Continued from Part 1. My Alex Tremulis piece was published in full in The Automobile, March 2020.
Alex and TuckerLike Bob Bourke’s famous 1953 Studebaker “Loewy coupe,” the 1948 Tucker was almost entirely the work of one designer. Of course many helped, and both Bourke and Tremulis gave them credit. But as near as one comes to designing a car by oneself, they did.
Alex set to work in a studio at Tucker’s large, ex-Dodge plant in Chicago. As chief designer he had to inject practicality into Preston Tucker’s enthusiasm. First concepts included a car with cycle fenders that turned with the wheels, a periscope rearview scanner, and vast expanses of compound-curved glass.…
While I received no extra pay for writing the Kaiser-Frazer book, I did have the use of an expense account for travel. That was where Bill Tilden came through again. He helped me track down and interview many of people responsible for the cars Kaiser-Frazer built. Others were located through the deep tentacles of Automobile Quarterly, its many contacts in the industry. We also searched for archives, large and small.
Our greatest archival find was at Kaiser Industries in Oakland, California: the Kaiser-Frazer photo files, placed on loan for AQ’s use.…
Joe Ligo of AutoMoments, who produces highly professional YouTube videos on vintage cars, has published an excellent video on the 1954 Kaiser Special he’s admired since high school. No sooner did I start watching than I heard Joe say his liking for the ’54 Kaiser was bolstered by my book—as well as the car: “My ninth grade self thought it was beautiful…. In person, I still think the design is drop-dead gorgeous.”
Well, I too was in the ninth grade when a ’54 Kaiser (on the street, in 1957!)…
Kaiser-Frazer, the postwar wonder company, presented Dutch with many opportunities—and as many frustrations. Concluded from Part 2…
Excerpt: For the complete article and illustrations, refer to The Automobile, May 2017.
Postwar Kaiser and FrazerDutch had an earthy vocabulary, and his methods of work were forthright with a touch of recklessness. He needed these qualities when, after the war, he presented himself to his old friend Joe Frazer, father of the wartime Jeep, to offer designs for the all-new cars Frazer was planning, in partnership with Henry J. Kaiser. His basic lines were accepted, but modified on the way to production.…
continued from part 1…
Seeing an opportunity to run his own company, Frazer took control of moribund Graham-Paige in 1944, and two years later merged its automotive interests with a new corporation he and Henry Kaiser had formed, leasing and then buying the gigantic ex-bomber factory at Willow Run, Michigan. During Frazer’s 1946-48 presidency, Kaiser-Frazer was the fourth largest car producer in the world, and ranked eighth in production by make, ahead of all other independents. He stepped down as an active officer in 1949. The company never again recorded a profit.…
