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Topic starter
24/06/2025 5:33 pm
I am not sure if I am just imagining this but ...... here is a really nice advertising photograph from the Packard Photographic/Advertising department showing a dapper gentleman standing in front of his beautiful late-1930's Packard 4-door sedan.
I'm the background is a beautiful mansion, perhaps in a ritzy Detroit suburb.
Yet, somehow the man and the background house seem out of scale with one another, with the Packard and man being almost toylike in their size compared with the background house.
The man and automobile may also be out of scale with one another, with the gentleman barely coming up to the windshield of the Packard.
But maybe I am just seeing things, lol !
25/06/2025 7:43 am
The white walls are too narrow on the Packard for this to be a period piece.
Tony Perrone and Christopher Moroni reacted
25/06/2025 7:49 am
The white walls are too narrow on the Packard for this to be a period piece.
...they're doubled-sided whitewalls Bob; look closely at the back of the LF tire. I don't remember seeing such thin (2.25" - 2.5") doubled-sided whitewalls in the 1950's. Early 1950's had 4" - 5" wide whites, that could've been double-sided, but by the late 1950's / early '60's doubled-sided whitewalls had disappeared, right? 🤔 🤨
My point: those 1938 Packard tires could very well be actual late 1930's tires. 🤔 🤨 🤔 Here's a 1938 Hupmobile Sedan ad....
This post was modified 11 months ago 2 times by Christopher Moroni
Tony Perrone reacted
26/06/2025 6:07 am
House, car and man look OK tgo me. I think it is a matter of camera perspective. The shot was taken at a distance and the foreground and background are compressed somewhat I believe.
Ed Davis and Christopher Moroni reacted
26/06/2025 10:43 am
@bob-jackman Agreed, they most always exaggerate. However, checking period-photographs from my "Packard-Bible," I found several that feature double-sided thinner-band whitewall tires. I agree with Tony, I don't see anything odd about Mike's pic; it all looks right to me. 🤔
Tony Perrone reacted
29/06/2025 10:47 am
I spotted this post rather late in the day and was amused by what seemed to be surely a "doctored" photo of a tiny man beside his impressively large car.
But I found that same image online accompanied by specifications saying this 1938 Packard Super Eight had an overall height of 70 inches, or just short of 6 foot.
Put a box that height on the photo . . .
and subtract maybe a couple of inches for the height of his hat above the top of his skull, and the guy could be around 5'7". Not unreasonable in those days.
Apologies if I'm being nerdy.
This post was modified 11 months ago 2 times by Graeme Ogg
Graeme.M. Ogg
London U.K.
29/06/2025 11:18 am
"Apologies if I'm being nerdy."
Not at all Graeme, I applaud your efforts. As I noted.... Mike's photo looks right to me. IMO, if someone did create this with modern software or even if it was "faked" 87 years ago - it doesn't raise an eyebrow with me.
Tony Perrone reacted
Topic starter
29/06/2025 4:04 pm
That's good investigation ! I think the thing that mostly intrigued me was "moving" the Packard sedan and the gentleman back so that they were right next to the beautiful house in the background and it's front door.
To my eye it seemed the automobile and man were than, at that point, rather small. Lol, I'd bet that original house still exists, perhaps in the ritzy Detroit suburbs.
Tony Perrone and Christopher Moroni reacted