History Searching for 1948 Tucker photos

I have several original Tucker Topics and a letter to my Father from Preston's secretary. Dated March3, 1987. Her name is Dee Dee Jordon. My Father met her at a Auto Museum in Sarasota where he was a tour guide in the 80's. At the time, the museum had a green Tucker, ser no 45, which has since been sold. My Father was looking inside the Tucker and found a large Tucker banner under the front seat. I have a pic of it. Don't know where the banner went. I think it was made of felt. Not sure.

 

Probably been posted before...

 

That is the NY Auto Show in 1948

 

Here is a photo of Dee Dee Jordan from January of 1983. Her husband Al is on the left and on the right is the late Richard Jones. Richard was one of the founders of the Tucker Club and was its senior historian. The car is Tucker #1022 now at Hershey as part of the Cammack Collection.

 

don't remember seeing the first picture on here
I have no info on it
Paul

 

NEW TUCKER


https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rob-Ida-Concepts/112266852142140

 

I've been searching for pics of a '54 for years but have never found any.

 

Please explain, 54 what? Stu

 

A story on the Tucker I saw today.

 

Not a bad acticle. Unfortunately tell allow comments to be posted. This brings out all the know it all's that know nothing about the Tucker. Also a lot of comments based on the movie being factual. People forget that Hollywood likes to tell a good story and not let facts get in the way. Anyone that doubts that should watch Moneyball and check out the facts. If the big three wanted Tucker out of business so badly why were everyone of them selling him parts?

 

How would you rate the Pierson book for accuracy?


FrankC

 

Charles T Pearson was there so he saw things first hand. He was a close friend of the Tucker family. He even helped Vera Tucker sell #1031 in the early 60s and she made a few appearences with him when the book came out.

I think Pearson saw things as a friend would see them. His book is all fairly positive about Preston Tucker. Preston was a good guy but certainly had his flaws.

Cliff Knoble, the Tucker Corporation's Marketing guy, wrote a book Call to Market. It sold very few copies. Recently someone discovered a huge stash of unsold copies and started dumping them on e-bay. There are only about 20 pages in Knoble's book about Tucker but they are very well written. Knoble was one of the guys that went on trial with Tucker for fraud. This came months after Preston Tucker had fired him for questioning how the accessory money was being spent. If anyone had an axe to grind it was Knoble yet he wrote a very honest accessment of Preston Tucker. Probably the best I have seen. I recommend it to anyone interested in the Tucker but buy a used copy. The new e-bay copies go for around $40. I paid $3 for one off Amazon.

 

Amazon has (1) "Used - Very Good" for $54.95

must be getting scarce

 

There was a replica in Hot Rod Magazine a few years back somebody made. A descendant of the Tucker family gave him an original horn button to use.


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There are tons of them floating around yet. No need to pay more than about ten bucks for one. Be patient.

 

1948 Tucker cross country trip passed through Des Moines IA where they visited the local dealership. Here the car is photographed on the corner of 3rd and Grand AVE.

 

One need only look at the cars in the background of this photo to see why the Tucker caused such a big sensation with the public.

FrankC

 

I just bought a copy on Ebay for $3.99 plus 4 bucks shipping. Cheap enough.

 

I haven't seen this photo before. Do you have a date it was taken? I can probably figure out which car it is. It has a Illinois Manufacturer Plate on it but I can't make out the number.

The Gambs Holmes Motor Company was the Tucker dealer in Des Moines. They were located on that corner at 301 Grand Avenue. They also appear to be the Tucker distributor for that area. They ran a large newspaper ad in the Des Moines Sunday Register on June 20th, Page 12. I haven't seen the ad myself.

 

I will see if I can find a date.
The dealer built a brand new dealership for Tuckers. The building is still there.

 

I was just looking at that corner. The only old building is the Kenyon Company building built in 1907. Did they build at a different location?

 

301 Grand ave in Des Moines
Here is a modern photo of the actual showroom.
It was a Pontiac dealership for a while. Holmes ran the Oldsmobile dealrship for many years.

 

So where did they do service? Looks like the Kenyon Building took up most of the corner?

 

The building is not small. The showroom is the glassed in lower section on the Southeast side of the building. The rest of the building is pretty large.

 

That's the Kenyon Company building then. So the Tucker dealership must have just added the showroom since the rest of the building was built in 1907. That is where I was confused. I was looking for an entire building.

 

Yes the showroom area very exposed to traffic was the addition. There may be good information and there may be some BS? Guess I need to take a trip to the historical museum and look at some Microfiche copies of the register from 1948?

Here is the text of the article that ran with the photo above in the Des Moines Register 8/20/88
As “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” plays in theaters, Iowans are producing Tucker tales faster than Tucker made cars. It turns out that the Des Moines dealer-to-be did have a Tucker, very briefly and only for show, not for sale.
Maxine Gambs McCaw of Des Moines recalls that her father -- Dale Gambs, who was then half of the old Gambs-Holmes car dealership – sold Tucker franchises throughout Iowa. But he was suspicious of the deal, she says, so instead of sending prospective dealers’ money to Tucker, Gambs placed it in escrow. Thus, when everything went sour, would-be Iowa dealers got their money back, she recalls.
Doris Holmes, widow of Max Holmes, the other half of Gambs-Holmes, recalls that the expectant dealership built a downtown showroom featuring a curved glass window especially for the Tucker. …. McCaw says one Tucker was brought to town for a parade and show in 1948. She thinks this also is the car that was displayed one evening at Sec Taylor Stadium which was then called Pioneer Memorial Stadium. The Tucker’s ballpark appearance is remembered by such baseball fans as Dick Masimore, a semi-retired Preferred Risk Insurance Co, executive; William Trout, a lawyer; and Sam Anania, former Polk County supervisor and Iowa legislator. They remember that a big deal was made out of presenting its keys to the Most Valuable Player on the old Des Moines Bruins team, a forerunner of the Iowa Cubs. The winner was Tony “Tiny T” Jacobs, a pitcher.
They gave him the keys and he was to pick up a Tucker later, “ Anania recalls, laughing . “But obviously he never got the car.” …… By Walt Shotwell Register Staff Writer, DM Register 8/20/88

 

I've seen the program from the games that year but did not know they awarded the car. It would be great to find some dates on some of this. I'm also curious if it appeared to be the same car at the game that was in your photo. I'm pretty sure I know which car was in the photo.

 

"What IF Tuckers", after seeing Rob Ida's Tucker 4dr. in HOT ROD, I thought that it could make a cool coupe version in 2007, which in 2008 lead to a series of Tucker offerings. As GM did in the late 60's, I shortened the wheelbase, lengthened the front fenders, thinned the bumpers and lowered the roof line for the Aero Coupe. Lowered the roof panel into the coupe body to become the Tucker Aero Roadster. Then added a sporty top for the flashy Aero Convertible. If the Tucker company would have survived, thought they would have needed to offer a flamboyant 2 dr. wagon, so the Aero Sports 2dr. wagon... I checked with Tucker 48 Fan before posting, so hopefully the renderings have some merit...DYNO DAVE

 

There is a Tucker car on display at the Gilmore Classic Car Museum, near Kalamazoo, MI. They also have a movie prop ( car ) from the movie Tucker the Man and His Dream. There is also a movie prop ( car ) at the Hudson Museum in Ypsilanti, MI. Ypsilanti is where Preston Tucker lived when designing the car. His house is just a few streets away fron the Hudson Museum.

 

On my one-and-only weekend at a Tucker club convention in the mid-1980s, the group took a bus ride to the Gilmore to see their Tucker. I believe it was green, or perhaps blue. The curator at that time was very accommodating, and took the car out to drive on the roadways of the Gilmore grounds. He allowed a couple of people to drive it (only Tucker owners were offered that privilege, as they would be familiar with the operation) and some of us got to ride in it. (Not me, tho) As much fun as the Gilmore visit was, the trip there and back was even more so as I sat with William Kirby, the lawyer who successfully defended PT Tucker in his stock fraud case. We just talked and talked and talked about all sorts of things. An amazing man.

FrankC