THE wheels may have fallen off Graham-Paige, one of the most respected American car companies of the 1920s and 1930s.
But unlike many of its contemporaries which simply disappeared during the Depression years, Graham-Paige ended up changing its name and direction.
It’s now known as the Madison Square Garden, the world’s most famous sports arena.
It’s a far cry from its once-bustling plant in Detroit and a lot further from a little town in Indiana where the three Graham brothers grew up in the late 1800s.
Joseph B, Robert C and Ray A Graham were born in 1882, 1885 and 1887 respectively, on their family’s farm in Washington, Indiana.
In 1901, Joseph Graham and his father Ziba became stockholders in the nearby Lythgoe Bottle Company, and at the age of 19 Joseph invented and patented a new process for blowing better bottles.
In 1905, the Grahams took over Lythgoe, and renamed it the Graham Glass Company.
Business prospered, new factories were added in Indiana and Oklahoma, and in 1916 the Grahams got a merger bid from the Owens Bottle Company of Toledo, Ohio.
Ray who graduated in 1908 from the University of Illinois, had invented a special rear axle combined with a spliced frame, whereby Ford cars could be converted into one-ton trucks at low cost.
That looked promising, so the Grahams sold their share of the glassworks to Owens and the Grahams set up their truck-body business in Evansville, Indiana, and it soon attracted the attention of Frederick J Haynes, president of Dodge Brothers.
In 1921, an agreement was signed whereby the Grahams would build trucks with Dodge drivetrains, selling them through the Dodge dealer network.
The agreement was enormously beneficial to the Grahams, who moved to a new factory in Detroit and production soared from 1086 trucks in 1921 to 37,000 in 1926, making Graham Brothers the world’s top exclusive truck manufacturers.
Dodge meanwhile sold their company to an investment firm and the new owners reorganised management, with the Graham brothers ending up running the show.
Ray was vice-president, Joseph vice-president for manufacturing, Robert vice president for sales.
Life looked good, but trouble came within a few months and the Grahams all resigned their positions.
Since they were running the show they’d hoped to replace the Dodge brand with their own name, but that was just never going to happen within the Dodge company.
So they looked for a smaller company to acquire and found the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company.
It was a minor independent firm, set up in 1909, that had passed into the hands of Harry Jewett and his brothers in 1911, who successfully built Paige cars and trucks with peak production of 43,500 vehicles in 1923.
But in 1927, with sales declining and the company not as profitable as it once was, Jewett was anxious to sell.
The Grahams were attracted, because Paige came with a good history and had just built a modern factory on a 45-acre site in Dearborn.
The Grahams acquired control in June, 1927.
Along with their father, the brothers became Paige directors, and Joe announced that they were “in the automobile business as manufacturers to stay.”
At the next shareholders meeting the title was changed to Graham-Paige Motors Corporation with a new line of cars, made up of four models with six-cylinder engines and a lone eight-cylinder.
They had advanced features, the most outstanding being a carryover from the last Paige eight, a Warner Gear four-speed transmission.
It was standard on all but the lowest priced six-cylinder model.
Many advantages were claimed for the unit, which was heavily promoted.
First gear was latched out and used as a reserve or emergency gear, second was for normal starts, while third and fourth were in effect two high ratios, third useful in traffic and for brisk acceleration and fourth being direct drive.
In those days the British press was the main source of road test commentary, and Graham-Paige sales published a little booklet quoting reviews of the new cars.
The London Evening Standard called them “the most interesting American cars of the year in that they have a four-speed gearbox or a ‘twin top’ gear.”
The Sunday Times reported that “the driving of the Graham-Paige is really fascinating . . . Graham-Paige has earned our highest approval.”
The Sheffield Independent found “an altogether remarkable car, with road performance of unusually appealing qualities” and the prestigious Motor magazine said it was “an exceptionally attractive proposition, being possessed of a fine performance and providing the comfort of many vehicles costing nearly double.”
The new cars were launched with flair and at the New York show and a lavish luncheon was held at the Hotel Roosevelt.
Besides the three brothers, speakers included football star Knute Rockne and heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney.
The Graham Paige was a huge success, as was everything else the brothers did in 1928.
Car production climbed from 21,881 in 1927 to 73,195 in 1928 — a sales record for a new make of car in its first year.
Worldwide distributors rose from 832 to 2270 and the Grahams turned a $4.6 million loss in 1927 to a $1.1 million profit in 1928.
The 1929 line comprised two series of models.
All six-cylinder, the 612, 615 and 621, had longer wheelbases, with the two smaller sixes rebored to increase power.
Eights now came in two sizes, the 827 and 837, also on longer wheelbases, and all engines had rubber mounts.
The company added rumble seat roadsters and five passenger phaetons to most models, and dual cowl phaetons with hood and a cowl side colour sweep were available in 621 and 827 models.
Stylish LeBaron custom bodies, sedan limousine, limousine and town car, were offered in the 837 line, and at least one style of LeBaron body continued to be available through the first series 1931 cars.
One custom model even found its way into the Vatican.
In 1928 the Grahams were honoured by Pope Pius XI for their contributions to church and humanity by induction into the Roman Catholic Order of St Gregory the Great.
Returning the tribute, the brothers presented the Pope with a LeBaron town car, which is still displayed in the Vatican Carriage Museum.
However, when the Depression hit, Graham-Paige production followed predictable patterns of the industry: output dropped to 33,560 for 1930, less than half the 1929 high, and the company lost $5 million.
Like all other brands, the Grahams at first replied to the Depression with a less expensive car, introducing their new Prosperity Six, and at $785 for the coupe, it was their cheapest car — but it made little difference. Sales continued to fall, totalling only 20,428 for 1931.
Then, rather than further reducing models and production, the brothers chose to fight and did so with a car destined to become the most famous of all Grahams.
For 1932 the Paige name was dropped from all models and the new car was called the Graham ‘Blue Streak Eight’ – although the umbrella company remained as Graham-Paige Motors Corp.
The Blue Streak sure had the look of a leader.
All bodies, the sedan, coupe and convertible had graceful, flowing lines and were more than two inches lower than previous models.
The styling was the work of Amos Northrup, design director of the Murray Corporation, whose credits included the Hupp Century, the Willys-Knight roadster, and the splendid Reo Royale.
With a stiffer frame and springs mounted outboard of the side rails, plus a wider rear track, the Blue Streak was a car of great stability.
The Blue Streak Eight was available in standard and deluxe editions priced between $995 and $1170.
The car received wide acclaim and carried the main hopes of the company.
The Tootsietoy Company was also impressed, and offered a line of model cars patterned after the Blue Streak which proved so popular that 4.2 million in 21 different styles were produced.
Unfortunately, the cars did not prove as popular in full size versions.
In normal times they would have been a top seller, but even the Blue Streak was no match for the Depression.
Production declined to only 12,967 for 1932, a year rendered doubly difficult by a family tragedy.
In August, Ray Graham, sick and despondent over declining fortunes, suffered a nervous breakdown.
He was taken to the East Coast for a complete rest, but en route he broke away from an accompanying priest — and threw himself into a creek.
His death at 45 was keenly felt by the Graham family, but his brothers carried on.
By 1933, the brand’s skirted fender was widely copied by rivals, and Graham was justly advertised as “the most imitated car on the road.”
It was also an awful year of bread lines and bank closings, and production dropped again, to 10,967, though a tiny $67,000 profit did result.
The company would simply have to come up with more innovations, and for 1934 their answer was the supercharger.
Standard on the second series Custom Eight, the Graham blower was the first on a moderately priced American production car and you could get it on the coupe for only $1245.
Previously, only the sporty likes of Stutz, Franklin and Duesenberg were associated with supercharged induction.
The result was a horsepower boost from 95 to 135, and a 20 per cent increase in torque.
Top speed exceeded 90 mph, (about 145km/h) and Britain’s The Autocar reported achieving 60 mph (100km/h) from a standing start in 15.8 seconds – very impressive for the era.
‘Engine performance,’ said the magazine, ‘is extremely good, especially considering that the engine is not a monster unit.
‘The Graham is not in the least noticeable as being a supercharged car in the sense to which we are accustomed on some machines.
‘Anyone driving this Graham without knowledge of the design would find nothing in the car’s behaviour, no added noise, no fussiness of the engine-to denote any difference whatsoever from the general run of similar machines.
‘Nor, as another practical point, does oil have to be added to the fuel.’
With the economy in dire straits, Graham sales were more or less lineball with the industry for the next few years until, in 1938, a solution appeared, in the form of what the company called the ‘Spirit of Motion’ series.
Body styling was completely new, with a lunging front end housing square headlights that soon had people referring to it as the ‘sharknose.’
Graham should have sold well in 1938, when the economy was showing the first signs of recovery but the sharknose proved to be a flop.
Though the wild styling won the Grand Prize at the Paris Concours d’Elegance, conservative car-buying American wasn’t impressed.
Many thought it was too radical, and for the first time, the company was in real trouble.
The firm’s 10th anniversary in 1939 was marked by the shutting down of the plant at the end of July.
The dealer network had shrunk to only 460 shaky agencies, only 292 of which handled Grahams exclusively.
Money was short and the company was stuck with a product whose styling had been firmly rejected by the public.
Many in Detroit were betting the firm would never recover. But Joe Graham had other ideas.
A replacement for the sharknose was clearly needed, and the possibility came from Norman de Vaux, general manager of Hupp, whose plant had also closed that summer.
De Vaux had persuaded Hupp to build a small car called the Skylark, based on old 1936-37 Cord body dies, but Hupp had not been able to get the new car into volume production despite more than 6000 orders.
Like Graham, Hupp was also in trouble.
At meetings between Hupp and Graham officials in late summer, 1939, a joint manufacturing plan was hammered out.
Hupp needed relief from the crushing burden of producing cars by itself, and Graham badly needed a new car to supplement the poor-selling sharknose.
An agreement was reached whereby Graham agreed to build the Skylark for Hupp on a contract basis, while receiving the rights to use the distinctive Cord-Skylark dies to produce a similar car of its own — to be called the Hollywood.
Hupp would build its own engine and chassis parts, but the Skylark convertible would be built alongside the Grahams in the Graham-Paige plant.
Both companies retained their own separate organisations, including sales, engineering and administration.
Graham chose the four-door Beverly sedan shape for the Hollywood rather than the two-door convertible, believing the Hollywood to be a more popular, mass-market car.
Both versions used 6-cylinder engines.
The Skylark was powered by a 4.0-litre Hupp, the Hollywood with a 3.5-litre unit with the option of a supercharged version.
After its public introduction, orders poured in.
But manufacturing difficulties caused months of delay before deliveries began.
Having bodies built by Hayes did not help and most of the orders were cancelled by customers tired of waiting.
So, despite an enthusiastic initial public response, the cars ended up being a worse flop in sales for both Graham and Hupmobile than either firm’s respective preceding models.
The company suspended manufacturing in September 1940, only to reopen its plant for military production for World War II.
Only about 1500 Hollywoods were ever built.
In August 1945, Graham-Paige announced plans to resume production under the Graham name, but the plan never materialised.
Car production resumed in early 1946 with the launch of a modern-looking new car, the 1947 Frazer.
It was named for new Graham-Paige president, Joseph W Frazer, in partnership with Henry J Kaiser.
In 1947, Graham-Paige stockholders approved the transfer of all their automotive assets to Kaiser-Frazer, a car company formed by Frazer and Kaiser, in return for 750,000 shares of Kaiser-Frazer stock and other considerations.
Graham’s manufacturing facilities on Warren Avenue were sold to Chrysler,.
In 1952, Graham-Paige dropped ‘Motors’ from its name and branched into real estate, and under the direction of Irving Mitchell Felt, bought properties such as the Roosevelt Raceway in New York, and in 1959, a controlling interest in the old Madison Square Garden (built in 1925).
In 1962, the firm changed its name to the Madison Square Garden Corporation, today known as ‘the world’s most famous arena.’
An unusual end for a Blue Streak of motoring fame.
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