History Your Favorite Hot Rod & Custom Car Magazine Covers '45 to '75

All --
I've uploaded two new ***les:
1. Drag Racer from 1959
2. Super Stock & Drag Illustrated. This ***le was published from 1964 through 1999, but I've only uploaded magazine cover images through 1972. There was another thread on this ***le, and many of you had fond memories of the magazine.
Enjoy!

 

Hey Deuce,
Great job on the impressive collection and presentation. That is a difficult and time consuming job. Having used a hi-def scanner many times, I can understand the time and effort it took to set up your website. Going through all of the old Rod & Custom Magazine covers brings back memories (as a little kid) of riding my bike to the neighborhood liquor store & reading them cover to cover. KUDOS...

After all of these years of wanting a car (my cars) on any cover of a mag, I finally got my wish. I wasn’t as fortunate as some HS kid with a red RPU back in 1961. Ha! That was impressive and cool.

So then, my favorite cover of any car magazine is the one showing Lee Hammock’s 34 Ford Phaeton in front of the old, historic, Stow House in Goleta, CA. (Photo courtesy of me !) I will settle for that recognition. The setting was very apropos, the new/old 34 phaeton, the house built in the 1800’s, and the surrounding grounds.


We spent days up there following the build. To top it off, when the editors/owners of the magazine knew that I was following a complete story on Big Hearted Ken’s build of the Carson style California Top, they put off the cover until I finished with the article on the special top build. 2 in 1 for super reader interest…

The ***le on top follows the story of the 34 Phaeton, then then immediately goes into the story on how the California Top was made and installed. (A one of a kind project.) Most of the photos were from two 35mm cameras, color and B/W. But the cover shot was taken with a 2.25 x 2.25 Twin Lens Mamiya Camera with a side trigger holder. That side trigger holder was perfect for the action/moving shots from the rear bed of our El Camino that my wife was driving. No electric drive, so it was trigger, crank, trigger, crank, just like a semi automatic gun. A set focus made perfect action shots that showed the car in focus with the background blurry.

Jnaki

With this story on the cover, I actually got more requests for car/motorcycle coverage at various picnics, roadster shows, and actual car shows, both in Northern and Southern Cal for the next couple of years. Plus, they liked the myriad of free wall photos of their cars that I made. (printed and mounted), just for them.

Great job and thanks for the website.

 

Thanks deuce666. Great job!
Jim

 

My favorite issue cover was the April 1965 issue of Rod & Custom.I was a12 year old boy who loved cars and here was a magazine that covered both real cars and model cars.It was the very first car magazine I ever bought,I've been car guy ever since.I also still have that issue.

 

Here we have Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker) taking a spin on his minibike on the set of "Bonanza" during a break in filming. I'm guessing someone had to go out with a broom and sweep away the tire tracks in the dirt before they could resume filming....

 

Okay, I have to admit I’m a data junkie. I’ve always liked ****yzing and organizing data and turning it into facts and insights. That got me through 40 years in the information technology profession.

When it came to automotive magazines and my 99wspeedshop.com website, I was curious about publishing data. Specifically, what publisher had the largest market share in the 1945 to 1975 timeframe that my website covers? What were the year-over-year growth rates for specific ***les? Given the East Coast vs. West Coast publishing realm, who controlled the market with the largest print volumes?

After some research, I came across the annual magazine publishing data from NW Ayer and Sons. Based in Philadelphia, Ayer had been around since the 1860s. They provided distribution volumes submitted by newspapers, trade, and general interest magazine publishers. So after many rounds with my local library, I was able to get the data from 1950 through 1970.

Ayer provides what is called net paid circulation numbers in their annual tally. It is six months of printed magazine volumes after deducting left-over, unsold, returned, sample, exchange or advertiser copies. From this I was able to derive monthly net paid circulation numbers and rank-order the magazine ***les on monthly print volume. I recognize this is a crude measure of market share as profit is the ultimate measure.

Note that net paid circulation numbers are based on either audited results, Post Office data, or unaudited publisher submittals. Unaudited publisher submittals are prone to error or exaggeration. And not all automotive publishers submitted data. Some publishers used “swag” or “plug” numbers when they didn’t have actual data. This is obvious when the same net paid circulation number is submitted over multiple years.

Here are the highlights:

· Who was the biggest automotive publisher? It’s easy – Petersen Publishing - they brought us Hot Rod, Motor Trend, Motor Life, Sports Car Graphic, Custom Cars, Rod & Custom and many other ***les. In the 1950s, eighty percent of the monthly automotive related net paid circulation was a Petersen ***le. This dropped to around 50% through the 1960s as other publishers came into the marketplace. Over the timespan from 1950 to 1970, Petersen ***les had 58% of the total printed volume of automotive magazines. The #2 publisher slot was John Bond (Car & Driver), and #3 publisher slot was Irwin Stein (Cars, Car Speed & Style, Custom Rodder, Rodder & Super Stock, Speed & Custom, and Speed and Supercars). Petersen was a powerhouse!

· What was the top selling automotive magazine? From 1950 through 1958, Motor Trend and Hot Rod vied for #1 and #2 positions. But in 1959, Hot Rod took the #1 slot and never gave it up through 1970. In the 1960s, Hot Rod represented one in four magazines printed and distributed. Its monthly net paid circulation volumes grew 16% annually from 1950 through 1970. No other magazine came close to these growth numbers except Car & Driver at 12%. Hot Rod really represented our p***ion and the era.

· East Coast versus West Coast – who dominated? Another obvious and easy one! The West Coast! Most of the time, West Coast-based ***les carried 65% to 80% of the automotive magazines volumes printed and distributed.

I’ve started adding this publishing detail to the website. Hopefully this is useful to you.

 

Great web sight! I have just started to roam through the covers, they sure bring back the memories !
Here is a ***le that I did not see listed:
( yes, that is the same car as my avitar) I still own it and it will be back better than ever soon.

 

Kabinenroller -- At this point the website only has magazines covers for those ***les that got started before 1975. I think Street Machines started in Sept '75 if I remember correctly. At some point I'll add ***les from 1975 to 2000, but that's a big undertaking as you can imagine. And, I love your car, what stage is it in?

 

R and c legshow t pl

 

Deuce 666,
Sorry! I missed the dates of the covers you list. Being that I have been reading anything automotive related since the early 60's the covers you have compiled really bring back memories. When I see a cover I recognize it seems like yesterday that I was reading the magazine. Please keep adding covers!
As for the Cyclone, I have owned it 49 years. Back in about 1980 I took it apart (it was in the condition shown on my avatar) it has been in storage since then. It is now in my shop undergoing a complete rebuild, it will look almost the same but will be new from the bottom up. I am expecting this to take three years.
Jim

 

pictures I collect magazines. - I do not know if this will go through but please send "hello Ray" back to me. Thanks, Ray

 

Hello, Ray!

 

This

Deuce666,
This is my favorite cover HOP UP ! - I always thought ,this was the ultimate HOT ROD . I also learned to put photos in (head and hands working together) Thank you , Ray

 

Those Street Machine mags were funky with ****ty colour, but kool kontent. Lol seeing that cover again ^^^. Grew up in '70's, so dig Ganahl SR's, Truckin', Street Chopper etc..

 

Ray - thanks much for the D.C. '66 Rodder and SS. hadn't seen that one. I'll add to the site shortly.


Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Ray, you still monkeying around with tether cars?

 

Ray --
Yes, I'd sure appreciate more images of the Fawcett books. High quality scans would be ideal, but I'll take a good straight-on picture too.
Do you have my email?
Richard

 

NO (your) EMAIL - Ray

 

Carl Fleischmann's 1929 Ford Model A Roadster was completed in 1953. Clayton acquired the roadster from the Jilek estate in 1966.

 

All --
I just published everything I have on HotRod Parts Illustrated and Drag Parts Illustrated.
I'm missing eight covers; I've searched for them for some time but with no luck.
When I launched the site, several you mentioned you liked this magazine. So I finally got it added.
Enjoy!
Richard

 

If only I had all the boxes of Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Rod & Customs magazines from 1959 to 1963 that my parents threw out when they moved from Cali to Connecticut in 1965 while I was in the Army. At least my Mother kept all my boxes of model cars for me.

 

There are so many! However I would have to say this was the second or third magazine I bought, and this Model A Roadster belonging to a beautiful blonde.. and the '57 Nomad rate as #1 in my book... but then I was only 14 years old and Hot Rods were fewer than Blonds in Northern Michigan or at least in my eyes...lol

 

Hotrodharry2. That issue of R&C was also one of my favorites! I too loved the Model A roadster.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

I still have it! Little worse for wear, but I have it! lol

 

@deuce666...I just want to Thank you and Credit you for running this most interesting archive...I have shared a number of images traceable to your site...over the years sharing a link in thanks...just happened upon this Thread...

 

I looked up 2uce666 profile and he hasn't been on here since June. Hope all is well with him. Then I clicked the link in the first part of this series and couldn't find the page. I went back to my records (not very organized) and found this link. Hope it helps to keep this alive.

http://99wspeedshop.com.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/index.html

 

Always A Favorite...

 

Past the HAMB cutoff, but I like this one.