by Steve Lehto
Tucker #1010 made headlines in late 2010 when it reemerged from years of obscurity. Aficionados had heard it was hidden away in the Northwest, but rumors and facts were so intermingled that no one knew for sure. It had been sold to Philadelphia Tucker Sales in July 1948. A few owners later, it was in California, where it was purchased by Don and Mignonette Wright in 1956. Don Wright was president of the Tucker Automobile Club for a couple years but did not like to talk about his own Tucker sedan. In fact, #1010 sat parked in his garage for decades. It was “dragged out of a ramshackle garage in Auburn, Wash., where it was parked for 54 years,” and then sold at auction for $797,500.28 It was “complete but not running.” Someone had painted it an outlandish turquoise and the interior upholstery had been redone. The odometer displayed 9,819 miles, but most experts believe the car has been driven 109,819 miles, or possibly even 209,819. Rumors circulated that the car may even have spent time at the Bonneville Salt Flats doing high-speed runs in the late 1940s or early 1950s, but no documentation has surfaced to confirm that. It matters little: the auction winner was at least the eleventh owner of the vehicle and will probably restore it.29 The high mileage will not detract from what will most likely end up being a million-dollar car.
One more Tucker ’48 could still exist: Tucker #1042. Rumors abound that the car was smashed intentionally, or involved in some kind of shady transaction. Pieces of it have turned up, but the rest of it might be out there somewhere. With the prices of survivors heading skyward, it wouldn’t matter what condition it was found in for it to have value.
* * *
If people today have heard anything at all about Preston Tucker, they likely know little more than that he tried to start a car company. If they’ve seen the Jeff Bridges movie, they think of him merely as a man who fought a valiant battle against government corruption and lost. But Tucker’s legacy is more nuanced than that, and he deserves much more credit than most people give him. In a time when big corporations ruled the auto industry, his upstart company made waves. His stock offering was remarkably successful for such a speculative venture, and the car he imagined was ahead of its time. Many of the features he touted—like aerodynamic styling and new safety features inside and out—would later become standard on American roadways.
It is true that Preston Tucker had flaws. He underestimated the cost of setting up a car company, as well as the resistance he would encounter. And his detractors are quick to point out that he had little chance of success with or without government interference. But the cars Tucker built are still out there—forty-seven of the original fifty-one—a lasting memorial to his bold adventure.
His legacy is more than just the car, however. Tucker dared to compete in the highest levels of American business, and he came tantalizingly close to succeeding.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Josh Bertocki, Laura Bieniewicz, Joe Butcko, Andrew Campbell, the Detroit Public Library, Martyn Donaldson, Rick Fizdale, Cynthia Tucker Fordon, the Gilmore Museum, Steve Harris, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, Brad Hunt, Mary Jane Kamrowski, Leslie Kendall, Ken Lehto, Paul Lehto, Rick Lehto, Mark Lieberman, Glenn Longacre, Joe Lupinacci, Ian Lyngklip, Ryan Moran, National Archives Chicago, Gwynyth Oswin, the Petersen Automotive Museum, Yibin Ren, Simone Samano-McDaniel, Pat Swigart, Yuval Taylor, Steve Tremulis, John Tucker, and Leslie Lynch Wilson.
Notes
1. AN EARLY MORNING CAR CRASH
1. This story is told in many places. One is by Tucker himself: Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 4.
2. The crash is described several places, including Tucker, “Inter-Office Memorandum,” n.d., but accompanied by a cover letter of October 18, 1948, courtesy of the Tucker Automobile Club of America archives; and the Tucker Corporation film Tucker: The Man and the Car, where it is said that Offutt was doing over 95 mph. The film was “Produced for the Public Relations Dept. of Tucker Corporation,” but bears no copyright date. It can be dated based on the cars that it shows, and some of the scenes can be likewise placed. It was released after November 1, 1948. The film is available several places and can be seen on YouTube.
3. Some sources say it was a bruised knee, but Tucker, “Inter-Office Memorandum,” described the accident in detail at the time and said it was his elbow. Tucker also wrote later that it was a bruised elbow. The confusion lends itself to the notion that the injury must have been slight, otherwise people would be more inclined to get the body part right when telling the story. Tucker, “My Car Was Too Good,” 4.
4. Tucker, “Inter-Office Memorandum.”
2. PRESTON THOMAS TUCKER
1. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 23–24.
2. Knoble, Call to Market, 193–194.
3. Cynthia Tucker Fordon, interview by the author, September 11, 2014.
4. Certificate of death for Shirley H. Tucker, State of Michigan, filed February 5, 1907. Sources often vary on his age when his father died. See “Preston Tucker of ‘Auto Fame,’ Dies,” Star-News (Wilmington, NC), December 27, 1956. There, he was said to have been four when his father died.
5. David L. Barber, “Unique Car Builder Is Remembered Here,” Herald-News (Reed City, MI), September 21, 1988, courtesy of John Tucker.
6. Data regarding Lucille and Shirley Preston as well as the living arrangements and so on are all from census records and other government documents. Thanks are in order to Tom Spademan, who unearthed all of this information for the author, particularly because the family history is rather complex and had been described inaccurately elsewhere. That the family often took in lodgers is also from Tucker Fordon, interview by the author.
7. White confirmed the employment details in his statement to the SEC. See SEC, Tucker Corporation, 511.
8. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 23, 27–29.
9. Ibid., 32.
10. According to the Tucker Corporation stock offering prospectus, Tucker worked for Ford from 1920 to 1924, but it is not indicated whether this was continuous. Tucker Corp., Prospectus, 16.
11. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 32–37.
12. The date of 1925 as the beginning of his sales career is from Tucker Corp., Prospectus, 16.
13. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 38.
14. Dates of Tucker’s employment with the Lincoln Park Police Department courtesy of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance.
15. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 37–38.
16. Dates of Tucker’s employment courtesy of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance; title of “zone manager” is from Tucker Corp., Prospectus, 16.
17. John Shea, “Fenders and Headlights Will Turn on Preston Tucker’s New Motor Car,” Ottawa Citizen, August 27, 1946.
18. That Tucker met Miller in 1925 is from Tucker Corp., Prospectus, 16.
19. The Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance, Lincoln Park, Images of America (Arcadia, 2005), 57.
20. Flyer labeled “Please Read All of This,” signed “Preston T. Tucker for Mayor,” courtesy of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance.
21. Election details courtesy of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance.
22. Peter H. Blum, Brewed in Detroit: Breweries and Beers Since 1830 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999), 163.
3. HARRY MILLER
1. Some sources say he dropped out at fifteen. See Jason Stein, “In a Lifetime Filled with Achievements, There Was Only One Thing That Would Finally Slow Him,” Lakeland (FL) Ledger, December 25, 2005.
2. Timothy Gerber, “Built for Speed,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2002, 33.
3. Ibid., 34.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 35.
6. Ibid., 36.
7. Ibid., 37.
8. Stein, “In a Lifetime.”
9. Jeffrey Steele, “The Tucker Mystique,” Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1994, says it was 1929.
10. E. Y. Watson, “Miller Builds for Speedway: Plans Four-Wheel Drive Racer to Appear at Indianapolis,” Milwaukee Journal, November 1, 1931.
11. “New Company Will
Make Marmon Autos,” Deseret News, January 9, 1934.
12. Larry Edsall, Ford Racing Century: A Photographic History of Ford Motorsports (Minneapolis: Motorbooks, 2003), 38.
13. David Lanier Lewis, The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987), 332; also letter from N. W. Ayer & Son, January 28, 1935, courtesy of the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance.
14. N. W. Ayer & Son, January 28, 1935.
15. Ibid.
16. Beverly Kimes, The Cars That Henry Ford Built (New Albany, IN: Automobile Heritage Publishing & Communications, LLC, 2004), 112.
17. N. W. Ayer & Son, January 28, 1935.
18. Kimes, Cars That Ford Built, 112.
19. “Henry Ford Has Entered Ten of These in Big Race,” Milwaukee Journal, May 17, 1935.
20. Edsall, Ford Racing Century, 37.
21. Ibid., 39.
22. R. G. Lynch, “Harry Miller Does a Right About Face,” Milwaukee Journal, May 22, 1935.
23. Kimes, Cars That Ford Built, 112.
24. Lewis, Public Image, 332. Some sources say nine cars tried qualifying with only four making the field. See Edsall, Ford Racing Century, 37.
25. Edsall, Ford Racing Century, 40.
26. Many sources say that all the cars suffered steering failure, while some list the front-drive leak on the one car and steering gear failure on the others. See Kimes, Cars That Ford Built, 112; and Lewis, Public Image, 332.
27. Edsall, Ford Racing Century, 37.
28. Lewis, Public Image, 332.
29. Ibid.
30. Edsall, Ford Racing Century, 48.
31. Ibid., 37.
32. “Shaw, Mays, Rose Favored In Indianapolis Classic,” Ottawa Citizen, May 28, 1941.
33. Bob Considine, On the Line, St. Petersburg Times, May 8, 1943.
4. THE TUCKER COMBAT CAR
1. Joe Butcko, interview by the author, September 8, 2014.
2. Mary Jane Kamrowski, interview by the author, September 11, 2014.
3. Tucker Fordon, interview by the author.
4. R. P. Hunnicutt, Armored Car: A History of American Wheeled Combat Vehicles (New York: Presidio Press, 2002), 32.
5. “Armored Tank Attains Speed of 114 M.P.H.,” Mechanix Illustrated, February 1939, 59.
6. Hunnicutt, Armored Car, 32.
7. P. T. Tucker et al., “Gun Control Mechanism,” US patent 2,366,072, December 26, 1944.
8. Development of Aircraft Gun Turrets in the AAF, Army Air Forces Historical Studies 54 (AAF Historical Office, June 1947), 108–109.
9. Ibid., 110.
10. US Air Force, “Bell P-39 Airacobra” (fact sheet), National Museum of the US Air Force official website, accessed March 3, 2014, www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
11. US Air Force, “Tucker XP-57” (fact sheet), National Museum of the US Air Force official website, accessed October 25, 2013, www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
12. US Air Force, “Bell P-39 Airacobra” (fact sheet), National Museum of the US Air Force official website, accessed March 3, 2014, www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
13. Aircraft Gun Turrets, 110.
14. Ibid., 108–111.
15. P. T. Tucker et al., “Gun Mounting and Control Mechanism,” US patent, 2,408,707, October 1, 1946.
16. “114-M.P.H. Anti-Aircraft Combat Car in Production,” Mechanix Illustrated, January 1942, 87.
17. Shea, “Fenders and Headlights Will Turn.”
18. Tucker: The Man and the Car (film).
19. Ibid.
20. The story of Tucker’s turret being widely used by the US military is ubiquitous on the Internet and can also be found in scholarly works. See John Heitmann, The Automobile and American Life (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009), 131. It’s even discussed as if it were a fact in Egan, Design and Destiny, 12.
21. Aircraft Gun Turrets, 98.
22. Ibid., 109.
5. ANDREW HIGGINS
1. “Higgins Industries Buys Tucker Aviation,” Milwaukee Sentinel, March 24, 1942.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Jerry E. Strahan, Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1998), 102.
5. Butcko, interview by the author.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Tucker Fordon, interview by the author.
9. Butcko, interview by the author; Chevrolet’s role in the business is also covered in Strahan, Andrew Jackson Higgins, 172–173.
10. Butcko, interview by the author.
11. Strahan, Andrew Jackson Higgins, 198.
12. Stein, “In a Lifetime”; “Race Engine Designer Dies,” Pittsburgh Press, May 4, 1943.
6. TUCKER’S AUTOMOBILE PLANS
1. Egan, Design and Destiny, 11.
2. Alan L. Gropman, Mobilizing U.S. Industry in World War II: Myth and Reality (Washington, DC: Institute for National Strategic Studies, 1996), 35.
3. Ibid., 59.
4. Heitmann, Automobile and American Life, 119.
5. Gropman, Mobilizing U.S. Industry, 59. The exact date varies depending on the source. See Heitmann, Automobile and American Life, 119.
6. Gropman, Mobilizing U.S. Industry, 59–60.
7. Ibid., 62.
8. Alan Milward, War, Economy, and Society, 1939–1945 (Oakland: University of California Press, 1979), 122–123, quoted in Gropman, Mobilizing U.S. Industry, 63.
9. John A. Byrne, The Whiz Kids: Ten Founding Fathers of American Business—and the Legacy They Left Us (New York: Doubleday Business, 1993), 81.
10. Ibid.
7. THE PIC ARTICLE
1. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 17.
2. Ibid.
3. Egan, Design and Destiny, 23.
4. Ibid., 24.
5. “New Tucker Trial Looms,” Reading (PA) Eagle, October 12, 1949.
6. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 44.
7. Tucker, deposition, 39.
8. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 45.
9. Tucker Topics 1, no. 7: 3.
10. Tremulis, “Epitaph,” 58.
11. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 45.
12. Ibid.
13. Pearson, “Streamlining That Car.”
14. Egan, Design and Destiny, 24.
15. Heitmann, Automobile and American Life, 111.
16. Pearson, “Streamlining That Car.”
17. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 61–62.
18. “Tucker Visions New Auto to Cruise at High Speed,” Milwaukee Journal, August 13, 1946.
19. Shea, “Fenders and Headlights Will Turn.”
20. “Engine-in-Rear Auto to Buck Car Industry,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 8, 1946.
21. Leo Donovan, “Forecast from Detroit,” Popular Mechanics, November 1946, 91.
22. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 19.
23. Egan, Design and Destiny, 38.
24. Ibid., photo 3.
25. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 19–20.
8. THE TUCKER CORPORATION
1. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 55–56.
2. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 47.
3. Rockelman, “Behind the Gasoline Curtain,” 15.
4. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 49.
5. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 60.
6. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 49.
7. “The Story of the Tucker ’48” (brochure), n.d., courtesy of the Tucker Automobile Club of America archives.
9. TUCKER ACQUIRES A PLANT
1. Tucker Corp., Prospectus, 8.
2. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 65.
3. George Meader, counsel for US Senate Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program, to Senator Homer Ferguson, December 15, 1947, Homer Ferguson Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. On the other hand, Pearson said that Beasley told him Tucker claimed to have $12,000 to his name and that he had called Tucker’s bank to confirm. Pearson, Indomitable Tin Goose, 63. I am going with the former version because it comes from
sworn testimony and because Pearson, who was a friend of Tucker, may have been biased.
4. SEC, Tucker Corporation, 48.