This evening I was going through a box of negatives and color slides which were shot by my father. Photography and cameras were his life. He shot everything from portraits and weddings, to commercial photography, journalism and even a few television shows. He developed all of his own film and repaired cameras as well. So as I was sorting through the envelopes I found this loose at the bottom of the box. I assume it was taken at a dealership but I have no idea where and no idea who the people are. I don't know if pictures like this are rare so it may not really deserve the label "lost". And it is in pretty bad shape, but still worth sharing I thought.
Nice find. I wonder if there are more to be found? Seems likely if he was there he would have taken more than one shot.
Wow Kev, that is cool! As a side note, Carla and I both studied photography under a gent named Frank Klock. He was the AP photog that got the pictures of the crash landing in Sioux City 20? years ago? His pics that day are legendary but I digress. I found many rolls of undeveloped film we both shot while unpacking our last boxes.....wonder what is on them? Stuff has been packed for 15+ years.
Sadly, nope. Without getting too far into the story a lot of stuff was lost forever - you can't imagine. Worst example: My father grew up in Joplin, Missouri. You know those shots of Bonnie and Clyde posing with the B400? Well that film was the only thing left in the Joplin apartment after the famous shootout. Gone.
My friend Rex who is 76 years old remembers Tucker having a sales tent at the Kansas State Fair when he was a kid and he and his Dad got to take a test ride in one. Must have been 1948.
Been told film will degrade after a while not developed,,though sometimes you get some interesting images from it
Order your accessories and get your sequence number NOW! I guess he really was pushing that stuff before there were any cars ready for sale. Did the people who bought sequence numbers under 50 actually take delivery of those cars? Great pictures. I bet someone with photo skills could edit a lot of the pink overcast from those.
my grandad grew up in joplin and was there when bonnie and clyde came through........ was one of his favorite stories to tell
Here's a quickie color filter touchup....if I put a few hours into it, I or a more talented P-Shop driver could really clean it up...but it does need a lot of cleaning up. On another note, I'm curious about that spring you can clearly see behind the front tire...it's in an odd location and looks like it's off of a garage door or something...
i know a woman in my hometown of 6000 people who claims to own 2 tuckers and she says they rented them from here to make the tucker movie...
That's pretty early color photography. The photo looks like maybe the whitewall fooled his handheld light meter, so he closed the lens down. It's kind of a sad shot. The people look like they just came out of the viewing room of a funeral. The tall guys thinking "If I don't sell 50 tickets I'm ruined."
This is actually just a digital shot of a color slide setting on a light table. Look close and you can see the reflection of my camera.
no what got him was the big three running him under the bus and dirty dealings by them....kinda wonder if now is Karma for this ??
seems to me, if you can nail the color down, you can trace the cars history pretty well... looks like waltz blue to me. how many of em were made that color? dozen? hell, it aint like preston made a couple thousand... only what, 51 "official" cars, including the tin goose. one rolled at indy. one wrecked in michigan in the 50's, another lost in some cops garage after being found abandoned layin in the mud on the riverbank in memphis... lol, i love watchin tucker stuff. this thread rules
I don't think it's Waltz Blue. It looks like light charcoal to me. Hard to say though. Here are all the cars... http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/see_a_tucker.php
If he woman has 2 of them then her name will be on that list. They have accounted for about all of them now. And theres still argument over the convertable.
The accessories were a side deal Preston put together to stir interest, give the dealers something tangible to sell and to hook the customers. They knew that once you had plunked down $50-$75 dollars for a radio, you were committed in your mind to buying a Tucker. For a long time you could get Tucker radios new in the box for $25-$50 at Hershy and thru Hemmings.
While in Atlanta one night I saw a Tucker comming right down Peachtree street. I thought this was the coolest thing , only another car person would understand.
I was at the AACA (?) Classic Car Museum in Hershey Pennsylvania recently. They have a new wing that is apparently going to be dedicated to one guy's Tucker collection (he recently died and willed it to them). He apparently had not only the cars but some prototype motors, tooling, some sort of cut-away promo stuff, and tons of memorobilia. The car and little bit they had there was a great teaser. Stuff like the accessories, a radio, tons of dealer materials, ... There's also a Tucker in this month's Hemmings being auctioned soon that I noticed. I'd heard they pulled some fiberglass molds to mock up cars for the film (don't know if that's true) but it could make a killer hot rod or funny car if you found such a body...
And do not forget that the govt. stuck their nose in there too. The saying was, what's good for GM is good for the country...the Tucker was, for damn sure, not good for the General.
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