CC reader Mauro sent me the links of a few old film shorts, starting with this 1938 clip of folks amusing themselves in a somewhat unorthodox manner. It’s got an Italian sound track, and I rather suspect that the poor car-less Italians sitting in the Cinema Paradiso watching this must have winced a bit.
And here’s another one from Akron, OH, that seems to be on a similar theme, but it’s pretty surreal.
Is this some early version of an anti-car protest?
Curious to say the least!
I wonder is this sort of thing was the origin of the demolition derby and banger racing?
There has to be a connection or inspiration in there somewhere.
I’d say it’s closer to “Will it blend?”
Kinda like when railroads would crash steam locomotives, Or in modern times, YouTube videos of people blowing up TVs or laptops with m80s. Or people who watch building demolition. Some weird human need to break and blow s**t up. obviously not a new thing!
If this was a Texan operation, high explosives would’ve been used instead of sledgehammers.
“What we need here is a 500lb bomb.” — remark by an engineer at GD Fort Worth, 1980s
Wonder what part of Portland that video is from? Mount Tabor or Rocky Butte is my best guess since that could be Sandy Blvd. on the river valley below and back then there was farmland between Gresham and Portland.
Interesting videos indeed and I was surprised to find out Fort Bragg, CA, and Missoula, MT just threw everything into the nearest water source. People befuddle me sometimes.
Surely some of the debris will still be at the demolition site. Axles and engine blocks don’t rust away.
…one more reason for an (c)archeological research around Portland 🙂
I am thinking it is Mt. Scott, above where I-205 now runs.This was the edge of town back then and it is where the modern town of Happy Valley is located. Lots of trees there now.
I’d say it’s Rocky Butte, right before the end of the clip there’s a white building that sure looks like part of the old Hill Military Academy.
The 1st video got me the dreaded “An Error Occurred” message; worse than idiot lights, it tells me nothing about why it failed. Bad Adobe™ programmer, no soup for you? It never hurts to tell users more than they might understand, it’s a failure anyway. Minicomputers used to give you a nice traceback; now, the best you can hope for is a logfile hidden somewhere in your file system.
2nd video with that coolant pouring out might be reportable to the EPA today.
So why couldn’t Fascist Italy come up with any home-grown wrecking-yard footage?
The coolant back then was more likely water with alcohol (if in the winter – just water in the summer), not glycol.
Yeah, you’re right; while Prestone (i.e. ethylene glycol) was formulated in the early ’30s or so (depending on whom you ask), it didn’t reach widespread use until long after the War.
“So why couldn’t Fascist Italy come up with any home-grown wrecking-yard footage?”
What makes you think they couldn’t ????
I hear your editorial quibble; “didn’t” is a better word. That they ●could● is trivial.
Ha!
An early version of cash for clunkers, or possibly a fundraising publicity stunt.
Hell of a way to open up a junkyard! Buy the plot of land, put a ramp in over it, and have people pay you to scrap their old clunkers in an entertaining manner. Even better if you can profit by selling the film rights later on!
In 1938, the American Dealer Association or a related organization paid a flat fee to dealer to destroy junkers that were choking inventories and, so they thought, suppressing new car sales. The quick, severe ‘Roosevelt’ recession was the main cause but junking of stock garnered much publicity
Not too much different from Obama’s Cash for Clunkers stunt.
The problem was that it took many decent, operable used cars off the market for those who could only afford low-priced ones. Big splash in the headlines. Big problem for those who could only afford cheap used cars.
Unintended consequences…like much of what Government (“I’m here to HELP you”) does.
Is this the NADA initiative? (early 1938)
Very interesting piece.
No matter what your politics, this is an industry collusion to fix prices through artificially inflated demand.
Instead of letting capitalism takes its course correcting excess capacity by allowing the weakest products and companies to scale back or die, they write a quite elitist treatise on who is deserving and capable of owning a car, with a sprinkling of “we need to save the poor fools from themselves who would drive an old unsafe car.” Well, thank goodness for the N.A.D.A.
It wasn’t that many years earlier that Henry Ford thought that an expanding middle class was the route to an expanded market.
The politics and debates of 1938 are apparently not much different from today.
Those 11 million cars nine years and older still in service refers primarily to Model Ts, which were the default cheap wheels at the time, and could be fixed by anyone, and were so well built that it made sense to keep them going. Henry’s flivver was the bane of new car dealers.
A little more NADA followup:
As you read this it’s difficult to believe that, just a few years later, these older cars and their spare parts would become precious commodities. Even if they weren’t useful as transportation, the scrap metal became valuable to wartime production.
Thanks for the N.A.D.A. plan postings, I couldn’t find my copies just now.
Doubtful the program stimulated new car sales, if the annual results for 1938-39 are any indication.
1938 was still in the depth of the depression era. Many people were barely able to afford any kind of car at all, much less a new one. No job, no money, no new car sales. So the solution is to crush them all. The real solution was WW2.
The retail motor traders association here lobbied our govt to introduce 6 monthly safety inspections primarily to remove old bombs from the roads and increase sales the Warrant of fitness scheme survives to this day and I guess it worked NZ has the second highest vehicle to population ownership rates in the world beaten narrowly by the USA.
Brought about due to the 1938 “mini-depression”, or, in modern terms recession.
Keep in mind that, despite the image of the nation being in the grip of a hard depression the day after the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the stock market actually recovered in the short term, then started the long slide bottoming out between 1931 and 1933. Auburn actually had their best year in 1931 (not 1929), and 1932 was almost as good, so somebody in what we’d now call the BMW-class still had money for a couple of years.
The long grind back only started with the 1934 model year, 1935 was better, 1936 was better yet, 1937 was the first good year since 1929 . . . . . . and then the 1938 model year was a disaster. Hupp’s plans for a last ditch comeback in 1938 model year foundered on that recession, and it guaranteed that Cord and Pierce Arrow would be gone forever.
This, of course, started dealers (who NEVER look in the long term) panicking. And led to stunts shown in these newsreels. Because the alternative (in the days before rebates and “cash on the hood”) would be for the manufacturer to actually LOWER PRICES on cars (entire lines) that weren’t selling. And no dealer wanted to have admit that he’d have to sell a car for less.
(Amazing how they got around that in the 80’s, isn’t it?)
It makes me wonder if the average Italian moviegoer didn’t want to petition Il Duce to bring over all those cars that Americans were gleefully trashing, just to have cars to own. Not that Il Duce would have ever let it happen.
Chevrolet model year production, passenger cars only, 1927-1941:
1927: 678,540
1928: 785,199
1929: 846,743
1930: 640,980
1931: 619,554
1932: 319,461
1933: 486,271
1934: 551,371
1935: 548,212
1936: 918,278
1937: 815,420
1938: 464,796
1939: 577,645
1940: 764,249
1941: 1,009,776
Thanks for posting this. While I had already known that 1932 was the worst year, I wasnt aware how sales were climbing to new heights after the 1938 slump. The theory that we needed WWII for economic reasons doesnt work here.
The one in Portland is pretty clearly a publicity stunt, maybe for charity. A sort of flaming race. The cars seem to be labeled with names of car dealers.
The one from “Akron, Okio” isn’t any one thing and probably isn’t even from Akron, Okio. It’s just a montage of very old newsreel footage.
What no Geezers here to – day ? .
This sort of thing was pretty popular from the late 1920’s through the 1930’s are there were lots of older vehicles no one wanted simply because they were ‘ old ‘ remember , at this time , $25 ~ $50 would get you a good 5 year old car , $15 would get you a cherry ‘A’ model Ford….
Go ask Grandpa .
-Nate
My gradfather bought a Model A ute in 1935 for 35pounds about $200 US at the time and drove it until 1950 traded it on a 46 Prefect and 100 pounds trade in.
In the 1960’s , good used ‘A’ Model Fords were still under $100 almost anywhere , fully restored ones were maybe$1,000 .
I didn’t buy my first ‘A’ Model until 1980 or so , it had 72,000 original miles , a 1929 TuDor Sedan , original paint , I over paid @ $2,500 but it ran well and I enjoyed it greatly .
I used it for daily transportation .
-Nate
Fascist Propaganda? Does any of the dialogue translate into, “Capitalistic Americans destroy perfectly operational automobiles while Italians struggle to find affordable transportation?” or something similar.
Sort of a study in relativity.
In 1938 these were tired, obsolete designs suffering from maladies due to wear, tear and age.
If these cars were to magically reappear in our driveways today, in their 1938 condition before their destruction, we’d think we hit a gold mine of easily restored rare cars.
The 1st two cars, in the top video, turned into fireballs, as soon as they hit the ground…
I didn’t know, they made Ford Pintos back then. 🙂
No they didn’t ~ they were doused with gasoline then launched onto a fire .
Did anyone notice how the non Fords bodies disintegrated instantly but the Fords remained more or less intact as they tumbled down the hill ? .
Ford’s quality was legendary in the ‘T’ & ‘A’ Model years , if you’ve ever worked on one you’d know they were crude but the raw materiels and build quality were the best .
-Nate
translation of the voice-over into English:
First video:
“How in Portland, Oregon, citizens took part in the national campaign for the destruction of old, unusable cars that, having been abandoned everywhere as is customary in the States, were a great danger for road traffic safety.”
Second video:
“This is the junkyard where cars which have broken down are disposed of. Having been abandoned by their owners on the main road, they are a great hindrance to road traffic flow and a cause of many accidents.
Hundreds of these crashes happen every minute in the States, hence the need to quickly dispose of the vehicles with fire. 35000 cars were destroyed last year.”
Thanks for that, I was hoping somebody could translate.
Thank you for the translation.
Thanks for that. I’m not surprised that it’s undoubtedly a bit hyperbolic; it was a newsreel after all.