US Navy Shore Patrol on a Harley-Davidson Servi-Car patrolling along the shores of Lake Michigan near Chicago Illinois - 1943
Saturday, January 17, 2026
Luella Bates, the first female truck driver to receive a New York driver's license.
Ms. Bates and the other women tested each of the behemoth trucks by driving them over a 75-mile course. These runs had to be completed before a truck was delivered or shipped
In January 1920, Bates drove a Model B to New York City, where she attended the New York Auto Show.
Bates was such a hit in New York that Four Wheel Drive decided to use her skills even further. Later that year, they sent her on three transcontinental tours throughout the United States.
Luella would undergo several whirlwind tours across America in her trusted Model B truck. Her first tour would take her to approximately 25 towns, beginning in Kansas City, Missouri, and finishing in Bellefontaine, Ohio
descending Laurel Hill grade between Bedford and Chambersburg, Pa, July 9, 1919
F.W.D. in city parade in Sacramento California September 3, 1919
The advertising scheme introduced the idea that the FWD truck was easy to steer, as evidenced by a woman driver.
Luella would undergo several whirlwind tours across America in her trusted Model B truck. Her first tour would take her to approximately 25 towns, beginning in Kansas City, Missouri, and finishing in Bellefontaine, Ohio
These 3-ton trucks (chassis #8044, #8175, #13325) distinguished themselves by navigating challenging terrains in Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada without assistance. Their ability to traverse muddy and sandy stretches unaided set a commendable record.
descending Laurel Hill grade between Bedford and Chambersburg, Pa, July 9, 1919
F.W.D. in city parade in Sacramento California September 3, 1919
During her final tour of 1920, Bates took the southern states by storm. She was now known as "our girl driver." In Oklahoma, she defied the police and took her truck across a flooded road, hauling meat for a packaging plant. This courageous venture led to the sale of ten trucks for Four Wheel Drive and much admiration for Bates.
In 1922, Luella left the FWD Auto Company and moved to Milwaukee. She later married Howard Coates and had two sons. She died in 1985 at the age of 88.
Her granddaughter is the actress Ashley Hinshaw, who married Topher Grace
wild Willys, had a engine in the trunk just to run the 6-71, and pulled a 11.43 seconds and 120 mph at San Fernando
Don Clarkson's unique solution for the power robbing supercharger was a 331up front, and a tiny Johnson oil-burner in back.
Described in the Feb. '59 HRM only as a "war-surplus" four-banger, the two-stroke devoted all 60 of its horses to driving a trunk-mounted GMC 6-71 supercharger.
Another, unsaid benefit was relocating the supercharger's weight rearward, enhancing what little bite was available from skinny, recapped slicks
what a beauty... I hope some young, about to graduate high school kid is lucky enough to have rich parents who buys this for them... and starts a life of happy car ownership without a single electronic POS sensor that will illuminate the "check engine" light
this has been owned by the same family for 57 years. Wow. Same colors as my 69 R/T
the Kaiser Darrin prototype was first unveiled at the Los Angeles Motorama in 1952, just two months before the Corvette.
Automotive stylist Howard “Dutch” Darrin took it upon himself to create the fiberglass-bodied roadster himself, proof of concept for the industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, who was staunchly committed to the production of family cars.
Kaiser hated the car, of course, and it nearly didn’t make it past the prototype stage—except that Kaiser had brought his wife along to see it, and she declared that the car was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
Is it more surprising that I found this photo, of a Bantam advertising the dairy? Or that I already covered the sculptor that made that statue? I think it's nuts I've covered the statue already, YOU are getting your money's worth!
Finn Frolich made the sculpture of Indy 500 winner Tommy Milton: "Modern Speed", that I posted, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/finn-frolich-architect-and-scuptor-of.html
also made this dairy cow sculpture.
I find it so damn amusing that because I cover stuff like the artist that made the sculpture for race cars, that over a dozen years later, I recognize this dairy sculpture, and know the artist by name.
But... is this even crazier?
The guy that took this photo? Worked on Fantasia. And Pinocchio.
Then died in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later.
cataloger Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1937, and worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio.
His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD.
In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later.
If that doesn't convince you that you're getting content right here (now n then) that no one else is putting online for your enjoyment, from the Bantam, to the sculpture, to the photographer of the sculpture, who worked at Disney on Fantasia... then I deserve to be told where you can find better than what I'm doing
In 1915, Rhoda Agatha Rindge, heiress, married Merritt Adamson, ranch foreman, also USC Law school grad and captain of the USC football team.
In 1916 Adamson established the Adohr (Rhoda spelled backwards) dairy business up the hill in the San Fernando Valley.
By the mid-1920’s it was the largest certified dairy in the world. It was well-known for innovative and quality dairy production and for it’s marketing acumen and for it’s famous reddish-golden brown Guernseys.
Sometime in the 1920s the milkmaid and cow sculpture was commissioned for placement at the dairy headquarters.
The Spanish land grant that made up Rancho Malibu was split into three parcels in 1905 after the death of Frederick Hastings Rindge.
In 1916 Rindge's daughter Rhoda and her husband Merritt Adamson Sr. established a dairy farm named Adohr located at 18000 Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana.
The farm was famous for breeding Guernsey cattle. Land was slowly sold during the depression and in 1948 the remaining 500 acres were sold to developers when the dairy farm moved to Camarillo.
The Camarillo farm was sold for the Westview Park subdivision in 1969.
Friday, January 16, 2026
memorable designs Alan H. Leamy created while working for E.L. Cord
Closed coachwork for the L-29 was designed by Leamy and Auburn’s John Oswald while the designs for the cabriolet and phaeton were supplied by one of Walter M. Murphy’s in-house designers, most likely Franklin Q. Hershey.
Need Lumber Quick? 1920 Federal (pinstriped and lettered) in front of the business, and notice in the upper left corner of the photo, on the building corner, under the eave, is a clock. Intriguing.
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/178/
https://www.shorpy.com/node/18816?size=_original#caption this was posted on Shorpy 12 years ago
I bet that the lumber company had just taken delivery and wanted to take a celebration photo of the new truck, that they could hang on the company president's office wall
Today I met a guy with his high school car from 2001, a Honda Prelude, and it's the car he was driving in Fast and Furious. That is pretty damn cool
How about this, I stumbled across another very interesting Elks Club car! Tacoma Elks motion picture crew, and their 1931 Buick 8
The Elks had signed the Peptimist Motion Picture Corporation of Hollywood to create a motion picture comedy drama woven around the industrial life and scenic attractions of Tacoma.
The completed picture would be shown a gala frolic June 27, 1931 at the Elks Convention. A casting call went out for 500 men, women and children to be in the picture with the two main female starring roles receiving a salary.
From 1929 thru 1937 the Elks Club used Studebakers painted purple and white exclusively in their annual tour to their Intl meet site.
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