I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

sda · November 2018

I know it is a small detail and most would not have noticed, the instrument panel shots showing speed, warning lights in Duel were of the Valiant and not some canned shot they could have used. It was a movie that really kept you watching and intrigued to the end.

benjaminh · November 2018

1933....The second photo is of the new nurses at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lexington at their elegant graduation ceremony.

benjaminh · November 2018

1933....The person at the UK photo archives who labeled the first photo said that it was for the "National Rifle Association," but it's actually for the "National Recovery Administration," which was a New Deal program and agency. The next photos are of an elegant movie theater.

tjc78 · November 2018

These pictures are so awesome!! My wife reclaimed the “play room “ and turned it into a family room again and went “Modern Farmhouse” with the decor. Some of these pictures (like the store fronts, Kroger displays, etc) would be great. I’m thinking of printing a few out and putting them in a collage frame.

benjaminh · November 2018

1933....Again, these photos are from the Lafayette Studio, and here we see a company car decorated for a parade. Looking through these photos for tires, car sales, car service, gas, etc., etc. shows what a huge part of the economy automobiles and trucks were by this time. But rewind back to 1910 and automobiles and trucks were a much smaller part of the economy. If the caption is correct, the second photo is of the famous horse "Man o' War." The third photo pictures a group called "The Jubilee Singers."

andre1969 · November 2018

sda said:
I know it is a small detail and most would not have noticed, the instrument panel shots showing speed, warning lights in Duel were of the Valiant and not some canned shot they could have used. It was a movie that really kept you watching and intrigued to the end.

One little detail that bugged me though, was how when the Valiant was overheating, they showed the oil pressure idiot light start flashing on and off at regular intervals. I've never seen an oil light do that before, although the one on my '67 Catalina used to flicker faintly, once it was fully warmed up and idling in gear, such as stopped at a traffic light. It would idle r-e-a-l-l-y slow though; I'm surprised it didn't stall out! I had a bunch of work done on it back in 2008 though, and that was one of the things they fixed.

Interestingly, in the "Incredible Hulk" episode that used the Duel stock footage, at one point toward the end they slipped in some stock footage of what looked like a closeup of a police car tire blowing out, and then cutting to the Valiant sliding into the side of a rock embankment. In the original "Duel", Dennis Weaver had the car in neutral (I think he had turned it off, too), after making the top of the grade, and simply couldn't make a sharp turn at the bottom of the hill, nor slow down in time, and slammed into it.

I'm kinda in the mood to watch it now. Especially considering how cold it is here, the desert setting would be a nice change of pace! I'm still in the process of moving, but ironically enough, it's in the top of a box of DVDs I brought over. Along with a few other, umm...gems

tjc78 · November 2018

Is that a few VHS tapes I see? Those bring back memories

fintail · November 2018

That 34 Ford V8 sedan delivery is something.

benjaminh · November 2018

1933....The theater photo shows a man on stilts next to the "New Plymouth 6."

benjaminh · November 2018

1933....The second to last photo is of the "WHAS Radio Players," while the last is of a huge line of people trying to get a bowl of soup at a soup kitchen.

ab348 · November 2018

sda said:
I know it is a small detail and most would not have noticed, the instrument panel shots showing speed, warning lights in Duel were of the Valiant and not some canned shot they could have used. It was a movie that really kept you watching and intrigued to the end.

It's funny, though, that in more than a few Universal Studios TV shows of the '70s subsequent to that they would show the same Valiant speedometer regardless of what car was involved. Spielberg must have shot a lot of that footage.

benjaminh · November 2018

1933 to 1934....In the photo below the A&P has already moved to self-service. At the bridal dress display it says "Wanted" the right man to marry so these clothes can be used.

benjaminh · November 2018

1934....The imho cruel small sign at the Joy Club says that "Ladies are not allowed to dance together."

benjaminh · November 2018

1934....At the Firestone store they have something up about the "Century of Progress" 1934 world's fair in Chicago. At the Lexington Ford dealer they say that the "Truth about Lex. prices" is that you can get a new Ford for $616. The dealer also says "If it isn't a V-8 it's out of date."

benjaminh · November 2018

1934....

andre1969 · November 2018

Wow, speak of the Devil..."Charlie's Angels" was on in the background, and I happened to look over at it, as they did a harrowing car chase where they almost got up to the speed limit... Anyway, it wasn't the "Duel" tunnel they went through, but I'm convinced it's the same one used in "Death Race 2000"!

Heck, the same tunnel might have been used in this composite special effect shot from 1983's "V"...

Or, that might be the other side of the tunnel...

benjaminh · November 2018

1934....In the last photo you'll see the custom windshields with openings for guns that the Lexington police cars had. There was some tough organized as well as disorganized crime in this era. I zoomed in on the photo so that detail could be seen. The row of cars so equipped was more than twice as long as pictures. The second from the last shows a auto repair shop with the stations labeled.

benjaminh · November 2018

1934....For those who like old menus and prices here's another one. Would you buy a car from the man with a cigar in the last pic? The Plymouth with "Floating Power" (as advertised in the window) was perhaps the best entry-level car that year.

benjaminh · November 2018

1934....This firetruck got hit by a train. Walnut Hill Farms commissioned this memorial statue of a favorite horse named "Guy Axworthy". The last is a used car salesman with one of his cars.

Mr_Shiftright · November 2018

Looks like a trustworthy individual!

Michaell · November 2018

Mr_Shiftright said:
Looks like a trustworthy individual!

"What'll it take to get you in this fine motor vehicle today?"

benjaminh · November 2018

Michaell said:

Mr_Shiftright said:
Looks like a trustworthy individual!
"What'll it take to get you in this fine motor vehicle today?"

The Plymouth salesman with the cigar at least looks like he has a sense of humor. The used car guy below looks almost like he might also be working for the mob....?

benjaminh · November 2018

benjaminh said:
1934....

In 1947 the building that this store was in was demolished.

The Woolworth Building was designed by architect Frederick Garber (1877-1950). It was successful from its opening in 1948 through the 1970s. Woolworth finally closed in 1990, and the building itself was demolished in 2004. There's now a parking lot there.

Somehow it reminds me a little of the Looney Tunes One Froggy Evening. In that classic cartoon, a man finds a magic frog in a building that's being torn down so that a new one can be built. Found a 7-minute documentary on One Froggy Evening....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUYqgLPgIjc

thebean · November 2018

Great little documentary, @benjaminh. I love that cartoon, but didn't realize all of the dialogue came from the frog singing. I bet I've seen it 30 times. Genius.

I also love the Bugs Bunny opera cartoon: "Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit".

Mr_Shiftright · November 2018

Oh yeah---wasn't that called "The Rabbit of Seville"?

ab348 · November 2018

I remember that frog cartoon well from the Bugs Bunny TV shows. Saturday evenings at 6 here, for most of the 1960s.

benjaminh · November 2018

Mr_Shiftright said:
Oh yeah---wasn't that called "The Rabbit of Seville"?

And there's another one called What's Opera Doc? Here done at the Hollywood Bowl with a full orchestra....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJXBZbi2RJc

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....The second photo shows a huge complex apparently called at the time the "Narcotic Farm." It was one of the first prison hospitals in the country for criminals with mental illness and/or people with drug problems, and it is still in use for that purpose today. The third image shows that already the A & P has shifted to "Self Service." The 4th pic is obviously of a basketball player, and images like this are much more common for the Lafayette Studios collection. Each year Lafayette photographers took c. 400-800 photos to fulfill their commissions, and a lot of them were for colleges, high schools, funerals (most with open caskets), other random strange stuff, duplicate shots of the same thing, etc. To get to the images I'm posting here I scroll online through hundreds of images, and then pick a dozen to two dozen for each year that seem interesting and/or aesthetically pleasing. The images are often full images though—and so for instance an overview of a building where you can't see that well what's in the window. But the software allows you to zoom in, and most of these images are pretty high resolution, and so then you can select the c. 1200 x 800 pixel view that you like and download it....

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....After the candy delivery trucks there are some to me interesting but somewhat random images. The second image is the luncheon of the "Women's Business and Professional Club," which seems somewhat progressive for 1935. The third photo shows orphan babies being cared for by women at the "House of Mercy." The fourth photo is an elegant flower and candle display at a church, and then for the fifth one we're finally back to a car. Is that a Ford? If so, I assume that was an optional hood ornament for that time?

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....I wonder what the wrecked car in the last image is or was?

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....Back then the service stations were really service stations. In the third photo it's impressive how those Coca-Cola employees next to their trucks can hold a big box of bottles with each hand. Some of the photos seem almost surreal, like those refrigerators lit up at night almost like a row a little gods.

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....The 4th photo is of a gas station built into a cave. Again, you can click on these photos and make them larger to see some of the details a bit better. Opening the front windshield must have really given the driver some air on a hot day. Still only one windshield wiper, and iirc back in those days the wiper was sometimes not run by an electric motor but by reaching up your hand while you were driving and moving a little lever back and forth.

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....The last two photos are of a "Santa Claus Parade" in Lexington.

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....

fintail · November 2018

33 Chevy. First wrecked car is a 35 Ford.

That half-stone gambrel roof (in tile, no less) house is fetching.

benjaminh said:
1935....I wonder what the wrecked car in the last image is or was?

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....

benjaminh · November 2018

1935....The second photo is of University of Kentucky's Observatory. And that's finally a wrap for 1935, showing some views and insights into selected views of Lexington and elsewhere in Kentucky from more than 80 years ago.

jpp75 · November 2018

@benjaminh Thanks for taking the time to post all these pictures, very enjoyable to look at. One thing that I've noticed is in a lot of the pictures how shiny and new the cars look, for whatever reason I feel like most of the time when I see pictures of cars from this era they appear dull and/or dirty. It's nice to see them as they were when newer.

benjaminh · November 2018

1936....Is that car a Cord? Is it a race between car and plane? If the road was good, I imagine a Cord might possibly be able to keep up with a slow moving plane? I assume there's a store for artificial limbs mainly to serve vets of WWI. Kentucky has a lot of these historical road signs. I'm amazed some of them date back to the 1930s—and maybe even the 1920s? One of the pics is of a new bridge over the Kentucky River.

benjaminh · November 2018

1936....The middle photo is of the "May Queen of the University of Kentucky".

benjaminh · November 2018

1936....The soap box race shows that the passion for vehicles and speed starts early....

benjaminh · November 2018

1937....

benjaminh · November 2018

1937....That Greyhound bus almost looks like it belongs in a horror movie to me. The last parade float shows the progress between the hobo of 1933 and the prosperous guy of 1937.

benjaminh · November 2018

1937....I wonder if "White Tavern" is the predecessor to White Castle?

benjaminh · November 2018

1938....The trailer is a mobile car repair set up.

benjaminh · November 2018

1938....The first image is for a "win a free car promotion." Is that a Packard drawing that crowd? That strange looking van seems to have the driver on the "British" side?? Cash registers were a big deal back in those years as this display shows. Eventually National Cash Register became NCR, and I think they might still do credit card machines, registers, etc.

benjaminh · November 2018

1938....These images for some reason make me think about how Americans are sometimes made fun of in places like England and Europe for being enthusiastic, open, optimistic, into spectacle, having a tradition of friendly service, often trying to make creating products and then marketing and selling them into almost an "art," etc. But for the most part I like these things about my country.

ab348 · November 2018

Not to be negative, but wanted to note that all of these pics are making loading of this forum very slow, even on a cable modem connection. Probably unusable for anyone with even slower access.

I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)

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