B

["Mahoney, John" <jmahoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<<
So when things are adjusted for inflation over 60 years, those differences
aren't so laughable.
<<

Nor should be an adjusted gulf [German joke] between '05 and '65 Porsche 911
($70,065 v. $6,950) as wide as it seems, yet humans tend to remember
benchmarks (and the numbers) of history longer than the conditions (and the
numbers) that led to them way back when.  Here's a timely example.

On October 29, 1910, Hudson employees moved into their first spec-built
automobile plant, a 223,500 square foot complex of reinforced concrete
buildings designed by Albert Kahn (whose Packard plant aptly represents
Detroit's decay --- or rather, what Detroit's people have made of their
city); a complex that included "employee conveniences," a hospital, and,
advanced for its day, an engineering lab planned by VP Howard Coffin.  

That 22-acre site (across from the Chalmers plant, which any good Mopar fan
should know by its later [Jefferson] name) cost $48,400; the factory cost
$500,000.  (About half the price of a lot and a house in a pleasant Detroit
suburb in 2004.)

In its first year of separation from Chalmers-Detroit, Hudson was a hit.  As
a larger, heavier, faster (and more durable!) car for $75 more ---yes, a ton
of money by today's reckoning --- than an $875 Ford, Hudson already had a
"look" of more expensive vehicles.  From June 1909 through December 1910,
4,556 Hudsons were produced (wow, now!), to make Hudson the 11th ranking
brand in America.  In 1911, Hudson rose to 7th and in less than a decade,
Hudson was both a make for the common man and a marque for the carriage
trade.  Everyone could afford an Essex; Baby Marie ([Osborne, the top child
actress before Shirley Temple] who earned $1,000 a week --- in 1917!), Edna
Goodrich (the "most costly-gowned star in motion pictures"), "Ace of Aces"
Eddie Rickenbacker, Brent Harding (that "juvenile speed king of the world"
being the Jeff Gordon or Little E or insert-name-here of his day), the
Governor of Nebraska, the future President Herbert Hoover, the Danish Royals
and, by 1920, the Prince of Wales (briefly Edward VIII, longer the duty-less
Duke of Windsor) - all chose to be driven in Hudsons.

The difference in Essex/Hudson prices might be as little as a hundred bucks;
the difference in Essex/Hudson incomes might be far more than a hundred
thousand.  Today, plumbers earn what movie stars once did; that doesn't mean
we will ever forget what any American's dollar once bought.

But as proof that Hudsons weren't just for "rich posers," consider what real
"car guys" chose.  Maurice Schwartz, later to be half of Bohmam & Schwartz,
which succeeded the Walter M. Murphy Company** as a builder of some of
America's, and the world's, most beautiful, most expensive, and, even today,
most valuable Classic cars --- designed a 1920 Essex (not a Hudson!) for his
own personal use and made it one of the first long, low, wide [non-folding,
but removable] hardtop*** cars ever seen.

**Frank Spring, Hudson designer from 1931-1955, who started at Murphy, left
AMC when Edmund Anderson was named Nash/Hudson Styling Director; he retired
to enjoy his 300SL (an M-B model Teague would own also), his Italia
prototype and his customized Metropolitan.  He was driving that car to a
Detroit display (at the request of AMC VP Roy Chapin) in 1959 when he was
killed in Oklahoma --- hit head-on by a [sleeping {idiot}] Ford station
wagon driver.  Another unfortunate end.    

***Gabel Cabriolet Tops (with side enclosures) of "Fabrikoid Artleather"
offered for the 1921 Essex Roadster and Touring were made in Rochester; 80+
years later, open/closed cars are still the "best thing" (Mercedes SL, Lexus
SC, Cadillac XLR) on wheels.  "You press the button, we do the
rest" applies to more than a Kodak camera.

Chris Bohman and Maurice Schwartz (who, like one of today's influential
Californians, was born in Austria) almost bridged the gap between "old" and
"new" in the history of coachbuilding, since Schwartz worked [in LA] for Don
Lee in the teens, for Harley Earl [in LA] in the twenties and was one of few
who emerged from the unemployed Murphy workforce (Kenneth McKay also tried
to build custom bodies but went under within one year): B&S built some of
the last great California classics**** (including the Topper car and Phantom
Corsair --- if you don't know both, make haste!)

****Schwartz died in 1961, but Coachcraft (the CA one, not the UK one)
survived into the late sixties and Darrin (once of H&D and of LeBaron) built
cars (including production Packards and Kaiser-Frazers you should also know)
in Santa Monica until he died in 1982.