Chevrolet's Famous Emblem Is an Icon of American

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CHEVROLET | 100 YEARS What’s up with the bowtie? CHEVROLET'S FAMOUS EMBLEM IS AN ICON OF AMERICAN ADVERTISING, BUT ITS ROOTS ARE SHROUDED IN MYSTERY hevrolet's bowtie emblem is one of the CHEVY’S BOWTIE THROUGH THE YEARS most widely recognized logos in the Cworld, but where did it come from? Even General Motors isn't quite the fried chicken one night that he 1916 sure. sketched out the design that is used on The bowtie logo was introduced by the Chevrolet car to this day,” she company co-founder William C. wrote. Durant in late 1913. But how it came to be synonymous with the brand is open to wide interpretation, with four HOTEL STAY IN VIRGINIA versions of the story cropping up. More than half a century later, 1940s another Bowtie origin was recounted in a 1986 issue of Chevrolet Pro Management Magazine based on a 13- IT CAME FROM year-old interview with Durant's WALLPAPER widow, Catherine. She recalled how she and her hus- Durant’s version of how the logo 1957 band were on holiday in Hot Springs, came into existence is well known. The Va., in 1912. While reading a newspa- long-accepted story, confirmed by Durant himself, was that it was per in their hotel room, Durant spot- inspired by the wallpaper design in a ted a design and exclaimed, “I think Parisian hotel. this would be a very good emblem for According to The Chevrolet Story of the Chevrolet.” 1960s 1961, an official company publication Unfortunately, at the time, Mrs. issued in celebration of Chevrolet's Durant didn't clarify what the motif 50th anniversary: was or how it was used. “It originated in Durant's imagina- tion when, as a world traveler in 1908, THE SWISS FLAG he saw the pattern marching off into One other explanation attributes the 1977 infinity as a design on wallpaper in a design to a stylized version of the cross French hotel. He tore off a piece of the of the Swiss flag. wallpaper and kept it to show friends, Louis Chevrolet was born in with the thought that it would make a Switzerland at La Chaux-de-Fonds, good nameplate for a car.” Canton of Neuchâtel, to French par- ents, on Christmas Day 1878. 2000 DINNERTIME SKETCH Whichever origin is true, within a In 1929, Durant's daughter, Margery, few years, the bowtie would emerge as published a book entitled, My Father. the definitive Chevrolet logo. An Oct. In it, she told how Durant sometimes 2, 1913 edition of The Washington Post doodled nameplate designs on pieces seems, so far, to be the earliest known of paper at the dinner table. example of the symbol being used to Today “I think it was between the soup and advertise the brand. .

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Historical Marker - L343 - William C
Historical Marker - L343 - William C. Durant / Durant-Dort Carriage Company (Marker ID#:L343) Front - Title/Description William C. Durant William Crapo Durant (1861-1947), one of Flint’s most important historical figures, was a pioneer in the development of the American auto industry. Durant’s vehicle ventures began in 1886, when, with a borrowed fifteen hundred dollars, he bought the rights to build a two-wheeled road cart. Nine years later the Flint Road Cart Company, begun by Durant and his partner, Dallas Dort, became the Durant-Dort Carriage Company. Durant took over Flint’s tiny Buick Motor Company Significant Date: in 1904. He turned it into the largest American Civil War and After (1860-1875) producer of automobiles by 1908, and, on Buick’s Registry Year: 1974 Erected Date: 1978 success, founded General Motors in September of that year. In 1911 he and Louis Chevrolet founded Marker Location the Chevrolet Motor Company, which combined Address: 316 West Water with General Motors seven years later. Parting with General Motors in the 1920s, Durant founded City: Flint Durant Motors Company and its subsidiaries but State: MI ZipCode: went bankrupt during the depression. He died in New York City. County: Genesee Township: Back - Title/Description Lat: 43.01747100 / Long: -83.69526200 Durant-Dort Carriage Company Web URL: William C. Durant and his business partner, J. Dallas Dort, completed this building in 1896. It was originally the headquarters of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, one of the largest volume producers of horse-drawn vehicles in the United States at the turn of the century.
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