Classic Advertising

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Picked these two Model J ads up recently in an antique shop.  Not sure they will get mounted and hung up anytime soon but the seemed too cool to leave behind.  Any interest in a thread that focuses on advertising Classics?  We have some good ads out there but usually within threads specific to a single marque.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)

[alsancle]

Steve,  I have the full set in a drawer somewhere.  I'll try to dig them out and take some pictures.   Something like 18 or so different ones.   Most don't have a car pictured.

[Mark Huston]

[Mark Huston]

[John Bloom]

On 12/7/2020 at 12:37 PM, Steve_Mack_CT said:

  Any interest in a thread that focuses on advertising Classics?  We have some good ads out there but usually within threads specific to a single marque.

 

Steve, Absolutely!  I have always liked the Duesenberg ads that don't show a car.  Cocky but makes the point........

 

[Tph479]

[Mark Huston]

[John Bloom]

I love the advertisements from that era. I also love other photographs and online published pictures of cars in action. One of the neat things about watching videos of Jay Leno‘s garage, or other collectors storage facilities, is the large reproductions of advertising and interesting artwork that are often on the walls behind the cars.  It adds a really interesting dimension to The display and experience of looking at the cars.  I have often wondered, what are the laws regarding that?  Is it permissible to take a page out of a magazine from 1929 that had one of these ads, and have some printing facility enlarge it to 5‘ x 8‘? What do you run into with copyright laws and other issues when trying to do enlargements for display only, not for resale?

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Good question John.  Not sure but it seems to have been done.  Certainly a few books have been published featuring early auto advertising. 

 

Maybe a little late for anyone to ask Santa for this but Einstein's "Ask the Man Who Owns One" Packard advertising book is a nice addition to anyone's library if you like these ads.

 

Not Classic, but we are framing some nice color Model A Ford ads my wife bought earlier this year.  The cars around interesting backgrounds/activities are always fun.

[John Bloom]

Steve, Santa is bring me Beverly Rae Kimes book on Packard’s, so I know he has access to classic car books.  I will look up the Einstein ad book, maybe my wife can get that in time for a romantic valentines present. 
I may contact a few printing shops in town and ask them about enlarging a photo or ad for personal display only and see what reservations they might have. 
I have two Honda motorcycles from the 60’s and I’d love to do a large reproduction of their period advertising from that era in their “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” marketing campaign. I think it would look great behind my 1966 Honda Benly and Honda Cub. 

[John Bloom]

A lot of competition for those who were competing at the top of the market. 

[Steve_Mack_CT]

John, the Kimes' Packard book is pretty much the bible.  And you get a nice workout every time you pick it up! 

 

Cool ads!  The Honda ads really promoted a clean image as I recall, may be a thread on that somewhere in this forum actually.

Edited December 19, 2020 by Steve_Mack_CT (see edit history)

[Mark Huston]

[Walt G]

In the pre WWII era there were several places one can go to to see some great advertisements. Not all of the publications are worth cutting up as some are so scarce you will be fortunate if you can even locate one just to look at. The Custom Body Salons in NY, Chicago, Los Angeles , and San Francisco issued souvenir catalogs of their shows to those who attended. Trouble is that the invitation was sent out and not available for the general public to walk into a salon , pay a buck and go look at the cars. The ads in the souvenir catalogs usually reflected and named with address the local dealer. These two ads are from the 1927 Los Angeles Salon 40 page catalog that was held at the Hotel Biltmore that was held in October of that year. Nearly 30 dealers are listed with their address to further pursue the make of car listed.  This topic deserves several articles to explain so one can appreciate the displays and mind set of that era - an article on each salon and their history of the four locations. The salon catalogs and periodical reports tell the stories but in over 50 years of looking I have not put together a collection of all the salon souvenir catalogs for all the shows - but am about 85% there! Enjoy everyone.

Walt

[John Bloom]

2 hours ago, Walt G said:

In the pre WWII era there were several places one can go to to see some great advertisements. Not all of the publications are worth cutting up as some are so scarce you will be fortunate if you can even locate one just to look at. The Custom Body Salons in NY, Chicago, Los Angeles , and San Francisco issued souvenir catalogs of their shows to those who attended. Trouble is that the invitation was sent out and not available for the general public to walk into a salon , pay a buck and go look at the cars. The ads in the souvenir catalogs usually reflected and named with address the local dealer. These two ads are from the 1927 Los Angeles Salon 40 page catalog that was held at the Hotel Biltmore that was held in October of that year. Nearly 30 dealers are listed with their address to further pursue the make of car listed.  This topic deserves several articles to explain so one can appreciate the displays and mind set of that era - an article on each salon and their history of the four locations. The salon catalogs and periodical reports tell the stories but in over 50 years of looking I have not put together a collection of all the salon souvenir catalogs for all the shows - but am about 85% there! Enjoy everyone.

Walt

 

 

 

Thanks Walt, if you are 85% there, keep going!  I love the artwork/ads that include those shows in the fine hotels of the era. 
 

I find the vintage ads more persuasive than any modern ones. 

[Walt G]

Thanks John, I am trying! Ain't easy to locate the programs as stated they were by invitation only so huge amounts of souvenir programs were not printed. Most collectors think that an auto show and auto salon are the same - they are not , at least in pre WWII era. Many reports on these post war slurred the Salon word with auto show and it now suggests to current enthusiasts they are the same. "My car was a salon show car" no it wasn't! You can positively trace a custom built car from salon to salon first in NY then transported (by train - as over the road transportation by truck was not present - there was no inter state highways system, "highways" as we now know them in that era meant it was a mostly paved 2 lane road with one lane each way)   west to the other salons which were a significant number of weeks apart so the cars could actually make the next destination on time and the particular car be put on display. All this needs to go down in a article which I have the resources and references to do but the proper outlet to do so doesn't exist, it would take up to many pages - AACA magazine does not have the room for a 4 page + article on something this specific.

[John Bloom]

On 12/19/2020 at 2:17 PM, Steve_Mack_CT said:

Cool ads!  The Honda ads really promoted a clean image as I recall, may be a thread on that somewhere in this forum actually.

Steve, I think they did a lot to change the perception of people who saw motorcycles in the light of "Knuckle dragging, Ape Bars, Bobber," recklesness.....

Also, they ran all day long and were engineered well.  I am always impressed every time  I pick one up, it seems like in a couple of hours, it is reborn and running.  

 

Walt's information about the shows at the most prestigious hotels is interesting.   The backdrop of any photograph or Advertisement plays a huge role in the imagery.  One of the things I like about the ACD Museum is the flooring.  It is fabulous and is perfect in print and photos of those beautiful automobiles.....

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Walt that sounds like an article for the Classic Car?  

[Walt G]

Steve - Hemmings Classic Car magazine has changed editor and there is no communication from there for me ! (?) The Classic Car Club of America has its Classic Car quarterly magazine and I did a column and detailed articles for 32 years for at least 80% of those issues and was a member for 46 years but left them in 2018 .

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Walt, yes I was referring to the CCCA pub. The only other thing I would say is the info within this forum rivals some books in certain areas, like the prewar, big chassis mb thread AJ started a long time ago.  But of course you already contribute a ton here we certainly appreciate and enjoy! 👍🙂

[alsancle]

2 hours ago, Steve_Mack_CT said:

Walt, yes I was referring to the CCCA pub. The only other thing I would say is the info within this forum rivals some books in certain areas, like the prewar, big chassis mb thread AJ started a long time ago.  But of course you already contribute a ton here we certainly appreciate and enjoy! 👍🙂

 

Steve,  we need to work on pulling Walt back into the CCCA fold.   His work is gold and Hemmings readers won't appreciate what they are reading.

[Walt G]

Thanks for the compliments guys, I have always enjoyed sharing what I have , makes no sense for material to sit here in my archives with me being the only one to see it. With the exception of this year, my friends from Germany have visited to see some of the stuff after Hershey ( at least 5 or 6 of them) and I then eventually make copies for them. I am comfortable with my current places for contributions , CCCA was good while it lasted, all things come to an end, they made their choice and I made mine.

[John_S_in_Penna]

On 12/17/2020 at 5:46 PM, John Bloom said:

...large reproductions of advertising and interesting artwork that are often on the walls behind the cars. 

... I have often wondered, what are the laws regarding that?  Is it permissible to take a page out of a magazine from 1929 that had one of these ads, and have some printing facility enlarge it to 5‘ x 8‘? What do you run into with copyright laws and other issues when trying to do enlargements for display only, not for resale?

 

I wrote an article on that very topic for our

AACA newsletter.  You'll find that most ads have

no copyright notice.  Can you imagine, "Hey, you!

Stop reproducing our ads and spreading them around!

We don't want anyone to know about our products!"

 

And the article I did told of a Penna. business that

did such large reproductions, on a variety of materials.

They started out doing scenery for the entertainment

world, and spread to large graphics for various businesses.

They pointed out that you need to have plenty of

"dots per inch" so that the ad or picture doesn't lose clarity.

Jay Leno contributed to our article--his artwork is

hand-painted, not scanned--and suggested that a

college art class could do a large painting for $2000

or $3000.

[Walt G]

The same can be said for enlarging period photographs to put on display. Austin Clark had that done and had some on display on stands when his L.I. Automotive museum was open. He did have the original glass plate negatives ( usually 8 x 10 inches !!!!!) to give to a photo lab to work from ( warning them not to - in his words - 'break the daxx glass" ) these were negatives made by photographers Spooner & Wells and Nathan Lazernick. When I worked for Austin in his library in the early 1970s I had to handle a number of these and the glass plate at 8 x 10 inches is fairly heavy, and the edges are very very sharp!

[Walt G]

Ok, here is one from the 1922 Chicago Automobile Salon souvenir catalog ( that was only given out to people who were invited to attend the salon , you could not buy an admission ticket, it was invite only) The salon was held at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. Most here will not see an original salon catalog due to the low number printed/issued. The advertisements are amazing, focus on high priced chassis and featured custom coachwork.

The is for the RUBAY Company of Cleveland, Ohio ( pronounced roo - bay) At the time photos were rarely used for advertising and most sales literature also was illustrated by artists in opaque water color ( that is what is known in elementary schools today as tempra paint)

[auburnseeker]

Ok I dug out a few.  I know i have some more.   They are a biproduct of my car literature hobbie. 

[auburnseeker]

[auburnseeker]

OK I know some aren't full classics but some were just cool looking and made the cut. 

[auburnseeker]

[auburnseeker]

[auburnseeker]

[auburnseeker]

[John Bloom]

Just great stuff!!!!!  Really like that 800 series (?) Packard Club Sedan.  They don't seem to be appreciated much but I really like the look.  

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Anyone remember Bill Mcbride auto ads from the 70s?  Bill lived near us, and was in a car guy circle centered around an old time Ford guy with a garage near us.  He actually had a pretty busy business buying up magazines and cutting out the ads, he advertised in HMN, Cars & Parts  etc.  I remember going by his place a couple times with my father, an apartment building, he had a couple 46 or 47 Hudsons in the parking lot.  Ultimately he parlayed that into a pretty big used and collectible book store.  Not sure if he is still around, but an interesting guy who had vision to get a lot of these old ads into the hobby.

[John Bloom]

Steve, that name sounds familiar. Maybe from old HMN in the 70s. As a kid, the car influence in my life was a neighbor buddy and his family.   They had a warehouse of older cars and were at the auctions in Auburn every year. He subscribed to HMN and paid for first class delivery to get it a day or two before anyone else. I lived down the street and would frequently sleep over on a Friday night eating pizza and drInking soda into the wee hours of the morning as we poured over every page in the new issue. We always wanted to find the most expensive car listed.  Great childhood memories. 
 

 

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Great story, John.  I had a couple infuences, a pal 2 years older who was restoring a 39 Chevy ( he finished it shortly after hs, to a standard good enough to win some shows, still has it today) and another kid whose dad had some lincolns.  Dad and I started subscribing to hmn in 78.  Subscription was always in my name as it was a gift.  I am due for renewal, and will do so out of habit but 99% of my old car info comes from the Internet like everyone else these days. 🙂  Bill was a real character though, and it amazed me someone could actually make a living doing something like that.

[John Bloom]

11 minutes ago, Steve_Mack_CT said:

Dad and I started subscribing to hmn in 78.  Subscription was always in my name as it was a gift.  I am due for renewal, and will do so out of habit but 99% of my old car info comes from the Internet like everyone else these days. 🙂  

Lol. Me too.  I can’t “not subscribe” to the print edition when up for renewal. They stay in their plastic sleeve unopened and are added to my “hoard” 

 

I will look at some old copies for  Bill McBride ads. 
 

It is fun to look at old ads and think “if only I could have bought that”

[John Bloom]

I realize This old Hemmings stuff takes it off topic but what tremendous joy I have had from that publication and organization through the years. I will always have a sense of loyalty to them.

 

That Auburn Boattail ad is from a Hemmings copy I just pulled out randomly, 1989.

Edited December 27, 2020 by John Bloom (see edit history)

[John Bloom]

Some of the booklets Walt posted showing the great classics in places like the Drake or Waldorf got me thinking it would be cool if a local CCCA or AACA chapter could coordinate with some of those old Grand hotels to bring in some heavy iron and set up a photo shoot for promotional purposes benefitting both parties. 

[alsancle]

I found my stack of Duesenberg advertisements.  There are 17 in all.