History Photos taken before WW2 - history in black and white

1935 Hillman Aero:

 

1939 Hillman Minx:

 

Well, I'll be, SunRoof. You learn something new every day (and isn't that why we're here? I mean, besides having fun with pix?).

Dictionary.com says:

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Word Origin & History

gow
1915, "opium," from Cantonese yao-kao "opium," lit. "sap;" used as such by Raymond Chandler, etc.; by 1950s meaning had expanded to "pictures of nude or scantily clad women," hence gow job "flashy girl," which in teenager slang came to also mean "hot rod."

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Wow, we did a whole thread on the origins of the term hotrod, and this is the first time I've heard these two expressions formally linked in popular lexical etiology. The metamorphosis of the English language on the American continent is fascinating to me -- 'cause some things don't make a heck of a lot of sense! Notably, I recently saw a LONG list of popular slang phraseology from the '20s and into the '30s, and two-thirds of the expressions were so obscure that they had to be explained in the lexicon of today ("gow job" wasn't one of them, incidentally).

Now that I know that "gow" isn't just a bastardization of "go," I won't commit this crime again! (LOL) And for anybody like me who never heard the term "gow" before, yup, it rhymes with "plow'!

Thanks for the education, Jim-Bo, et.al.!

 

I'd like to add a super-interesting tidbit: There's an old (but short) thread started WAY back in Nov. 2004 by KustomKoupe that sheds light on a NUMBER of OLD hot-car terms! The thread is simply titled, "GOW JOB?" It's a quick read, so check it out, especially the seven paragraphs written by Grant Lubben in a letter published in Street Rodder mag, Dec. 2001.

 

From the Malay Mail newspaper - 1st June 1906

 

"Cycle & Carriage Co’s Chua Boon Unn with his MG outside Bok House, Kuala Lumpur in 1937. The grayhound mascot on the car came from a pre-war American Lincoln and eventually became a handle on an ash-tray. " ​

 

"Chua Boon Unn (left of car) with cousin Chua Soon Teck (right of car) in 1937 at one of the family-owned estates in Malaya."

 

"Chua Boon Unn (left) by his Singapore registered Singer Le Mans 1 1/2 litre while on his West Coast tour in 1937. The car was run in the 1939 Gap Hill Climb."​

 

Advertisement for Renault:



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Singer Tricar:

 

1932 Morris Streamline:

 

1935 Adler Trumpf

 

Renault Minibus - late 1920's:

 

Star 20-25 cwt truck - late 1920's:

 

Stoewer D12 - mid 1920's:

 

BSA 11hp - 1924(?):

 

Napier taxi - circa 1911:

 

1909 Humber Landaulette:

 

??:

 

1902 Arrol-Johnson 12hp Dogcart:

 

Didn't know that either! Had always heard it described the the other way, but as Jimi said, "You learn somethin' new every day".

 

LOL! This thread sometimes moves very quickly, and I didn't see this post until long after I made mine saying it looked like a T - that's the risk when leaving the reply window open longer than a minute, which I am guilty of. Faster guns get fired first. Two more pages of posts have since piled up...Amazing. I'll gladly get you linked to the photo, quizmaster!

 

Too True my friend! Happens to me all the time. Look forward to the link!

"Quizmaster T"

 

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This is the same car that is shown pointed straight down in earlier posts. Did the driver survive? You can see by the shape of the ramp that the car would flip end over end when it came off the ramp. This must have been the first time this stunt was tried. It was a woman driver. I wonder how much they paid her to drive down the ramp.

 

No, a 1940 Chevy.

 

I want one.

 

Cliff House tour rig:

 

Really fascinating "gow job." LOL So, it seems everyone agrees it's based on a '25/6 T with Fronty improvements, wires and MAYBE other performance parts, I take it. Quite a proto-hotrod, eh?

It was ventured that the pic may have been taken mid-'30s. ANYBODY else want a WAG at when taken???

 

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