Hot Rod Icon LeRoi Smith is a Walking ‘Tex’ Book
By noderel:
Recently I received an email from one of my hot rodding heroes—LeRoi “Tex” Smith, who now lives “down under” in Aussie land. Tex has contributed a lot of good old boy stories to Hot Rod Hotline, but now I’m going to turn the tables and tell a few tales about the years I worked with him at Old Cars Weekly.
My first old cars were little tin sedans with men painted on the windows and black windshield wipers that moved back and forth. By age three, I had a Marx tin toy gas station with dozens of tiny automobiles parked on its roof. I had many youthful automotive dreams and Tex Smith helped make them come true.
By age 12, I was a car nut, hiding copies of Hot Rod Magazine in my English book. If homeroom teacher Ms. Amanda Clark (the first VW Beetle owner I knew) had ever caught me, my goose would have been cooked. But probably, Ms Clark knew what was up and was happy to see me reading anything.
One of my favorite HRM writers was Associate Editor LeRoi “Tex” Smith. Tex wrote stories about everything from the 1961 National Championship Drags to a 1963 tech piece called “Build Yourself an Axle.” He was very fond of how-to articles and often visited experts and shop owners to get his pictures and info.
By the mid-‘60s, hot rodding was catching on and a man named Dick Wiliford, who worked for Sears, Roebuck & Co., thought the Chicago retailer should hook up with HRM to produce how-to books Sears could sell in wire racks in the auto parts section of their stores. Back then, Sears sold lots of auto parts.
The bylines in those books included names that are iconic in hot rodding today—Ak Miller, Gray Baskerville, Roger Huntington, Dick Wells, Don Francisco, Eric Dahlquist, Terry Cook, Tom McMullen and Tex Smith.
Along with other enthusiasts, I could not wait until Saturday to go to Sears to buy another book. Then, in the late ‘60s, Tex’s name disappeared from the credits. Though the how-to books, engine guides and “Hot Rod Yearbooks” were still great, they lacked the friendly down-home style Tex was famous for.
In 1968, I came across the first car book that I ever bought. How to Fix Up Old Cars was a hardcover published by Dodd, Mead & Co. and written by Tex. In a dozen simple, anyone-can-understand-it chapters, Tex covered hot rod building and made it sound easy. His writing made you want to pick up a wrench and head out to the garage. His words pulled you into the world of hot rods.
With LeRoi’s written literary encouragement, I purchased my first old car and started writing about them, first as a club newsletter editor and ultimately as a professional. By 1978, I had joined Old Cars Weekly. Late that summer, word came through the grapevine that Tex was looking for a job. I rushed into my bosses’ office to tell him. That fall, I drove a company truck to California, to the Rose Bowl Swap Meet, and left it there for Tex to use to move to Wisconsin.
For the next three years I got to work daily alongside a man who I consider to a hot rodding icon. I got to know Tex, his wife and his kids and some of his friends like Brian Brennan and Neal East. I even got to supply a photograph of a 1960 Corvette to use on the cover of a revised edition of How to Fix Up Old Cars. This made me realize any young man can realize his dream if he finds what he loves in life and has mentors like Tex Smith to guide him to it.
While working with Tex, I learned about his fascinating life.
Tex was a supporter of first Bonneville Salt Flats speed trials sanctioned by the Southern California Timing Assoc. (SCTA). He crewed for Lee Wooley’s Buick coupe in l952. Also in the ‘50s, he raced a ‘32 Ford coupe with a flathead. Tex remained a fixture in land speed racing, most prominently as a journalist.
He continued to develop his interest in specialty cars (hot rods and circle track racers) during the early years of those sports in Southern California. In this period, he worked closely with the legendary Wally Parks on development of the National Hot Rod Assoc. Over the years, Tex served as NHRA’s international Ambassador, European Director and National Field Director, working out of a Hollywood office. He formulated and directed the activities of NHRA drag racing, created the International Car Club Assoc. for NHRA, and developed programs related to driving sports cars in European races and rallies.
Tex left Hot Rod Magazine in 1964 to launch a successful free-lance writing career. He expanded into writing books for various New York publishers including Dodd, Mead & Co. during the ‘60s. He wrote on wide range of activities, specializing in sports of interest to males—boating, aircraft and cars.
Tex wrote a runaway best-selling book called We Came In Peace, that was a look at America’s first moon landing. He created an outline for a popular outdoors TV show, did magazine promotions for Boy Scouts of America, undertook public relations writing for the White Mountain Apache tribe and, from the ‘60s thru ‘70s, wrote many Petersen specialty automotive books.
Tex created TRM Publishing Co. as the foundation for Tom McMullen’s company. Starting in 1968, he introduced a series of successful magazines such as Street Chopper, Chopper Guide, Hot Bike and Street Rodder. Tex also helped put Tom Medley’s Rod & Custom magazine into the mainstream as the voice of the emerging “street rod” movement. He also did much to generate direction for what was a fast developing new aspect of hot rodding in that era.
In 1979, Tex moved to Iola, Wis., as editor of Old Cars Weekly and was almost immediately promoted to publisher for all of parent company Krause Publications’ automotive titles. From there, he moved to Dallas, Texas, to become PR Director for Interstate Battery Co.’s Great American Race in the early days of that event. In 1985, LeRoi retired — for the first time — and relocated to Idaho to live and go trout fishing in the Teton Valley.
In 1987, Tex came out of retirement to start his own publishing company based around a popular magazine he created called Hot Rod Mechanix. He also developed an ever-growing line of specialty books.
He now splits his time between homes in Idaho and Australia, with stopovers on Kauai, Hawaii.
If you enjoy reading about Tex, maybe someday I’ll tell you about the time he shot photos at an important function in Hershey, Pa., with no film in his camera or about how he set things right with the Minnesota Street Rod Assoc., after a few of us rowdy editors got our picture taken doing bleach burnouts on the streets outside the Street Rod Nats with the Old Cars Weekly Suburban.
Tex (in sweater) working on an article he did in 1963.
Tex is on the left in the front row in this 1979 Old Cars Christmas staff photo. I'm the guy freezing with the suspenders.
Tex gets ready to knock out another editorial on his IBM Selectric.
Tex strums a tune on a banjo in back of his '48 Chrysler limo.
Legendary photographer Eric Rickman shot Tex (on left) in 1962.
Tex was a U.S. Air Force jet pilot in the early '50s.
I want an old NHRA helmet like the one Tex is wearing here.
This is a relatively recent photo of Tex at Bonneville.