Just another 1920s street scene but with a difference

[nzcarnerd]

The bare bones T on the right is not something that would be seen every day.

[JFranklin]

It was that newfangled system of buying your car on time payments. Soon they will have paid enough for some fenders or maybe a seat!

[Spinneyhill]

Is that a Studebaker Duplex c.  1925 on the near left?

[keiser31]

6 hours ago, Spinneyhill said:

Is that a Studebaker Duplex c.  1925 on the near left?

Sure does look like it to me.

[Spinneyhill]

And neither of the blokes on the bare-bones T are wearing a hat, which would be pretty unusual for the time. One is even in a suit or sports jacket and holding on to stay on.

[m-mman]

It doesn't look so junky . . . I wonder if perhaps they were moving it to a place to have a body added?  (Commercial? Depot hack?) 

Maybe from the dealer to the body works? 

[Spinneyhill]

Looks like a policeman in the middle of the intersection, on points duty? The cars facing and away from the viewer are stopped and there is a blur on the tram lines behind the cop. So why are they stopped? There is no crossing traffic.

 

Or is that post in front of the cop an early traffic light?

Edited December 20, 2017 by Spinneyhill (see edit history)

[keiser31]

Looks like a blur of pedestrians crossing by the cop.

[wayne sheldon]

I need to check in on this area more often.  Seems I watch a couple times a week for awhile, then get distracted for a couple months. Then I look back and see something terrific that I had missed.

 

As a long-time speedster enthusiast (alongside my interest in the factory issued automobiles), I can tell you that many thousands of speedsters, both home-built, and professionally built, were built during the '10s and '20s (the true speedster era). I have personally seen and closely examined copies of several hundred original era photographs of them. I think i still have a few hundred of them on a photobucket account (although I haven't checked for about two months to make sure they are still there?). I have personally owned remains of more than a dozen original era speedsters, six of which I have restored and used for awhile before family needs required selling them. I still have remains of a few, one of which I actually hope to begin restoration on soon.

 

The simple fact is, that during those years, speedsters (by many different names) were an important and real part of our automotive history. Among other things, they were special cars to people that built and drove them. The funny thing is, that most of the original era photos of speedsters (T Ford and non Ford) were actually taken of the car, either with or without the builder/owner/driver in or with the car. Much of the driving of speedsters was done away from town because going fast was fun, and that wasn't allowed in town. The unfortunate result of this was that street scene photos of speedsters mixed in with more common general traffic are somewhat rare. That, in turn, makes people not realize just how common such cars actually were.

 

This photo is fantastic! Those fellows were probably fairly well known (and hated by some) in their area. They were likely noticed often going a bit too fast, and recognized by many friends. Out of the many hundreds of era photos of speedsters that I have looked at closely? I doubt that there have been more than twenty of them as good as this one showing a speedster in town traffic. This one is wonderful.

 

A side note. There was a film short made in 1928 called "Ma And The Auto", a late silent short that combined printed words of an era comic song along with recorded music (for theaters so equipped at that time). The film followed "the family" on a Sunday outing driving the car in and around the Los Angeles and Hollywood areas. Badly butchered versions can be found on the internet, but so far I have not found a good uncut version anywhere there. I do have a VHS recording of the full version, but the recording is more than thirty years old, and has degraded somewhat (the last time I watched it was about ten years ago, don't know just how good or bad it is now). The whole film is an incredible look at real moving traffic in an upscale area. To me, one of the best moments in the film is when a speedster quickly passes going in the opposite direction. It goes by too fast to get a good look at the car, but I could tell it was a model T. If I recall correctly, that scene was filmed in or near Griffith Park. For what it is worth, another part of the movie was filmed on what has been called one of the first "freeway interchanges" ever built. Built in 1926 or '27 if I recall correctly what I read many years ago.

 

And, by the way. A chassis to be driven to a place to have a commercial type body built or installed, would have had a box mounted over the gasoline tank, with the steering column left in its permanent position. This car has the gasoline tank moved back, and the steering column lowered quite a lot. The chassis is also lowed, a sure sign of a speedster. Speedsters with crude backless seats, or no firewalls were fairly common in the late '10s. That one would still be driven that way in '25 is quite likely.

 

Thank you nzcarnerd, and all.