A superb and rare photo of Dodge
Dart as photographed in 1962.
Dodge is a US car brand
marketed by Chrysler LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories
worldwide. Founded as the Dodge Brothers Company in 1900 to supply parts and
assemblies for Detroit’s
growing auto industry, Dodge began making its own complete vehicles in 1914.
The brand was sold to Chrysler Corporation in 1928, passed through the short-lived
DaimlerChrysler merger of 1998–2007 as part of the Chrysler Group, and is now a
part of Chrysler. Dodge has a very interesting history. After the founding of
the Dodge Brothers Company by Horace and John Dodge in 1900, the Detroit-based
company quickly found work producing precision engine and chassis components
for the city’s burgeoning number of automobile firms. Chief among these
customers were the established Olds Motor Vehicle Company and the then-new Ford
Motor Company. Dodge Brothers enjoyed much success in this field, but the
brothers' growing wish to build complete vehicles was exemplified by John
Dodge's 1913 exclamation that he was "tired of being carried around in
Henry Ford's vest pocket." By 1914, he and Horace had fixed that by creating
the new four-cylinder Dodge Model 30. Pitched as a slightly more upscale
competitor to the ubiquitous Ford Model T, it pioneered or made standard many
features later taken for granted: all-steel body construction (when the vast
majority of cars worldwide still used wood framing under steel panels, though
Stoneleigh and BSA had used steel bodies as early as 1911), 12-volt electrical
system (6-volt systems would remain the norm up until the 1950s), and
sliding-gear transmission (the best-selling Model T would retain an antiquated
planetary design all the way until its demise in 1927). As a result of all
this, as well as the brothers' well-earned reputation for quality through the
parts they had made for other successful vehicles, Dodge cars were ranked at second
place for U.S.
sales as early as 1916. The same year, Henry Ford decided to stop paying
dividends, leading to the Dodge brothers filing suit to protect approximately a
million dollars a year they were earning; this led Ford to buy out his
shareholders, and the Dodges were paid some US$25 million. In the same year,
Dodge vehicles won wide acclaim for durability while in service with the US
Army's Pancho Villa Expedition into Mexico. One notable instance was in
May when the 6th Infantry received a reported sighting of Julio Cardenas, one
of Villa's most trusted subordinates. Lt. George S. Patton led ten soldiers and
two civilian guides in three Dodge Model 30 touring cars to conduct a raid at a
ranch house in San Miguelito,
Sonora. During the ensuing firefight
the party killed three men, of whom one was identified as Cardenas. Patton's men tied the bodies to the
hoods of the Dodges, returning to headquarters in Dublán and an excited
reception from US newspapermen. Dodge cars continued to rank second place in
American sales in 1920. But that year, tragedy struck as John Dodge was felled
by pneumonia in January. His brother Horace then died of cirrhosis in December
of the same year (reportedly out of grief at the loss of his brother, with whom
he was very close). The Dodge Brothers Company fell into the hands of the
brothers' widows, who promoted long-time employee Frederick Haynes to the
company presidency. During this time, the Model 30 was evolved to become the
new Series 116 (though it retained the same basic construction and engineering
features). Dodge Brothers emerged as a leading builder of light trucks. They
also entered into a production agreement whereby they produced trucks marketed
as Graham Brothers by the men who would later produce Graham and Graham-Paige
automobiles. Stagnation in development was becoming apparent, however, and the
public responded by dropping Dodge to fifth place in the industry by 1925. That
year, the Dodge Brothers Company was sold by the widows to the well-known
investment group Dillon, Read & Co. for no less than US$146 million (at the
time, the largest cash transaction in history). Dillon, Read quickly installed
one of their own men at the company, one E.G. Wilmer, who set about trying to
keep the firm on an even keel. Changes to the car, save for superficial things
like trim levels and colors, remained minimal until 1927, when the new Senior
six-cylinder line was introduced. The former four-cylinder line was kept on,
but renamed the Fast Four line until it was dropped in favor of two lighter
six-cylinder models (the Standard Six and Victory Six) for 1928. Despite all
this, Dodge’s sales had already dropped to seventh place in the industry by
1927, and Dillon, Read began looking for someone to take over the company on a
more permanent basis. Enter Walter P. Chrysler, head of the recently-founded
(in 1924) Chrysler Corporation and former president of General Motors’
successful Buick division. Chrysler had wanted to purchase Dodge two years
earlier, and had in the meantime created his own DeSoto brand of cars to
challenge Dodge’s new entries in the medium-priced field. When Chrysler called
again in 1928, Dillon, Read was finally ready to talk. In a foreshadowing of
much later acquisitions by his company, Chrysler wanted Dodge more for its
name, its extensive dealer network and its factory than anything it was
producing at the time. The big sale came about in July 1928, when Chrysler and
Dodge engaged in an exchange of stock worth US$170 million. Production of
existing models continued, with minor changes here and there, through the end
of 1928 and (in the case of the Senior) into 1929. o fit better in Chrysler
Corporation lineup, alongside low-priced Plymouth and medium-priced DeSoto, Dodge’s
lineup for early 1930 was trimmed down to a core group of two lines and
thirteen models (from three lines and nineteen models just over a year
previous). Prices started out just above DeSoto but were somewhat less than
top-of-the-line Chrysler, in a small-scale recreation of General Motors’ “step-up”
marketing concept. (DeSoto would eventually flip sides, moving a notch above
Dodge during the early 1930s.) For late 1930, Dodge took another step up by
adding a new eight-cylinder line to complement the existing Senior
six-cylinder. This basic format of a dual line with Six and Eight models
continued through 1934, and the cars were gradually streamlined and lengthened
in step with prevailing trends of the day. A long-wheelbase edition of the
remaining Six was added for 1934 and would remain a part of the lineup for many
years. The Dodge line, along with most of the Corporation’s output, was
restyled in the so-called “Wind Stream” look for 1935. This was a mild form of
streamlining, which saw sales jump remarkably over the previous year (even
though Dodge as a whole still dropped to fifth place for the year after two
years of holding down fourth). Another major restyle arrived for the 25th
anniversary 1939 models, the top model of which Dodge dubbed the Luxury Liner
series. These were once again completely redesigned for 1942. However, just
after these models were introduced, Japan’s attack on Pearl
Harbor forced the shutdown of Dodge’s passenger car assembly lines
in favor of war production.
This is a very nice and very rare non period
photo that reflects a wonderful era of Dodge history in a wonderful
way. This is your rare chance to
own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca.
8" x 10" (ca. 20 x 26 cm). It
makes it perfectly suitable for framing.