History So you want stories on the HAMB

Never was into dirt bikes but I ran around with guys that were. Their consensus of opinion was that the dirt bike magazines at the time never tested a bike that they didn't like. Something about not wanting to piss off their advertising base.

 

Very true. Husqvarna was one of my clients and the editors of these magazines abused the test bikes, held on to them months after the tests and returned them dirty and dinged up with no apologies.

 

“Before the first Speed Equipment Manufactures Association (SEMA) show in Dodger Stadium in 1967, there was a small show the year before at the Disneyland Hotel. Noel Carpenter published SPEED & CUSTOM EQUIPMENT NEWS and promoted the show. I attended the show and manufacturers had rented the small bungalows on the grounds to display their merchandise. Quite frankly, it was nothing more than a collection of wet bars. Once Robert E.Petersen backed the SEMA show, it was the establishment show. Noel did one more show that was a disaster and threw in the towel.”

“The very first speed equipment trade show was at the Disneyland Hotel in 1962 that was put on by Noel Carpenter, editor of SPEED & CUSTOM EQUIPMENT NEWS.” @denis4x4


Hey D,

When we started our Precision Racing Engines in 1959, we were only a dinky backyard garage with hot rods and drag racing in mind. Then, my brother decided to start a business.

We then had some business cards made and got a license as a business. So, now, we were legitimate as far as a little speed shop/engine building business. It did not matter at the time where the location was. The whole neighborhood was in an odd area of r-1, r-2, interspersed with a few little industrial buildings. That in itself would have made it an I-1 or industrial zone. Across the main highway, PCH was the full fledged machine shops + dozens of other industries, including Joe Mailliard Automotive, Speed Engineering, Clay Smith Cams, Venolia, and eventually, Mickey Thompson.

Jnaki

It was a ground floor that could have gone on to bigger and larger inclusion in the hot rod world. We bought and sold speed parts for ourselves and for a few friends. Word of mouth spread all throughout our teenage drive-in parking lot hangouts and eventually elsewhere. Our business cards allowed us to get a discount from the manufacturers and not just from the local parts stores. Since we were small, we got discounts from Moon, Edlebrock, Hildebrandt, and various chrome dealers/manufacturers of speed equipment and accessories.

We were not competitors for the established shops like Reath Automotive or the local nearby shops like Joe Mailliard or Speed Engineering. We were small and dealt with mostly our friends and acquaintances. Our prices were similar and the advantage for us was that we delivered for free and helped install what was necessary. But, we were not big time like the established shops. Eventually, we had hoped that if it/we were successful, it was a step in the door for our possible future endeavors.

As far as the original speed equipment companies overall list of So Cal speed shops, we were listed on the early version. It looked like a typed out sheet mailed to all dealers and speed shops. Our friends at Reath Automotive chuckled at the sight of our names on the so called, “master list.” We told them the business cards allowed us to get a discount for stuff, but if we could not get a discount, we bought it from Reath Automotive.

Note:

The business cards were sent out to the dealers/manufacturers so as to their acknowledging us as speed shop owners. The list certified we were legitimate as were the big names in our area. The cards and sometimes an included copy of the list allowed us to get a dealer’s discount, which we passed on to our customers. YRMV

 

Unless of course you have a very runny nose!

 

New week. new copy:

The Speed Equipment Manufacturer’s Association, better know as SEMA, was formed in 1963 by the genuine pioneers of this industry. It’s been said that an attorney for Revell models was seeking an association for a single source of permission to use authentic speed equipment decals on the models. SEMA founding members included Dean Moon, Vic Edelbrock Jr., Els Lohns, Willie Garner, Roy Richter, Paul Schaefer, Ed Iskendarian, Robert Wyman, John Bartlett, Phil Weiman Jr., and Al Segal. All of our clients were SEMA members and we made sure that ads, packaging and catalogs included the SEMA logo.

We did a bunch of SEMA generic filler ads at no charge for the magazines to use when they had some unsold ad space. After attending at least 35 SEMA shows, took a friend in 2005 and called it quits. Still belong and send a check made out to the Speed Equipment Manufacturer’s Association every year and they still cash it.

When the SEMA show moved into the brand new Anaheim Convention Center, there was some added attractions besides Disneyland. One of those was a golf tournament at a nearby country club. I was in a foursome with Bob D’Olivo (sp?) who was Petersen Publications director of photography, Fred Offenhauser and a guy I only knew as Ronnie the pattern maker. There were adult beverages at every tee box and a bar cart. I had a hole in one on a par three and won a Kawasaki motorcycle. I also got over-served. Ended up with the highest gross and won a Sunday bag with some wood shaft clubs that I sold in the parking lot. Took me months to get the bike as the guy who made the sponsorship deal forgot to buy hole in one insurance and was no longer with the company.

In 1970, I decide to make the move and open my own ad agency. Because the ads are 90 days out and clients paid on publication, I juggled a lot of balls and after six months, cash flow started to smooth out. I retained some of Fall’s clients and added more of my own. First piece of equipment I purchased was an IBM Selectric typewriter with the interchangeable type fonts. A state of the art FAX machine was $1800 in those days, Now you can buy one for $49.95 that does all the same things the $1800 unit did! I spent big bucks on an Olivetti TES 401 typewriter that allowed you to go back and correct copy before the final version was printed. The salesman hooked me with a demonstration on how attorneys could create a simple will and go back and change it so that each client thought it was original to them.

One of my clients was Parnelli Jones Enterprises. Through Parnelli, I met Everett Brashear who was the west coast sales manager for Husqvarna motorcycles and at that time he was on the top 10 AMA winner’s list. Ended up with the Husky account and made two trips to Sweden. Can’t tell you how many other clients as well as some magazine types started putting the arm on me for chain saws and Viking sewing machines. Husqvarna owned the Baja 500 and 1000 along with other desert races during the early seventies. Spent a lot of time at the Baja races as Parnelli Jones was also a client and competitor. I had a hand in prepping a Datsun pick-up for the first female race team entered in the Baja.

Everett was an outstanding golfer and he would show up at the course riding a motorcycle in a suit and tie. He then would proceed to borrow clubs from the rest of us and beat us soundly. He introduced me to Evil Knievel who shot par on the course. It’s been my observation that racers have fantastic hand eye co-ordination and are great golfers.


Per-Lux made lighting for over the road trucks and were OE on several major brands. They bought a small outfit that made electronic ignitions to replace the points in stationary generators, fork lifts and trailer refer units. I was able to convince a couple of VW Baja racers to use the Per-Lux Ignitor ignition systems. In return, I used the race teams in ads promoting the Ignitor in HOT VW’s

Per-Lux decided to make electronic ignitions for bikes. Kawasaki loaned us a couple of their 4 cylinder road bikes and installed the ignitor on one bike and the other one was stock. A father son team swapped rides at every gas stop and kept meticulous records. Since we were in San Diego, we decide to make the run from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. Long story short, the Ignitor improved mileage by more than 10% and seat of the pants performance was great. The year following the ad campaign, all of the OEM bikes came stock with electronic ignitions! After market sales for the ignitions was weak.

Another client, 4-Way Shocks was a slam dunk for the off road market. We used a bulldog with a shock in his mouth like a bone as the logo. It didn’t take long before we got a cease and desist letter from Mack Trucks on the use of a bulldog in the ads. My first response was, “did you sue the Marine Corps for the use of a bulldog” in recruiting posters? After a lot of back and forth, we came to an agreement that allowed my client to use up existing packaging and promotion materials without penalties. The client went along and we avoided legal fees.

Will start winding down this project over the next few days.

 

Very well written. Nice to hear stories about the early days of hot rodding from someone that was there and involved in it.

 

Here are the final pages.....Thanks for the kind words. I will scan a couple of HOT ROD INDUSTRY NEWS stories and post them later next month.

Things were looking pretty good until I took on a long time friend and the best man at my wedding. My “friend” and his brother had an upholstery shop and did a lot of work on cars and trucks. He called me one day and told me about doing a custom van interior for a tuna fisherman. I told him to make some patterns and take pictures. Within a couple of months, word of mouth had created a boom in van conversions. Within a year, he moved into a 12,000 sq ft shop with a paint booth. Custom work, car dealers and corporate work created a great cash flow.

However, all of the front office employees were in-laws drawing big pay checks. It didn’t take very long for him to rack up a $70,000 plus bill for ad placements and a color catalog with my agency. He sold the business in 1974 and the new owner assured me that he would pay the bill and a week later declared bankruptcy. Needless to say, that was the end of Imperial Advertising & Marketing, Inc.

For the next couple of years I did some consultation work and copy writing for former clients and some new contacts. Interestingly enough, I didn’t starve to death as I no longer had any overhead and quit leasing Lincolns. I maintained my contacts with the publications and got a few bones thrown my way.

Hugh Hefner was a genius when it came to marketing the Playboy Bunny image on products advertised in the magazine. I prepared a presentation for ROAD & TRACK magazine using the Playboy concept for marketing products with the R&T logo. Turned out to be a home run and I was able to take the concept to several other magazines.

Named the operation OLD DEL MAR EMPORIUM and set up mail order fulfillment operation along with a product development department in 1978. The concept was really pretty simple. Major magazines like R&T and HOT ROD had regional editions. If a full page ad for a tire store chain ran in seven southern states, an ODME ad would run in that same space in 43 states. Sometimes a company would miss a deadline for a small space ad and there would be ODME ads in all different sizes ready to run at a moments notice. There were months when I had no idea what products were being advertised until I had copy of the magazine. Made for interesting inventory control.

When we were running full bore at ODME, I actually had more staff than the agency did. It took me about 10 minutes to realize that I had to computerize the operation from the get go. Started out with Radio Shack TRS 80 computers. We had five units up and running all the time and a sixth unit as a backup. There was no such thing as an APP store back then. I was referred to a truck driver that programmed in DOS. I don’t think that I paid more than $500 for the custom program! We used 5-1/2” floppy discs that were swapped every hour to make sure that we didn’t loose data in the event that somebody took out a power pole. Printers were dot matrix tractor feed units that would print sales receipts in triplicate.

ROAD & TRACK was owned by CBS Publications in New York. When I made the original presentation to the publisher in Newport Beach, it outlined the responsibilities of both parties and the safeguards regarding the monies collected. It also said that ODME had the exclusive use of the R&T logo and trademark. Nobody in New York noted that paragraph. Turned out that there was a publisher in England that compiled R&T road tests and was told by the NY people that ODME own the trademark rights. We were able to smooth things over to everyone’s satisfaction.

Since CBS produced the MAGNUM P.I. TV show, I asked the producers if they would have Tom Selleck wear an R&T baseball cap. Turns out that one of the clauses in Tom’s contract was that he could wear a Detroit Tigers ball cap.

We had a wealth of material at R&T to promote. In addition to the usual ball caps and cast brass belt buckles with the R&T logos, we had the original line art from the road test features. This was a side profile line drawing of the vehicle on a grid with the drive train shown in black. Kind of like a chintzy X-ray. I think we ended doing 19 different cars. There were different versions of the art offered for sale. Top of the line was 3”x5” intaglio zinc engravings mounted on walnut plaques, 12”X18” limited edition silk screened prints and we even took the art to an instant print company for 8”X10” prints on parchment and offered a portfolio of 10 prints at some obscene price. Every once in awhile, I’ll see one of the R&T items at a swap meet and, sure enough, my initials are on the back claiming it’s number x of an xx run.

Met Rick McBride through the R&T publisher Dick Bartkus. Rick was a great photographer` and did ad work for Ferrari dealer Hollywood Sports Cars. His classic magazine ad, Decisions, Decisions, was turned into a poster and we added it to our R&T offerings. The poster had a tasteful female nude reclining at the top, a bottle of expensive wine on its side in the middle and a Ferrari side profile on the bottom with the title. Instant best seller!

Based on the success of the poster, sales, we extended our R&T offerings to include signed and numbered limited edition lithographs from artists that had worked for the agencies handling Ford, GM and Chrysler. Again, instant success. Took a booth at SEMA and sold out. However, got tired of listening to people tell me their uncle owned a car like the one in the painting, only it was a four door and had a different grill!.

It didn’t take long for outfits like Aaron Brothers to jump on the automotive art bandwagon. I couldn’t compete price wise and it was time to move on. In the mid-eighties, my wife and I decided it was time to bail out of Southern California. We moved to Durango, Colorado via Telluride. My great grandfather was buried in Montrose CO and my grandmother was born in Trinidad, Colorado. So it was kind of like returning home. Colorado offered a Pioneer license plate if you could prove your linage. About the time I had the paperwork finished thanks to Ancestry.com, somebody sued the state and said that the requirements for a Pioneer plate was a form of discrimination and won. I have YOM 1929 Colorado truck plates on my hot rod ‘29 Model CCPU!

All and all, it’s been a fun 40 years. Met a lot of interesting people and still stay in touch with some of them. Quite frankly, it never seemed like I had a regular job, however, it took me less than a week to get over feeling guilty about taking money for SPEED WRITING!
POST SCRIPT: When I moved to Telluride CO in the late eighties, my first exposure to the internet was via a dial up AOL account and a phone modem. Remember, in those days, long distance calls were not free. I had to call a long distance number in Grand Junction CO to get access to the internet. Being rather thrifty, tried to sign on before 7:00 AM every morning to save money. My first cell phone was a Radio Shack bag phone that was more powerful than current phones and cost $900 in 1987. I actually used to put it in my saddle bags when I went horseback riding. Got service in some of the most unlikely places.

The internet has had a profound effect on hot rodding. The exchange of information and access to rare parts has been great. On the other hand, the term “period correct” is over used! We built cars based on the availability and cost of parts and labor. I may not be around to see it, but I predict that there will be more than a few electrified ’32 Ford roadsters on the road in the next 10 years.

Hot rodding has always been about pushing the envelope and innovation.


-30-

 

wonderful trip back-thanks!

 

Wonderfull stories, I left Southern Cal in 1957, with my parents, moved to Oklahoma. I guess I was bit early by the hot rod bug! But hot rodding in Oklahoma was nothing like S. Cal! But I survived. While driving tractors for hours on end in Oklahoma, I dreamed of Surfer girls and hot rods in S. Cal! That is were it all happened, back here we could just read about it! I subscribed to Hot Rod magazine in 1964 and could not wait to get my copy every month! So I probably read some of your articles! Again , great stories!





Bones

 

I've added a good number of storys too the HAMB,using my story name "Way Back Story" ,they can be found by using HAMB { Search ] Most are late 1950s an into 1960s.
Always enjoy reading others storys.