(first posted 7/22/2013) Every once in a while a person needs a good challenge to liven themselves up. As humans are so prone to being creatures of habit, keeping things fresh helps stave off the boringness of a routine.
How can one keep things fresh and vibrant? If one is so adventurous, they could try putting gravy on white cake, swapping sides of the bed, or writing a CC on a car they previously had no flipping idea about, other than its existence. Change can be good, because who likes stale?
Take Henry J. Kaiser as an example of keeping things fresh. Starting his professional life as a photographer, he moved to the State of Washington, trading his camera for a crane as he transitioned to the heavy construction industry. In the construction business he was a prime contractor during the construction of the Hoover Dam outside of Las Vegas as well as the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams over the Columbia River. As he was gifted in identifying various business needs, he was always staying fresh with his various business ventures that would ultimately include ship building and the aluminum production business.
Bored of building big, tangible items like ships and dams, Kaiser branched out to automobiles toward the end of the war, founding Kaiser-Frazer Corporation with business partner, and former Graham-Paige president, Joseph Frazer. Perhaps Henry J. wanted a higher number of tangible and durable goods created in his likeness.
The initial Kaiser was very much ahead of its time and a moderate success with 70,000 being sold in 1947 and 91,000 for model year 1948.
The Traveler version of the first generation Kaiser demonstrated they weren’t horsing around with creating fresh ideas, and they didn’t hesitate to pony up those novel ideas. The Traveler would foreshadow the hatchbacks and crossovers that would scurry about years later. The Traveler was almost as good as a Rambler for young men who entertained ideas of being fresh with their dates!
By 1953, things weren’t looking so fresh and rosy for the Kaiser Motor Company (in 1953, partner Joe Frazer got in a spat with Henry J. and said “auf wiedersehen”). At this point hardtops and V8 engines were all the rage; Kaiser had no hardtop and was still using the Continental sourced inline six. As necessity has been credited as being the mother of invention, something had to be done to maintain the vitality of the Kaiser brand.
Enter Carleton Spencer, an automotive interior designer who could almost pull fresh pastry out of stale bread.
Spencer was given nearly free reign for 1951’s Golden Dragon. For 1953, he created what could be called the Kaiser brand’s masterpiece with the Dragon.
Billing the existing four-door sedan as a hardtop (a little white lie Ford would repeat with their titillating line of LTD’s in 1971), the Dragon was quite the ornate machine by 1953 standards. While this Dragon isn’t as fresh as it once was, finding this particular example was quite refreshing.
The Dragon followed in Kaiser’s ability to create an extravagant interior, thanks to Spencer (some factory custom work can be found here). The material used on the seat was advertised as being dragon hide; the original idea was to call it alligator skin, but Kaiser didn’t care to risk allegations of false advertisement (which resoundingly trumped animal cruelty accusations in 1953). In reality, the dragon hide was vinyl introduced to the basic thermodynamic principles of heating and rapid cooling. This dragon hide was so durable, some sources have made mention of Dragons whose seats looked nearly pristine despite the rest of the car decomposing around them. From the picture above, it should be noted they weren’t immune to deterioration.
The rest of the interior, save the floor, was covered in Bambu vinyl. Originally intended to be called “dinosaur skin”, someone wised up, thinking any references to dinosaurs in the same sentence as a Kaiser might be counterproductive.
Amongst all the attention to detail the Dragon received, there was also an available gold plated monogram for the dash. It’s not captured here as your author has only recently learned about it, although it’s hard to imagine the survival rate being that high; really, would someone whose initials are “J.S.” want a monogram on their car that was emblazoned with “P.N.”? Those likely got hastily chucked into the refuse pile after trade-in.
The Bambu theme continued on the roof of the car. All Dragons were also unique in receiving gold plated emblems on various exterior components.
Dragon’s cost an additional $1,200 more than a regular Manhattan, but featured many unique items as standard equipment. Being priced at $3,924, the six-cylinder 118 horsepower Kaiser Dragon cost more than a V8 powered Cadillac Series 62 – and within $70 of a Coupe de Ville. For power hungry buyers, there was no reason to pay more money for less power.
For those worried about fuel economy, the Dragon did get a class-best 21 mpg in the 1953 Mobil Gas Economy Run. However, if one could afford a Dragon, did they really care about fuel economy?
Yet the fun didn’t stop there. In 1953, Ford and General Motors entered into a pricing war; the losers were all the independent makes such as Kaiser. As Kaiser had a track record of grossly overproducing cars, the sales problem was exacerbated. Leftover ’53 Dragon’s got re-skinned, re-detailed, and re-numbered to become regular ’54 models (there was no Dragon in ’54), similar to what had been done with leftover 1951 models. Kaiser even made executive driven and pool Dragon’s available to employees at steep discounts, even desperately seeking offers on a price.
If you do a Google image search for “Kaiser Dragon car” you will see they nearly all have wire wheels. This example does not, nor does the Dragon in this 1953 ad. It seems the Dragons were made in three batches during the model year; those made after about February 1953 did have the wire wheels as standard. This makes our example one of the earlier Dragons produced.
But it gets better as this Dragon was likely one of the first ones hatched. After the first twenty or so Dragons were manufactured and shipped, Kaiser received complaints about swirls in the lacquer finish of the black cars; black was promptly axed as an available color option. Black appears to be the original color of this Dragon and it was the only body color available with a black bamboo roof, as seen in this example. From the sources referenced, black has been identified as being the rarest color of ’53 Dragon due to its being canned so quickly.
Henry J. Kaiser is credited as saying “A problem is simply an opportunity in work clothes.” Sadly, all of the effort by Kaiser and Carleton Spencer was to no avail, with Kaiser moving only 1,277 Dragons for the 1953 model year. Sixty years hence, it does make for a wonderful opportunity to see something so fresh from 1953.
I much prefer the 1954-1955 Kaisers that look like Buicks. Is the rear wiper an option? I have never seen a Kaiser with that (Though I have only seen 3 Kaiser in all of my 35 years and one was a Darrin roadster in pieces in a garage.)
I was so wowed by the rest of the car I didn’t even notice the rear wiper. I seem to remember reading something about these being available, but cannot say for sure. I think that Lincolns offered a rear wiper in their 1949-51 series as well.
The face lift front was more or less copied from the 1950 Buick XP-300 concept car. But the awesome new tail lights were pretty original.
One of the 50’s best that usually flies under the radar.
That tail lamp is a piece of sculpture, beautiful in its own right, and dare I say functional, looks highly visible from the rear and the side
Interesting car
Wow, not only did you find a 53 Kaiser, but the Dragon! I have always thought that the Kaiser Dragon was one of the great car names of that era. With that kind of price, though, it is no wonder we never saw them. I do not believe that I have ever seen one in person.
We at CC are now quite the authority on 1953 Kaisers, as I remember a short write up on a ’53 Kaiser Manhattan that was posted to the cohort page about a year and a half ago. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cohort/from-the-curbside-cohort-1953-kaiser-manhattan/
I had been pretty smug about finding a ’53 Chrysler Imperial, but this Dragon certainly trumps it. This has me wondering – if only something with the looks and style (and GM HydraMatic transmission) of the Dragon could have gotten the Chrysler FirePower hemi to complete the package. Yessir – Dragon Imperial FirePower would have scorched the competition.
Especially because the ’51-’54 Kaisers were a lot lighter than their competitors, although the heavy FirePower wouldn’t have helped that.
The 1953 Imperial Dragon… That would’ve sold in some states better than others, I suppose.
I once read that Henry Kaiser had a Cadillac V8 in his own Manhattan, but it was not published at the time. I’ve also read that Kaiser was on the verge of purchasing Rocket V8s from Oldsmobile, but when Olds execs saw the performance of the Kaiser, they backed out of the deal because it would blow the doors off of an Olds 88.
I could not find anything definitive on the rear wiper – its having one really jumped out at me when I saw the car, even before realizing it was a Dragon!
Near as I can determine, it’s either one of the few options available or a dealer accessory.
JP, as you are now the Comet expert, I almost feel like a Dragon expert.
And so many great pun/joke possibilities. Jason Shafer: Dragon Slayer. Is it now the year of the Dragon? You could buy this and drive it around dressed up like St. George. So much more fun than Comets. 🙂
Joseph Frazer was actually long gone by 1953; he departed in the spring of 1949. Frazer was already unhappy that Kaiser had taken out another loan from the RFC. When Kaiser refused to cut back production until they had all-new models ready to sell, Frazer decided he’d had enough and walked. He was still nominally an officer for a while and later a consultant, but he had no more role in the running of the company. The reason his name disappeared in 1953 was that Kaiser was reorganized following the merger with Willys-Overland.
The lavish interior treatments were as much Edgar Kaiser’s doing as Henry’s; Edgar replaced Frazer as president in 1948. Carleton Spencer had been with Kaiser-Frazer since ’46-’47, but where he really got the chance to work his magic was once K-F started having stockpiles of slow-selling and unsold cars to dispose of.
As for the ’50s concern with animal cruelty, in 1951 Kaiser-Frazer built a handful of Henry J show cars with animal hide and/or fur upholstery. I think Paul had an article about those a while back.
This was not that odd in that era, GM did some mild custom show cars with animal pelt interiors too, there was a 50-52 Cadillac convertible that made the show rounds with tiger pelt inserts in the seats
I’ve long wondered how Mr. Kaiser and Mr. Frazier decided amongst themselves whose name would adorn the luxury models and whose would be relegated to the mainstream lower-priced cars. Surely given the egos involved, both would have preferred their name to used on the high-end marque. Did they flip a coin?
I’ve been reading car histories since I was something like ten years old (1960-61), and have always been fascinated by them. Have amassed and sold off three libraries of books on cars, and happily have a really good memory of what I read – its certainly helped me out in the comments sections here.
What I find interesting is how the reporting of a marque’s history changes as time goes on.
Kaiser-Fraser is a prime example. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, any narrative you read on the brand was usually presented in the “the last great challenge against the Big 3, and they should have succeeded” narrative. Very positive, very sympathetic.
That line has really changed in the last couple of decades. Narratives written today are much more along the line of “the guy who really didn’t know what he was doing, but he blundered along anyway – and the cars were incredibly mediocre, to boot”. History is being a lot harsher to K-F the further we go down the road from their failure.
Then again, history is a lot nastier to just about anything today than it was fifty years ago. Its like we absolutely HAVE to find the warts and failures, and they’re more important than the successes. I supposed I can’t gripe too much, as long as what’s found out is accurate and documentable. But it’s still a little depressing to open a history book knowing you’re going to find a lot more quibbling about failure than cheering about success.
Though sometimes its really the truth…harsh as it may be…. I roll my eyes everytime I hear a DeLorean owner at a car show talk about how “far advanced” DeLoreans were and how it was a conspiracy to bring them down…..
Success is its own reward.
And failure…is…failure. Nothing else need be said.
There are a million different reasons for a failure. Could be price. Could be timing. Could be quality; or even public image.
DeLorean failed because both he and his car had become something of a joke, after he was shopping around worldwide for drivetrains, for tax breaks, for subsidies…and in the end, for controlled substances with high resale value.
Tucker failed because he rushed to production and was so desperate for capital he’d launched some schemes, for “matched luggage” and other craptastic accessories, to put waiting buyers ahead on the list. The government got involved; meantime his prototypes were rushed into production…withOUT a reverse gear.
And let’s not forget Honda…which ALMOST failed with their little 600. Only the quick development of the slightly-larger Civic turned the effort around.
Kaiser had it all…good public image, the result of his Hoover Dam and Liberty Ship work. Money, or so it seemed. An organization. A track record running a business.
What he lacked was, in his mature years, an open mind. He was getting into a business nobody understood; just that some players had a formula which seemed to work.
Kaiser knew better. So much better that he fired his Detroit man.
And what came of his better knowledge, was a spectacular meltdown.
+1
He didn’t fire (and couldn’t have fired) Frazer; Frazer got frustrated and left of his own accord in March 1949. However, Kaiser was increasingly reluctant to listen to him, which is why Frazer left.
Kaiser-Frazer didn’t work out, but it wasn’t a complete meltdown — after the merger with Willys, they finally had something unique to sell (Jeep) and Kaiser Jeep did pretty well throughout the late ’50s and ’60s.
Kaiser later went off to build resort hotels in Hawaii, which worked out pretty well for him (albeit not without controversy).
Tucker failed for a multitude of reasons, but he was unfairly castigated in the press and courts for one specific prototype, which, like many automotive prototypes of the time, had many parts sourced from junkyards. To imply that all of his prototypes suffered the malady of not being able to have a reverse gear is inaccurate. Tucker should have and could have succeeded but he was brought down by external forces after having created an entire dealer network, tooling, and a fully realized production line and complete, running vehicles.
You raise an excellent point on the changing tone of narratives over time. In researching this, several sources were quite harsh in describing Kaiser, his automotive venture, and his management style. In contrast, I also stumbled upon an account (where I pulled the quote used in the title) from a book about employee relations that was very complimentary of Kaiser in many regards.
The two points of view were polar opposite. Figuring the real Kaiser was somewhere mid-spectrum, I tried to cover his positive qualities with acknowledging what is known, such as his overproduction of cars.
He appeared to be quite a complex and talented fellow, with unique faults like the rest of us, in which much more could be (and has been) written. The Kaiser story is so rich, it was tough to determine what should be included or omitted.
I think you’re having a rose-colored glasses moment. Having recently read Richard Langsworth’s “The Last Onslaught on Detroit”, perhaps the most definitive (or one of) boooks on K-F, I would disagree. Although Langsworth is clearly sympathetic to some generalized extent (as are many who lived through the K-F experience), reading the endless hubris and lack of cost control by the Kaiser bunch painted a picture of inevitable failure, and a somewhat embarrassing one at that.
There are way too many examples of the inability of the Kaiser bunch to be real and acknowledge that they didn’t know very much about the business, and were shockingly extravagant. The number of custom cars made at great expense for friends, family, clients, etc, was just one such example.
Sure, there was a lot of rooting by automotive writers, because it seemed like a noble cause at the beginning.
But you are right; writers/bloggers are more negative and critical. TTAC was adamant that Tesla would never get off the ground; even my own son was convinced that there was no way Tesla could develop their own platform for the Model s, and more recently, Kreidler ranted on how the Model X was essentially vapor-ware that would never get built. Kids……what do they know anyway?
Syke makes an apt point. One possible grace note was the 100″ wheelbase Henry J chassis underpinning some experimental American Independent sports and kit cars of the early and mid-Fifties.
Reading the April 2024 Collectible Automobile now, it’s listing
Glaspar and Woodhill, the Kaiser Darrin, and the Edwards Special.
Fifty-three Corvette was 102″, so it is a popular zone for a sports car of that class.
Not sure if the Henry J chassis had any racing success beyond the drag strip, though. Wonder how flexible it was.
Your comments recall to me the essence of the Kaiser failure: OVERPRODUCTION WITHOUT ORDERS. As much as people hate dealers and the buying experience, the dealer, like other middlemen in other industries, serves a critical role. His is the job of warehousing and distributing product – and providing direct, regular orders to the production people.
When those orders are ignored or overruled – in the case of Kaiser’s just-build-the-damn-things-we’ll-find-something-to-do-with them; or with Lynn Townsend’s Sales Bank…things get out of kilter. And when the profit margin is less than ten percent…a ten percent overrun on production can eat up profit. Completely.
Conversely, an ordered under-production can lead impulse buyers to a competitor’s store.
So…for whatever reason, having independent middlemen who absorb the risk and pay themselves large profit for predictions or luck…does in fact insulate the parent company; that insulation can mean survival and long-term health and growth.
Henry Kaiser, who knew a lot, did not understand this about the auto biz; and didn’t like hearing it from a person he viewed as his underling…Frazer. He, his company, and his ambitions all lost as a result.
This is in a nutshell the difference between Kaiser’s previous success in contract-based business and the retail world, with which Kaiser had no experience.
I don’t know that he saw Frazer as an underling; the Kaisers did feel that Frazer and the Detroit people were too negative and hidebound. To some extent I think that was true, but some of that resistance was for good reason, which the Kaisers didn’t necessarily consider.
Kaiser was certainly not lost after this. He and Edgar continued to do well in other ventures until Henry’s death in the late ’60s. It was, however, one of the few things Henry Kaiser did that wasn’t a big success.
I know a fellow who owned a ’53 Kaiser Manhattan in the 50s. Enjoyed driving it. “Beautiful car,” he says of it.
Tenously related fun fact: one Mr Kaiser’s subsequent ventures was real estate development in Hawaii prior to retirement in same said paradise. One of the early episodes of Hawaii Five-O was filmed, and credited as such, on the Kaiser estate. Yes, it’s tragic that I felt the need to find just where the silver travertine wall facing and gold anodised screening devices actually were. They did look good, however.
I believe he was also responsible for construction of the Kaiser Hawaiian Village, which is the Hilton Hawaiian Village today(where they filmed the old and the NEW Hawaii Five-O as too).
He did have a good eye for the way things looked, he built the Kaiser Center in Oakland California, which served as a headquarters with a private penthouse apartment for Henry J. It still looks good today, one wouldn’t guess this building was built in 1960.
The parking garage had a unique rooftop garden built on it, because Henry J didn’t want to look down from his penthouse balcony and just see a concrete parking lot.
He was ahead of his time–nowadays you see “green” rooftops in an effort to reduce runoff from impervious surfaces.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Z-_2CsQ54
I guess the styling looked advanced enough that it would pass for “new” in the movies.
The carnage starts at 1:21.
If anyone is familiar with Arch Hall, well say no more.
A must see.
At least later in the movie, they got smarter and started stealing parts off ’59 Buicks, which a fence would actually want…
Re the rear wiper, we discussed aftermarket accessory rear wipers on an earlier CC – maybe of a 40s/50s Caddie? Rear wipers on sedans are a great idea – loads of JDM-only cars had them as factory options in the 80s and 90s (and let’s not forget Nissan who offered rear-view mirror wipers too!). I don’t understand why more manufacturers don’t offer rear wipers on sedans today.
Anyway, back to the article, the Manhattan is such a great looking car! it was fascinating to read about this Dragon derivative, thank you Jason!.
The first rear window wiper offered here was on the Mitsubishi Sigma Wagon in 78 quite a novel idea that quickly became mainstream on liftup tailgate wagons, That Dragon is cool and quite rare I guess I;ll never see one here of course even our crazily crowded car market didnt see them.
A while back on CC we learned that Kaiser may have originated BMW’s famous Hofmeister kink. Now we see that they also came up with the concept of the hatchback and the Brougham.
Yep the little Austin A40 featured last week is often mistakenly credited with the first hatchback it was beaten by Kaiser by several years.
Always liked the styling on these, thought that “widows peak” at the top of the front and rear windows was very clever. Just an attractive, yet different design for the time.
Not something I’ve researched, however I think some Traction Avants may have had hatchbacks.
Such a shame the smaller US auto makers died out. I’ve a liking for Hudson, Nash, Kaiser, AMC. They tend to bridge the gap between US and European ideas.
There was a delivery van version of the TA Citroen with a hatchback,my current car is the last big Citroen hatch the MK3 C5 was sedan or wagon only.
A great find Jason! K.V. Dahl has a ’53 Manhattan (you may have seen it in the Old Car Home writeup) and I plan on doing a full report one of these days.
But I didn’t want it to steal your Dragon’s fire.
Seeing this car reminds me of my grandfather. He became a collector of these in the 1960’s when they were cheap – he ended up with four of them. No, he didn’t have a Dragon. He had a 1948 Frazer, 1949 Traveler, a 1951 Kaiser, and the 1954 Kaiser. I drove the Frazer once in a wedding – the day before, I had to learn to drive the three-on-a-tree with manual brakes and no power steering.
Hi Gang…
So is this car for sale too? Any idea on where to find it?
Great story….thanks for sharing.
Geoff Hacker
Tampa, Florida
Jason Shafer ,
Good Story on the Kaiser Dragon.. Did You take the Pictures of the Black Dragon ???
This is a rare Black Dragon. Only have 2 on the Dragon List known to be produced …
It was for sale in Missouri .
G.B.
Hello, I’m the present owner of the Dragon pictured here. I saw an ad in Auto Roundup for it..I knew nothing about the cars except that as an automobile fan I couldn’t believe that there was an American made auto with the name “Dragon” and me or anyone else I knew had heard of… So me,my wife and 2 pitbul rescue dogs took off on the spur of the moment drove from Little Rock to just outside St. Louis and bought it. The old gentleman that owned the place said he had the car out back in his wrecking yard for years and figured he would get it running instead of just selling it off as junk..They put a set of “rangs” in it(top end over haul) ,a battery and a set of tires and put it out front where you see it here as I did…After jumping it off and a little test drive I bought it driving it back to Little Rock… Man,the positive attention I got was amazing except for the St.Louis Freeway crowd when the Dragon took a few quick naps right in the middle of rush hour traffic.. I had to get out and give it a shot of ether to get it cranked a
Hi Kerry….congrats on your recent purchase – I finally bought my first Dragon too. I’ll be starting my resto in 2017. How’s yours going? Feel free to contact me at geoffrey@grhacker.com or 813-888-8882. I’m in Tampa, Florida. Happy Holidays….Geoff
I was fortunate enough to see a dark red Golden Dragon for sale back in the early ’70s. It was in beautiful condition and I was impressed both by the gold trim pieces and the bambu covered roof and dash. It was priced high, comparable to a Packard Carribbean and I often wonder what happened to it.
RE rear wipers, I belonged to the Packard club in the early ’70s and recall seeing a rear wiper on an early ’50s model. Certainly not a factory option that I know of, I never thought of them being dealier installed. Also, regarding rear wiper resurgence in the ’70s, they were standard on the 1976 & ’77 Honda Accords.
There used to be several Kaisers parked along Hwy 47, west of Troy MO. I haven’t been through there in several years, not sure if they are still there. I have a biography of Henry J, apparently written by a former protege of his, which is remarkably complimentary of him. There is even a handwritten note tucked in the book which leads me to believe that the original owner of the book was personally acquainted with Mr Kaiser. On the other hand, I’ve read about the dam building, and he is made out to be a scrooge…I suppose reality is somewhere in the middle.
I have a 1953 Kaiser Golden Dragon for sale. It is cream with green bamboo top. Car is almost restored except for bamboo top. Have original bamboo. Not sure where to start advertising
I’ve always liked Kaiser, first car I remember riding in. 1953 black and white roof, bamboo interior, presumably a Manhattan.
Just a few additional tid bits. Kaiser was involved in ship building during WWII. Because the was no V8 in the line up the company developed a supercharged version of the six,after Kaiser ceased production of their car lines the tooling was sold to a company, (a subsidiary perhaps?) in South America, I think that they were called Carabellas there.
There is no way to overstate the effect of the price war between Chevy and Ford on the independents. They were operating on razor thin profit margins, and their production costs per unit were very high. They were not able to develop new models very quickly or at all. The independents didn’t have the cash reserves to survive a mis-step in the market, and they made many. Still our automotive history is richer for their existance.
IKA – Industrias Kaiser Argentine – the firm founded by Kaiser Motors in Argentina. They shipped the tooling for the Kaiser to Argentina and began building the Carabella. It was marketed as a luxury vehicle, so the sales were not that great, but I suppose it was high enough to cover the costs. The tooling was written off before it was shipped to Argentina.
IKA went on to build Rambler Americans starting in 1961 and also Renaults.
Kaiser was working on a V8 in 1953-54, but killed it when they accepted the fact they did not have the money to get it into production. One of the heads of the V8 program went over to AMC, which is why the AMC looks so much like the stillborn Kaiser V8. And why AMC had a V8 in production less than two years after the merger,
I had an uncle that owned a late 40s Kaiser…or was it a Fraser? They looked almost identical, but as a very small child I wouldn’t have noticed the nameplate, just the color…a sort of chocolate brown.
For some reason I don’t remember if Uncle Bob had a car that came between the K-F, but I do remember by 1958 he was a confirmed “Ford man”.
I can’t say if it was attributable to his Kaiser ownership, but one of Uncle Bob’s lasting bits of advice on car buying was : “Never buy a car in it’s first year of production”.
A pity they didn’t find a way to make the upper door frames thinner, they give the car a top-heavy look. Still a handsome design, but lack of a V-8 and a hard top was a major misstep as well. A Kaiser Dragon priced in Cadillac territory? Did they really think these were going to sell?
I love the body shape, but the whole thing is ruined by that glasshouse. What a pity.
The whale Caprice always reminded me of these Kaisers. Not in a dead wringer, but I think that there is a resemblance.
OldCarBrochures.com comes through again. Here’s the proof of availability of rear wipers on Kaisers, from the 1951 Kaiser accessories brochure. The accessory was more common than we think. Nash had it on their Airflyte as early as 1949.
Here’s my “incompleat” research on it from an older article:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/saloon-with-a-view-an-incompleat-history-of-the-rear-window-wiper/
I’ve seen rear wipers on 1948 Pontiacs. I dont know of any earlier than that.
OldCarBrochures.com comes through again. Jason Shafer found it in the 1951 Kaiser brochure in a comment on my “incompleat” history of rear wipers. The accessory was more common than we think. Nash had it on their Airflyte as early as 1949.
Here’s the article:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/saloon-with-a-view-an-incompleat-history-of-the-rear-window-wiper/
Something about that windshield always had a Bela Lugosi vibe to me.
Kaiser windshields were designed to pop out in a crash. Hence the ‘widow’s peak’.
Funny, but I’d always thought that Howard “Dutch” Darrin was the stylist, and read somewhere that the “widow’s peak” was there because Darrin didn’t know how to draw a curved windshield in side elevation. So once again I seem to have been lied to … in this case, back before it became popular!
I do love the first edition of this design, before they started adding more shiny stuff. It’s one car I could forgive for having that poor boat-anchor of an engine.
I am the owner of a 1953 Kaiser Dragon. it has been modified into a Roadster. I was originally a Kaiser Dragon 4 door sedan. The top was taken off at door level as well as the windshield. The windshield was replaced by a 1952 Ford Convertible windshield. The car has no windows. It has extra support in the frame. Because it was already modified and not a stock “Dragon”, i had a different motor and transmission installed. It has a 2004 Tahoe truck engine and transmission. Both were rebuilt prior to installation. Also power steering and Brakes were also added. The car does not have a “convertible top”, only a canvas tonneau cover that snaps on around the car.
Another picture of the 1953 Kaiser Dragon Roadster.
At any rate, the black Dragon pictured is super rare, hope that it’s properly restored. It’s hard to blame Mr. Kaiser for his optimism, after all he built dams, roads, record number of ships in record times for the WW2 effort, Kaiser Aluminum, and later on Kaiser Permanente. Even though the car business had it’s ups and downs, he recouped the losses of the American business with the South American markets, and his Kaiser Jeep company never “went out of business” but was sold over and over again, and we still can buy new Jeeps today.