Nor’ by Nor’ East APublicationofthe NewEngland Chapter of TheHudson Essex Terraplane Club Clickonthe blue hyperlinks in thepdf to automatically sendemail or accessawebsite. To receiveaPDF version of thenewsletter,email [email protected]. Visitusonthe webatwww.newenglandhetclub.com Volume 38 No 7August2010 National 2010 Left: TheSouers latest project, anotherHudson Italia.Welook forward to seeingitnextyear! Rememberthe amazing change of theJet Convertible afew years ago? Photoby: Tom Brintnall Right:Sarah Young’sJet that she hasbeen workinghardonfor the last fewyears. It is great to see it out at theNational! Photoby: Tom Brintnall Nor’ By Nor’ East August 2010 NEC pResident’sMessage IamwritingthisasIampackingfor thetriptoSpokane,WAfor theNationalmeet.Iam flying into Seattle to visitanold High School friendfirst thendrive out to themeet on Monday morning. Shouldbeanicetrip. OurJulymeet at theMcWalteR'shome wasgreat again. We missedCarl&pRiscilla Weber, but they were on their waytothe Nationalmeet.DaveTuttle &Itook careofburning the burgers &dogs forlunchand therewas plenty of side dishes to shareaswell. Ihaveheardthatanold NEC friendfromPennsylvaniahas passedaway. BobKerchnerwas aregular at theWeber'sfallmeet foryears. Bob wasone of theearly members of theHET Cluband hispresencewill be missed. Hudsonly, TomBrintnall Editor’sMessage First we wouldliketostart by apologizingfor thelatenessofthisissue. As you can seeby Tom’s President’smessage thematerialwas into us long before theissuemanaged to be put together.Thisunfortunately hasbecome amonthlyproblem that we arehaving. We simply no longerhavetimetoput together thenewsletter everymonth. Life hasbecome muchbusieR sincewefirst startededitingthe Nor’ by Nor’eastand we do not have thetimethatweonce hadavailable to us.So, we areaskingthatsomeone else volunteer to take overthe newsletteR andbecome thenew editororeditors. We arestepping downaseditors andalthough we have not setadate to do so we also wouldlikeittobeassoon as possible. Pleaseseriously consider this as it is an important part of our chapterand it wouldbeawonderfulway to become involvedinthe chapterinahands on wayifyou currently aren’t or wouldliketotakeonmore responsibility. Secondly, we wouldliketoget an idea of whowouldbeinterestedingoing to ameet (most likelynot until Spring) hostedbyusatthe MissMendon dinerinMendon, MA.Wewould liketoget an idea of whowouldbeinterested(no, saying you areinteresteddoesnot mean you arecommitted sincenodatehas been setand likelywon’tbefor awhile), but it wouldbenice to seeifthiswouldbeworth pursuing. It wouldmean buying your meal at thediner,but it wouldbereally neat to have allthe carsout in that setting. Pleaselet us know either through e-mail or give us acall. If thereisn’t enough interest then we won’tbothergoing anyfurther with this idea. Hudsonly, Kelly andMarkLudwig Page 2 Nor’ By Nor’ East August 2010 Thinking of YouBoth Dean Sturtevant hadapacemaker put in recently andhis wife,Karen,ishavingsurgery in thenextfew weeks. We wouldliketowishthembothwell. We hope that Dean is healingwell andbecoming stronger each day. Also, good luck to Kareninher upcomingsurgery andwe hope foraspeedyrecovery.Ifanyone is interested in sending them acardornotetheir address is as follows: Dean andKaren Sturtevant P.O.Box 321 Orange,MA01364 Obituary KennethAmman, August12, 2010 Of Lennon,age 71, known as theHudson Man,isonhis journeytobewith theLord. He passedawayathome surroundedbyhis wife,children,and familyonTuesday,August10, 2010. FuneralMasswill be celebrated11a.m. Saturday,August14, 2010 at St.Robert CatholicChurch.Fr. Roy Horning willofficiate.Cremation will followthe funeralMass. Visitation will be 2-8p.m. Thursday and10a.m. -8p.m.FridayatRossell FuneralHome and10a.m. until thetimeofMassSaturday at thechurch.ARosarywill be prayed 6:30 p.m.Fridayatthe funeralhome.Ifdesired memorial contributions maybemadetothe Ypsilanti Auto Museum. Kenwas borninChesaning, Michigan on May 9, 1939, thefourth child of seventoAugustand Delores (Tithof)Amman. He maRRied KayAnn Peters on June 23, 1972 andput their twofamilies together to make one. Together, they raised four children.Ken wasemployed at General Motors Engine Plantfor 32 years. He alsobought andsoldHudson parts andcarsfor over30years. His passion wasworking on cars. Kenwas involvedinseveral antique car clubs,including, H.E.T.,FlintAACA andRed Jackets TouringClub. He wasanactive memberatSt. Robert CatholicChurch.Ken lovedspending timewith hisfamilyand friends andenjoyedtraveling. He wasaloving husband, agreat dadand grandpa who wasalways willingtohelp someonewheneverneeded.Hewas an honest man andahard worker.Ken will be sadlymissed by everyone who knewhim.Heissurvivedbyhis belovedwife, Kay; children,Jack AmmanofDrummond Island, Vickiand husband MikeCarlson of West Branch, Keith andwife Shannon AmmanofDavison andKirk andwife Renee AmmanofElsie; seven grandchildren,six great-grandchildren;brothers, Jimand wife Doris Amman,Fredand wife CoraleeAmman; sisters, Jean andhusband RaySchnell, Margeand husband Fred Dery; sister-in-law, ElaineAmman. Kenwas preceded in death by hisparents;brotheR, Joseph Ammanand sister, DorothyTkaczyk. Page 3 Nor’ By Nor’ East August 2010 Possible Future Meet Site? Letusknow what you think! Above is theMiss Mendon dinerthatwespoke of in our message.Weare hoping there is enough interest to have ameet here in the Spring. Meet Sheet 2010 August22nd, 2010 -Wheeler/Fitzgerald Meet -Harvard, MA September 26th, 2010 -Cook’sAnnual Meet -1039 Back Road, Shapleigh, Maine October17th, 2010 -Weber’sAnnual Fall Meet/BusinessMeeting-183 West Street, NorthAttleboro, MA Page 4 Nor’ By Nor’ East August 2010 Biddle&Smart Co.-1882-1930 -Amesbury, Massachusetts Continuedfromthe July issue 1923was theturning point forB&S,whenthe firm nearly tripled productionbydevotingits entire factory spacetobuild sedansfor Hudson. Thebig sedanssoldwell foracoupleofyears, but fashion soon shifted to the close-coupled Brougham. pRoductionjumpedtoover12.000 bodies in 1923. Theplantexpansioncontinued, B &S,takingoveR, in the same year,the CuRRierCameron &Co. andtheir large"ColchesterMill" on Elm Street. In 1925 buildings fromHollander&MorrillBody Co., Witham Body Co., andT.W. Lane Company were added. Theaddedcapacitypermitted acceptance of asmall orderfromthe Rolls-RoyceSpringfield plant. In September1926, theBryantBody Co.was taken overtoobtain abuildingonCedar Street. This brought the total spacetonearly ahalf millionsquare feet in 21 buildings in six different sections of town. The properties of anumberofsmaller body-builders such as theAutoBody &FinishingCo., Withamand Hollander&MorrillwereabsorbedbyBiddle&Smart when they went outofbusiness in theearly to mid- twenties as they sought to expand their productionofbodies forHudson. Biddle&Smart supplied Hudson with aluminumbodies only. They hadnopressestoformsteel, nor did anyother company in Amesbury. In 1925,Biddle&Smart alsobegan making bodies forRolls-Royce'snew American company at Springfield,Massachusetts. In April 1925, thecompany shipped itsfirstRolls-Royce bodies,and by March,1926 its Amesbury holdings hadgrown fromnineshops to 41 scattered around town, turningout 400 bodies aday.Biddle&Smart'spiecemeal facilitiesamounted to acottageindustry.Bodies were dollied from place to place andput through individualdepartments forframing,metalworking, paintingand trimming.Italiancoachbuilders evolvedasimilar systemafterWorld War II. In Mayof1925, Hudson introduced theBiddle&Smart-builtBrougham, aclosed-coupled four-door sedan with blindrear quarters covered, as wasthe entire roof in black leather. The Broughams lentabit of cachet to theHudson line, andwas an immediate success. Thestyle wascontinuedinto1926, andin1927 wasdressedup with aset of landauirons,though theleather covering of theroof wasdeleted. Biddle&Smart productionpeaked in March,1926. 400 bodies aday were produced in threeeight-hour shiftsby4,736employees.The increased productionrequiredthe adaptationofthe newest powerwoodworking toolsand theuse of Ducopaint. Finished bodies were sent by rail from AmesburytoHudson in Detroit. The company operated in 21 buildings with nearly half amillionsquare feet of workspace, in six different sections of Amesbury. “Badweather andslowness in opening of theseason” slowed productionconsiderably laterinthe year. Howeverarecord 40,892 bodies were shipped that year,which wasnearly athousandmorethanin1925. The factthatHudson MotorCar Company built it’s own 10 milliondollar body plantinDetroitwas not agood sign forBiddle&Smart. By the endof1926 all steel Hudson sedanbodies were coming from thenew factory and by 1928 Biddle&Smart productionhad droppedby60%. From 1927 to 1929, at least19differentproductionbodies were made for Hudson,some of them designed by Walter Murphy with therestemanatingfromHudson. Hudson begantoadvertise all Biddleand Smart bodies as “custom-built," even though they were actuallyregular productionbodies,albeit cladinaluminum. Early in 1927 Walter M. Murphy Co.ofPasadena, California was commissionedtobuild aseries of prototype carsfor Hudson usingMurphy’snew thin-pillararchitecture. Sixthin-pillared prototype Hudsons were delivered to Hudson andsoon approvedbythe board of directors forthe 1928 modellineup. As Murphy lacked theproductioncapabilitythatHudson needed,Biddle&Smart wasthe natural choice to producethe production bodies so the prototypesweresentoff to Amesbury.Unfortunately Murphy’sstylish rooflines were judgedto be toolow by Hudson’schief of engineering, StephenFekete, andhequickly