Death

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

>>
The DPL hardtop and convertible (as well as Marlin) did NOT come with
rectangular infill bumper lights. They were also not an "option" or a dealer
installed "kit".
<<

Thanks, Chris, for verifying what I thought.  The owner of the "wired" '67
Ambassador hardtop I noted apparently got "light-headed" with his power.

If yesterday's retro reportage clicked, this scene came into your view:

<http://www.film.queensu.ca/CJ3B/Photos/Toledo/WillysFactoryAerial.JPG>

If you wondered how history handled such fine facilities, read through.  

Only the little "Jeep House" --- about 2" in and 2-3/4" up from the lower
right-hand corner of my monitor (a Dell 17" flat panel; YMMD "your
measurements may differ") might remain of a once-wonderful Willys world, 

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73093446792359&Av
is=TO&Dato=20020324&Kategori=NEWS16&Lopenr=103240069&Ref=AR

but AMC history was made 25 years ago as well.  Let's connect the dots and
see what we see.
 
In 1979, as you all surely know, American Motors celebrated its 25th
anniversary with a special silvery Concord and a sleek silvery skyscraper.
AMC showed America how strong a survivor it was, and how high it intended to
soar, by featuring its new HQ on the cover of its most important printed
volume: its full-line sales brochure.  No one was expected to notice that,
over five years, AMC's "full" line had lost its pony car, its full-size
luxury car (which hadn't been either since before WWII), its personal luxury
coupe and even its almost-antique-but-most-highly-profitable mid-size sedans
and wagons: the very models that had almost always given AMC its best years
of sales.

In 1979, AMC, itself recalled when it was a full-line company by summoning
the Spirit of its [then-and-now] most-highly-promoted sports car(s); the
only downside was that its new AMX was nine years, two seats, one inch, tons
of horsepower and a much smaller AMC world-gone-wrong away from 1968-1970.
Nonetheless, as always, AMC still hoped that things would be looking up:
374-ft. (114-m., should this sadly-grown-so-small AMC list still have North
American metric readers; its non-NA contingent seems as absent as any new
2004 AMC model introductions...) above the motor capital of America.  To be
precise with numbers, instead of with stories.

25 years later, AMC and its logos are long gone, but its birthday cake still
shines

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=255630

as a still-rewarding symbol in the sky.

http://www.bomadet.org/toby.htm

Or, if you're too laz-, uh, "busy" to read, here's their photo

http://www.bomadet.org/images/toby04/toby04_americancenterX.jpg

If you're not too dum-, uh, "tired" to wonder, here are today's tenants 

http://www.buildingphotos.com/office/SO-americancenter.shtml

If you're not too dul-, uh, "jaded" to smile, here's who is 3.22 miles away
 
http://www.google.com/local?q=renault&hl=en&lr=&sa=G&near=Southfield,+MI&lat
lng=42473333,-83221944,10858715879286672770&radius=0.000000&dm=large

If you want to take the AMC history highway, here's were you would drive

http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&1a=4000%20town%20center&1c=
southfield&1s=mi&1z=&1y=US&do=nw&1ex=1&2ex=1&src=maps&ct=NA&2a=27777%20Frank
lin%20Rd&2c=Southfield&2s=MI&2z=48034%2d2337&2y=US&2pn=&2l=zIMO8wEHWME%3d&2g
=BasCieJ%2fSFM%3d&2v=ADDRESS&2pl=

If you're still reading, you may have learned something new about AMC, too. 

25 years ago, in that shining AMC symbol, a decision was made that felled
the success-and-survival dreamscape of another American independent
carmaker, when another tower to the power of the automobile was brought down
--- by AMC.  What had been as important and as impressive a symbol in 1919
as the American Center was in 1979, was wiped from view (and, eventually,
from most memories) --- by AMC itself, the sole surviving independent car
company.

Since some car fans seem savvier than some AMC fans, some ends may seem
better saved than some in Kenosha.  (Or if there is an archive of similar AM
information, why isn't it better-known?)

History can't be easily forgotten if it's seen and told.  That can be done
as easily as 1-2-3.