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Barney Pollard's Collection


Curti

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Guest Jim Dillon

Steve I remember the car very well. Somewhere I have a picture of my dad and mom in that car probably circa 1950. If I run across it I will forward a copy to you. I have hundreds of old racing pics and it is buried somewhere amongst all of those photos. I liked some of the really old cars, moreso for the historical aspect than driving comfort or performance. I regret not getting one of the RS&N Fords. If I could only live several lifetimes.-Jim

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  • 5 months later...
Guest jimdillon
I recently purchased a 1934 Auburn RHD sedan in Michigan. The lady indicated to me that her late husband had purchased the car from Barny Pollards daughter, I would suspect some time in the 80's. Would any one know how to substantiate that ? It came to me sans title, so there are no leads there.

My mom is the daughter you mentioned above. I just asked her and she seemed fairly certain that she did not have the car mentioned.

Aside, there is another member on these forums also named Jim Dillon. He's my cousin. We are blood relatives both on both maternal and paternal sides of the family. We both like old cars but his talents run deep in relation thereto; I just have an appreciation.

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  • 4 weeks later...

FYI, there are many pictures of cars that took part in the 1953 & 1954 Glidden Tours on ebay,

including this 1909 Austin belonging to Barney Pollard...

53g051.jpg

I don't know most of the names involved, but some of you may recognize the more notable early

collectors, among them, a 1903 Peerless from Henry Austin Clark, Jr's collection...

53g028.jpg

These have been kicking around on ebay (4 pages of 'em) for several years now.

TG

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I was in the '53 Glidden with my 1916 Peerless, a great tour. I have a lot of 35mm slides of that tour. I remember that big Austin and I don't think it was restored, it was original just cleaned up and polished. I have not seen any other pictures of my car in the tour but that was probably because the 1916 Peerless was one of the newer cars on that tour. There were several one and two cylinder cars that made the entire tour. I remember an IHC coming into our Toledo night stop with a Ohio State police escort. It was dark and the police didn't think the kerosene lamps were safe to run with. The police had all the side streets in Toledo blocked so the tour cars could proceed to the parking ramp. A new car ran thru one of the baracades and smashed into the front of a 1910 Ford roadstser, really smashing it up, fortunatley no one was hurt. The T was put on a trailer and taken to our final destination, Greenfield Village. By Saturday, the conclusion of the tour, members of the Model T Club and Ford museum shop had the T completely rebuilt and ready to go home.

Those were the days. RHL

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The Green Dragon,

Didn't you get some help from the guys in the Greenfield Village shop, too? I remember a story of yours about the 1953 event that had something to do with Ralph DePalma and a rainstorm that killed your engine on the V-8 Peerless.

TG57Roadmaster,

Thanks for posting that GREAT picture of the '03 Peerless of Henry Austin Clark's: What a babe magnet!

1937hd45,

I have a booklet from the 1954 Glidden Revival Tour that shows Barney Pollard took the 1913 Chalmers on this tour, also. Some other participants of note were Ralph Pope driving a Pope-Hartford, Henry B. Joy, Jr. driving a 1910 Packard, and Ralph Stein driving his 1908 Welch.

Dynaflash8,

You mentioned that Bill Zerega had an Empire on the 1950 Glidden Tour, but you weren't sure what year the car was. Though it might be a completely different car, I read that someone named Stan B. Hall ( of Florence, PA ) drove a 1910 Empire in the 1954 event.

Edited by jeff_a (see edit history)
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Jeff, this 1913 Chalmers is shown to have been driven on the '53 Tour by Miss Christine Pollard...

53g129.jpg

Here's another of Mr. Pollard's cars on the '53 Glidden, a 1906 Cadillac...

53g098.jpg

And a 1903 St. Louis, again from the Pollard stash...

53g096.jpg

Another notable name on the '53 Tour, a young Thomas J. Lester in an '04 Auburn...

53g115.jpg

Someone should snap up these photos before they're lost to history; there are 4 pages of them!

It says they're official photos from someone's album, so they should be crisp and clear.

TG

Edited by TG57Roadmaster (see edit history)
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Many of you may know Ron Barnett's Hudson 33 (1911), Family legend says it was a Pollard car as well. I believe he may have been one of the most critical collectors in the early years and saved an awful lot of history. Hats off to another great we all should give thanks for!!

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  • 2 years later...
Guest Nancy DeWitt

I was delighted to see the first in a series of articles by Jim Dillon in the current issue of Antique Automobile. Jim is writing about his grandfather Barney Pollard's legendary car collection, and included photos of the 1912 Peerless our museum now owns on page 35. I am so glad to see some of this history put to paper and am very much looking forward to the next article!

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Guest macuquina

As a young boy from Ohio in the early 50's I was very involved with my father's collecting of antique automobiles. We had at least four different cars as I remember. My father especially loved Franklins.

Sometime in the early 50's, 1952, 1953 or 1954 my Dad was searching for more cars to restore. I remember taking a trip to Detroit with a friend of his and all the boys in the two families to see Mr. Pollard. It was a long ride then from Akron to Detroit. I must have been 9, 10 or 11 years old.

We went through every barn/wooden warehouse Mr. Pollard had and I remember the very distinctive way he stored the cars...up on end. My father was seaching for Franklins and Mr. Pollard knew his inventory very well and pointed them all out to us. But my father could never purchase anything from him. It was not a question of price. I remember his excuse at the time: he feared the tax consequences, because he was afraid of the capital gains (a new tax policy at the time created under Truman.)

I have had that memory for years and often wondered who that man was. It was only yesterday that I met someone who knew the name. A piece of the nostagia puzzle put together.

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Guest Jim Dillon

Macuquina, although my grandfather (BJ) may have used the tax excuse there were other reasons as well. One of the biggest reasons was simple logistics. Of course most of the cars were still packed away in buildings and removing them was never any small feat. None were ever removed from the upright position until the time for the auctions came in the 70s. Then there was a certain optimism on the part of my grandfather until probably 1972 or so that he would build a museum. Also just like most of us, how many of us have applauded our selling our cars long ago as some great decision. I have regretted many if not most of my sales of collected cars. It is a fact of life but if we did not need the money we may have kept more than a couple I suppose.

At the Greenfield Village fall meet every year, I always admired the 1913 American Scout roadster that BJ had sold in the fifties. A truly beautiful car and BJ regretted selling it as he liked if as well. Just one of those deals I guess. BJ had sold a few but not many. Until the auctions came along BJ had no compulsion to sell the cars. At the time they did not represent a payday, he was a car nut and he liked them. Some collectors said he was a hoarder long before the term became popular. Nonsense. Just because a collector wanted him to sell does not mean that BJ agreed with the proposition; it takes a willing seller to go along with the willing buyer. BJ was never a car salesman or dealer in any sense of the word; he collected them because he liked them and wanted to build a museum. They were not collected so he could wrap his arms around them to the exclusion of other collectors.

As to the tax issue there was some truth to the whole deal with the IRS. Many of these cars were gifted in the 50s and there were problems with the IRS. One of the main problems was the delivery of the gift. Of course the tax basis was low and when sales would occur, then my dad, who was a tax consultant would probably have to sharpen his pencil. Although I was too young in the 50s to have dealt with the issue then, the IRS problems raised their ugly head when we had the fire in the 70s. The paperwork and tax issues were somewhat complicated and I helped with the problem as a young attorney working with my father. The IRS was a thorn in the side during the gifting so if your dad was looking for cars then BJ may have just said let’s let sleeping dogs lie, as battles with the IRS were not uncommon.

A somewhat comical episode during the 50s and the IRS concerned my dad who liked cars but his favorite hobby up until the moment he died, was practical jokes. The office building in the 50s was a crude wooden structure right along the edge of the road leaving the Yard so the trucks could leave the trip tickets etc. Very little money went into the office building to be sure and it certainly was not a place that win any awards for cleanliness in the first place. The heating system was oil heat and one time someone backed into the oil line and the furnace acted up spewing soot all throughout the office. The IRS were to come out on a particular day and my dad wanted George Hoge, head mechanic in the truck garage to kink the line once again, but George said he could recreate the problem without kinking the line. The audit would take a considerable amount of time to go through all of the paperwork and supporting data. My dad said he wore an old suit and had my grandmother keep it to herself but my dad said the IRS agent was so disgusted with all of the soot getting all over the paperwork (as well as their clothes I suppose) and so he had my dad take him out for an early lunch at the local greasy spoon (the Lyndon Lunch) and my dad said they negotiated a great settlement over lunch so the agent did not have to spend any more time in the office.

You do have a good memory though as there was an IRS issue was bandied about and BJ may have said capital gains but in the fifties I am not sure the capital gains would have been severe. The IRS though did hound him on the issues surrounding the gift tax. The IRS did not approve of the way in which it was done, that I know. The more I think of the times at the yard the more it makes me chuckle-Jim

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Guest macuquina

Dear Jim and all who are reading,

It's funny how you put pieces of the puzzle back together.

I am reading David McCullough's book on Truman now, and although the rates on capital gains were low by todays standards, they were new and there was significant Wall Street and Republican opposition to the new concept. A new tax is a tax. And it is higher than it was....zero before.

The office was indeed "low key." I do remember it. As you go through life you experience these "war stories." In the antiques business these kind of stories are plethoric.

I have had in my life many extremely rare coins as a professional numismatist.

I have never regretted selling them, because the funds were always used to purchase the next investment.

Sometime in the early 1970's my father sold his last car...a 1911 White. We loved that car, but my father always felt that when it reached its original selling price of $6000, it was time to sell. And what did he do with the funds? Put it in gold. If he were alive he could purchase several of those cars with the same funds now and have money left over. Never regret that you sold them, only regret that you didn't use the money for another good investment. The car's do not know that you own them. They are only a toy and a love of nostalgia and a "vehicle" of investment. You are only a temporary "curator." Use the investment wisely and it comes back to you many, many times.

When I did the appraisal for Mel Fisher of The Atocha Shipwreck to submit to the IRS, there were many interesting stories in dealing with the IRS. All antiques are an ephemeral and nebulous market to quantify as a value. Many fortunes in this country are kept intact by donating antiques that were acquired for a pittance. It was just another way to have what we know today as a 401(K).

Art Smith Miami, FL & Kenton, OH

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  • 4 months later...

That article takes me back.

I cut it out of an old magazine when I was a kid and put it in a scrapbook, of old car pix and articles, that I kept. I must have had 3 or 4 three ring binders full of stuff like that. They met the same fate as my baseball cards (Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle rookie cards), comic books (First edition of Captain Marvel) and my extensive collection of goofy hats. Thanks Mom.

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  • 3 years later...

Barneys place was amazing. Cars stacked two, three high on top of each other. Other cars were suspended on hooks and chains hanging from beams  over other cars below them. There were three  or four long buildings just crammed. Plus cars out side.

The "word was" that he had 500 cars there.

 

In one building there were the special cars that sat on the hard packed oil soaked floor.

Lighting was, daylight thru the open door. Inside we had to switch on work lights hanging in various places.

 

I went there with Peter Jones in 1963 to look for Hudson and Essex parts, and to just luxuriate in the ambiance. 

Later I attended all the auctions and helped Jim Sutcliffe being home a 1937 Buick 90 series Limo.

 

Now almost 60 years later I have the room and the desire,  but Barnies cars are gone.

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  • 5 years later...

Very interesting story, is there any book about Barney Pollard and his automobile collection?

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I'm thrilled to see these old posts come alive again. I had the pleasure of seeing those cars on end once as a young high school aged motor head while visiting family in Detroit. Will never forget. and will always remember how Barney knew every car he had strung up. 

Legendary! 

Terry

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What a great thread!   I never saw Pollards collection, but i seen many like Tom Lester's, Dick Burdick's, Glen Gould's, 

Richard Paine's, and many more who's names are not rolling off my lips.  Like Thomas Edison, Bill Harrah, Bill Swigart

I wish I was a note taker instead of a male model.

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YI know this is going to sound silly to some of you guys out there,but I don’t think enough respect has beenayed to these pioneers  in the early days of collecting,how many people saved 500 cars,or the Long Island auto museum for trudging the barns ,carriage houses and sheds to find these early cars,I know not many of us has the disposable income like bill  harrah had,but if we Did I believe view   would build the antique auto and restoration facility to preserve the cars of yesterday as they did,I believe a statue of these guys are long overdue at the aaca,I know I’ll donate,     Dave

 

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I had read about the auctioning off of the collection somewhere, and asked my Dad about it.  He said it was well known that cars were stored on their rear ends to save space.  A guy who worked with Dad bought one of the cars.  I decided to go visit the Pollard business maybe a year later.  I met his son, who was very nice, and gave me a tour.  I remember several Packard limousines that were left over.  I don't remember if they were V12s, but I would guess there were 5 or 6 of them.  There was a 1920s car outside.  I touched the driver's side drip rail and it tuned to dust.  There was also an axle for an uncommon 1920s car that someone had paid for but never picked up.  Next, there was a rusted out Seagrave fire engine that would have been a challenge to restore.  The best was last.  It was an Ahrens-Fox fire engine from maybe 1925.  It looked really nice, as if it had been well taken care of for decades, but the paint was somewhat weathered.  I think the son was asking $5000 for it.  I didn't have the money to buy it.  I suggested to Mr. Pollard to advertise it in Hemmings or whatever publication there was for Ahrens-Fox.  It was that nice.  I told Dad about it, but he wasn't really interested.  I sometimes wonder what ever happened to that one!   

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Through the years there had been several articals, some is serial format ,written about Barney Pollard and the cars in great detail,(with plenty of pictures) and with first hand accounts.

 

Antique Automobile Magazine or Gazette ran some installment articals..among some other car rags in the 60's ,70's and 80's.

 

.I had a made a nifty scrapbook over years of the articals and final sold it on Ebay 5 or so years ago after being offered to local friends/ hobbiest (who could care less )past on it for free,as I thin out the car paper every so often.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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