Car Guy History – 1940 Census Pt III

Barney Oldfield

Barney Oldfield Census

“Who do you think you are? Barney Oldfield?” is an expression that isn’t used too often these days as many people really don’t know who Barney Oldfield is/was. He was one of America’s first truly awesome race cars drivers. He got his start in 1902 with Henry Ford and later set records on the beach in Daytona. He raced in the early days of the Indy 500, becoming the first person to run a 100+mph lap.

Sometime prior to 1930 he moved to Beverly Hills and lived at 1721 Chevy Chase Drive. Here’s what it looks like today courtesy of Google Earth:

Barney Oldfield House

Oldfield owned the $47,500 house (now valued at almost $2 million). He lived there with his wife and a 27-year-old Filipino “houseboy.” At this point in time his racing career had ended and he is listed as an “Owner/Manager” of a club. He died in 1946 at age 68.

Car Guy History – 1940 Census Pt II

Edsel Ford

ford census

Here’s another census sheet. This one featuring the son of Henry Ford, Edsel.

The Edsel and Eleanor Ford House is open to the public today after being placed into a trust by Eleanor in the 1970s. It was built in 1927 and in 1940 it was worth $1,339,830 – not bad for the “President” of an “Automobile Factory.” The census data shows 45-year-old Edsel lived with his wife Eleanor, son Henry II, son Benson, daughter Josephine, and son  – the recently deceased William Clay (the owner of the Detroit Lions). There were also seven servants.

Here is what the house at 1100 Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe Shores looks like today:

Edsel Ford House

Visiting this historic mansion is definitely worth it. I highly recommend it if you’re in the greater Detroit area.

Car Guy History – The 1940 Census

The government was nice enough to put the 1940 Census online. Well I had some free time at work (sshhh! don’t tell anyone!) and spent some time paging through various areas (after finding my relatives), mainly in and around L.A. to find how much money some movie stars’ homes were worth during the Golden Age of Hollywood. I found about 60 interesting people.

Well I came across some interesting folks along the way – many movie stars and directors and producers and writers. But also some people from the world of cars. I’ve been meaning to share this for well over a year now, so here we go. Also, because these photos are so big, loading them all in one post keeps crashing the site, so I’ll do one person per post.

E.L. Cord

Cord census

Errett Lobban Cord was born in 1894 and became an automotive titan around 1930. But the Depression took his empire away and so he moved to California where he made his second fortune in radio and television. On the census he lists himself as an investor in real estate.

The address is 500a Doheny Rd, Beverly Hills, California. The house he lived in (valued at $200,000 in 1940) no longer stands as a $5 million home was built there in 1985. Cord resided there with his wife and two daughters. He also had a servant and a parlor maid. Cord relocated to Nevada in the 1940s and died there in 1974.

Car Guy History: Henry Leland

If I’m posting this, it’s probably because auction houses haven’t gotten their most current upcoming auction catalogs online – that or I decided to feature this for the fun of it. I thought I’d dig back into the history of the automobile – a topic I really love – and find some interesting tales to tell. This is the first of those…

Henry Leland

Henry Leland

Henry Martyn Leland, born February 16, 1843, is best known for founding both Cadillac and Lincoln. But before we get to how he made a career off of Henry Ford (and became one of his main antagonists), we’ll throw in a little back story. In 1870, he opened a machine shop that would later supply engines to Oldsmobile (his first taste of the automobile industry). He had previously worked for Colt (firearms) – both of these gave him insight into the use of interchangeable parts – something successful early automotive pioneers championed heavily.

Trivia tidbit: he also invented electric barber clippers.

So here’s part one of how Henry Leland made a career off of Henry Ford: Cadillac. What does Henry Ford have to do with Cadillac? Well, he inadvertently founded it. Backtrack: in 1899, Henry Ford founded the Detroit Automobile Company with the backing of the mayor of Detroit, a senator, and William Murphy – father of Walter M. Murphy, who would later be a successful coachbuilder in Pasadena, California.

The Detroit Automobile Company built about 20 cars and went bankrupt and was dissolved in January 1901. In November of that same year, after Henry Ford had some minor racing success, he was able to convince some men (including William Murphy, again) to back him. Thus, from the remnants of the Detroit Automobile Company, the Henry Ford Company was founded. The following spring, Ford got into an argument with his backers. They gave him $900, the rights to his name, and showed him the door.

1900 Detroit Delivery Truck

1900 Detroit Delivery Truck. the first car built by a henry ford-owned company.

Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and we all know how that went. But the Henry Ford Company still had to be dissolved. Henry Leland was brought in to appraise the tooling and factory so it could be liquidated. Leland appraised everything and then offered his unsolicited advice: don’t liquidate – start a new company. He then offered them the idea to build a car using an engine he had developed for Oldsmobile. William Murphy said “Okay!” and quickly renamed the Henry Ford Company “Cadillac.”

1903 Cadillac Model A

1903 Cadillac Model A. built by leland-owned cadillac using the leland-desgned single-cylinder engine he developed for oldsmobile.

Cadillac was building cars by the end of 1902, before Henry Ford got his “Third Time’s A Charm” thing going. In 1905, Leland merged his machine shop into Cadillac. He also introduced interchangeable parts. In 1909, Leland sold Cadillac to General Motors for $4.5 million and remained a GM executive until 1917. That’s how Leland made his first fortune off of Henry Ford.

Now for Round 2: In 1917, World War I was in full swing. GM was still in the control of its founder, William Durant (who deserves his own Fun History Lesson). Durant was a pacifist and did not want to make anything for the military. Cadillac had been asked by the government to build Liberty aircraft engines. Durant refused. So Leland walked out.

And what did he do? He took the $10 million contract from the government and founded the Lincoln Motor Company with his son. He named it “Lincoln” after his hero, Abraham Lincoln – the man he voted for in 1864 (okay, so Leland made his second fortune off of the government, and not necessarily Henry Ford). When the war ended, Leland retooled the factory to build luxury cars. By 1922, the retooling had taken its toll and Lincoln was out of money – but their factory was worth about $16 million.

1922 Lincoln L-Series Touring

1922 Lincoln L-Series Touring. The L-Series was designed by lincoln under Leland ownership and remained in production long after he left.

Henry Ford sent in a bid of $5 million to buy Lincoln, which was rejected by a judge. He upped it to $8 million – the only bidder on the insolvent company. Ford was still bitter at Leland for his success with Cadillac and wanted to pay as little as possible for Lincoln – just to demoralize the Lelands. The $8 million mostly went to pay of creditors, but Leland (and his son, Wilfred) remained as employees – not to run the company as originally promised by Ford, but to get it to a point where it wouldn’t go bankrupt again – i.e. throw quality out the door to save costs, which was, quite possibly, Leland’s most-loathed thing about the then-current automobile industry. A couple months later, an executive acting on Henry Ford’s authority, showed up to force Wilfred to resign. When Henry Leland realized Henry Ford was directly responsible for this, he, again, walked out as well.

Remarkably, both companies founded by Henry Leland still survive 100 years later – and I’m pretty sure he’s the only person to hold that distinction. Sure, he didn’t make a fortune from Henry Ford the second time around, but he did force Ford (out of spite) to spend $12 million (there was additional $4 million tax bill tacked on). Henry Leland had to be one of Henry Ford’s biggest adversaries for a majority of his career. And for that, he should be considered an automotive hero (let’s be honest, for all of Ford’s successes, he wasn’t exactly a saint).

In any case, Henry Leland (and his son, Wilfred) were engineers. They held quality above all things. And they were among the last of their kind. The companies they founded were transferred into the hands of penny-pinchers who wanted to build the most for the least. During Leland’s reign, Cadillac become known as “The Standard of the World” and there was a reason for that. Henry Leland is one of my automotive heroes – if for nothing else, than being a thorn in Henry Ford’s side for over 20 years.