HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Photography Forums > General Photography


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Apr 5, 2010, 3:17 PM
Robert Pence's Avatar
Robert Pence Robert Pence is offline
Honored Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Posts: 4,309
"Honey Grahams" - Graham Automobiles at the ACD Museum

"Honey Grahams"
Graham Automobiles at the ACD Museum
May, 1998

All Photos Copyright © 2010 by Robert E Pence


The Graham Brothers had various business enterprises before building cars under their own name. Their glass-bottle manufacturing operation was a predecessor of L-O-F, and they built and sold truck-conversion kits for Model T Fords before starting to build their own trucks using Dodge engines, and selling them mostly through Dodge dealers. Eventually Dodge bought their truck business and hired the brothers.

They worked for Dodge until 1927, and then quit and bought the Paige-Detroit Motor Company, makers of Paige and Jewett automobiles. Their first cars bore the name "Graham-Paige." Graham automobiles quickly established a reputation for quality and were successful in racing, an important promotional tool of the time.

Please forgive any errors in dates, etc. I put together as much info as I could from Wikipedia and from looking at whatever photos I could find. I welcome corrections and additonal information.

Circa 1928 Touring Sedan:




Circa 1929 Roadster:








The 1932 Blue Streak turned the automotive design world on its ear and set competitors scrambling to catch up. The radiator cap, previously a prominent design element on almost all automobiles, was concealed under a sleek hood that extended all the way to the base of the windshield, and the radiator housing disappeared behind a grille. Fenders were redesigned to conceal their often mud-splattered undersides. Headlights were contained in streamlined nacelles, either painted in body color or chrome-plated. Traditionally squarish overall design got its contours smoothed.

The Blue Streak name originally was coined by the company for its supercharged eight-cylinder engine, but soon became associated with the automobile model line.










By the mid 1930s the effects of the Great Depression were taking a toll on Graham. An attempt in 1935 to update the Blue Streak body didn't turn out well, so for the 1936 and 1937 model years, Graham paid a royalty to REO to purchase the Hayes-built body that REO used.

Even though these cars aren't considered as anything remarkable by some critics, this 1936:Crusader was my favorite:








Maybe it's the snappy paint job and the abundance of bright trim that seem to give this touring sedan a jaunty stance. Years after taking these photos, I still smile at the memory every time I see this one.


1937 Cavalier:


The 1938 Spirit of Motion won international design awards and acclaim, but in the US became known as the Sharknose and was a complete sales flop:






In 1939 Graham needed a good seller to try to recover from the failure of the Spirit of Motion. Another struggling automaker, Hupmobile, had bought the body dies for the Cord 810 designed in Auburn Indiana, but had no money for production. Graham contracted to build Hupp Skylark and a very similar Graham Hollywood. Because the Cord was front-wheel drive and the Hupp and Graham were rear-wheel drive, some modifications were made. The front end was restyled from the cowl forward by John Tjaarda, who created the Lincoln Zephyr, and provision had to be made for the driveshaft.

I saw a Graham Hollywood on a used-car lot in Marion, Indiana, in 1962. It didn't look too bad cosmetically, but I can't testify as to the mechanical condition. If only I had comprehended what I was looking at, and had had the resources to just take it home, put it up on blocks in the barn, cover it up, and keep it!

I remember reading in a magazine years ago that after Hupp/Graham, the dies were bought by a Japanese firm and used to build a few cars in Japan. The brief article was accompanied by a photo of one, taken by a GI there after WWII.


Graham's Hollywood and Hupp's Skylark weren't enough to save either company. Graham quit making automobiles in 1940, and during WWII they used their plant for military production. In 1946 they made another go at automobile production with the Frazer, named for the company's vice-president. Plans to resume production under the Graham name were cut short when they sold all their automobile assets in 1947 to Kaiser-Frazer, formed by Joseph Frazer and industrialist Henry J Kaiser. Subsequently they went into commercial real estate.
__________________
Getting thrown out of railroad stations since 1979!

Better than ever and always growing: [url=http://www.robertpence.com][b]My Photography Web Site[/b][/url]
Reply With Quote
     
     
End
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Photography Forums > General Photography
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 6:52 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.