Took a while to figure out that the car is a 1934 Nash Ambassador, and I suspect a few of the folks in front had vivid memories of the Civil War.Another from the Wimsatts in England archive, this time with Big Ben + Andrew & Sis hiding behind a plinth, fixin' to run away and join a glam punk band. Best I can tell the the van is an early 70s Ford Escort; I'll let London experts ID the statue.Brooks Stevens! The enigmatic independent Milwaukee industrial designer had some hits and some misses, but I score this 1939 Oscar Mayer ice wagon a hit. Based on an International Harvester truck chassis. And came after the first Wienermobile.btw, hat tip to @steve_marcy for tagging me on that.
Here's the first Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, or as it was called then, "Frankmobile," in 1936. Designed by Carl Mayer, Oscar's nephew, and built in Chicago. Whether Abe Froman was involved is unknown.Da, comrade! Is real! Is 1963-4 Start GAZ 21 minibus, glorious 2-year plan by USSR central committee to overthrow decadent capitalism with space age Soviet auto technology!
Well, it's a toy model of one, anyway. Only a few prototypes were ever made.Here's one of the very rare, but real, life-sized ones. Fiberglass body.Time to knock off a few street and wilderness mysteries, like this 1939 Ford Standard street rod. Who knows? Maybe the same one that was with Lotsa Love Lois earlier in the thread.The rather ponderous mug of a 1972 Dodge Monaco.1958-62 Hillman Minx (or possibly a Humber 80 of same vintage, basically the same car)A rather forlorn 1960 Ford Country Sedan station wagon.*that 1960 Ford wagon is not much of a restoration candidate, but you could use the tailgate to make a Deora replica. That's exactly what the Alexander Brothers did to make the front of the Deora: grafting a 1960 Ford wagon gate on a Dodge A-100 truck.1948-50 Ford F1 pickup having problems with the Atlanta po-po.That's a yikes from me. I am very very pro-hot rod, but the 1939 Ford Deluxe phaeton is the very rare final year Ford phaeton. As such is should be restored to original condition rather that street rodded like this.Look man, there are some cars you just do not try to turn into a hot rod or street rod. Cool or not this is clear violation of the long established Strategic Modification Limitation Agreement between restorers and hot rodders.
yes
Today's #DavesCarIDService comes back from Dead Man's Curve with the harrowing saga of Jan Berry. One half of the surf duo Jan & Dean, Berry survived an 80 mph collision with a parked truck in Los Angeles on April 8, 1966, in an eerie echo of Jan & Dean's 1964 hit, "Dead Man's Curve."
Berry suffered traumatic brain injury and partial paralysis as a result of the wreck, and remained unconscious for 2 weeks at UCLA hospital. But later he returned to perform with partner Dean Torrance. His brand new 1966 Chevy Corvette did not survive, although its VIN is known.
There are a few apocryphal stories about the circumstances that led to the wreck. One claims one of the knock off wheels came loose, but the "knock off wheels" on a 1966 Corvette are purely ornamental, and have conventional lug nuts. The Occam's Razor explanation is that Berry was a few weeks past his 25th birthday, and doing what 25 year old dudes with a fast car and way more money than sense do.
Berry passed away in 2004 at the age of 62. His car wreck in 1966, in a sense, represented the death of the surf & hot rod music craze. Later that year would be the Riot On the Sunset Strip, followed by the 1967 Summer of Love, 1969 Woodstock, 1970's Altamont, as youth culture moved on from those Fun Fun Fun days of 1962-65. ... Now reminding myself that some readers are callow youths under 80 and might need a primer on what was happening at the time. Suffice it to say before Brian Wilson emerged the Pet Sounds tortured genius darling of music critics, he and the Beach Boys pound out hit after hit extolling California youth culture - surfing, hot rods, girls, high school hedonism.
Personally I prefer that chapter in their oeuvre. Jan & Dean were Brian Wilson-adjacent, likewise hitmakers in the surf & hot rod genre: Surf City, Sidewalk Surfin' (the only hit song I know about skateboarding), Little Old Lady From Pasadena, and the aforementioned Dead Man's Curve.
And they were more teeny-bopper accessible; good looking guys with funny stage patter. They rode the wave of that surf & car craze, famously hosting the T.A.M.I. Show (arguably one of the best concert films ever), and appeared on the wildly popular Batman TV show (they had a hit cover of the theme). ... But now to the portentous 1964 song, Dead Man's Curve: it was written by Brian Wilson, Artie Kornfeld, Roger Christian (who undoubtedly wrote the lyrics), and was originally recorded in Jan Berry's mom's house.
It tells of a street race between the singer's Corvette and a Jaguar XKE, inspired by the clandestine street racing scene on Mulholland Drive in LA. A mighty car crash SFX is heard, followed by harps. In his hospital bed the Corvette driver recalls:
"Well, the last thing I remember, Doc, I started to swerve
And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve
I know I'll never forget that horrible sight
I guess I found out for myself that everyone was right...
WON'T COME BACK FROM DEAD MAN'S CURVE."
And thus Jan Berry became his own fortune teller.
FWIW, like Brian Wilson, Jan Berry was a talented writer and producer, for both Jan & Dean and other acts. One of which was the Rip Chords, whose members included Doris Day's son Terry Melcher - the likely intended target of the Manson Family in the Sharon Tate murders. But that's another 1960s rabbit hole altogether.
After the 1966 wreck, Berry's injuries made it difficult for him to continue in music on a consistent basis. But he did eventually win a Grammy - oddly enough for album cover design, 1971's "Pollution" by the band Pollution. ... Oops - quick correction, Jan's 1966 crash was on April 12, making yesterday its 59th anniversary.
Anyhoo, it's time to move on from the spooky car history shaggy dog stories, and start identificatin' some of those mystery cars in the old family photos of readers. ... If you have such photos in your closet shoeboxes and family albums, I'd be pleased to provide you my car ID service as well. Just apply the #davescaridservice hashtag, mind the content guidelines, and remember my ID threads are a NO POLITICS ZONE. ... Oooh, those possibly scandalous "who was that girl on the bottom of Dad's snapshot stack who wasn't mom?" photos are one of my absolute favorite DCIDS cases. The hubba hubba mystery Jezebel in this case is leaning on a 1939 Ford Standard. ... * One wonders how many other fellow dads had a Lotsa Love Lois keepsake photo hidden in their own shoeboxes.
To be fair, I've ID'd a few "who's that mystery dude with mom who isn't dad?" photos, which are maybe even cooler. ... I-O-W-A! Ah, my beloved old stomping grounds *sniff*, but likely late 1940s. Foreground green car is 1938 Chevy coupe, and blue car over yonder by Old Cap (Iowa's original state capitol) is a '48 Olds Club Sedan, the newest car visible. (ht to many). ... The two uncles put on their Sunday best suspenders, slicked their hair up with Fop, and then lil' Mom tap danced into the photo to steal the show with her sassy show biz pizazz. Behind 'em is a 1941 Hudson Super 6. ... Shakespeare? Globe Theater? Tufnell Park? Shame the church wasn't St. Hubbins's.
This photo take the English all the way to 11, with a veddy British 1960-71 Morris Minor on hand. Can't tell exact model year but I suspect on the newer end of range. ... Nostalgia-ception! It's interesting to get car ID photos from old antique car shows where the new cars are now older than the old cars were at the time. Big Boy here is a 1927-28 Packard 443 or 526 phaeton, Daddy's Caddy is a 63-64. ... *for completeness, the station wagon behind the Packard is a 1967 Ford Country Squire. Factoring in the apparel, photo is probably somewhere 1967-69. The Packard was 40 years old then, the Country Squire 58 years old now. ... The vigilant firefighters of Broad Ripple Indiana are with a 1941 Buick in #1. Wearing 1946, 48, or 50 IN plates, so they kept it nice & shiny during the war. In #2, the ladder truck is an early 1920s Stutz. Yep, of Stutz Bearcat fame. ... This not-with-Dad photo is likely not scandalous; as a tenacious old school reporter Mom was always looking to dig up scandals, not bury them! In #1, she's hectoring shady character for a quote in front of a 1946-48 Dodge or Plymouth; to left, 46 Ford. ... *in #2, the unidentified poobah in the 1952 Cadillac Series 62 is sweating bullets while trying to maintain a smile, while ace reporter Mom "Scoop" Feather grills him on his alleged involvement in some nefarious city hall brouhaha. Get 'em, Scoop! ... Looks liked Grandpa just did a temporary pause on pushing a lawn mower to come over for the family vacation photo op. And looks like your Wagon Queen Family Truckster was a 1965 Plymouth Fury I / Savoy station wagon. ... A while back I did a thread about musical women and their cars. Karen Carpenter is here leaning on a 1969-73 Maserati Ghibli SS. I suspect it actually belonged to her brother Richard, who remains a very prolific car collector. ... Holy guacamole! Just an amazing panoply of characters here, looking more 1870s than 1930s. Took a while to figure out that the car is a 1934 Nash Ambassador, and I suspect a few of the folks in front had vivid memories of the Civil War. ... Another from the Wimsatts in England archive, this time with Big Ben + Andrew & Sis hiding behind a plinth, fixin' to run away and join a glam punk band. Best I can tell the the van is an early 70s Ford Escort; I'll let London experts ID the statue. ... Brooks Stevens! The enigmatic independent Milwaukee industrial designer had some hits and some misses, but I score this 1939 Oscar Mayer ice wagon a hit. Based on an International Harvester truck chassis. And came after the first Wienermobile. ... btw, hat tip to @steve_marcy for tagging me on that.
Here's the first Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, or as it was called then, "Frankmobile," in 1936. Designed by Carl Mayer, Oscar's nephew, and built in Chicago. Whether Abe Froman was involved is unknown. ... Da, comrade! Is real! Is 1963-4 Start GAZ 21 minibus, glorious 2-year plan by USSR central committee to overthrow decadent capitalism with space age Soviet auto technology!
Well, it's a toy model of one, anyway. Only a few prototypes were ever made. ... Here's one of the very rare, but real, life-sized ones. Fiberglass body. ... Time to knock off a few street and wilderness mysteries, like this 1939 Ford Standard street rod. Who knows? Maybe the same one that was with Lotsa Love Lois earlier in the thread. ... The rather ponderous mug of a 1972 Dodge Monaco. ... 1958-62 Hillman Minx (or possibly a Humber 80 of same vintage, basically the same car) ... A rather forlorn 1960 Ford Country Sedan station wagon. ... *that 1960 Ford wagon is not much of a restoration candidate, but you could use the tailgate to make a Deora replica. That's exactly what the Alexander Brothers did to make the front of the Deora: grafting a 1960 Ford wagon gate on a Dodge A-100 truck. ... 1948-50 Ford F1 pickup having problems with the Atlanta po-po. ... That's a yikes from me. I am very very pro-hot rod, but the 1939 Ford Deluxe phaeton is the very rare final year Ford phaeton. As such is should be restored to original condition rather that street rodded like this. ... Look man, there are some cars you just do not try to turn into a hot rod or street rod. Cool or not this is clear violation of the long established Strategic Modification Limitation Agreement between restorers and hot rodders.
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