Boyett: Obtaining a new car a year after World War II ended continued to be difficult
A lot of people were walking around Henderson in late 1946 with money in their pockets but unable to buy the new car they were itching to drive.
“A year ago the public thought there would be plenty of new automobiles by this time,” began an advertorial that appeared in The Gleaner Aug. 12, 1946. “Today, there are very few more new cars on the market than there were a year ago.
“Every car dealer has a long list of people who have made a down payment for a new automobile and are not likely to get a new one for many months to come.”
That advertorial plugged the relatively new auto repair shop Delbert Austrew had opened at the corner of Center and Clark streets. (Fire destroyed that concrete block building in recent years.)
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“To keep your car rolling during this emergency, you must give it the best of care, as it will likely be several years before you can walk into a firm and buy the car of your choice and get immediate delivery.”
I’m revisiting this topic that I initially explored Jan. 31, mainly because it had a big impact throughout the country – but also because I’m essentially a car guy at heart.
What really caught my eye in looking through issues of The Gleaner from August 1946, was an ad that appeared Aug. 25 for Interstate Finance Corp. I believe that is the earliest advertisement in The Gleaner for a car title loan I’ve ever seen. It illustrates the high value that even used cars held immediately following World War II.
“Quick cash on your car,” the ad reads. “When you are faced with a situation that calls for extra cash, see us for a loan on your car. Money is advanced promptly and privately, for any need or emergency. You can repay on convenient monthly terms.”
The value of new cars was strictly regulated by the federal Office of Price Administration, which The Gleaner of Aug. 14 reported had again hiked the prices of new cars so it was an average of 25 percent over 1942 price ceilings.
“Yesterday’s increases, ranging from $62 to $322 a car, restored dealers’ prewar profit margins, as ordered by congress,” the story said.
Another article about the Office of Price Administration’s involvement with cars appeared in the Aug. 28 Gleaner. OPA agents had raided an on-going auction of black market cars in Leesville, South Carolina, which had sold an estimated $75 million worth of cars across 14 states – including Kentucky.
“The special agents, posing as dealers, quietly bought five automobiles at an open air market jammed with an estimated 50 dealers and 500 automobiles. They forked over $12,000 in payment.
“They said the prices they paid were double the OPA ceilings and that if they had had sufficient funds they could have purchased scores of cars as such prices.”
Car prices back then were relatively cheap by modern standards. Cars the OPA had priced at $1,850 had sold for $3,300 at the auction and expensive cars that should have been priced at $2,500 went for as much as $5,800.
An example of one of those top-end cars was on display Aug. 8-10 at the Chrysler-Plymouth dealership of the J.V. Gasser Garage, according to an ad in The Gleaner of Aug. 8.
A.J. Crawford had bought a New Yorker, an example of Chrysler’s flagship model, and consented to let Gasser display it a few days at his dealership at 119-121 N. Green St.
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The advertisement touted the 1946 Chrysler’s new look from the windshield forward, which featured the harmonica-style grille Chrysler retained through 1948, as well as many other improvements from the pre-war model.
The only other display ad for an automobile The Gleaner ran throughout August was for a Buick, which also was an upscale car. Unlike the Chrysler, though, it looked pretty much the same as it did before World War II began.
The ad for the Scott McGaw Motor Co. at 8 N. Green St. attempted to allay the frustration of those buyers who had not yet received delivery of their Buicks. “The sweetest blossoms draw the most bees,” the ad said. “The best is never the easiest to get. It is also the plain fact that Buick stands today as the most wanted car in America….
“So, it’s smart to act quickly. We can’t deliver cars faster than the factory can make them – but the sooner your name’s on our order sheet, the shorter your wait will be.”
The trickle of new cars into this area was offset by the usual process by which the car supply dwindled, such as wrecks and normal wear and tear. A couple fell prey to trains at railroad crossings in late August 1946.
The Aug. 30 Gleaner described a mysterious incident in which an L&N train in route to Nashville and New Orleans struck an upside-down car that straddled the tracks at the crossing of the road to Anthoston.
The accident occurred about 9:15 p.m. “No injuries were sustained by the passengers on the train or its crew, railroad officials reported….
“Police were attempting to find the owners of the car. The Henderson hospital reported no one had been admitted for treatment usually needed as a result of such auto ‘accidents.’” (The word “accidents” was placed in quotation marks, indicating the writer of the article may have had suspicions it was not entirely accidental.)
The car-train wreck reported the following day, Aug. 31, was a bona fide accident. Prominent oil distributor Rudy Bryant, 54, was killed instantly when his car was struck by the L&N’s Dixie Limited about 5:50 a.m. at the Clay Street crossing.
He was manager of the Gulf Refining interests here and lived in the “sumptuous Baxter Adams home on the Airline Road” he and his wife had purchased that June. Adams, of course, was Henderson’s first aviator and barnstormer.
Bryant was Henderson County’s 12th auto fatality in 1946. The county hit its all-time high in 1952 with 27 traffic deaths.
Halloween 1946 marked another chapter in an old, familiar story, according to a Nov. 1 Gleaner story. A car carrier loaded with 1946 Dodge coupes struck the railroad underpass at Fourth and Green streets.
“The top of one coupe was cut off and a second automobile was knocked from the carrier and bent in the fall…. Several vehicles in the past have run into the Fourth Street overhead railroad bridge.”
The Green Street railroad underpass at Fourth Street was deepened in the last half of 1955. Before that, large trucks had to detour to Water Street to cross under the railroad tracks. The Green Street site had serious flooding problems for years until 1990 when drainage was provided directly to the Ohio River.
100 YEARS AGO
Henderson was once again organizing a unit of the National Guard, after being without one since 1917, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 10, 1921.
Norman W. Royster was going to be the company captain, which had headquarters in an old church on Fourth Street between Green and Elm streets. As of that date 46 men had joined. Only 14 more applications were allowed, as the unit was limited to 60 men.
Those who enlisted had to serve three years and had to drill one night a week as well as attend the 10-day encampments every summer. They earned the same pay as the regular Army.
50 years ago
An essay by Albert L. Weeks, an associate professor of English at New York University, extolled a new toy called the Frisbee as the Aquarian age’s answer to the yo-yo, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 15, 1971.
Bert Lunan of The Gleaner staff convinced an attractive Vivian Mattingly to demonstrate “the fine art of Frisbee-tossing” while he snapped a half-dozen photographs of her that accompanied the article written by Weeks.
25 YEARS AGO
A four-month review by the state auditor’s office of financial records at the Henderson County Detention Center between June 1995 and April 1996 was unable to account for more than $19,000 in commissary and work release funds, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 8, 1996.
County Attorney Charlie McCollom filed a motion asking that Jailer Jackie Combest and his secretary be held in contempt of court for failing to abide by money-handling procedures that had been agreed to June 7 in a meeting with the jailer, county attorney, county treasurer and both district judges present.
McCollom withdrew his motion to hold Combest in contempt, according to the Aug. 22 Gleaner, but the controversy over the money that was unaccounted for continued.
Combest was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of malfeasance or neglect of office Feb. 4, 1997, along with former chief deputy jailer Terry Haynes, who was indicted on a felony theft charge.
In mid-March 1997 Combest submitted his resignation, prompted by a promise of criminal charges against him being dropped. Haynes had earlier pleaded guilty to a felony and agreed to repay the jail $9,000.
In resigning Combest made no admission of guilt to the misdemeanor charge of neglect of duty; he said he resigned mainly to preserve his retirement pension.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.