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Bob Falcon invited www.hotrodhotline.com and Roger and I to come to the Auto & Aviation History Expo 2011, which was held at the Automotive Driving Museum (ADM) in El Segundo, California on June 26, 2011. The exposition is in its second year and follows the same format as the Literature Faire sponsored by the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), Southern California branch. For thirty years the SAH had put on the Literature Faire in the Los Angeles area. The Faire brought together vendors and collectors of car memorabilia into a simple swap meet format. No cars or car parts were allowed; only visual and written material like photographs, magazines, books, posters, calendars, trophies, awards, plaques, videos and other memorabilia. Some of the bigger Faires were held at Irwindale Speedway and took up a great deal of space. This was a fundraiser for the SAH and a general swap meet for people who wanted to sell excess books and collections that they no longer wished to keep. The old Faires used to draw celebrities, such as Jay Leno and well-known car builders. This was an opportunity for buyers to add to their collections and for customizers and builders to find historical documents and photographs to help them with their projects. The last two years has been difficult for the SAH, with the committee members facing conflicts and ill health and the Faire was shelved for awhile. Bob Falcon, the leader of the Southern California branch of the SAH at the time, contacted the ADM to see if they would like to keep the concept of a literature swap meet alive and hold it at their facility. The SAH agreed to allow the ADM to hold their own event as long as they did not use the name Literature Faire and this was acceptable by all parties. Thus the Auto & Aviation History Expo was born.
Roger and I missed the first Auto & Aviation History Expo in 2010, but made sure that we would include it on our calendar for 2011. The Automotive Driving Museum is located on Lairport Street, in El Segundo. The street is wide and there is plenty of parking on the weekend when the commercial businesses are closed. The museum is very easy to get to and the staff and volunteers are very friendly. They ask for a $5 donation to see the museum, and it was well worth it. For more information on schedules of events and hours call 310-909-0950 or e-mail the director, Jeff Walker at [email protected]. The museum is located off of Mariposa Street and Pacific Coast Highway, at the end of the 105 Freeway, in the city of El Segundo, not far from the Los Angeles Airport (referred to as LAX). The Auto & Aviation History Expo occupied a large room inside the museum and spilled out into a parking lot in the back. The weather was in the low 70’s and sunny and pleasant. I estimated that there were about 20 vendors or sellers indoors and 25 outside and they offered a wide range of materials. Some of the vendors looked to be professional sellers who go to various swap meets to sell collectibles that they acquire by buying objects at estate or public or private sales. These vendors often have access to contacts and sources that allow them to purchase collectibles and bring them back into the market for others to buy. They perform a valuable service, otherwise much of this material would be lost or outside of the public domain in private collections.
Another large group are those individuals who have businesses; artists, authors, photographers, historical societies, media groups, book stores, etc. Among these people who had booths were; The Society of Land Speed Racing Historians, Kelley Blue Book, www.hotrodhotline.com, Allen Kuhn Photography, Autobooks/Aerobooks Book Store, www.landspeedracing.com, Planes by Dad, Kurt Oblinger Photography, AARWBA (American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association), authors (Brett Arena, Dave Friedman, Wally Wyss, B.S. Levy), ALPCA (Automobile License Plate Collectors Association), and McCarthy Architectural & Vehicular Portraits. The last group represented the sellers who just had too much automotive “treasures” in their homes and garages and wanted to make some space and earn a little cash. The list of memorabilia and collectibles is too lengthy to detail in full, but I will give you a brief description of what some of the vendors offered up for sale. Bob McGindley made little boxed dioramas and inside the boxes are photographs of famous airplanes, or even a photograph of the customer’s airplane. On the back of the box is a thoroughly researched history of the plane. Bob’s business is called Planes by Dad and he sells at about six shows a year. Carl Snyder is a car designer and restorer and he had a larger booth filled with collectibles that he acquired over time and also from John O’Quinn. He was selling posters, three feet long miniature model cars and rare and valuable trophies.
Kurt Oblinger was selling magazines, models, books and his photographs of road racing. He is a member of the Fabulous Fifties and has always been interested in sports car racing. He married the daughter of 1950’s sports car driver Merl Francisco. Paul Torkelson sold original and copies of framed old photographs and posters. His able assistant went by the name of Rufus T. Firefly. He didn’t think that I would put that name in print, but whatever name you answer to is what we will call you. Some of the guys preferred not to give their names. That is alright too; we want to tell the story, but we also want to honor your requests for privacy. David Erazo and Claude Champion were selling models, toys, literature, photographs and told me that they come to this show and to the Pasadena City College (PCC) monthly swap meets. Certain swap meets specialize in different products and I heard from more than one person that the PCC swap meet was special. Ray Del Pino has been selling at swap meets for twenty years and he told me that he belongs to the American Truck Historical Society. This was his second year at the Auto & Aviation History Expo and he was selling his own collection of books and magazines. For Robert Warren this is his first year at this event, but he goes to about ten shows a year. He buys collectibles at shows, private and estate sales. He had a huge selection of porcelain metal signs, original oil cans, license plates and other garage style collectibles.
Mark Rothermich has been going to and selling memorabilia since the first SAH Literature Faire started over thirty years ago. He goes to about five shows a year and has a large collection of advertisements, catalogs, books, car brochures and magazines that he sells. Wally Wyss is an artist and has also written the book Shelby; the man, the car and the legend. He brought his personal collection of model cars, sports car racing books and photographs. His particular interests include Ferraris and Carroll Shelby and his cars. Woody Woodhouse brought his collection of books to sell. He told me that he needed to reduce his memorabilia at home. He is a car history guy and used to write book reviews for Vintage Motorsports magazine. With him was Bob Krueger who is a photographer whose interest is in shooting pictures of vintage sports car racing. Both of them are members of the Fabulous Fifties road course racing group. Anne Proffit has been a photographer and writer for six years for car magazines, including Race Engine Technology. She is also in her second year as the Vice President of AARWBA. Her photographs sell very well to other vendors who resell her work. She had a booth at the Auto & Aviation History Expo to reduce her collection and free up space at home and to represent AARWBA and give away copies of Race Engine Technology. Dean Case is in public relations for Mazda and he took a booth to “thin the herd.” He brought a huge amount of books and magazines from home to sell and what he doesn’t sell he intends to donate to the Automotive Driving Museum. Next to Case was a man by the name of David. That is the name he goes by and he had a van and pop-up tent and was quite efficient at setting up and selling toys, models, books, magazine and assorted memorabilia. He lamented that there were more sellers than buyers. “This is a hobby of mine,” he told me. A man came by to haggle on a price and he stood his ground, refusing to bargain.
Elsewhere, sellers and buyers often went back and forth on price in a friendly sort of banter. Vendors will mark prices on the memorabilia to give the customer a point at which they will sell the object. Most of the time the prices are reasonable and the buyers know that and just pay up. But sometimes the buyers will counter-offer to see if they can stretch their purchasing power and the sellers are often willing to accept the buyers offer. Or the sellers will counter with another price. If both the sellers and the buyers do this in a pleasant manner, with a courteous voice, the result is usually a sale. I didn’t see any anger or eruptions in this group of car fans. Most sales went very smoothly. Mark was there to clear out his garage. He told me that he has been collecting for a long time and goes to a lot of shows. He had some very old books, magazines, newsletters and newspapers that enticed a lot of buyers to his stall. The next booth was a man by the name of John, who was the President of the Southern California chapter of the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA). He had a huge assortment of state, commemorative, miniature, club and vanity license plates for sale. He also had models, pins, badges and really old street signs and chauffeur metal identification memorabilia. Another reason for being at the Auto & Aviation History Expo was to explain to the public what the ALPCA was all about. First founded in the United States, there are 10,000 members worldwide, with 7000 of the members within the 50 states. “We all specialize,” John told me, “I am known as Mr California, because I collect a lot of our state’s plates. I’m the largest collector of plates in the association,” he proudly said.
Burt Levy, from Chicago, is an author who writes under the name of BS Levy. He began writing car related historical novels in 1982. The names of his books are; The Last Open Road, Montezuma’s Ferrari, The Fabulous Trashwagon, Toly’s Ghost, The 200 MPH Steamroller and Potside Companion (short stories). He has sold over a million dollars worth of books and self-publishes his work. “I went with a publisher and was disappointed, so my wife and I took out a second mortgage on our home and bought back the rights to my first book and then we published the books. I came up with an idea to have sponsorship. I sell ads in the books and make it appear like they are the covers for magazines. My books have a narrator, a garage mechanic who tells the particular history and story. That’s because I was a mechanic when I was younger and I like to tell stories from that perspective. To appreciate historical novels it is important for the readers to suspend belief and just be caught up in the story,” Levy continued. Kurt Oblinger walked by and said, “I read all of Burt’s books. I especially like The Last Open Road,” Kurt said. Brett Arena is the archivist for the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market and has written a history on the famous shopping mart. The book is titled Images of America; Los Angeles’s Original Farmer’s Market, and was printed in 2009. The book came out in time to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the many shops and stands that make up the block long center. Arena talked about all the history and the Gilmore Family, who owned the Farmer’s Market, land development, Gilmore Stadium and the Gilmore Oil Company with the bright red Lion emblem. I remember the many Gilmore Roars car racing reunion that Carmen and Gordon Schroeder used to host at the famous Gilmore Adobe. This was the home where the Gilmore family used to live when Los Angeles was a much smaller town.
Next to Levy and Arena was Dave Friedman, author of Corvette Thunder; 50 Years of Corvette Racing 1953-2003. Friedman is a well-known and respected photographer and I have reviewed some of his books. He was so busy that I never got the chance to talk to him. Bob Falcon walked by and introduced a good friend of his, Paul Yocum, who works at nearby Northrop Aircraft. I also met an old friend, Rod Larmer, who used to work for Vince and Andy Conze at Conze Brothers. He had a sign around his neck advertising magazines that he had for sale. Rather than wait for the buyers to come to him, he was going out to look for the interested customers. I asked him about all the memorabilia and collections of the Conze family, who were active in the speed equipment business and at the Indy 500. “Andy, Vince and Elaine had no children and left everything to distant relatives. They came from Canada and destroyed all the life time memorabilia and priceless collections of the brothers in order to sell the house and move back. It is a tragic loss of historical records,” Rod told me. “The relatives rebuffed my efforts to save this treasure or even my attempts to buy anything from the estate,” Larmer said ruefully. This happens all too often to our history and heritage. We need to make sure that when we leave things to people that they respect our possessions. Dusty Brandel, President of AARWBA and Bobbie Colgrove had a table and were selling off unwanted items. These ladies were pioneers among women journalists when the men tried to make it clear that women were not welcomed in reporting on motorsports. They persisted and opened the door to women in journalism.
Next to Dusty was the booth for the Society of Land Speed Racing Historians and www.hotrodhotline.com and www.landspeedracing.com. Jim Miller is our president and he brought his camera and I watched the booth and gave out decals and brochures. Steve and Marianne McCarthy, from Monrovia. They sell pictures of antique buildings and cars and attend about ten shows a year. Steve wrote Road Trippin’; a Guide to Absolutely the Best Road Trips, EVER! Tina Van Curen had a booth selling some of her new issues from her bookstore, Autobooks/Aerobooks, in Burbank, California. “We moved the bookstore back to 2900 W. Magnolia Avenue, which is the original site that Harry Morrow had when he opened Autobooks/Aerobooks in 1951. Our old time customers come into the shop and tell us about what it was like back then,” Tina said. Jack Le Van is an occasional seller and does so for many reasons. “It gives me a chance to get rid of the excess and duplicates and to socialize with my friends,” he told me. He had a wide range of framed pictures, books and ads. “My main interests are in Lincolns and pre-WWII stuff,” he opined. We talked about car shows and modern day restorations. “Car restorations are done too well these days,” Le Van said, “They often don’t represent the true history of the vehicle. For example, silent screen star Fatty Arbuckle’s car was taken completely apart and restored above what it originally was so that today it just doesn’t look like it was when Arbuckle owned it,” Jack said. That’s one of the advantages of coming to a literature swap meet like the Auto & Aviation History Expo. You meet people who know their history.
I bumped into Albert Wong, a photographer who is crazy about open wheel racing. Albert has invited me to his home and it is completely filled with “treasures.” His garage is filled and so is every room in his large home. I asked Albert when he was going to bring his “stuff” to the show. He just grinned; it is all too precious to part with and he is still adding to his collection. Mike House goes only to this show. House has a private collection of old dirt track books, photographs, prints and memorabilia. Trent Riddle works in the media and he came all the way from Victorville to put some of his excess treasures up for sale. He had press kits, posters, books, hot wheels, old videos and calendars. Everybody loved his supersized Pirelli Calendars with the nude photos by world famous photographers. These are the calendars you often saw hanging in the garages and auto shops. Trent is a free lance writer and has written for Four Wheel Drive and Sport Utility magazine. Bob Falcon, the man behind the Auto & Aviation History Expo had a booth manned by his son, Rob Falcon. Rob told me how much his dad loved auto racing and worked to keep the history of the automobile alive.
Steve Hansen has had a booth at both of the Expos and participates as a hobbyist. He brought just a small portion of his huge collection. He was a product planner and marketing man for Volvo until his retirement. “This is fun for me and I go to about five shows a year,” Hansen told me. “There are not a lot of specialized literature shows to go to and I appreciate the ADM for making this show possible for us,” he ended. Allen Kuhn is a noted sports car racing photographer. “I cover sports car racing from 1955 to 1965 and concentrate on the visual historical aspect of racing. This was the perfect era for cars and racing in the United States,” Allen iterated. His wife seconded that opinion. I met Bruce Hand at the show. He is a member of the Fabulous Fifties, a group of road course racers and fans who strive to keep the history of that era alive for sports car racing fans of today. This was the first Expo for Charles Williams and he said that he may come back. “I cleaned out my garage to sell at this show,” he told me, “I collect brochures on cars that I could never own,” he remarked with a grin. Earl Rubenstein had a booth to sell some car brochures and racing catalogs to make room in his garage. Behind him was a forklift belonging to the museum and I asked him how much he wanted for that. “I’m the curator and architect here at the ADM and we use that a lot, so they won’t let me sell that to you,” he good-naturedly retorted.
Bob Falcon introduced me to Gary Fisk, the archivist at the ADM. “The museum has been around for about six years and I came about five years ago. My job is to inventory and organize all the magazine and books here,” Gary told me. Jim Miller and I went with Fisk to see the collection. “We have 2200 books on cars and motorsports and 900 different kinds of magazines and newspapers titles; with over a million individual issues,” he told us. “I have it all on computer and I can tell you exactly what we possess due to our indexing. People make donations to us all the time and we welcome such gifts. We have five staff members and thirty volunteers and docents. We welcome writers and researchers to come and use our resources, although they have to use the books and magazines in our library. We do not permit our references to be removed from the museum. Most of our magazines are from 1950 to the present, but we do have some earlier works. We also have dealer and car manuals. We have a huge amount of car repair manuals and old newspapers and newsletters. Another library that is a good resource for the historian is the Nethercutt Auto Museum in Sylmar. They are bigger than we are,” explained Fisk. He then led us to the restoration building where the staff and volunteers work on the cars. Gene O’Hara is the professional auto restorer for the cars in the museum. The third and last building is called the Speed and Aviation museum and it is a part of the ADM, which stretches for a fourth of the block on Lairport Street. I estimate the three buildings to have about 40,000 square feet of indoor space and a good amount of outdoor area as well.
The last building had a Cub and Boy Scouts of America Pinewood Derby display. The enclosed display cases had a wealth of information about the small cars that are built by scouts and raced. There were also merit badges and historical material for this well-known scouting program. Fisk told me that the museum was founded by Stanley Zimmerman, who made the building available and donates some of his cars to the museum. Zimmerman has over 130 valuable automobiles, mostly Packards. Earl Rubenstein is the curator of the museum and also an architect, with his office in the museum. Jeff Walker is the ADM executive director. Walker showed me through the gift shop, which was about 900 square feet in size and full of souvenirs to buy. He then led me into the museum caf�, called the V8 Grill and introduced me to Kathleen Morgan who is a volunteer in charge of the food service. The V8 Grill is open on weekends and is about forty by twenty-five feet in size. Kathleen told me that they serve hot dogs, sodas, cookies, sundaes, popcorn, ice cream and coffee. There are six tables available to serve the guests. Jeff and Gary left me in order to get back to the show. I wandered through the museum and looked at the impressive cars on display. The ADM is not as large as the Nethercutt or the Petersen Automotive Museum, but it has the advantage of being easily accessible and it has a large number of volunteers and docents who will give the public a guided tour. It is by far one of the easiest museums to use and to enjoy and the placards with the cars’ history are interesting.
The cars in the museum are mostly Packards and Studebakers and other American made cars from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, but there are exceptions. Some of the foreign car brands were; Morgan and MG. American made brands were; Nash, DeLorean, Chrysler, Ford, Franklin, Thunderbird, Kaiser, DeSoto, and Cadillac. The ADM has a 1904 Schacht Auto-Runabout, a 1903 Pierce Arrow, a Darrin, a Saxon, 1915 Model-T Roadster, 1917 Overland, 1916 Packard, a 1916 Franklin, a DeLorean, a 1937 Pierce Arrow, a 1930 Stutz four door Monte Carlo and a 1929 Packard boat-tailed speedster restored by Carl Snyder. The volunteers usually take three cars out and park them in front of the museum and give driving tours for guests. I watched as a mother and her daughter were whisked away in a convertible. Jeff Walker handed me a flyer and invited us to attend their ADM Cruise Night sponsored by Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines. The Cruise Nights are held on the last Friday of the month through October. There will be cars and motorcycles on display and music, pinstriping and food available.
Gone Racin’ is at [email protected].
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