Radio Script #361
Little Talks On Common Things
December 29, 1957
My friend Chester Hussey, who has more than once contri buted items to this program, has reminded me about some of the old-time and now nearly forgotten makes of automobiles that we used to see in the early years of this century. In fact Mr. Hussey has loaned me a Ii tt Ie book ca lied the “0 I dti me Automobile” •
How some of those old cars bring back memories! The oldest one I remember personally is a make that is sti II produced — the Oldsmobile. Our fami Iy physician, in my boyhood days in Bridgton, owned one of those Model B, straight dash Oldsmobile runabouts, that had a factory price of $650. The son of that doctor, now himself a famous cancer specialist of Boston, gave me the first ride I ever had in any automobile, by taking me one day from Bridqton Villaqe to the highland summer resort of Ingal Is Grove in that old Oldsmobile. It had a sing le-cy Ii ndered eng i ne, and cou I d get up a speed of about 18 mi les an hour. It was steered not by a whee I, but by a hand Ie like the ti Iler of a boat. I t carried on each side of the buggy-like dashboard an acetylene lamp. The fi rst fi ve-passenger car I remember as owned in Sri dgton was the 1909 Cad i I lac. I twas, of course, an open touri ng car and had its eng i ne set for- . ward under a hood, as in the modern cars.
Because the Bridgton House was an overnight stop on the famous Glidden tour, an annual “trip taken by a group of motorists from Boston to the White Mountains, and because my father’s store was directly opposite the Bridgton House, I saw more automobiles in that fi rst decade of the century than it was the privi lege of most country boys to see.
One of those cars was naturally the Stanley Steamer~ which was one of the most popular of cars in that period, because of its abi lity to go up steep hi lis. That was a time when many an internal combustion car; like the first Fords, had to be turned around and backed up a hi I I, in order for gravi ty to feed gaso line into the carburetor. But the steeper the hi II, the faster the Stan ley Steamer seemed to go.
When I went to Hebron Academy as a teacher in 1913, Freeland Stanley was a prominent member of the trustees, and during my year as the school’s acting principal in 1920-21, he was the chairman of the board. So I came to know Freeland Stanley very wei I, although I knew his twin brother Francis only casually.
I have ridden many miles with Mr. Stanley in those big seven passenger steamers and in the sma lIer runabouts. I vi si ted his Newton factory severa I times, and have heard him te I I how 1 by perfecti ng the p ri nci pa I of recondensed steam .. he and his brother drove a Stan ley S.teamer from Newton to New York Ci ty wi thout any replenishment of water. That was a big advance because one trouble with the early steamers was that you had to stop at nearly every brook to fi II up the water tank. Then, too, you couldn’t dash out of your house and into your car and immediately drive away as you can now. You had to wait to get up steam.
For that and other reasons 1 the Stan ley Steamer, fast as it was on the hi I Is, and gently purring as it was on the level, gave way to the gas engined cars.
One of the big cars we used to see on those Glidden tours was the Pierce Arrow. Begi nni ng as a sma II two-cy tinder car, it had come to wi n the name of the Pierce Great Arrow with its big body and its four cylinders by 1905, when it had deve loped 45 horsepower and so I d for $5,000. Then there was the Reo, desi gned to appea I to peop Ie of lower income than were owners of the Pierce Arrow. It was powered by two cylinders with a 16 horsepower engine” and could whiz along at 30 mi les an hour when the road would pe rm it such excessi ve speed. I t cos t $1,250.
The Winton was manufactured as early as 1897. In 1905 it was a 4 cylinder car that cost $1,800. The company made the first gasol ine powered vehicle ever used to carry the mai I. It was a vehi cle that looked very much like the horsedrawn hearses of the ti me, except for the words TfU.S. Ma i I!! pa i nted on the side.
Does anyone remembe r some of the fo I low i ng automobiles that we re on the road about 1910? The American, the Autocar, the Badger: the Baker, the Christie, the Cleveland, the Gasmobile, the Lozier and the King? That is a list of cars that are pretty we II forgotten. But I ‘m sure there are others that the older folks remember very well. One of them was the Marmon. It was one of the first cars to have a V-type overhead valve engine and two separate chassis frames — one for the body and one for the engine. It sold for $2,500 fully equipped, but went out of production twenty-five years ago in 1933.
Jack Benny won’t let me forget the old Maxwel I car. It was the car which, of course, twenty years after its inception, became the Chrys ler. The Maxwe II was the product of the ingenuity and enterprise of Jonathan D. Maxwell, who produced the first model in 1904. Prices were from $750 to $1,550. By August, 1905, 532 Maxwe I I s had been bui It at the factory in Tarrytown, New York. The Maxwel I was the first quantity produced car to use a shaft drive instead of the usual chains, and thus garnered a quick advantage over its competitors. Long before the time of Jack Benny, motion picture celebrities favored the Maxwe II cars. In 1915 Mary Pickford drove about ina Maxwe I I Cabri 0 let. It cost her $850.
I n the first 15 years of thi s century one test of a car was how we II it did in competitive racing. In 1912 and again in 1913 the Maxwell won the grueling 500 mi Ie race at Indianapolis. In 1914 a r\1axwell finished ninth with an average speed for the 500 mi les of 71 mi les an hour, and the next year another Maxwell pushed the average up to 79 m.p.h. It was also in 1914 that Barney Oldfield drove a Maxwell at Corona, California in a 301 mi Ie non-stop race at better than 75 mi les an hour.
Do you remember the little car called the !!8rush H ? In 1910 one could be bought for $750. It gave Alanson Brush the title of the world’s greatest des i gne r of runabouts.
The first gasoline vehicle to appear anywhere in the United States was the Duryea. Started in 1892 at Springfield, Massachusetts by the Duryea brothers~ it was at first simply a gasoline buggy — a real buggy with iron tires and eve ryth i ng else exce pt a horse. I t even had a wh i p socket on the das hboard. In 1895 it could get up to a speed of 7 mi les an hour. It was one of the few makes ever to come out as a three-whee ler, wh i ch it di din 1898, but by 1902 it was back on four wheels, and by 1908 the company was making one of the few closed cars of the time — the Stevens-Duryea light sixlimousine, a very classy car, for $4,500.
And we mustn’t forget the Franklin. That car with the pointed nose and the air-cooled engine was around within the memory of a lot of us. In 1905 the Franklin gained popularity by winning a two-day economy run from Brooklyn to Southampton on Long I s land 180 mi les at an expense of 80 cents per person for its five passengers. Its famous Model G in 1906 cost $1,800.
Then there was the little Hupmobile. It was popular vlith sportsmen of moderate means. Its first models looked much like the stripped down stock cars one sees out at the Unity Fair Grounds nowadays, but by 1912 the Hup line boasted a closed square box of a coupe which sold for $1,200.
\tIhi Ie the Oldsmobile is sti II with us, the Locomobi Ie is gone. Steam was its original motive po\;er. It was for a time known as the ~·1obi Ie steamer .• and was later ca lied the Stanhope. The fi re-box and the chai n-dri ve were under the seat and rear deck. I n 1908 it won the Vande rb i I t Cup. For a time competing with the Pierce Arrow was the Peerless. In 1904 the Peerless limousine completed a 1,500 mi Ie trip from New York to St. Louis. It was one of eleven cars to make the tour, but the only closed car in the lot. It was the largest American pleasure car being bui It at the time.
The Stanley was not the only steam automobile. Nearly as famous was the White Steamer. It was a two cylinder car with a wooden frame and had a 15 h.p. engine. It gave up steam propulsion in 1909, and from then unti r the dissolution of the company in 1920, it was a gasoline car. It is difficult for young people today to visualize a time when there were no automobiles. It was a little more than 60 years ago: in 1896, when Thomas A. Edison, who was a close friend of both Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, said:
“Ten years from now you wi II be ab Ie to buy a horse less veh i c Ie for what you have to pay for a wagon and a pair of horses.” How true a prophet Edison turned out to be! Edison also predicted that the coming automobile would be driven by gasoline. And in the end it was the gaS-driven car that won out over both steam and electricity. It took unti I 1914 for the gasoline car to triumph. By that time 54 different makes of gas-driven cars had been introduced, and in a few years more the steam and e lectri c autos were on the way out.
So much for old automobiles. Let’s turn again to oldtime Maine.
Now that iVlary E I len Chase has just wri tten another exce I lent nove I of coasta I Mai ne, a story whi ch she ca lis “The Edge of Darkness P , thi sis a good
time to remind ourselves what Miss Chase’s Blue Hi II region was like a hundred years ago. It was Miss Chase herself who found an old slip of paper dated 1859;. which contained a list of commissions given to a Blue Hi I I sea captain. Here were some of the things he was to buy for his neighbors in Boston or New York or Baltimore: a set of harness; tobacco, both smoking and chewing; a new hat and two neckties for the minister; a cane, snake’s head preferred, not to cost over a dollar; a good quantity of nai Is, al I sizes; and 12 brass handles. For one fami Iy he was asked to spend $20 for white flour and raisins, nuts of al I sorts, toys such as marbles and tops, and a book of pictures. For one young lady the captain was to get material for a wedding dress, with thread and si Ik to sew it, and white lace for trimming. One man wanted·six steel traps suitable for rabbiTs or foxes. The father of one liTtle girl handed the captain a dollar and told him to be sure to bring back a dol I with black hair and blue eyes, and as big as possible. One elderly lady wanted a singing bird in a cage as a gift to her church.
In Miss Chase’s own girlhood chi Idren could get really excited over bananas, because that fruit was seldom seen. Miss Chase te lis how her father bought a quarter share ina shi p ca lied the flGo Iden Hunter”, and how, when the vesse I reTurned to Blue Hi II, the most remarkab Ie part of her cargo cons i sted of crates of oranges, two kegs of white qrapes packed in ground cork, and a huge bunch of bananas. Hit may seem impossible today to wax romantic over a bunch of bananas!; wrote Miss Chase, Trbut in that huge frame, standing on the Golden Hunter’s deck~ behind those masses of brown, tropical grass~ were concealed far more than bananas.
For therein lay a prestige among our fellows. We alone had all the bananas we wanted. The other ch i I dren envi ous I y acknow ledged our sup remacy. ”
Year: 1957