1922 Duesenberg Ad
In Part 1 of this series, I covered the early history of the whitewall tire, led by the B.F. Goodrich Silvertown tire. Whitewall tires were largely confined to the replacement market for the first few decades of the twentieth century, rarely offered as original equipment and therefore almost never seen in any carmaker’s advertisements. For Part 2, we are going to look at when automakers started featuring whitewall tires in their ads and offering them as factory options, which greatly increased their popularity.
Before we jump in, A quick note on my methodology that I will be using for the remainder of this series: Because tires are some of the most commonly changed items on cars, I did not rely on period photos or modern photos of vintage cars when researching this series. Instead, I will be using manufacturers’ ads and brochures to gauge the relative popularity of whitewall tires, given that these contain what manufacturers consider to be the “definitive” representation of their vehicles, and their best efforts to influence automotive fashion at the time.
As we discussed in Part 1, Whitewall tires started out as a very niche product: Although they were premium priced, whitewalls offered no real consumer benefit other than appearance. After having been trained on the benefits of carbon black tires over white ones, consumers were right to be skeptical about the durability of tires that were less than fully black, which further slowed the adoption of whitewalls.
It is no surprise that manufacturers were slow to outfit their cars with whitewall tires. Economy car makers like Ford didn’t want to jeopardize their budget bona fides on something as frivolous as whitewalls, which in any case seemed at odds with the pragmatic ethos that the company established with the Model T. Meanwhile luxury car makers didn’t want to offend their overwhelmingly conservative buyers with something as superficial and flashy (and with questionable durability) as whitewall tires.
1925 Duesenberg ad
One luxury carmaker whose buyers would not be put off by the expense and frivolity of whitewall tires was Duesenberg, purveyor of flashy luxury cars to the nouveau riche. Duesenberg was the first crack in the whitewall tire dam, featuring whitewall tires in their ads before virtually any other maker – the early 1920s. The 1922 Duesenberg ad in the lead photo of this piece was the earliest manufacturer photo showing whitewall tires I could find while researching this piece.
1927 Cadillac ad
1927 Peerless ad
In contrast, traditional luxury automakers like Packard, Cadillac, Lincoln, and Peerless still featured blackwall tires in most of their ads throughout much of the 1920s.
1928 LaSalle ad
One of the next luxury car makers to join the whitewall fray was LaSalle, Cadillac’s companion brand created in 1927 to appeal to less conservative and more style-conscious luxury car buyers. Whitewall tires were a big part of this mission brief, and most of the early ads for LaSalle feature whitewall tires, whereas Cadillacs of the same vintage were still largely shown sporting blackwalls.
1930 Ford ad
Whitewall tires officially entered the mainstream in 1930, on both the high-end and low-end of the market. The 1930 Ford Phaeton ad above is one of Ford’s first to feature whitewalls (Although Ford wouldn’t officially offer whitewall tires until 1934, as a $11.25 option).
1930 Cadillac ad
1930 also marked a breakout year for Cadillac, with many cars in the brochure from this year featuring whitewalls for the first time.
1932 Packard ad
Despite the onset of the Great Depression, Packard also started featuring whitewalls in some of their ads starting in 1932 (although it should be said that in true Packard understated style, a majority of their ads and brochures still featured blackwalls).
1935 Ford Ad
Despite the depression, Ford continued to feature whitewall tires in many of their ads throughout the 1930s.
1935 Packard Twelve brochure image
While Packard still featured blackwalls on even their most expensive models, such as the 1935 Packard Twelve shown above.
1939 Plymouth Ad
Still, more and more brands started featuring whitewall tires as the 1930s wore on. Even Plymouth started featuring whitewall tires in their ads starting in 1939.
Then a peculiar thing happened. With the onset of war in Europe and the transition of the US manufacturing base into the Arsenal of Democracy, frivolities like whitewall tires started slowly disappearing from manufacturers’ advertisements in the early 1940s. It seemed at the time that whitewall tires were a fad that had passed.
1942 Oldsmobile brochure
Starting in 1940, whitewalls had all but vanished from Ford’s brochures – virtually every vehicle was shown wearing blackwall tires. Same for Plymouth, Chevrolet, Pontiac, and even Oldsmobile. Only luxury car makers like Packard, Buick, and Cadillac would still feature whitewall tires in their ads right up until the war.
So what would happen to whitewall tires after World War II? The answer may surprise you – read on in Part 3.
Full Series
Automotive History – The History of Whitewall Tires, Part 1: The Teens and Twenties
Automotive History – The History of Whitewall Tires, Part 2: 1920s and 1930s
Automotive History – The History of Whitewall Tires, Part 4: 1964 through 1969 – The Wild ’60s
Automotive History – The History of Whitewall Tires, Part 5: 1970s through 1990s – The Long Goodbye
White Wall Tires (tyres) in Australia of any description, during the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s were close to impossible to buy. Because of this ‘slip on white wall inserts’ were popular. But during this period ‘real’ white wall tires were regarded as nothing short of exotic. Only the most expensive cars had them.
By the late 1970s white wall tires started to become a little easier to obtain but even today only specialised tire retailers offer them. I regard black wall tires as something found on entry level bottom of the line cheap models.
Certainly, I can appreciate that lazy car cleaners would find black wall tires appealing. As a general rule cars built before 1961 need wider white wall widths. From 1962 through to 1966, one inch wide whites are correct. White wall widths became almost pin stripe width from 1967 through to the mid 1970s but then from 1979 through to the mid 1980s white wall widths actually returned 1.4 inches.
Nevertheless, even in pin stripe width white wall on a 19 inch tire really improve a cars appearance. How uninteresting cars have become today with there ‘garden variety’ plain jane black wall tires. Long live the white side wall.
It seems as though the artist in that Ford ad was directed to keep the white walls muted enough that one could imagine them as “sort of black” if one wanted to.
Although boomers may all have individual tastes when it comes to white wall widths on our cars, and are aware that younger hobbyists may not know the past trajectory of tire fashion, we tend to be sticklers for period-correct widths because we lived through all the changes.
Tomorrow’s post promises to cause a spirited discussion. Looking forward to it!
I’ll slightly disagree with that statement: My experience in the antique car hobby, especially since the mid-70’s, is that boomers tend to install options that were officially available, but not necessarily popular back in the day. The regularly seen installation of fender skirts, curb feelers, continental kits, dual rear antennas, etc.definitely shows that phenomena. What’s being installed were proper factory accessories, but were nowhere near as popular as it would appear at car shows.
I’ve probably got such a jaundiced view of this because I spent my childhood at dad’s Chevrolet dealership. I learned from my father what sells (underdash tissue dispensers) and what didn’t (fake second radio antennas and fake exhaust ports). Ditto white wall tires. They were very popular on the top of the line Chevrolet model (Impala and Bel Air, depending on year), but very unpopular on the two or three under models.
Was always intrigued as a little kid, by the JC Whitney ads in US car magazines, promoting their catalogues. So around 1977, I attempted to order one for delivery to Canada. It arrived about a month later. I remember it being chock full of products obviously developed for other automotive eras. Often given away, by supporting illustrations of cars from the 1940s through the early 1960s. There were whitewall tire paints, I assumed for transforming blackwall tires into whitewalls. Or touching up existing scuffed whitewalls. There were also whitewall appliques, that appeared to glue on to blackwalls. Also, a product in a dated-looking tin, called ‘Bleche-Wite’. that appeared to be a bleach whitener for whitewalls, from the product name. It was always an interesting challenge to determine which products seemed legitimately useful, and those that would be worthless. I’d attempt to visualize how a product would work in reality, to determine its legitimacy. The glue on whitewalls, seeming very suspect. A fun book to flip through on those long, rainy summer vacation days, spent on the front porch.
Just an anecdotal observation from my childhood. But some of the bias-ply tires on older cars, seemed to have their white strips pressed slightly below the tire surface. To perhaps protect them from scuffs. While newer tires, often radials, the white stripe was raised outward by millimetres from the tire surface. A look, I preferred.
Well, that’s certainly an appropriate association since the author (Tom) used to work for J.C. Whitney! I’m figuring that he’ll eventually get to writing about the various J.C. Whitney “remedies” for inexpensively improving the driving lives of the un-white-walled. 🙂
I guess I’m just not obsessively tidy enough to have ever gotten worked up about keeping the tires on my vehicles looking anything other than like the big pieces of rubber that they are that spend their entire lives in contact with the road. Not wanting to keep white walls clean was one of the reasons why I never cared for their extra expense (like, I’m going to pay extra for something that means I’m supposed to do extra work to keep it clean??). I’ve also never cared for that stuff you’re supposed to spray on your regular black tires to make them all shiny. That’s just my opinion, of course.
Cleaning white striped tires was actually pretty easy. All you really needed was some Soft Scrub and a brush, and you just made it part of your car wash routine is all.
It’s kinda funny actually. I hadn’t purchased that product (Soft Scrub) in YEARS, as I no longer needed it since White Walls fell out of fashion. I just recently rediscovered the product, and wouldn’t you know it? – It works great for cleaning the bathroom too!
Whoda thunk it? 😉
I always found that ten minutes spent cleaning whitewalls was the fastest and easiest way to make your car look great, even if you hadn’t cleaned anything else. A can of Wesley’s Bleech-White, a bucket of water and a scrub brush was all it took
Interesting methodology, very clever.
Dave
I appreciate this article more than most. I will be replacing the tires on my 1931 Buick 96 Coupe. I just found this period image at the NYPL, and it has black wall tires. Currently my 31 Buick as whitewalls but I am leaning toward black walls as most 31 Buicks seem to have white walls and this would make the car stand out more. My Buick has a dark blue body with black fenders. It also has dual side mounted tires, so I need 6 tires and tubes.
There are more white wall tires being made by specialty tire companies than in the past due I think to the enthusiasm or money being poured into car collecting (good or bad). Certainly your local tire shop won’t have a white wall on display, unless it is maybe a Vogue tire (neighborhood dependent).
Also the number of white letter tires are down to mostly 2, unfortunately.
Looking forward to Part 3, Tires, hubcaps (wheel discs), wheels, and stance (ride height) are so important to a cars overall impression. Some of my favorite topics.
I notice that the tires on that Duesenberg are double whitewalls, so that the whitewall was on both sides.
I had presumed that whitewalls would have been common by the second half of the 20’s in upper priced cars – but apparently not. But then I was raised during the era when cars from “the classic era” were restored, and all the restorers loved whitewalls. I almost never saw a classic with black tires until recent years. Interesting stuff!
In matters of taste everyone else is wrong .
Welsey’s Bleech-White is the good stuff indeed .
-Nate