The holiday season often reminds me of returning home from college, catching up with friends, and showing my family just how cool I was becoming. I seriously couldn’t wait to show off my new nose-piercing to my folks when I was eighteen and had come home for Thanksgiving. There I stood in the foyer by the front door in the overhead light, practically sticking my nose out and trying to act like I didn’t know there was a shiny, metal ring poking through a tiny hole in my left nostril. “Oh, this?…” (The hole is still there, by the way.) My dad had glaucoma and his eyesight wasn’t the best, so needless to say, he didn’t notice, or at least he acted like it. My conservative mom ignored it at first probably just to rob me of any shock-value I felt I had earned, but I digress.
Around this same time, both out of a general lack of funds and also a need to set myself apart in a sea of grunge-inspired flannel, ripped jeans and baggy b-boy clothes worn by fellow students, I had started to dress head-to-toe in vintage t-shirts, corduroy, and polyester. This was back in the early/mid-90’s, a time when decent examples of such items could be easily found on the cheap in thrift stores. It seemed then like the 70’s had revolved back into the consciousness of the underground in my college town of Gainesville, Florida, and in many other places where clove cigarettes were smoked and incense was burned. I was one of many other kids who were busy showing the rest of the world just how much we didn’t care about being cool, while believing with complete conviction that we had to have been the coolest kids, ever.
Unlike some of the vintage, thrift-store clothes I sported over half my life ago (and still do occasionally, these days), the Checker Marathon was never chic, at least in a traditional sense. Manufactured in Kalamazoo, Michigan with a design that dated from the dawn of the 1960’s, it underwent few significant changes in its design before going out of production after ’81. With a style as innately sexy as a pair of orthopedic oxfords even when new, the introduction of safety bumpers for ’74 made the Marathon only a little less attractive (in my opinion), if at all.
I’m completely guessing as to the model year of our featured car. All I can recognize is that it’s got side marker lights and reasonably-sized bumpers. If it was manufactured in or around 1970, it’s likely Chevy-powered by a 250-c.i. 6-cylinder or a 350 V8, both of which got progressively weaker over the years. (The 1970 versions of these engines rated at 155 hp for the Six, and 250 hp for the Eight.) Most Marathons of this era weighed about 3,500 lbs. at the curb.
All of which brings me to this: Why do I actually like the style of the Marathon, despite its upright, thick, blocky profile? I mean, I genuinely dig it. I wonder if it’s the positive mental association I have that connects images of the Marathon, once thick on the streets of large cities, with exciting places like Manhattan. “Driver, take me to the HoJo’s restaurant in Times Square…” when Times Square was still gloriously gritty.
Maybe it’s the utter lack of pretense the Marathon seems to exude. It was tall and boxy (in an era of ever longer-lower-wider) for easy ingress and egress, and for a light and airy cabin. Its near-bulletproof Chevy powertrains were sure to be reliable in many instances of harsh traffic conditions. Also, I feel the tank-like Marathon is one car whose appearance might actually not be hampered by a few dents. We call this “character” when applied to human beings, and I’ve got a few dents of my own, these days.
I think the simple truth is that the Checker Marathon never went out of style because it was never in style, to being with. I’ve got nothing but respect for a car that doesn’t appear to care about even playing the game of trying to be cool. Sporting the same suit for over two decades with almost no alterations, this black Marathon, spotted in my neighborhood just a few weeks ago, is the very epitome of cool. It’s like black licorice…not for everybody, and definitely old-school. And I love it all the more for just those reasons.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Tuesday, November 8, 2016.
Related reading from:
- Paul Niedermeyer: Automotive History: An Illustrated History Of Checker Motors;
- William Stopford: Curbside Classic: Checker Marathon – The Brooklyn Bruiser; and
- Kevin Martin: CC Feature: My Checkered Career With Checker Cabs.
I love the way you write, Joseph. This is one of my favourite pieces of yours yet!
+1 Great writing. I was in Gville at the same time and you hit the nail on the head with your description. There was a definite back-to-the-60s/70s trend at that time and place. The best thrift stores at that time were in St. Petersburg (Florida) where you could find polyester button down short sleeve shirts in limitless supply….sad that I know that.
Not sad at all, Jakengle! I still have a handful of those shirts, some of which will probably be worn this weekend.
Ah, Gainesville. Selling plasma at Alpha Plasma downtown so I could afford to go to 80’s Night at the Florida Theatre on Tuesday nights. Buying a few nice things from Lucky 7 upstairs. Burrito Brothers. Leonardo’s. Late nights / early mornings studying or playing Uno at Insomnia (cafe). Live music at the Covered Dish. And in St. Pete, I remember buying vintage corduroy from Uncle Milty’s off Bay-To-Bay and other stuff from Sunshine Thrift in Tampa on MacDill.
And thanks (and also to you, Will Stopford) RE: my writing. 🙂
Same in the UK – this was when Oasis came on the scene, remember them? Brit-pop and Grunge, that was the time. And women with combat trousers.
+1 Something about the way this was written…my favorite as well. Also, I love the whitewalls on the featured car!
+1
Great piece. Great photos. Reminds me of this song;
In the first pic. background is a drive through ~ what brand ? it looks familiar .
.
Checkers are sweet ~ I shoulda bought one when I could but now prolly never will =8-( .
.
-Nate
Nate, that’s a White Castle you’re looking at. Happy Thanksgiving!
That’s what I thought, THANK YOU =8-) .
I’ve not driven a Checker sine 1979 or so….
Good cars IMO .
-Nate
The only way I could get a rough idea of a date on a Checker is by the steering column/wheel. That seemingly was the only visible interior changes!
I think those front and rear battering ram bumpers make that Checker probably a 1974 or later model My father had a 74 Caprice, the first year with the federally mandated bumpers and they were huge.
Federal 5 MPH bumpers were mandated in 1973 for the front and 1974 for the rear.
I genuinely love the sheer utilitarian aspect of these as well. Especially the rare station wagon. I even love the little tiny ads(1/16 page) they ran for these cars in the National Geographic. The ads were the equivalent of their cars, functional, sincere and unchanging. I’ve always wanted one ever since I peered into the interior of a clean example and saw the massive interior space. The TV show “Taxi” made an impression as well. ?
This ad sums up their philosophy quite succinctly
Ad reminds me of a 1961 VW ad that said the same thing, ie., new year model looks like previous year but with improvements without obsoleting the car.
This is awesome, lw. Thanks for posting this.
Another Checker fan here. And also another fan of your writing.
So it was stopped at the red light and you crossed the street just so you could provide shots of both sides! Joseph, that’s dedication. —— The tie-died T-shirt is in the mail!
Hahaha!! You noticed this. Thanks, Wolfgang!
Thank you for this. I’ve been dipping myself in Checker the last week, so this is quite welcome!
And, I have to agree with the others – this is one of your best yet.
You nailed the vibe of this Checker, Joe. Since we grew up within a few years and a few miles of each other, I’ve tried to think back on early ’90s “hipsters,” and I can’t really remember that trend really permeating my high school. Maybe I never noticed because, like this Checker, I’ve never really been in style either. 🙂
Nice metaphor and timing on the shot. How often does one see a Checker in “street clothes?”
Longtime Checker fan here. I especially like the rare civilian, late production models with the Oval opera window that looks like the same one used on the Lincoln Continental back then. I’ve always thought that these Checkers give off a certain Rolls Royce Silver Shadow vibe, but since the Checker came out first, I guess that the Rolls gives off a Checker vibe. Good thing Rolls didn’t offer taxi yellow as a color choice.
Well, Bentley has a comparable color…
Color (colour?) Yes, Easy maintenance??, No, Besides the Checker is CLEARLY better looking. (more dignified,by a mile.)
I once owned a 1972 Checker that had only seen civilian duty. From a utilitarian perspective it was excellent, comfortable, easy to park, great visibility, etc. Easiest car to work on I have ever owned, with very simple construction.
I rather like the look of that Checker in black. Black adds a stately, elegance to an already conservative old fashion appearance, sort of like an middle age gentleman dressed in homburg and suit. As to the model year I was thinking 1973-74 at the earliest due to the bumper.
You’d have liked Israel in the 60s-80s, as crazy as it may seem (what with Middle Eastern weather being what it is) ours were almost always black, for some reason or another. And 99.9% had clattery 4 cylinder Perkins diesels with clouds of smoke pouring out of the exhaust. Here’s one on the way to Jerusalem (7-seater cabs were used on inter-city trips in Israel in the same way as buses).
I sent away for a Checker brochure in 69-70 and they sent me a whole information packet. The Marathon [pre-ceded by the Superba] was appealing to me even then for it’s blatant refusal to be less than functional or subject to styling fads for the sake of appearing “new”.
Even at 13 or 14 that built to function not form philosophy was becoming a positive selling feature of my future car choices.
The independents played up the lack of “Change for the sake of change”, as did VW.
And when the Pinto and Vega came out they were dedicated to not making more than improvements that enhanced value much as VW had done with the Beetle. It was a legitimate advance for the consumer.
That Ford and Chevrolet had no clue what it actually meant, was, of course, a major part of the story. It only meant saving money on styling changes mostly. Selling cars like that was like willingly swallowing poison for their executives.
The featured Checker is post bumper legislation, so not a 70. The ones in the brochure fit the body better and are closer to the front and rear fenders and chromed.
That same brochure is found in the CC links at the end of the article BTW. Every claim for long life and no nonsense resonates, here.
Anyone remember seeing these fitted with water filled rubber bumpers ?
Thanks for another great article.
Dweezil, thank you for this insight! Water-filled rubber bumpers…wow. This is the first I have ever heard about that innovation.
Oops. Superba and Marathon were sold at the same time. And old mind is a terrible thing to rely on.
Somewhat surprised at the weight only being 3500 pounds
Hell, my smaller Ford Escape weighs that much.
In addition to the links at the end of the article (all worth reading), here’s one from the NYT on the day the last Checker was retired from NYC duty seven years ago.:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/1999/07/27/nyregion/last-new-york-checker-turns-off-its-meter-for-good.html
Rudiger, thanks for posting that. I had to do a double-take… only seven years ago? But then I realized the article was from 1999. It’s still pretty incredible that a 21-year old car was still operational as a taxi. It is a testament to the durability of these no-nonsense cars.
I was only off by ten years. :/
Wasn’t there supposed to be a NYC-specific version of the Nissa NV200 cargo van approved for use in the near future? With the demise of the RWD Ford Panther, what are the most prevalent vehicles being used for cabs these days, anyway?
Great story and photos! The featured car does have the bigger bumpers, but they appear to be chrome-plated, unlike the taxis which has silver-painted bumpers. (The smaller pre-safety bumpers were all chrome-plated.)
Now suppose all sedans and wagons had retained similar proportions from the late 50s and 60s onward, instead of going longer-lower-wider, would crossovers have obtained the foothold they have today? I mean, look at the ground clearance of the pictured Checker!
Thanks, 210delray, and you bring up an interesting point. I would love to compare the exterior dimensions of this ’74+ Marathon with those of, say, a new Ford Escape referenced by W.Johnson above…
I was in college in the mid-late ’80s. I didn’t care as much about being cool as I cared about finding my individuality. So I got my ear pierced and grew my hair long and wore heavy-metal T-shirts. I didn’t fully understand the irony of how my individuality matched that of so many other young men about my age.
When I walked into my parents’ house with that piercing, my dad did not approve. I pointed to the USN tattoo hiding behind his shirtsleeve and said, “My earring comes out anytime I want.” That ended that.
But in the mid 1980s, in the blue-collar midwestern town where I went to engineering school, a man with a pierced ear was not looked upon with warm acceptance. More than once locals muttered unkind things my way. More often than not, it was in the form of f-bombs — not the four-letter kind, but the one that called my sexuality into question. I’m glad we’ve grown past that.
Thirty years later, I still wear an earring, a simple sterling silver hoop. It seems so buttoned down and conservative compared to the piercings I see on the young-uns today.
That’s awesome, Jim. It’s amazing what had changed between your time in college and mine, when (in Gainesville, anyway), earrings – sometimes multiple ones – seemed to be the norm for dudes (regardless of sexual identity) who identified with the “Alternative” subculture. I am largely thankful that most of the ways in which I sought to set myself apart were largely reversible or are mostly invisible these days, just knowing my own personal preferences in my early 40’s.
you find the most amazing cars to photograph, joseph!
a real classy looking checker!!
I hope my fellow, stateside Curbsiders had a great day yesterday!
And as at least four of you have pointed out, I missed the model year by a mile. For whatever reason that night, and going from my memory, the bumpers on this Marathon just didn’t look that large. Zooming in on the last two pictures, the back bumper does, indeed, look like that of a ’74+.
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll probably fix the article (not just the title) when I have access to my most reliable source of info.
And thanks to all for reading this, the kind words, and relating your own experiences. The last thing is part of what makes CC so rewarding to write for.
I have many fond memories of riding in Checker cabs as a child. Mostly, I remember the cavernous room they had and in the back. My parents, grandparents, myself, and my sister could all fit in a Checker. My sister and I used to love riding in the jump seats!
Until my early teens, whenever we hailed a cab, it was always a Checker.
Then one day, they were gone!
Joseph, thank you for a very thoughtfully written and superbly photographed Thanksgiving treat. I grew up in the metro NYC area. The familiy took many trips into the city via train and often took a Checker between the train station and the destination. I always rode in a jump seat when I could. I felt a little sad when the Checkers started to go away.
Over the years at CC, a number of cars have been praised for being “honest.” Checkers were never about style and always about function. I think the Checker is one of the most honest cars ever made. Like you, I love it for what it is, although I have no desire or need to own one.
Your pictures also emphasize an aspect of the Checker I had not really noticed before (the dark color might have something to do with it): The proportions are really quite good and have held up well. By “proportions” I mean the length/height rations of the lower body and greenhouse, the sizes of same, the placement of the greenhouse, the position and size of the wheels and windows, etc. Perhaps it is not “beautiful” in the conventional sense, but it just looks “right” to me. Another car I can think of with similar proportions is the Volvo 144/244 and that still looks good after 50+ years.
YMMV of course. Again, thanks for posting this!
A few available for sale here:
https://www.checkermotorcars.com/
Brings back memories….
In 1965, my dad bought one of his dream cars, a brand new Checker Marathon. Chroma Black with a silver and charcoal gray interior. He ordered it with the Chevy 6 and a 3-speed manual transmission with overdrive. It also had the jump seats in the back (which are good for about 100 miles on long trips before your butt gets too sore from the thin padding and general lack of support).
By 1973, it became mine to drive to HS. I HATED it. SO uncool. My buddies and I wanted cool cars (’55-57 Chevies).
The Checker stayed in the family until 1991 or so, having been repainted 2-3 times and wrecked once (by my former sister in law, who wasn’t supposed to be driving it at all). I’m sure by the time my stepmother traded it in toward a minivan, it had several hundred thousand miles on it. It needed more and more repairs, and my dad had died several years before that happened.
Today, I’d love to have another one from the chrome bumper era (mid ’60-s to mid ’70’s). Especially a station wagin!
Nice Checker. I always liked the no-nonsense vibe of these cars. My uncle drove a Checker cab in the 1980s and I spent some around Checker cabs as a kid, even helped out with some minor repairs. I still have the roof sign from his last cab that he had kept after retiring.
As to the fashions in the mid-90s, God, how I hated those pretentious stoner kids who thought a vintage polyester shirt and a goatee made them somehow original and not just like all the rest of them… I was in a retro punk band at the time and we had some songs that made fun of these hipsters and grunge kids too…
I’ve gotta admit that having the roof light off of an actual Checker cab beats the livin’ s__t outta the drive-in theater speaker and heater I have! ???
When a buddy of mine drove cabs in the mid 1970’s they had some Checkers (didja know the front suspension is _designed_ to go over cubs @ 35 MPH ? I didn’t) , and he scored me a few older meters from the junkpile, I was able to cobble one up that’s complete and works fine after all these years ~ it has a spring wound clock works in it to keep track of the minutes ~ wind it up and drop the flag and every three minutes (IIRC) it goes “KA-CHUNK” and the fare goes up a few cents .
-Nate
If someone today had THIS EXACT (emphasis,not shouting..) car I’d buy (in cash), My only “options” would be at least “Electra” level interior trim. (some may “go” LeSabre,But a big car deserves a “big’ trim!) I’m not talking about a “retro” look, but a big-ish RWD-BOF!