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06/02/2019 11:21 am
1934 Studebaker by Brooklin and by National Products (PICs)
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A souvenir from the Studebaker exhibit
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A post card of the Studebaker exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair, 1934
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In my collection:
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I have been searching for this post card for quite a while, and it arrived just yesterday. Oh yes, the actual Giant Studebaker was mostly plaster over wood. Here's the story from a fine site, howstuffworks:
"The giant Land Cruiser, which reposed in the great hall of the Travel and Transport Building, was 80 feet long, 28 feet high, and 30 feet wide. The running boards were 21 feet in length, the windshield wiper three feet, and the tires 12.5 feet For maximum "eye appeal," it was painted Canary Yellow, a color later made available on production cars for an extra $80. Below the running board was a door that led visitors into an auditorium that could hold 80 guests. Films were shown that extolled the virtues of the new Studebakers and told, in dramatic fashion, how Studebaker had set more than 140 records for speed and endurance.
"Of course, a full line of normal-size Studebakers (some painted in Canary Yellow) were on display in the open foyer in front of the giant car. Directly to the left, large crowds gathered to watch craftsmen from Chicago's National Products Company cast 6.75-inch-long models of the Land Cruiser from molten metal. Each one had the words "Replica of Giant World's Fair Studebaker" embossed on the decklid. One could also buy a seven-inch-long Studebaker dual-wheeled stake-bed truck. The car was available in a variety of colors and the truck in red-both for the princely sum of 25 cents."
While I wish it were canary yellow, this Brooklin remains one of my all-time favorites.
06/02/2019 11:53 am
David, Thanks for the good story and nice photos of the nice models.
The Brooklin is a nice, but even the yellow Replica is a good one and looks good, better than most models of that time period .
It is Always fun to do more with the collection. Like you do and look into histories.
06/02/2019 1:23 pm
Thanks David. This was the second time Studebaker built a giant sized model of one of their cars. I believe the first time was around 1930 but I'm not sure of that date.
06/02/2019 1:23 pm
Thanks David. This was the second time Studebaker built a giant sized model of one of their cars. I believe the first time was around 1930 but I'm not sure of that date.
06/02/2019 5:51 pm
Found it! In Hemmings again, too. Here's a part of the article:
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once graced the Proving Ground: a 40-foot-long replica of a Studebaker President Four Season Roadster.
The 2.5:1 scale replica of the attractive new 1931 President was created as a prop for a nine-minute promotional film called Wild Flowers. The job of creating the model was given to Paul Auman, the head of Studebaker's experimental body shop in the spring of 1930, in advance of the model's introduction. According to The Studebaker National Museum...Over a Century on Wheels by Andrew Beckman, the museum's archivist, the body panels, made of white pine, were shaped in the Studebaker factory in South Bend and assembled at the Proving Ground. Firestone produced the 10-foot-diameter tires for the model, making certain that its name was prominent on the sidewalls, and the spokes of the wire wheels were created from electrical conduit.
Painted in two shades of green, the giant President, 14 feet tall, weighing 5 1/2 tons and riding on a 325-inch wheelbase, commanded a grassy bluff just to the west of the main gate. So that no one would miss the point, a silhouette of a man in a suit was stationed at the front bumper, leaning on a sign that read, "This Man is 6 Feet Tall." The display generated its fair share of publicity for the company; typical was an article in the December 1930 issue of Popular Mechanics that carried the headline, ''Studebaker Builds World's Largest Auto.'' An object of endless fascination, it must have been a can't-miss photo opportunity for residents of the area and tourists passing through.
The passage of time, the ravages of the harsh Indiana winters and vandalism by souvenir hunters finally got the better of the big wooden President. In the spring of 1936, workers removed the hubcaps and two of the mammoth tires, doused the model in an accelerant, and set a lighted torch to it. Within 30 minutes, the car had been reduced to ashes. The pine trees were planted the following year.
The appeal of the giant car had captured imaginations in South Bend, though, so much so that another giant, this time of the 1934 Land Cruiser, was created for that year's Chicago World's Fair. But that's another story for another time.
(This article originally appeared in the July, 2010 issue of Hemmings Motor News.)
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07/02/2019 2:41 am
That would be the ultimate model to have in your collection !