Wesley Morse – A New Yorker State of Mind

Above: Manhattan auto dealer's window display promoting the 1935 Auburn's appearance at the New York Automobile Show. (Detroit Public Library)

Manhattan’s first big event of 1935 was the annual automobile show at the Grand Central Palace, where New Yorkers chased away the winter blues (and the lingering Depression) in a dreamscape crammed with gleaming new cars.

The exhibition included mostly domestic models with wider bodies and, in the case of Chrysler, a dialing back of a radical, streamlined design that was too advanced for American tastes in the 1930s.

CROWD SOURCING…*New Yorker* correspondent “Speed” observed that the Grand Central Palace was so crowded with new cars that “you can’t get down on your hands and knees to inspect the latest springing systems.” (forums.aaca.org)

SAFE ROOM…This Ford dealer postcard touted safety, durability and roominess rather than style to market a V-8 sedan to Depression-strapped car buyers. (Pinterest)

BACK TO BASICS…The DeSoto display showcased more traditional designs (top) after the disappointing debut of the 1934 Airflow. Below, three foreign makes were on display, including Great Britain’s sporty MG Midget. (forums.aaca.org)

It is no surprise that E.B. White was once again disappointed with new line of cars, still preferring the boxy Model T to the lower-slung streamlined models. That distaste extended to the new taxi cabs hitting the streets of Manhattan, where White saw absolutely no need for wind resistance. An excerpt from his “Notes and Comment:”

IF IT AIN’T BROKE…**E.B. White** preferred to old Yellow Taxis (seen at top, circa 1932), to the new streamlined Model Y Checker Cabs that were introduced to the streets of Manhattan in 1935. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Pinterest)

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Elsewhere, The New Yorker added a new twist to its “Profile” section by featuring an illustration derived from a drawing by Pablo Picasso…

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The New Yorker’s advertising department padded its revenue from the Christmas season with a slew of ads from automobile companies touting the wonders of their latest models, which were on display at the New York Auto Show…former makers of horse-drawn carriage bodies, the Fisher brothers (Fred and Charles) began making bodies for automobiles in 1908, and the company was later incorporated as part of General Motors…as noted earlier, safety and durability (rather than style) were the calling cards of many automakers during the Depression…

…as is also evidenced here in this ad from Plymouth, part of a continuing series that touted the crash-worthiness of their sedan…

…Plymouth’s parent company Chrysler, still stinging from the lack of consumer interest in their boldly aerodynamic Airflow (introduced in 1934), made modifications to the Airflow’s body, replacing the bold “waterfall” grille with a more traditional peaked unit…the company also offered an even more traditional “Airstream” model that outsold the Airflow 4 to 1…

Consumers in 1934 found the Chrysler Airflow’s bold design (left) too advanced for the times, so Chrysler responded by making the grille on the 1935 model (right) a bit more traditional. That didn’t help sales, either.

…luxury car maker Packard addressed the challenges of the Depression by introducing a low-priced car (under $1,000) named the 102…it was teased here on the first page of a three-page ad…

…that provided some answers to a “flood” of questions the folks at Packard claimed they had received from across the country and around the world…

…but the ad kept readers in suspense about the car’s actual cost, which was to be announced during Lawrence Tibbett’s NBC radio program…

…Hupmobile was still hanging in there with the innovative, Raymond Loewy-designed Model J, but behind the scenes the company, already beset with sagging sales, was fighting a hostile takeover and would stop making cars altogether by 1938…

…Auburn was also on its last legs, its cars known more for being fast, good-looking and expensive rather for being than safe and economical…although the supercharged Speedster shows here would become a legend in automotive history, and although Auburn began selling more affordable models, the Depression had already taken its toll…

…other luxury brands, such as Cadillac, could survive because they were buoyed by the scale and largesse of a huge corporation, in this case General Motors…

…the folks at Hudson marketed their “Terraplane” with this cartoon ad that quite possibly was illustrated by Wesley Morse, who in 1953 would create the Bazooka Joe comic strip for Topps…

…only three foreign makes were displayed at the exhibition, including Bugatti, which promoted its type 57 in this modest ad placed by a local dealer…at prices ranging as high as $7,500 (nearly $170k today), it was a definitely not a car for the thrifty minded…