History Photos taken before WW2 - history in black and white

Gotta remember, that pre-WWII, US 12 was the Detroit-Chicago route. Even at 4- or 5-lanes wide, Interstate 94, which replaced it, is like a parking lot at various times of the day today, so that’s light traffic for that route.

-Dave

 

MrModelT is correct. From Vintage Chevrolet Trivia;

Q. I've heard that Chevrolet was started in 1911, but I've never seen or heard about a 1911 model. Did they build one?

A. Thanks for the question Bob. You are correct - Chevrolet Motor Car - soon changed to Chevrolet Motor Company - was incorporated in 1911 by William C. Durant.

The first model - the 1912 Chevrolet Six Type C Classic arrived late in the year. The car offered an overheadvalve T-head of 299 cubic inches. This engine was the largest Chevrolet produced until the 348 cubic inch V-8 offered in 1958.

In the above photo you can see the first production Chevrolet, a six cylinder with folding top and adjustable windshield, one of 2,999 made for the year (including Littles).

 

June 16th – 1910. Crowds flock the streets to see the spectacle that is ’Little Hip’, the tiny elephant driven through the streets of Salt Lake City. The circus animal, driven in a classic automobile, was used promote a local theatre in partnership with the Evening Telegraph – a newspaper company.

Showmen were at the forefront of creating awareness during the early twentieth-century. For some loose change the public could go see the event at the Mission Theatre – Little Hip’s temporary home for the week.

 

This looks like a good unofficial Mystery Car. I know the answer but do you???

 

B]Associated Transports - streamlined' new
auto' hauler trailer with new 'streamlined'
1935 Studebaker tractor.[/B]

Mart3406
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Hmmm...It just screams "Pierce-Arrow" due to the headlights, large wheel centers and over all design feel (look like a more 1940's prototype version of the "Silver Arrow"), but the wide license plate location and general "feel" are also very European, and the emblem on the radiator looks like the Maybach logo...A Pierce inspired Maybach?

 

Your a tuff guy to fool; I fiqured somebody would say Pierce. It is indeed a Maybach, all 12 cylinders of it and the biggest car displayed at the International Automobile Show in Berlin in 1933.

 

T6......It is a Simplex.....I have seen a photo of it from a different angle and it is just an incredible car....

 

Firestone Tires - 1931

Mart3406
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That was a good one..

It most have been inspired by the 1933 Pierce-Arrow "Silver Arrow" concept as it appears to have many of the same design cues: The headlights, radiator shell, flat side with no running boards, the general "Arched" shape of the body lines, and even the two-tone color scheme.

I could also tell from the photo that thew car was on display...at most likely an auto show.

 

Packard car, International truck and
hot chick- circa 1935!

Mart3406
====================

 

Good I.D.! I was struggling with that one for a few days now....was thinking either Locomobile, Simplex or maybe Thomas. Was this a factory built car or a "Mod Job" to an older existing car?

 

Study the second photo that T6 posted of George Bentel's garage and you will see this very same Simplex Speed Car behind the two Mercer racing cars. I have a feeling that it was a car that he set up this way possibly for the movie people.....

The man on the right hand side in both photos appears to be the same and the car to the left of the two men in the second photo is also a Simplex which has an axle which is dropped about 2" more than a standard Simplex axle and a drilled cross member......

 

Good eye again my friend! I wonder if it was owned by the man who appears in both photos and loaned to the studios or owned by the movie star and only stored at George Bentel's garage. Whether it was a factory built car or a garage built job.....it was nicely executed!

 

Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt photo dated 1940.... I guess he really liked this car. What is it?

 

His relative runs for office in R.I 1938

 

Mystery machine with a 1935 Ohio plate.

 

Looks like a Rolls, maybe Ghost? Any RR experts on board who could help?

 

Looks like this may have started life as a Series 5 Mercer? or perhaps a Stude?....just don't recognize those wheels.....

 

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/01/19/the-sad-strange-case-of-the-1912-blackiston/

"1912 Blackiston, from Canton, Ohio. This was a behemoth of a car, described both as a runabout and as appearing “as big as a locomotive.” G.P. Blackiston apparently built it himself, using the chassis from an unidentified racing car. What engine he fitted into that chassis remains a mystery, other than its rating of 90hp, but it had to have been massive to warrant two radiators and a hood that measured seven-and-a-half feet long and five-and-a-half feet high. Blackiston said he expected the car to be able to reach 137 MPH (at a time when the world’s absolute land speed record stood at 125.94 MPH), and told The Automobile Journal that he intended neither to race or enter production with his car, just “to find enjoyment in making long-distance tours therein."

 

Helen Gibson - 1915/1917:

 

Helen Gibson:

 

May be a 1929 Hudson.

 

If this 1920's Chanpion Spark Plug display was my Hershey Flea Market setup what do you think I wind up with walking around money?

 

CAPTION - "Sadly for him, both stupidity and
insanity ran in his family in equal measures
and thus, 'Backward Bill' as he quickly became
known to both friend and foe alike, didn't know
or care that he had inadvertently installed his
slick new J.C. Whitney 'Continental kit' on the
wrong end of his car!!!"

Mart3406
========================

 

Buick c. 1926-7 with a teddy bear.

 

Here again is last week's mystery car. Thanks go out to all who sent me PM's with their answers. Just about all had this correctly pegged as a Buick, with MrModelT the closest of all - a 1930-31 series 60. And now, for the "rest of the story." This is actually a Buick bodied Doble, known as F34. This was the only photo I could find of it from the 1930's. It's hard to see in the photo that it is RHD, but the right hand taillight, which I don't believe was standard, might have tipped off an eagle-eye that something was odd. This was Abner Doble's personal car when he was in England and providing his services to the Sentinel Waggon Works, in Shrewsbury. Here's a link to some great modern photos, and some oldies too, of various Dobles including F34 in its current state:

http://www.steamcar.net/dobles.html

So MrModelT, it's back to you for another quiz...

 

Wow, I was way off. Still, it has been the only one so far I've even felt close to guessing. The pre-Great War stuff is too arcane for me.

-Dave