Recent sunny weather plus longer daylight hours convinces us that Spring is truly sprung and we should all jump in our cars and celebrate the new blossom, daffodils, baby lambs or whatever takes your fancy in this new season.
Our Friday lady has Agaves growing nearby – not the prettiest of plants – but never mind, the jaunty angle she holds her head, and her choice of pleated frock tells us she would love to go for a drive in the country and enjoy the fresh air.
The car she carefully climbed upon is a 1928 Oldsmobile Coupe, also known as a Landau Coupe because of theose 'Landaubars' ( short for Laundaulette) which were carried over from horse-drawn carriage days. The Oldsmobile name goes back to 1901 when the Curved Dash Oldsmobile was made from 1901 to 1904 – some say the first mass produced car.
Notice the radiator has vertical radiator slats, controlled by thermostat, which allows the reduction of air flowing through the radiator in cold weather. The history books tell us that the first pilots to fly the Atlantic Ocean were Alcock and Brown on 14 June 1919 in their twin-engined Vickers Vimy, but the previous month, Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve took off in their single-engined Sopwith but were forced to ditch in the ocean when their cooling water boiled. The radiator shutters in front of their 350hp Rolls Royce Eagle motor were closed because the lever in the cockpit had mistakenly been fitted to read back to front !
The quality of the Shorpy image reveals the sparkling paint of a brand new car, not yet fitted with registration plates, and notice also the creases in her stockings. Nylon wasn’t used in stockings until 1940, and the stretchy lycra fibres weren’t added to women’s stockings until after 1959, that leaves silk ( or rayon) which was notorious for bagging at the knees and ankles as the day wore on, so our lady is looking as good as possible early in the day.
The early cars were officially known as “Olds Automobiles”, but the name “Oldsmobile” was popularised by the lyrics and title of the 1905 hit song “In My Merry Oldsmobile” and if you take our lady by the hand and help her down from the car, you can ask her to dance to that very song. Listen HERE. The gentleman playing it for you is Graham Rankin, who periodically corresponds with PreWarCar.com and has a passion for early gramophones of the best quality. Oh, and amongst several other cars, he also owns a Curved Dash Oldsmobile.
(Text Robin Batchelor, photograph courtesy Shorpy)