May/June 2020 Issue
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SAHJournal ISSUE 304 MAY / JUNE 2020 $5.00 US Contents 3 PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE SAHJournal 4 MERCEDES-BENZ: VERGANGENE TRÄUME VON MORGEN (PART I) 8 ART, ARCHITECTURE AND THE AUTOMOBILE (PART II) ISSUE 304 • MAY/JUNE 2020 10 BOOK REVIEWS THE SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE HISTORIANS, INC. 15 IN MEMORIAM An Affiliate of the American Historical Association crowds impeded his progress. Ford knew Billboard this full well. He had followed King on that nighttime escapade—on a bicycle (ref. May Letters pp. 92-93, emphasis mine). I think that Bishop’s assignment was simply to clear the Officers To the editor: way. As it happened, it didn’t matter. By H. Donald Capps President David Lyon (“Art, Architecture and the May’s account the Quadricycle stopped dead Robert G. Barr Vice President Robert Casey Secretary Automobile,” SAH Journal #303) takes an after a couple of blocks, requiring the boss Rubén L. Verdés Treasurer interesting tack in forming defined eras for and his assistant to run to the Edison plant the development of the automobile. I look for a part of some sort. Was this, I wonder, Board of Directors Louis F. Fourie (ex-officio) ∆ forward to the definition of further eras and Detroit’s first roadside automobile repair? Bob Elton † examples of their constituents. May goes on to examine the competing Kevin Kirbitz # I think he makes too much of any and contrasting claims of King and Ford. It Carla R. Lesh † similarity between Britain’s “Red Flag makes for very interesting reading. Chris Lezotte ∆ Laws” and Henry Ford’s maiden voyage in —Kit Foster John A. Marino # Casey Maxon ∆ the Quadricycle. George S. May, in A Most John Mohr # Unique Machine: The Michigan Origins of REPRISED ANNOUNCEMENTS: Dean Nelson † the American Automobile Industry (William Cancellation of the SAH Annual Meeting Steve Purdy ∆ B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1975), covers this of Members & Gala Awards Banquet: Terms through October (#) 2020, (†) 2021, and (∆) 2022 in some detail. Indeed, Jim Bishop, Ford’s The event has been cancelled due to the Editor chief assistant, set out ahead of his boss on COVID-19 epidemic. Please go to the SAH Rubén L. Verdés a bicycle. May does not attribute a purpose website (autohistory.org) to monitor future 7491 N. Federal Hwy., Ste. C5337 to Bishop’s action, but I’m skeptical that developments. Boca Raton, FL 33487-1625 USA [email protected] it was to warn pedestrians. By June 1896, Announcing the SAH Forum: Please take [email protected] Detroiters were already familiar with the a moment to visit the forum, go to https:// tel: +1.561.866.5010 automobile; Charles Brady King had driven forums.aaca.org/ and scroll down to the one on the city’s streets three months earlier, forum named The Society of Automotive Publications Committee Thomas S. Jakups, Chair and had been forced to stop when curious Historians. Louis F. Fourie Christopher G. Foster Front cover: Inspired by Louis Fourie's article we present this 1927 Mercedes-Benz Model K (chassis John Heitmann 60437) with roadster coachwork by Fleetwood (body 35828) owned by Michael and Joannie Rich, Donald J. Keefe shown at the 2019 Radnor Hunt Concours d'Elegance where it won best of show. The photo's Rubén L. Verdés background is a close-up of the fabulously machined hood. The first owner, William Sloan, saw this Steve Wilson Fleetwood coachwork on an Isotta Fraschini owned by Rudolph Valentino and ordered the same design. [One could see the Valentino car in Isotta-Fraschini: the noble pride of Italy (Ballantine's SAH Journal (ISSN 1057–1973) illustrated history of the car, marque book no. 3) on pp. 112-113, ISBN: 978-0345022899. Note is published six times a year by The on the book's title: Isotta Fraschini never had a hyphen.] Photos by the editor. Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Subscription is by membership in the Society. Back cover: As mentioned in Mr. Fourie's article, Mercedes-Benz was created in 1926 with the merger of Daimler and Benz. This 1926 poster promoted Mercedes-Benz showing the marque logos Membership dues are $50 per year ($60 of Mercedes with its three-pointed star and the Benz with its laurel wreath, later combined as per year outside North America & Mexico); we see it today. digital membership dues are $20. Dues and changes of address go to: Submission Deadlines: Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Deadline: 12/1 2/1 4/1 6/1 8/1 10/1 c/o Cornerstone Registration Ltd. Issue: Jan/Feb Mar/Apr May/Jun Jul/Aug Sep/Oct Nov/Dec P.O. Box 1715 Mailed: 1/31 3/31 5/31 7/31 9/30 11/30 Maple Grove, MN 55311-6715 USA Note: the SAH Journal is a bimonthly publication (printed 6 times a year) and there is ©2020 a two-month horizon for submitted material before it is mailed (e.g., material sub- The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. mitted by February 1st appears in the Mar/Apr issue and is mailed on or before 3/31.) www.autohistory.org All letters, manuscripts, and advertisement submissions and inquiries go to the editor. Join, renew and more right on-line! 2 SAH Journal No. 304 • May / June 2020 The Society of Automotive Historians is not a “car club.” The SAH defi nitely en- PPresident’sresident’s PPerspectiveerspective courages and supports the many clubs that do focus their attention on a single marque and culture are, to be polite, very or model or other aspect of the automobile. few and very far between. The These many organizations represent an es- engineering and fi nancial/business sential element regarding the automobile studies areas probably devote more and its impact on the modern world: that attention to the automobile than the automobile is an important part of our those in the humanities do. That global culture. is, of course, faint praise given that The enthusiasm and interest that these the automobile is viewed as simply many organizations generate in the automo- another commodity or object to be bile and its past helped lead to the creation of studied and considered. Microwaves the SAH. I think that it is safe to suggest that or the number of breadsticks served most members of the SAH belong to at least at an Italian restaurant probably get one car club—if not more than one in many just as much (or more) attention. instances. Whether it is the Ford Model A, I have never understood the Oldsmobile 4-4-2, Pontiacs, Corvettes, this lack of interest—this “auto- MG-TD’s, Impalas, Studebakers, Lowrid- phobia”—within academe. There ers, the Austin Bantam Society, the Antique are, naturally, those within the Automobile Club of America, United Street academic community who do take Rods of Idaho, the Trabant, and so on and the automobile, its history, and on, they exist for a reason: the automobile. its culture quite seriously. Indeed, They also refl ect the cultural impact of the my interest in the automobile as a automobile across not just the United States, cultural and historical artifact can but the entire world. be directly traced to a graduate Likewise, more than a few members class in the geography department of the SAH also belong to professional or A Few Observations… at the University of South Carolina with the academic organizations such as the American intriguing title, “Urban Spatial Systems.” In Historical Association (the AHA, of which ne hundred and twenty years ago, as the this class, for the fi rst time, I began to truly the SAH is an affi liate member), the Society Ofi n de siècle era of the nineteenth cen- grasp the signifi cance of the automobile and of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Organi- tury was approaching its end, the twentieth its impact, certainly upon the urban spatial zation of American Historians (OAH), the century then just a few months away, the systems of the nation, but also in a much Popular Culture Association (PCA), the So- automobile was still somewhat of a curiosity wider context. (As an aside, I was also able ciety for the History of Technology (SHOT), and a novelty, being seen more often than to use my skills as a computer programmer the North American Society for Sport His- not as just another plaything for the wealthy, and war-gamer in those ancient days to tory (NASSH), and so on. The SAH also something far beyond the means of mere hoi update one of the teaching tools used in the works with and supports the efforts of other polloi. By the end of the twentieth century, class, a version of CLUG, the “Community organizations such as the Historic Vehicle the automobile helped transform that cen- Land Use Game,” which would later lead to Association (HVA), the National Associa- tury in ways that might have been diffi cult another interest: roadside architecture.) tion of Automotive Museums (NAAM), The for those at the beginning of that century to T hanks to this widespread “autophobia” Society of Automotive Historians in Great imagine. Industry on an international scale within the academic community, much of Britain (SAHB), the Automotive Historians was affected by the automobile, the global the study of the automobile and its his- Australia (AHA), Patrimoine et Histoire landscape was literally transformed by the tory and culture has tended to be done by de l’Automobile en France (PHAF), the road networks built for the automobile, either those within those hallowed groves Automobilhistorische Gesellschaft (AHG), the world’s economy was affected by the of academe doing so on their own or those the Associazione Italiana per la Storia Dell fi nancial structure related to the automobile, working outside those hallowed groves.