Vanderbilt Cup Races

Henry Austin Clark Jr. driving a 1912 Simplex at Gould’s Lyndhust Castle in Tarrytown.

https://lyndhurst.org/

That’s Henry Austin Clark, Jr. driving his 1912 Simplex Toy Tonneau at Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, NY. His lovely passengers are Margaret Hoffman, Anne Adams, and Mary Ryan. And yes, Gary, I’ve seen the postcard.

Mystery Foto Questions

1) Henry Austin Clark Jr.
2) 1912 Simplex Touring Car
3) ?

Henry Austin Clark, Jr., driving his 1912 Simplex Toy Tonneau with the Misses Margaret Hoffman, Anne Adams and Mary Ryan as passengers, stopped before the Gothic Revival Mansion owned and maintained by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Austin Clark is behind the wheel of his Simplex toy tonneau. Location 9is Tarrytown, NY at the Lyndhurst historic site. The New York Region of the Veteran Motor Car Club of America ( now name changed to Vintage Motor Car Club of America) used to have an annual pre WWII era car meet there that Austin organized and got a few of us to volunteer to help run, work the registration table, and judge cars. I did all of those areas but never liked to judge cars nor have my own cars judged. I usually drove up there in my 1931 Franklin but one year rode up with noted modern sculptor Richard Lippold of Locust Valley in his 1929 Bentley 4 1/2 litre tourer. That was an exhausting trip in the Bentley - top down lots of wind and Richard drove that car flat out as often as possible. We were doing 75 mph when on the Cross Westchester Expressway. Richard also owned a R-R Phantom II convertible victoria that was bought new by Charlie Chaplin for his new wife Paulette Goddard. Richard was a well known sculptor in gold wire ( yes real gold) and his main work is in the a museum of art in NY City.

I’m probably wrong, but it looks to me like Austin Clark.
Rog

Mystery Foto #6… I want to believe that that is Henry Austin Clark in a 1912 Simplex 50 Toy Tonneau but I don’t know the location.

The driver appears to be Henry Austin Clark jr. ...................

Possibly Henry Austin Clark Jr driving what resembles a 1904 Mercedes at the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum??? Photo appears to be looking west.

Why ‘toy’?

The word “toy” used to describe the body was a term used in that era for a particular type of coachwork. Same as phaeton was used for a touring car later. (especially in the 1920s/30s.) Capacity and level of the style of the door line had a lot to do with it. Toy tonneau had a lower door line level, held only 4 people comfortably - other open 4 door touring cars would seat 5 ( 3 people in rear seat two up front) or 7 people ( 2 extra seats provided that folded down and were located behind the front seat, most of the times attached to it) .  A long article could be written about the nomenclature of motor car body styling over the decades . Articles in the era were written to make the readers clear of what was what and some terms were a carry over from the horse drawn coachwork to describe similar car bodies that had seen their origin on a horseless carriage.

Thanks!

I don’t recall hearing ‘toy’ before.  But I’m used to touring cars and phaetons (I don’t know a definition, but in my experience phaeton’s tend to be more elaborate than touring cars, with some having a 2nd windshield for passengers).  FYI, my Packard 243 is a 7 passenger Touring car.

Anyone know when full size windshields became common?

A phaeton is usually 5 passenger , some with an extra cowl across the back doors that is hinged to the rear of the front seat. A toru9ng car was the name for all open 4 door cars with side curtains until the phaeton name got popular about 1928, then the touring was pretty much regulated to the 7 passenger open body style. My Packard is a 733 7 passenger touring car.

Note the 7 passenger Packard touring cars all had the oval loop style door handles on the outside. This was a hold over from the days of horse drawn carriages. Some town cars had the loop door handles as well. The readers here are getting a lesson on pre WWII era coach builders/body styles nomenclature.
Sorry to run on but my specialty as an author is about coach builders and car bodies.
I am in the middle of writing about the history of the Utica, N.Y. coach builder Willoughby and Co. for Crankshaft magazine issue #4. I have the Willoughby company photo albums in my archives.

Thanks.  Assuming that the last photo is of your 733 (my dad had a 733 coupe with rumble seat, the smaller 8), you’ve got a very nice car!  As to mine, have the side curtains (or what’s left of them) on a shelf.  Hope to have the spare cash to have them redone eventually.

Yes, that is my car. I bought it in 2016. The car was restored in the early 1970s took and AACA 1st place award and then resided in two collections in heated storage and not used ! as it was to “perfect” - I do not like awards and think cars are best viewed when in motion. the 1931 Franklin I had for decades I drove nearly 50,000 miles ( day and night, sun and rain , but not snow)  The standard eight engine is a bit smaller then the super eight engine but the terms standard and super didn’t come into use for a few years; are mostly used by car collectors. Many of the body panels on the standard 8 and super 8 are the same, wheelbase was different as well, wheels,hardware, etc all the same.  There is an excellent upholsterer in Ridgefield, Ct. who could make you the side curtains I have seen his shop and his work and he is the one I would go to if I need any. Hope you have the irons to fit in the doors to accept the side curtains - quite a chore to get them on and off the car.

Walt, Early on, did the automobile manufacturer also offer a body of their of own, or was that a separate industry and the dealer would offer several choices to purchasers.

Hey Al
Most automobile manufacturers from day one pre 1900 had a sales catalog that showed body styles they had on offer - these determined by what was currently popular but not all car manufacturers ( of chassis engine etc) had their own body dept to make the bodies for the cars. Often groups of bodies were contracted out to reputable body companies who supplied the bodies ” in the white” - that meant the bodies were totally finished except for paint , the “in the white” referred to the gray primer paint on the body, bodies then delivered by rail to the car companies and painted at the factory. This was mostly for “independent” car companies like Packard, Pierce Arrow, Franklin etc. Ford had its own dept to do this and Chrysler eventually bought the Budd Body Co. who had been supplying a lot of their normal sedans, coupes etc. There were usually a run of coach built bodies - maybe made 5 to 10 at a time - LeBaron touring cars/phaetons, Brunn convertible victorias, Murphy roadsters etc. To make one individual body on special order would cost more then a new house in a good neighborhood in the pre WWII era.  Coach builders would do a “one of” but made more $ on a run of a half dozen particular style bodies at one time. As they could cut all the wood, shape the alloy panels, order the window mechanisms, cast the windshield frames in group lots.

Right, our 733 had the ‘standard’ 8, the 243, what later became the Super 8.  Most people today have no idea of what the Super 8 motel chain is named and logoed from.  I can say that the sound of that large engine, built 1926, is sweet!  And while the car is a handful to drive, I do enjoy it, though health problems the last several years have gotten in the way.  Hopefully this summer that will change.

In regards to ‘coach’ makers, I have an affinity towards Brewster.  My dad had 2 Springfield RR’s, 1928 with limo body.  I remember how amazingly comfortable the main seat in the back was.  Also remember how nice it was running that engine.  The other was a 29, this one aluminum head engine, Riviera Town Car.  Beautiful car but some previous owner had run it into the ground.  Supposedly once owned by the founder of Time.

Walt, Thanks for your detailed and very informative post on how the industry operated. Was the Great Depression the primary reason for the downfall of the coach builder era ?

Al, yes the Great Depression took a while to sink in before businesses of all types started to disappear. A new Plymouth in 1931 was $635 just the body from Derham in Pa. for a 2 door victoria was $3,500 !! That 3.500 would have paid for a very nice new house, a full course meal was $1 to $2 maybe.
Most car businesses didn’t feel the affect or the coach builders as well until a few years in, all thought recovery was on the way. by the end of 1931 the gloom of reality had set in . Pierce Arrow was gone by 1938, Franklin by 1934, Hupmobile, Graham , Auburn, Cord etc. so the coach builders some of who had been around since carriage building days disappeared too. Brewster Co.in long island city was auctioned in 1937. Derham survived because they took on a Chrysler franchise and sold those while still having people order a custom body - many of the bodies were modified factory sedans. Still custom but a lot less $ then a totally scratch built frame up car. General Motors survived because they sold a lot of Chevrolets! not Cadillacs; Ford survived because they sold Fords, not Lincolns.

Maybe when our world is back to normal and we are able to once again have the great meetings of the L.I. Motor Parkway Society at the library, I should put together a program on coach building ? I would be happy to.

I’d enjoy such a program.  Question - Brewster Aircraft - what was it’s connection to the coach builders?  My father worked for BA for the early part of WW2 - mid 1941 for a couple years until he chose to give up his deferment and enlist (he was an aeronautical engineer).  He spent the rest of the war at a mysterious place in Oak Ridge.  All kidding aside, he never told us what he worked on there.

Brewster Aircraft I do not know, the Brewster plant in Long Island City at the east end of the 59th St Bridge had assorted use over the years immediately after the car operations there ceased. I am an automotive historian not an aviation historian but for some years belonged to the L.I. Early Fliers Club about 45 years ago when we hung the Lindberg Curtiss Jenny bi plane from the rafters at Roosevelt Field mall at the north east corner at 2 am for a display. all of that taking place when it was about 20 degrees out with a stiff wind and we had to unload the disassembled plane and carry it into the building.

I’d have liked to see that hanging!

That Jenny bi plane was and may still be at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Mitchell Field, it has been a while since I have gone there. It was restored by the L.I. Early Fliers Club members in the basement of the house of George Dade in Glen Head . Many of the people who worked on it were former employees of Grumman and Republic aviation out in Bethpage.
At the same museum is a great FULTON truck made in Farmingdale that Al Velocci bought the remains of and restored!

I’ve probably seen it then.  I’m a fan of Jenny’s - they were so important in early aviation.  Next time I go to COA I’ll have to look for the truck.

Thanks, guys for the great conversations! Hope to be at the Motor Parkway Preservation Society meet at the Bethpage IF AND WHEN IT RESUME??