Divided Highways - PBS - 1997

To be shown in class on October 1, 2019. The question to ask is in what ways did the Interstates pull Americans together, and in what ways did they push them apart.

Bertha Benz: The Journey That Changed Everything

This week will will cover Chapter 5 in "The Automobile and American Life." Among the topics is women behind the wheel. In this video we learn the significance of Bertha's first road trip!

The End of an Endless Summer: Cars and Coffee, Austin Landing, September 28, 2019

A gorgeous morning to another unusually warm and dry day. Here was one of the most outstanding cars at the event. Simply superb!

On Writing Academic Motor Sport History

What follows is an opening to very early draft for a presentation at an upcoming conference. Do not quote or cite without permission. Your comments via email are most welcome.

Writing Motorsport History Draft

John Heitmann, University of Dayton

Copyright 2019. Do not cite or quote without permission of the author.

            I speak today with more than a little trepidation. Although I have been reading motor sport history for some time, and have several linear feet of files on the topic, I have written very little. Thinking is hardly doing. Long ago I learned that reading about a topic is not doing history – one only does history when one puts the pen to paper and reconstructs the past. In my classes and in my survey efforts, I have attempted to integrate motorsport with automotive history, but I still have a long way to go. 

But then motorsport history written from academic perspectives also is in its infancy. Indeed, in 2014 David Lucsko asserted that one can count the number of scholarly works on the fingers of two hands. He went on to say that “on balance, you are likely to encounter a greater depth of scholarship on just about any other subject in the history of the twentieth century United States.”[i]

            As Randall Hall has suggested, industrial America may have spawned automobile racing, but racing and speed catalyzed the growth of the automobile industry.[ii]Particularly with the end of road racing, spectators paid to attend a “carnival of speed” where they saw heard, smelled, and felt the experience. Racing reflected a new era of progress that pervaded all of American life. And sacrificially, drivers gave their lives in alarming numbers. 

            Integrative and dynamic themes touching on this complex topic include: technology transfer and nationalism; auto racing as a mass market, yet paradoxically involving craft-made cars; the complex social origins of drivers and fans; regionalism and racing; changes in technology; culture and racing, including literature, poetry, music, and especially film; and finally, ethnicity, race, gender and racing.

While I may equate the difficulties of doing academic motorsports history with academic automotive history, the two fields are not exactly the same. Visually one can represent the two with a dynamic Venn diagram, at times circles substantially overlapping, and at times not. Or perhaps we can say that the two areas are like mirror image twins. Motorsports history can be considered sports history, automotive history or national or international history. Automotive history, however, can hardly be considered a sport, however, beyond its economic competitiveness.  

There are a few things I want to say to the academically-inclined about doing either motor sport or automotive history, or a synthesis. First, despite warnings to the contrary, following this path does not necessarily lead to the end your career. That was an admonition given to me by historian, friend, and author of Auto Mechanics, Kevin Borg, who teaches at James Madison University. But that doesn’t mean that colleagues and others within academe initially may look askance at your work. Conveniently, it is diplomatic to say that one is doing the history of technology, or cultural, business, economic, social or business history. And if one decides to take my route, not only do academics have suspicions about the quality of your work, so too the “buff” historians.

Little has changed since 1936 when G.K. Chesterton wrote “I wonder if anybody has yet written a History of the Motor-Car. I am certain thousands must have written books more or less purporting this; I am also certain that most of them consist of advertisements for particular makes and models.”[iii]To extend Chesterton’s thoughts, in terms of motor sport histories writing rarely is integrative or contextual in merging themes and episodes related to both the sport, the culture, the automotive industries, and main currents in American life. Without getting personal or critical, one can find plenty of biographical material on drivers and their great races; the cars; the tracks; and the accidents and horrific deaths.  It often makes for interesting reading but is an extension of the journalism that first described the person, place, or thing at the time of the event.

 Indeed, a similar malady is pervasive to the writing of all of history. One widespread sin is that of well-worn tales repackaged with little if any critical analysis and a reexamination of the evidence. The story line never changes. Indeed, history, including motor sports history, needs to be saved from itself.  

            Everyone, including myself, is guilty of these sins. New interpretations require inordinate amounts of time, and time is in short supply. And we are constrained by the practices within our particular tribes. The “buff” historians are often easily pigeon-holed by their tight, non-contextual focus, along with the omission of the footnote or reference. Typical work is akin to 19^thcentury natural history, sort of a science of describing engines, suspensions, and chassis.  Further, a critical reader has no idea here the work came from or how the past was reconstructed. 

Aldo Leopold, in his Sand County Almanac, characterized “good History” as using the saw, wedge and axe when felling a tree and examining its rings.[iv]  Along similar lines, Carl L. Becker in his 1930 Presidential Address to the American Historical Association deftly depicted that the “buff” or everyman historian  

selects only such facts as may be relevant; and that the relevant facts must be clearly established by the testimony of independent witnesses not self-deceived. He does not know, or need to know, that his personal interest in the performance is a disturbing bias, which will prevent him from learning the whole truth or arriving at ultimate causes. Mr. Everyman does not wish to learn the whole truth or to arrive at ultimate causes. He wishes to pay his coal bill. That is to say, he wishes to adjust himself to a practical situation, and on that low pragmatic level he is a good historian precisely because he is not disinterested: he will solve his problems, if he does solve them, by virtue of his intelligence and not by virtue of his indifference.[v]

Buffs are to be viewed with caution in terms of the evidence they present. Indeed, their evidence is both experiential and usually uncited. Usually their work can not be reconstructed and thus tested. They see the trees but rarely the forest. And their work, often found on coffee tables, can rarely be found in most libraries.

But what about academics who can paint a forest scene, but do not know the differences of tree species?   With a relatively voluminous number of readers, often enthusiast authors consider the need for context and meaning to be nothing more than malarkey. And indeed, context without understanding and appropriate detail is malarkey.Instinctively “buff” historians need the academic historian for legitimacy, but only at arm’s length, for they often wish to pursue “anecdotal” accounts, in a sense glorifying self. “Buff’s” have a ready audience, but academics rarely do. Thus, an academic automotive historian can easily become a person without a country. 

However, academics also need the enthusiasts, and I would argue that their knowledge is absolutely critical to the quality of scholarship. They area a font of knowledge and insights, and incidentally are frequently more fun to be around than historians. They serve also as a check on the truth, particularly on the microscopic level. Many worked on the assembly lines, or in design studios and executive offices. In a business where archives are few and far between and knowledge is often kept close to the vest, they serve as rich sources. In terms of motor sports history, how many of us can claim to have driven in a race, or piloted a race car at speed? How many of us, so comfortable in the library or in our studies, have truly diced with death? 

How did I get into automotive history, with a fledgling  interest in motor sports history, and become this scholar without a country? In 1995, after serving a term as history department chair, and already a track record in the history of science and technology, I began to combine my passion for automobiles with my passions for history and teaching. As I look back, I had found myself. I had tenure and a full professor rank, so now I decided to pursue what I really wanted to learn more about, rather than what might be expected of me. It is a wonderful aspect of having tenure. You end up doing more work rather than less, as it was intended. 

            At the same time and during my sabbatical, I purchased a 1971 Porsche 911 targa. It was in a terrible shade of brown, missing a number of parts, barely running, and generally a mess. I began sorting it out, and looking back it was instrumental as a catalyst in moving me forward in terms of scholarship as well as practical mechanics. Struggling with that car over the years, appropriated named Lazarus since it was subsequently raised from the dead, was transformative in terms of hands and head coming together.

*****

            Thus, came Zen and the Art of doing Automotive history, fast and furiously. When I work on auto history, like on my old Porsche, I work on myself, just as Robert Pirsig argued in his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenanceand Matthew Crawford asserted in his Shop Class as Soul Craft.[vi]  But my activities go beyond self. Teaching was also an important part this passion, as I began to realize that I had something that a number of students, often but not necessarily male engineers wanted to learn more about. My book The Automobile and American Life,flowed out of the classroom during the course of a decade. At times I taught the topic not only as a General Education class capped at 35, but also a senior seminar and in one case as a seminar directed to first year students. Beginning with a focus on business and economic history, I gradually broadened the content to include increasing amounts of cultural history from sources connected with film, music, and literature. Student enthusiasm was very much a part of this evolving content mix. That led to a second edition of The Automobile and American Life, and in between the publication of the monograph Stealing Cars: Technology and Society from the Model T to Gran Torino.In the end and no matter what I work on, I hope to write a holistic reconstructed past and convey it to as broad an audience as possible. Now, I have now backed into motorsport history. 

                                                            **********

For some time, I have been interested in the history of sports cars in the U.S., particularly during the 1950s when sports car sales and SCCA participation took off. It was the result of rising middle-class expectations and ambitions, a new fascination with foreign luxury goods, and a response to the ungainly Detroit “dinosaur in the driveway.” Popular literature included: Ken Purdy’s Kings of the Roadand articles in Argosy, Trueand Playboy; John and Elaine Bond’s efforts  with Road & Track; Don Sanford’s The Red Car; and Tom McCahill’s Mechanix Illustrated articles. In film, movies featuring sports cars spanned from 1950s’ “To Please a Lady” to Elvis’ 1964 “Viva Las Vegas.”[vii]And as a teenager during the mid-1960s I got caught up in it all, as I purchased a 1959 MGA after graduating from high school. 

Lately as I reflect on my past I have often wondered how I got on the path of being so keenly interested in sports cars. No one in my family owned a foreign car, let alone a sports car.  We were a working-class Chevy family. When I brought home that MG our family car was a Chevy II. 

Somehow it had to be at the confluence of the popular culture of the day. One possible reason for my passion was the consequence of acquiring at age 12 the Riverside Records LP “Vintage Sports Car in Stereo.” On one side the record featured the sounds of a number of vintage cars I had never heard of before: a Frazer-Nash; Type 51 Bugatti; E.R.A.; P3 Alfa Romero; Alta; V16 Maserati. On the other side a vintage race was narrated by the famous David Scott-Moncrieff. I played that record over and over again, much to the anguish of my parents who thought I had gone over some sort of an adolescent cliff.  But as I have discovered from recent conversations, many others joined me in this obsession with the sounds of exotic motor cars. Today sounds are often a part of cars & coffee and weekly cruise-in events. A Saturday in October is devoted to sounds at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.[viii]However during 1950s and 1960s (and today if you have the LPs) thunderous but also harmonic engine sounds could be heard in your home as well as on the track and street.

The Riverside Records story is worth telling, for it links 1950s jazz sounds with the concurrent burgeoning interest in sports cars. The Riverside label began in 1952 with the partnership of two Columbia graduates, Bill Grauer, Jr. and Orrin Keepnews. Seeing an opportunity to approach major record firms with a proposal to counter what was then seen as the release of “pirate” recordings of performances dating back to the 1920s and 30s, between 1952 and 1962 Grauer and Keepnews transformed a once-obscure Riverside Records into a major jazz label. Initially Grauer convinced RCA Victor to re-issue 78s from the 1920s and 30s in LP format. However, he then shifted focus to the contemporary music of Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and Cannonball Adderly. Additionally, the partners established themselves by writing a definitive book on the history of jazz in the U.S, published by Crown in 1956 and reissued in 1971. In the midst of this artistic and business success, Grauer, like many upper middle-class men of the day, also became a sports car enthusiast. 

In a 1961 interview in his New York City office that featured a large photo of Bill behind the wheel of a 1937 Mercedes-Benz, he recounted how in “1956, just for fun, we recorded sounds of sports-car races down at Sebring, Florida (I’m a racing nut, you know). We decided to release it and then the roof fell in. It began to sell like crazy.”[ix]Thus this experiment into the commercial recording of sports car sounds It began with RLP 5001 -- "Sounds of Sebring:  The 1956 Florida International Twelve-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance." Grauer recalled "At Sebring, everybody has problems and for the most part all this worry and fuss is just for the fun of it. And because it's for the fun of it, Sebring is a terribly wonderfully exciting spectacle."

The most unusual sound recording's A side began with interviews of drivers, a prelude to the listener experiencing "sounds at rest:" a 3 liter Maserati; 3.5; 3.5 liter Ferrari; a Lotus; and finally a Porsche Spyder. Driver interviews connected us to ghosts from the past: Stirling Moss;Jean Behra and Carlos Medniteguy;Pochirio Rubirosa;Peter Collins;Bill Spear;Juan Manuel Fangio;John Gordon Bennett;Reg Parnell;Marquis de Portago; and finally Luigi Musso.The flip side included hour-by-hour reports of the 12-hour race. Who do you think would care about all of this? But this was not a one-off exercise, for over the next seven years many other vinyl discs of racing sounds and exotic cars would follow, and amuse a generation or two of sports car enthusiasts. A label with a reputation for jazz recording certainly left a legacy for the automotive historian to explore.

            Other releases that followed the “Sounds of Sebring” included the chronicling of the Sebring races between 1957 and 1962. These records not only were a reflection of the burgeoning interest in sports car racing, but they also played a significant role in making it happen. Certainly, the course at Sebring was nothing special.[x]Robert Daley argued “There is much mysterious about the Sebring promotion. In every possible way, the site is ridiculous, the circuit unexciting (the Twelve Hours qualifies as one of the dullest events of the year), and the “success“ of the race inexplicable.”[xi]

An advertisement in the December 1956 Sports Cars Illustratedtouted the “Sounds of Sebring” album this way: 

For the first time ever: a superb high quality 12 inch long playing record of all the sounds that make up America’s greatest sports car race. Over 60 minutes of interviews with the world’s greatest drivers…Fangio, Moss, Collins, Behra, Hill, Musso, Menditeguy, Bennett, Rubirosa, Portago, Parnell. The sounds of Ferraris, Maseratis, Jags, Aston Martins, Porsche, Corvettes, Lotus, etc. warming up, revving, roaring at speed, coming out of corners flat out. The fabulous Le Mans start, pit activity, the fantastic sounds of Fangio shifting up and down as he makes the five mile circuit, and dozens of other remarkable on the-spot sounds which are so exciting to the driver and spectator alike.[xii]

Other releases that followed the “Sounds of Sebring” included the chronicling of the Sebring races between 1958 and 1962. Additionally, drivers were featured. In 1957 titles included “The Marquis de Portago: The Story of Racing’s Most Colorful Driver – a Memorial Tribute;” “Phil Hill: Around the Racing Circuit with a Great American Driver;” “Carroll Shelby: The Career of a Great American Racing Driver;” and “Stirling Moss: A Portrait of Britain’s Great Racing Driver, Told in his Own Words.”  These recordings then serve as primary source material not only of the races and the engine sounds – distinct of brand and vintage, a sort of original language speaking to us – but also of the best drivers of the day, speaking in their own words. But we can’t neglect the focus on sounds.

The theme here, then is engine noise: exhaust, valve, camshaft.  The variation on the theme are endless. As long as men design and build engines, there'll be enthusiasts trying to make them perform better. When they blow up, they'll simply build engines that won't blow up. The automobile is unique in the history of civilization. It has provided man with effortless transportation -- freed him, as it were, from the bounds of his physical limitations. And to the men who own and run these cars, it is given, more than to most men, to create as well as to savor the magic bouquet of speed.[xiii]

There is one other aspect of the Riverside Records sports car series worth mentioning. Namely the record jackets are often works of art in their own right. Often the work of Bill’s wife, Jane Grauer, the covers are at times stunning representations of cars, engines, wire wheels, race scenes and Bugatti grills ( the grill furnished by Ken Purdy).  

For a short time in 1956 Riverside had competition from another distinguished recording studio, Folkways Records. Folkways released a 12-inch vinyl disk and an accompanying brochure about the Watkins Glen Grand Prix race, with “on one side of the resulting record you go to tech inspection and meet the Grand Prix winner, while on the other side brings you the ear splitting and soul shaking music of the race.”  The Folkways production was the result of Henry Mandler and Robert Strome using state-of-the-art high fidelity equipment, including an Ampex 400 tape recorder, Capps, Electrovoice and Shure microphones, and over 400 feet of power cords and audio cables.[xiv]A second competitor to Riverside proved to be Grand Prix Records of Burbank, California. In 1959 this firm released six 45 RPM disks of the 1957 Le Mans race; Grand Prix of Europe, 1958; Grand Prix of Monaco, 1957; British Empire Trophy Race; British Grand Prix of Silverstone, 1958, RAC British Grand Prix 1955 at Aintree and 1956 at Silverstone; and the 1958 Mercedes at Oulton Park.[xv]Unlike the Riverside and Folkways recordings, however, the later have proved to be far more elusive to collectors.

Today Riverside has the dominant legacy in this odd episode in history.  Sadly, Riverside’s involvement with motorsports history came to an end in 1962. Grauer died unexpectantly, perhaps the result of a suicide, the consequence of his financial mismanagement of company funds and allegedly fraud involving Swiss bank accounts.[xvi]

During more recent times ex-Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and collaborator Mark Hales revisited the theme of sound and race cars with the 1998 publication of Into the Red,a book that included an accompanying CD (Revised and updated as Passion for Speed, 2010)[xvii]. A number of the cars whose sounds were reproduced by Mason and Hales were also featured in the Riverside series. 

Given the technical description of the pains taken to capture exhaust engine and track sounds in 1998, a renewed appreciation of Grauer’s pioneering efforts emerges. Musician Mason has the ear, sensitivity and prose to capture the sounds of cars on the track at Silverstone that Riverside Records had captured at Oulton Park, in Yorkshire some 40 years before.  Mason described the sounds emanating from a 1931 Alfa 8C 2300 (p.30) as

At first, the noise from this gleaming mass of metal is a disappointment. Folklore still says eight straight cylinders make a noise like ripping fabric, but not this Alfa. It’s more of a boom than a rip. Push in the ignition key to switch on the electrics and illuminate the a starter button. The electric motor whirrs the eight pistons past compression with barely a stutter and the Alfa gently comes alive, moaning and chuffing as a thousand pieces of metal bump and grind before bathing themselves in a fresh coating of lubricant. And then, as you wait to warm the oil, there’s more to be had by listening carefully, just as with any good piece of music. You can hear the boom become the bass, and now there’s a gentle wail from the supercharger, which swells as you rev up, disappears when you lift off. Just beneath that there’s another, more musical warble from the exhaust. Not the demented pigeon noise of a modern five-cylinder Audi, but a more orchestrated, subtler kind of rhythm, like a string bass shimmering in the background. If that little chrome-rimmed rev counter with its flickering needle were to fail, it would be the rhythm which would say how fast the engine was turning. Otherwise the hum of eight straight cylinders is so seamlessly subtle that you could hardly tell.[xviii]

Music is often made by instruments – technologies not that dissimilar from machines including internal combustion engines. Those musical instruments or machines reflect the work of human beings who very creatively made artifacts of power and awe and those players or drivers that blow their stuff in unique ways.

---

[i]David N. Lucsko, “American Motorsports: The Checkered Literature on the Checkered Flag,”

[ii]From Hall, Carnival of Speed, 246.

[iii]G. K Chesterton, “The Hollow Horn,” G. K.’s Weekly, 24 (October 1, 1936): 57.

[iv]Curt Meine (ed.),  Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Ecology and Conservation(New York, 2013). p. 16.

[v]Carl L. Becker, “Everyman his own Historian,”Annual address of the president of the American Historical Association, delivered at Minneapolis, December 29, 1931. American Historical Rev iew, 37(1932), 221–36.

[vi]Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of motorcycle Maintenance(New York, 1974); and Matthew B. Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work(New York, 2009).

[vii]There are too many films to list! Among those I am exploring are “To Please a Lady,” (1950); “The Bad and the Beautiful,” (1952): “The Caddy,” (1953); “The Racers,” (1955); “Kiss Me Deadly” (1955); “Drive a Crooked Road,” (1955); “The Fast and Furious,” (1955) Hot Rod Galahads,” (1955); “Hot Rod Girl,” (1956); “She Devil,” (1957); “On the Beach,” (1959); Viva Las Vegas,” (1964).

[viii]On sound and automobiles, see Karin Bijsterveld, Eefje Cleophas, Stefan Krebs and Gijs Mom, Sound and Safe: A History of Listening Behind the Wheel.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Stefan Krebs, “’Sobbing, Whining, Rumbling’: Listening to Automobiles as Social Practice,” The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies, 80-101. See also Michael Bull, “Automobility and the Power of Sound,” Theory, Culture & Society, 21(4/5), 243-259; Mimi Sheller, “Automotive Emotions: Feeling the Car,” Ibid., 221-242.[viii]Sound and Safe, p.6; R. Murray Schafer, Our Sonic Environment and the Soundscape. The Tuning of the World(Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books, 1977, 1994).

[ix]On Grauer and Riverside Records, see “Sound Business,” Newsweek, 58 (September 4, 1961), 63; “Bill Grauer Jr. Obituary,” New York Times, December 17, 1963, 39; John S. Wilson, “Greats of Classic Jazz Ignite a Reissue,” New York Times, January 18, 1987, H25; Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, A Pictorial History of Jazz: People and Places from New Orleans to Modern Jazz(New York: Crown Publishers, 1956).

[x]On the history of Sebring, see Alec Ulmann, The Sebring Story (Philadelphia:Chilton,1969); On the use of WWII air field runways during the 1950s, see Jeremy R. Kinney, “Racing on Runways: The Strategic Air Command and Sports Car Racing in the 1950s,” ICON,19 (2013), 193-215.

[xi]Daley, Cars at Speed, p.264. 

[xii]Sports Cars Illustrated(Here after SCI), October, 1956, 64. Other ads include SCI,January 1957, 47; SCI, May 1957, 55; SCI, June 1957, 11; SCIAugust, 1957, 3; SCI, September, 1958, 3; SCI, March 1959, 3. For a review of the Riverside LP “The Fastest 500,” Riverside RLP 5513, see Road & Track, 13(March 1963), 12.

[xiii]From the dust jacket of Riverside Records RLP 5002 [1957?].

[xiv]Folkways FX 6140, “Sounds of the International Sports Car Grand Prix of Watkins Glen, NY,” p.5 of accompanying brochure.

[xv]“You Are There! With Grand Prix Sound Story Records,” SCI, June 1959, 71.

[xvi]Conversation with former Riverside producer and then sales manager Robert Richer, September 12, 2019. 

[xvii]Nick Mason and Mark Hales, Into the Red: Twenty-One Classic Cars that Shaped a Century of Motor Sport (London: Virgin Books, 1998), p.30.

Gable, Indy and the Film "To Please a Lady."

As mesmerizing a racing clip as I have ever seen.

Route 66: Film Used in "the Automobile and American Life" Class and Text Narrative

Text from the 2nd edition of The Automobile and American Life on Route 66:

Of all the highways with U.S. number designations, one, Route 66, truly stands out in American culture.²⁸Spanning from Chicago to Santa Monica, the “Mother Road,” was immortalized in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Its road food, typified by the fare served by the Big Texan restaurant outside of Amarillo, and roadside architecture, like the Wigwam Village Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, has given Route 66 a mystique without equal. Route 66 was the idea of Cyrus Steven Avery, a businessman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who became president of the Associated Highways Association in 1921 and State Highway Commissioner in 1923. He perceptively understood that highways meant business and tourism, and that the better the highways the better the business. To this day, with the rise of nostalgia about the “Mother Road,” Route 66 is all about tourism. A journey down Route 66 takes one to a different time in American life, before McDonald’ s and fast food, before the homogeneity found on the interstate confronted travelers.²⁹

            Nostalgia for the open road of the past, however, should not blind us to its historical realities. For one thing, Route 66 was known as “bloody” 66, because it was so dangerous and so many died on that road. And, as Steinbeck so astutely described, it was a road not only leading to the opportunities awaiting the beleaguered upon reaching California, but also a place where opportunism, exploitation, and disappointment occurred. With dilapidated cars and worn out tires, fear was at the hearts of drivers and passengers alike, who out of a sense of survival became one with their rides: 

            Listen to the motor. Listen to the wheels. Listen with your ears and with your hands on the steering wheel; listen with the palm of your hand on the gear-shift lever; listen with your feet on the floor boards. Listen to the pounding old jalopy with all your senses; for a change of tone, a variation of the rhythm that may mean – a week here? That rattle – that’s tappets. Don’t hurt a bit. Tappets can rattle till Jesus comes again without no harm. But that thudding as the car moves along – can’t hear that – just kind of feel it. Maybe oil isn’t getting’ someplace. Maybe a bearing’s startin’ to go. Jesus, if it’s a bearing, what’ll we do?  Money’s goin’ fast.³⁰

The "Automobile Age" in America -- Did It Ever End?

Hi folks -- I just completed grading 35 undergraduate response papers after the students read James Flink's important essay "Three Stages of American Automobile Consciousness" in a 1972  issue of  the American Quarterly. The article is a good one, and I use it to provide the students with a sweeping synthesis at the beginning of my "Automobile and American Life" course offering. But it is now 50 years old, and Flink's attempt at an historical synthesis is now largely forgotten. His conclusion that by the 1960s the automobile was no longer a progressive force in American life was prescient, given that at the time of writing the author had no idea that two oil shocks were in the near future and that first Europe and then Asia would emerge as formidable competitors to the Detroit Three.

In thinking about the past 50 years, it is hard to conclude that the automobile age really came to an end. Yes, the marriage between the automobile and Americans was strained. And particularly there was a falling out between consumers and Detroit, but that relationship was in part filled with a new fascination with the likes of BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Toyota, Nissan, and even Hyundai and Kia! Subarus have a cult following. To be sure, there was and continues to be plenty of noise from East Coast anti-car folks like Jane Holtz Kay and her Asphalt Nation followers. Some west coast progressives are also advocates for taking the wheels out of the hands of drivers ignorer to save the planet. And critics, many well-meaning,  continue to publish in this genre. But let us not forget that the U.S. has plenty of folks and land between New York, Boston and Oregon. The dissenters are noisy, but ironically few of their children have not been mesmerized by the images, characters and voices from the film "Cars."

And that brings me to the real impact of the automobile on America life during the past 50 years --- culture -- especially film but also print media and to a lesser degree music. Who in America has not been influenced by automobile chase scenes starting with "Bullit" and ending with the "Bourne" or "Fast and Furious" franchises? And then there is music and fiction. Flink never really explored the place of the automobile in culture, and I think it is there that one can explore how the automobile age remains with us although admittedly not with the fervent intensity of the 1950s. Let's face it, Americans have more choices as to where to spend their money now than in 1970s. McMansions -- another way to flaunt status. Vacations around the globe are now quite affordable for many. Electronics, although in my opinion only a dangerous way to lose time and cultivate meaningless relationships. Get off the grid and go for a drive.

On a Saturday or Sunday go to any Cars and  Coffee, cruise-ins at a church parking lot or other venue, and you'll see that the automobile age is with us, and now moving on to a new stage in terms of electric vehicles and autonomous technologies. The young have not abandoned motorized mobility. But many have large debts from going to college. It will be different in the future, but in some ways mirror the transition that was made as Brass Era transportation gave way to the Model T. Driving and future life will become more accessible, cleaner, safer, and easier.


Any response is quite welcome!! 

47 Classsic Photos of Ladies Posing with Their Cars in the 1940s

What can I say? A great collection of photos! If only to be young again!

Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Public Transport i...

First 30 minutes or so was shown in class on 9/19/19.  Do you buy into Brad Snell's story that GM and others suppressed electric trolley transportation by replacing it with buses so that the urban auto market would expand?

Origins of the American Streamline Style -- Amos Northup and the 1932 Graham Blue Streak

I'll be spending  about 25 minutes of this video in my HST 344 class on September 19. There are several points to take away  from the film. First, we should not get too carried away with the influence of Harley Earl on automotive design. There were others, including Northup, who worked quite independently of GM on designing cars that were more integrated, longer, and lower. Note also  that innovation can come from the periphery, rather than the center, of the emerging American "technostructure."Thanks to Mark Kessler for rescuing Amos Northup from the dustbin of history.

Happy Birthday, Sir Stirling Moss!

Mille Miglia 1955 in Italy from 30 April to 1 May 1955: Stirling Moss won the legendary road race with his co-driver Denis Jenkinson in a Mercedes-Benz racing sports car 300 SLR (W 196 S) in the best ever time achieved.

British racing driver Stirling Moss became a star of the Mercedes-Benz racing department in 1955. He celebrated outstanding victories with the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR racing sports car (W 196 S) and was Formula 1 runner-up world champion with the W 196 R. His successes are highlights of 125 years of Mercedes-Benz motorsport history. On 17 September 2019, the motorsport racer, who was knighted in 2000, will be 90 years old.

“In 1955, with triumphs such as his overall victory in the Mille Miglia and winning the British Grand Prix, Sir Stirling Moss wrote motorsport history for Mercedes-Benz. He has been closely associated with our brand ever since. We would like to congratulate this outstanding racing driver on his 90th birthday,” affirms Christian Boucke, head of Mercedes-Benz Classic.

On 1 May 1955, Stirling Moss wrote motorsport history: in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR racing sports car, the then 25-year-old British driver won the legendary Mille Miglia in the best time ever achieved there. He completed the race that began on 30 April from Brescia to Rome and back on an extremely challenging 1,000-mile route together with co-driver Denis Jenkinson at an average speed of 157.65 km/h.

Another great moment is Moss’ victory with Formula 1 racing car Mercedes-Benz W 196 R at the British Grand Prix in Aintree on 16 July 1955 ahead of his team colleague Juan Manuel Fangio. It was the first victory ever for a British racing driver at this Grand Prix. 

Championships

The foundations for the career of this British driver were already laid at primary-school age: inspired by the motorsport successes of his mother Aileen and father Alfred, the youngster dreamt of becoming a professional racing driver. With special permission, he already had his driving licence at the age of 15.

In 1948, Stirling Moss bought a Cooper 500 racing car. With it, he took part in 15 Formula 3 races, winning 12 of them. This was the start of an international career. In 1949, the young racing driver became a part of the British H.W.M. works team in Formula 2 and won the English Formula 2 championship title in 1949 and 1950. In 1950, Moss also won the Tourist Trophy in a Jaguar XK 120, beating the works racing car of the manufacturer. A year later, he headed the Jaguar team.

Professionalisation

Moss not only had clear goals regarding his sporting successes, but he was also very decisive when it came to the professionalisation of his career. As a result, he was one of the first professional drivers of this era to hire a manager who dealt with engagements and fees. How important this decision was became clear in 1953, when manager Ken Gregory approached Mercedes-Benz racing manager Alfred Neubauer: would the brand from Stuttgart like to hire Moss for the re-entry of Mercedes-Benz into the Grand Prix sport?

In the 1954 season, however, Moss still raced in Formula 1 in his own Maserati 250 F as the private team “Equipe Moss” (later “Stirling Moss Limited”). His gripping duel with Silver Arrow chief driver Juan Manuel Fangio at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza was one of the moments that left a great impression: Moss was in pole position until just twelve rounds from the finish, when he was hopelessly thrown back into the pack by a technical defect. Winner Fangio paid great respect to the Brit and called him the actual winner of the race. 

Silver Arrows

By 1954, Neubauer had been convinced of the great talent of the British racing driver. He invited him for a test drive and hired him for the 1955 season as a works driver of the Mercedes-Benz racing department. Moss was to complete 17 races with the successful W 196 R Formula 1 racing car as well as the new 300 SLR racing sports car (W 196 S).

Moss made his Formula 1 debut for the Silver Arrows on 16 January 1955 at the Argentinian Grand Prix, where he was able to clinch 4th place in the heat of Buenos Aires together with Hans Herrmann and Karl Kling. The highlight of the season was his victory at the British Grand Prix. At two further Formula 1 races (the Belgian Grand Prix on 5 June 1955 and the Dutch Grand Prix on 19 June 1955), each time Moss came in second behind Fangio. He ended the season as runner-up in the driver standings.

Sports car racing

Stirling Moss was his most successful in 1955 in sports car racing with the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR racing sports car developed solely for this season. The vehicle had its exceptionally successful premiere at the Mille Miglia. With it, the British racing driver also won the Tourist Trophy in Dundrod (Northern Ireland) and the Targa Florio in Sicily. This allowed him to secure for the brand from Stuttgart – alongside the win of the Formula 1 world championship by Juan Manuel Fangio – victory in the 1955 sports car world championship. At the height of its success, Mercedes-Benz withdrew from racing at the end of the season.

Stirling Moss continued his career on other racing teams. He raced in racing cars by Maserati, Vanwall, Cooper, Porsche, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lotus and B.R.M, amongst others, and again and again proved himself to be a world class driver. Moss attained many victories and excellent finishes in Formula 1 (runner-up in 1956 to 1958, third place in the drivers’ world championship in 1959 to 1961) and in sports car races. After a serious injury at the “100 Miles of Goodwood” on 30 April 1962, Moss ended his active career at the age of 33.

Contemporary witness

Stirling Moss continued to stay closely connected to motorsport as an author and a racing expert. In particular, he was involved for many years as a Mercedes-Benz brand ambassador at automotive classic events. The contemporary witness of one of the most glorious eras of motorsport under the star took part in the Mille Miglia and the Goodwood Festival of Speed, amongst other events, in 2015. At both events, Mercedes-Benz looked back on the successes of 1955, 60 years earlier.

In his home country of Great Britain, Moss was known as “Mr Motor Racing” and “the epitome of speed” during his active career. For his services, Queen Elizabeth II honoured him with “The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” (OBE) in 1959. In 2000, Moss was raised to Knight Bachelor, making his title since then Sir Stirling.

Seen at Carillon Park Cars & Coffee, September 14: A beautiful and interesting 1952 Mercedes 220S Convertible

This is a very special early post-WWII Mercedes 220S. The owner is from Mason, Ohio and will show this car tomorrow at the Dayton Concours. It has been in the same family since 1958. A gorgeous car with plenty of originality.

Goofy Motor Mania

If this isn't me! Impatient, aggressive, frustrated, and individualistic. Sorry.

No Ghosts (1935) -- Cars as Homes -- An Excellent Video on Automotive Frame Architecture

Cars as Homes

            Since the 1920s, the home and the automobile have been inexorably linked.⁴⁰Perhaps a word should be said at the outset about the psychological meaning of these two things. The word home – clearly very different than house – has a meaning that is distinctive in American culture and in the English language. For example, home is not exactly translatable in the Italian, French, or Hungarian languages. It is a sacred place to many, a sphere in which inhabitants shape a material environment that is essentially reflective of self. For many individuals, the home is a place of relaxation, comfort, and intimacy with others. The walls and ceiling of a home provide safety from the elements and hostile others. The home is also a place of special objects. In some cultures, the Middle East for example, the car dashboard contains numerous trinkets. A generation ago, St. Christopher medals were attached to many American dashboards. Not only did my parents always have a St. Christopher medal in the car, they also had other non-essential gadgets from time to time. For example, my cousin had a 1950 Oldsmobile with a vacuum-assisted pop-up bird on the dash that responded to increases and decreases in acceleration. It was like having a bird in a cage in the living room.

            In any case, typically for men, that special object attached to the home is often the automobile, a possession that conveys status; for women, the things that mean the most in a home are usually connected with loved ones or special people. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Eurgen Rochenberg-Halton, the home “brings to mind one’s childhood, the roots of one’s being.”⁴¹I can certainly attest to this with regards to the car as an extension of the home, as some of my first memories center on the dashboard, radio, ashtrays, lighter, and upholstery of my father’s 1948 Chevrolet. 

            For the car to be an extension of the home, it had to be closed rather than open, unlike the pre-WWI roadster or touring car. Thus, the first and undoubtedly most important step in creating personal space in the automobile was the closed steel body. Historian James J. Flink has called this development “the single most significant automotive innovation.”⁴²Almost immediately after World War I, public demand increased dramatically for a closed car that would no longer be a seasonal pleasure vehicle, but rather all-weather transportation. The few closed body cars built before WWI were extremely expensive and the work of custom coach builders. This rise in demand during the 1920s, coupled with a remarkable number of concurrent technical innovations in plate glass and steel manufacture, resulted in a revolution in production methods, productivity, and economies of scale. William J. Abernathy [PJB1] has carefully characterized the transformation that took place on the shop floor and assembly line, the first fruits of which occurred when in 1921 Hudson first mass-produced a closed car. The transition away from rag tops (the word convertible was first used in 1927 and officially added to the Society of Automotive Engineers lexicon in 1928) was rapid and contributed to a venerable prodigy of production by the end of the 1920s, as depicted in Table 4.⁴³

Table 4. Transition from Open to Closed Cars

Year	Open Cars (%)	Closed Cars (%)
1919	90	10
1920	84	16
1921	78	22
1922	70	30
1923	66	34
1924	57	43
1925	44	56
1926	36	74
1927	15	85

Source:  John Gunnell, Convertibles: The Complete Story(Blue Ridge Summit, PA: 1984), 129.

            Significant improvements in the quality of sheet steel were certainly part of this story, but so too were developments in welding technology, the development of sound deadening materials, and construction of the single unit body. The Budd Manufacturing Company pioneered all of these innovations and far more. Typical of the Budd All-Steel ads of the mid-1920s was one that appeared in the Saturday Evening Postin 1926, with the headline “Put the Protection of All-Steel Between You and the Risks of the Road.”⁴⁴Like the safety inherent in a home, the steel body protected its occupants, especially women and children. The ad continued, “Self preservation is the first law of Nature. Today, with 19,000,000 cars crowding the highways . . . With the need for safer motoring more urgent than ever before . . . America is turning to the All-Steel Body. It is the greatest protection ever devised to prevent injury in the case of accident. See that your next car is so equipped!” A second 1926 Budd ad, like the first mentioned, depicted a closed car traveling down a busy city street but in its own clear lane, separated on both sides by huge sheets of steel that prevented the masses of cars on each side from touching the car and harming its occupants. The headline for this ad read in part, “The protection which it [the all-steel body] brings to you and to your families is priceless – yet the cars which have it cost no more than those which do not.”⁴⁵Clearly, the message was that Budd-engineered closed body cars were worth the money spent.

            The rationale Budd used in ads published during the 1920s continued during the 1930s in the General Motors ads featuring the “Turret-Top” design that contained such sentences as, “The instant feeling of security you get . . . is beyond price.”⁴⁶Surprisingly perhaps, the pitch toward safety was far more prevalent in ads of the 1930s than one might think, although ironically during the early 1930s convertibles were the center of many ads, even when closed cars were pictorially featured!⁴⁷On the eve of WWII, however, the theme of the home and the car was clearly brought together, as reflected in a Hudson advertisement featuring a beautifully attired woman sitting in a plushy upholstered rear seat. The ad touts the availability of “a wide selection of interior color combinations that harmonize with the exterior colors . . . at no extra cost!” This ad has clear-cut similarities in terms of an emphasis on color and comfort to paint ads of the same period, as exemplified by the Sherwin-Williams Paint and Color Style Guide of 1941:⁴⁸

            In automobiles, up to now, one upholstery color has usually done duty with every body color. Carpets, floor mats, steering wheels, and trim have introduced still other assorted colors and tones.

            Now Hudson’s Symphonic Styling gives you, in your 1941 car, the kind of color that permit a wide variation in the details and equipment of each individual car, without interfering with orderly, efficient mass production. Symphonic Styling is the climax of this long-time development.⁴⁹

            With the widespread adoption of the closed body car by the late 1920s, automotive engineers next turned their attention to the suspension system.⁵⁰To the uninitiated, suspension system engineering involves very complex mechanics and geometry.⁵¹One area of concern focused on shock absorbers or dampeners. In addition to mechanical and hydraulic improvements, air springs, or the insertion of an inflatable inner tube inside a coil spring, was one strategy developed during the 1920s and 1930s to improve ride. A second concern involved driver control of the shock absorber system, and in 1932 Packard pioneered a Delco-Remy unit in which a cable mounted on the dash vastly enhanced ride quality and handling.⁵²The most important innovation, however, was the introduction of independent front suspension.⁵³First used by Mercedes in 1932, independent front suspension was installed in Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile and Chrysler vehicles in 1934, with Ford only adopting this technology after WWII. Pre-war Pontiacs and Chevrolets employed a less effective Dubonnot design. The potential advantages of independent front suspension, however, were never fully realized. 

            The closed body style was designed for all-weather driving, as previously mentioned, but it took several decades before climate control within the personal space of the automobile became efficient and widely introduced. Beginning around 1925, aftermarket manufacturers began to sell hot water type heaters for American automobiles.⁵⁴The problem of heating the car was more difficult than one might initially think: proper controls and the mixing of heated air coming from a heat exchanger with ventilated fresh air did not take place until 1937, when Nash introduced its WeatherEye system. Variants of the Nash system were introduced by Buick in 1941 and Ford in 1947 (Magic Air). 

            Air conditioning, and the development of an integrated heating/cooling system lagged by perhaps only a decade or so behind hot water heater technology.⁵⁵From its inception, air-conditioning was touted as a feature that would exclude noise from the outside. During the late 1930s, Packard pioneered an early system. An early Packard ad proclaimed, “you can step OUT of summer heat – when you step INTO your stunning new Packard.’ The air-conditioned Packard created a private, personal place:

And – don’t shout, they can hear you! In the superbly comfortable air-cooled Packard, you ride free from open-window traffic noise and the rush of the wind which so often carries away one’s words with it! In this greater silence front and rear passengers converse with ease and complete audibility. You enjoy a ride that is infinitely more restful than you have ever experienced.⁵⁶

            One final technology that offered to transform the car into a home-like environment was the radio. Surprisingly, perhaps, there is not one scholarly essay that explores how two dynamic technologies were brought together beginning in the 1920s.⁵⁷Early on, the main technological bottleneck centered on multiple battery power supplies that were compatible with existing tube grid and filament voltage requirements. In 1929, based on the work of William Lear, the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation introduced the first successful car radio, the Motorola Model 5T71.

In November 1929 and in the wake of financial failure, Paul Galvin, the owner of a Chicago radio manufacturing company that made nine tube “private label” sets, decided to manufacture his own brand of automobile radio. The first Galvin Manufacturing Company radios, however, were lacking both convenience and performance. One of the first – credited to Hank Saunders – although it is likely that Galvin and associate Bill Lear helped design it – was installed in the rumble seat of a Model A Ford. Based on an Atwater-Kent radio chassis, it was shielded in the rumble seat from electrical system interference. Inside the car’s passenger compartment was a large “B” battery. The antenna was an ingenious modification, employing chicken wire. Widely imitated in future installations, the chicken wire antenna system was placed on the top of an automobile roof to support a covering of fabrics. As mentioned previously, steel tops were not commonplace in American automobiles until the mid-1930s. Isolated from metal body parts, and held in place with laced butchers twine, this chicken wire antenna was connected by two wires to the radio.  

One early problem was simply the bulk of the three key components of the early automobile radio – the batteries, the radio itself with its large vacuum tubes and capacitors and resistors, and the loud speaker. In 1930 the Galvin Radio was introduced at the Radio Manufacturer’s Association of America annual convention, and after seeing demonstrations of Galvin’s prototype, a few dealers became interested in a product that brought together two of the most revolutionary technologies of the 20^thcentury.

A critical problem that had to be solved was that of tuning and volume control. Early versions normally placed these switches on the steering column. And after a few hundred radios were installed, consumers embraced the idea of hearing radio broadcasts while driving. After several early failures, Galvin’s persistence in creating the Motorola radio would make him rich.⁵⁸

A year later, other manufacturers entered the fray; for example, the Crosley Corporation introduced its first car radio, the “Roamio.” In 1932, Mallory and other manufacturers produced several new power supplies, and four years later Ford was the first to install a radio tailor-made for the dashboard. It was claimed that among other advantages, the radio in a car would ensure that one could listen to favorite shows without missing them. “When it’s a quarter before Amos ‘n’ Andy or Lowell Thomas and you’re in the ol’ bus, far, far, from home and radio, is it a tragedy? Or can you tune in right where you are?”⁵⁹Thus the home was again extended to the car. This was also one theme among several that was employed in advertising. For example, a 1934 Philco auto radio ad asserted, “Enjoy Philco in your car . . . as you do at Home! You wouldn’t be without a radio at home – why be without one in your car? Just as a PHILCO brings you the finest radio entertainment in the comfort of your living room, a PHILCO Auto Radio gives you the most enjoyable radio reception in your car.”⁶⁰Contrary to other technologies discussed above that stressed the safety angle, in 1939 psychologist Edward Suchman argued that listening to the radio distracted the driver from the road.⁶¹Suchman’s applied psychological study was a response to a long-standing criticism of the radio in cars, for when introduced in 1930 several states refused to register vehicles with radios, although apparently this was never enforced.

In sum, by the end of the 1920s, and with only few exceptions, the automobile was now a valued member of the American family. And it was now seen as indispensable, no matter what economic clouds lay on the horizon. 

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