(first posted 1/20/2013) The Kaiser-Frazer Story is a huge one, and now that I’ve read Richard Langworth’s excellent book, we’ll try to break it into digestible pieces from time to time. There were so many outsized personalities (read: egos) involved, and so much money wasted on frivolous exercises and customized cars for anyone who asked nicely. One of the key figures was Carlton Spencer, an extremely creative and talented interior designer (decorator?) who revolutionized the industry with his innovative use of materials, colors and patterns. Kaiser cars may not always have been the flashiest on the outside, but they certainly were inside.
For the 1951 Chicago Auto Show, Spencer prepared four specially-trimmed cars, and with them set perhaps a pinnacle in over-the-the top interiors.
The Safari was trimmed in genuine zebra fur and lion pelts, the manes of which appear to be used on the front floor.
The South Sea featured Hawaiian design upholstery, woven grass mats on the floor and dash,
as well as fish nets and nautical instruments. Just needs some tiki lights, and a bar for the Mai Tais.
The Caballero was trimmed with a variety of horse hides,
along with cowboy spurs, belt buckles and saddlebags. Giddyup!
The Explorer was plushly upholstered in polar bear pelts, with brown bear fur as accents. Well, it was 1951…
Fur on the floor? I’d be afraid to put my shoes on it.
Love the crazy southseas motiff-ed one.
I am surprised how much I like the woven grass mats, both on the floor and the dash. They add an organic quality that I don’t typically associate with auto interiors.
They wouldn’t dare do that today!
Langworth’s book is a good one; I imagine it didn’t sell all that well because of the relative obscurity of Kaiser-Frazer. I miss these old-fashioned, print-age automotive histories because they offer more analytical depth. More recent histories tend to be of the coffee table variety, with lots of pictures and narrative primarily targeted at collectors.
I wonder if Joe Frazer might have been more successful — at least for a while — if he had steered clear of Henry Kaiser and instead tried to revive the Graham brand. Frazer was president of Graham-Paige, which had halted automotive production in 1940 due to terrible sales of its infamous “sharknose” and a Cord-based body shared with Hupmobile.
Frazer understood better than Kaiser that humility and cost-consciousness are crucial to the survival of an independent automaker.
Unfortunately, Henry Kaiser had something that Joe Frazer and Graham-Paige lacked: Money. I guess a second thing was that image of a winner that is always a boost. I am with you on the declining quality of automotive histories.
JP, of course you’re right. But if ever there was a chance for a reboot, this was the time, both because of profits generated from the war as well as pent-up consumer demand. Kaiser wasn’t terribly deep pocketed anyway, e.g., by 1949 Henry was borrowing from the government to stay in business.
One irony is that Graham’s manufacturing facility might have been better suited to Kaiser’s fairly low production than the massive Willow Run plant that they acquired. Talk about getting in over your head.
Frazer’s fatal mistake: He didn’t seem to realize until too late that he was not a full partner in Kaiser-Frazer.
According to Langworth, Frazer had doubts about Willow Run from the start, although it was certainly a steal in financial terms and obviously Henry J. liked doing things big.
I think it’s important to recognize with the Langworth book that it is pretty heavily skewed toward the Frazer point of view: Langworth interviewed Frazer himself at length, along with many of Frazer’s former allies like Hickman Price, but almost none of the Kaiser contingent. That wasn’t Langworth’s fault — he said the Kaiser people didn’t want to talk to him, and Henry Kaiser himself had recently died — but from a historical perspective, it’s too bad. It isn’t that the Frazer people weren’t candid or honest, but there’s an inevitable overtone of “If only they had listened to our wisdom ….” Had Edgar Kaiser been willing to talk to Langworth, the story might have looked a little different.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think the ending would have been much different, in any case. If Kaiser had listened more to Frazer, the company might not have ended up quite as overextended, but I still have a lot of trouble seeing them surviving the ’50s.
(This is not to say the Langworth book isn’t an impressive piece of work — it sets a standard for books of that type. I would like to get a copy of it; I’d previously had to cajole the public library into letting me check out a reference-only copy to read it.)
Got mine used on Amazon: $29.95; a former library book from Northwest Missouri State University. And I’ve been finding some other books really cheap, sometimes pennies above the cost of shipping. The book industry ain’t what it used to be, it seems.
It’s a flukey thing. I recall when I was looking for the book, the cheapest copy I could find online was like $45, which was more than I could justify.
With the Kaiser book, it turned out the city public library had three copies downtown, all marked as reference, so with some persuasion they let me actually check one out. The moral of the story is be kind to librarians, I guess…
>>According to Langworth, Frazer had doubts about Willow Run from the start, although it was certainly a steal in financial terms and obviously Henry J. liked doing things big.<<
Not so. Frazer was amazed by the size of the plant, but was confident they could make a go of it. He began to have doubts in 1948, over the incessant demand by the Kaisers for increased production in off years, and over the money spent on blind alleys.
Nor is it true that no Kaiser people talked to me. Lots did–but not upper management. It was fairly broadly hinted that they didn't want to dwell on their one big failure. But the final chapter on why the company failed recognizes the position of both sides.
How do you know how well my book sold? “Kaiser-Frazer: Last Onslaught on Detroit” sold 15,000 copies and was twice reprinted. Not bad for a story of an obscure company with a 1500-member club.
http://richardlangworth.com/books
One of them out of the first printing is still in my basement, having provided me hours of education and enjoyment. It sits with the early Studebaker, Chrysler/Imperial, Packard and Hudson books, also bought during the 70s. It is an honor to see you comment here! Cool website, by the way. I had no idea that you were also a Churchill historian. Now I know.
Thanks for the kind words, always hard to come by. It’s good to know my old book is still liked.
I have just about every book Mr. Langworth has written about cars. All are well worn, dog-eared, and cherished possessions. When I moved cross-country last year I got rid of a ton of books I’ll never read again, but kept all my Langworths and every issue of Collectible Automibile.
I found your K-F book in the library at UNC-Chapel Hill in the early 90s. A real model of history writing! Thanks for my happy hours with your books.
Richard, since you seem sensitive about the issue, know that I bought your book when it first came out. I was a geeky teenager. If there was another soul in high school who had a similar fascination with Kaiser-Frazer, I never had the fortune to meet them.
I got my copy while in high school as well. I was that other geeky teenager that you never got the chance to meet. I still own the little key chain emblem that came with my grandparents’ 51 Kaiser.
>>I bought your book when it first came out. I was a geeky teenager.
I was the geeky teenager in 1958 who wrote an English class paper on Kaiser-Frazer, my first “book.” In 1975 when “Last Onslaught on Detroit” was published, I was able to send a copy to my teacher, Thomas Quinn, long retired. Amazing how this stuff sticks with you.
Yup. I hope your teacher was suitably impressed. Not many people become successful book authors.
I bought my first, lovingly read to shreds copy as a 10-year old in the book department of Horne’s department store in Pittsburgh – like in-depth, yet well-illustrated marque histories, another sadly depleted institution.
I knew nothing of KF at the time, but I loved cars, and the stories you told were fascinating. You, Maurice Hendry, and Beverly Rae Kimes really set the standard at AQ back in the day.
I had a fascination with Kaisers in middle school and wanted to buy a trashed ’52 Manhattan 2-door sedan off some hick in Oakridge, OR for $250
I still have my well loved version, which was a 9th birthday present when it first came out. As well as the revised edition.
Dang furrin cars. 🙂
I am glad to see that you have enjoyed that book. I bought it when it was first out (late 70s?) and recall enjoying it a lot. It is still on a shelf in the basement, and I really ought to re-read it. However, I am still trying to find time to make headway on the bio of Walter Chrysler that I got for Christmas.
I think it is indisputable that Kaiser led the way on the bright and bold interiors that became commonplace by the mid 1950s. It is strange that as stylish and colorful as GM’s offerings were in the early 1950s, the interiors were not really all that different from those of the 1930s, other than more chrome on the dashboards. The grasscloth covering the dashes was always one of my favorite Kaiser interior touches.
It is so, well, odd, to see black and white photos of these cars. I am sure in colour they would be dazzling.
I think there was a 1952-1953 Cadillac show car that had an interior covered in leopard pelts.
The glass table in the one photo is interesting. Hit the brakes hard and slice your passengers in half.
Doctor, I have a pane in my stomach. 🙂
You’re really on a roll with the puns.
Exactly what I was thinking and surely someone realised that at the time? Then again, being sliced in half may have come as a relief if you were confined to that hideous interior too long!
I’ve seen pictures of the polar bear-themed one in Collectible Automobile; it was midnight blue with a white top and survives to this day. But my favorite is the Hawaiian themed one! I am guessing the table is Plexiglas; it was still a gee-whiz material at the time, wasn’t it?
I haven’t read Langworth’s K-F history, but I do have his book on Studebaker’s postwar years; it is excellent.
I don’t know if it’s still there, but the Explorer was on display at the excellent Yipsilanti Automotive Museum when I stopped there a few years back.
I think that I have read in Collectible Automobile that the tanning process wasn’t the accurate, so furs and hides had a bad odor, especially in summer time. Does anybody knows if it was true? Tank you guys.
GAH!! At least it’s not black/grey plastic.
…and this is why the production Kaisers, for all the unusual finishes and patterns in the interiors, were thought of by the factory as restrained, as mainstream.
Too bad they didn’t do a wagon, one with the Hawaiian interior would be the ultimate surfers’ ride.
Sure beats mouse fur. If the animal rights people hate it, too damn bad.
Nothing new in these images, Paul–but fun to see Kaiser’s own (self-) promotional ad:
I see these made the rounds of the dealerships (April ’51, Hutchinson KS):
Syracuse:
It looks as though these K-F’s influenced Lady Norah Docker and her Daimler’s, or else she was drinking the same tainted water or cocktails that Carlton Spencer and the K-F stylists were drinking at the time.
+1 — interesting to see they were contemporaries. The 1st Docker Daimler came out in 1951 (the Gold Car), but they only started putting lizard/crocodile/zebra hides in the later ones.
Gotta give K-F kudos for doing four crazy cars simultaneously. The polar bear and Hawaiian ones are particularly recherché.
I’d like to see photos of the Hawaii themed one in color…. That is just a rolling tiki bar (and goes with the politically incorrect theme of the others).
I’ll suppose that all these photos are in Mr. Langworth’s book (which I *must* get hold of), but I was tickled to find that Kaiser had gotten Clyde Beatty himself to do a promo shoot for the “Safari” (a few companion pictures on eBay for the _very_ curious):
Fur was a sign of elegance until the charm wore off. Fur became political to the point where the GOP in 1952 bragged that GOP women chose fabric coats instead of fur. Some big Hollywood celebrities during the 1960s, like Doris Day and Mary Tyler Moore made it public that they believed fur was cruel and wrong.
But these interiors predate that time. Fur was a big deal throughout the 1920s, when Kaiser was trying to attract buyers from that generation. After WWII it came back into fashion again for another decade.
At one time, according to Smithsonian, there were estimated to be over 2,000,000 racoon coats hanging in storage across the US from the 1920s – these were cut up into Davy Crockett caps during the Coonskin Cap Craze between 1956-1965, when Disney, and then the television show, “Daniel Boone” spurred demands. The rest of the furs became “shabby chic” during the Be-Bop and Bohemian era before 1970. The supply exhausted itself.
So what we have here is a snapshot of an automaker using fur to attract a demographic that came of age during the late 1920s and had enough disposable income to enjoy the fur rebirth after WWII until the 1950s.
Yep, in his Checkers speech, Nixon mentioned his wife’s “good Republican cloth coat.”
Far out man! I prefer the op-art look of 70s Porsche 928 seats but these are cool unlike the legendarily crass Dartz Pombron’s “whale penis” upholstery.
The Zebra print interior would have been a fantastic prop for marketing material or an album cover for a punk or new wave band, circa 1979-1980.
I’m thinking Teenage Head. Huge in Southern Ontario in the early ’80s. Great song.
Mr. Langworth’s K-F book now trades used at $130 and up. Just like certain used cars, some used books only get more expensive over time.
While real fur is now considered toxic, real leather has been considered a popular luxury material for decades. I suppose because leather is a by product of the meat industry, gotta do something with all those cow skins! Animal pelts from animals that aren’t generally seen as being raised for human consumption, like horses, are not as warmly received, though horsehide is a tough, long wearing leather. Big game and exotic animals are in danger of extinction and it seems wasteful and shallow to kill them as trophies. Raising small furry animals just for their fur, is now seen by most folks, myself included, as cruel and unnecessary. Indigenous societies, or even those of our Pioneer past, hunted and used most of the animal. They ate the meat and used the skins and fur for clothing. There were excesses even back then, as seen by the cruel and wasteful killing of so many American Bison.
On a cheerier note, the use of color was so nice in earlier luxury car interiors. Fancy brocade cloth, with leather trim, was common. Velour, knits, and “panty cloth” were all popular at one time. There’s nothing except buyer resistance keeping color from coming back. It seems that everyone is looking for a “safe” color for easy resale. I remember when I could have gotten a good deal on a used, purple “Montana Sky” colored Cadillac Seville.
Totally not being political here. In my own personal experience, nothing will keep your head warmer than a rabbit fur hat at -40 F. It is amazing how warm your head stays. You can’t hear anything with the flaps over your ears but they are warm.
So, That’s why Elmer Fudd was hunting Ol’ Bugs! He needed a new hat! On a serious note, I read about a Yukon sled race and many participants wore garments made from Wolf fur, which was very effective against snow and ice.
As an aside, look at that skinny B-pillar in the top photo! Quite a difference from today’s vehicles which clearly have much more side-impact structural integrity.