The Unsung Cover Car

Kenny Smith’s channeled ’29 roadster was featured on the January, 1951 cover of Hot Rod Magazine. It’s a cover that ranks number four in my “all time top-5 list” of HRM covers. Thinking on it, there are really three reasons as to why this is the case:

1. Composition. You’ve got the two camera crews huddled with their monstrous lenses in the foreground, the roadster parked in the 2/3rds frame, and finally all of the admirers filling the background. Never has a more perfectly executed shot every been taken of a little roadster. It’s gold.

2. Exposure. If you are really honest with your eyes, you’ll admit that most early hot rod photography is shit. Hey, our boys were hot rodders – not photographers…  An obvious exception to that rule is Tom Medley. Put a lineup of early features in front of me and I’ll tell you which sessions were shot by Tom with 100% accuracy. He was a mile ahead of any other hot rod photogs of the time.

Anyway, that brings me to exposure. The scene as it lays out is as harshly lit as any you could imagine. Note the crisp shadows and the bright white of Kenny Smith’s interior. It’s a night shot with what was probably some very big strobe lights mounted overhead. Even so, Tom nailed the exposure with perfectly dark blacks and highlights with good detail despite the chunky film grain.

The end result is a photo that looks as though it belongs on an early 1950’s movie poster.

3. Now, I’d be that 99.9% of you fellas would have no idea the “Kenny Smith Roadster” even existed before reading this little article. Sure, you’ve probably seen this cover before and you’ve probably admired the car. BUT, I’d bet it didn’t go any further than that. Why?

Kenny’s roadster wasn’t actually featured in the January, 1951 issue of HRM. It just made the cover as part of some promotion that HRM was doing for KTLA’s “City At Night” television program. Instead, the car was actually featured in the August, 1950 issue of the magazine – throwing off many would-be hot rod historians.

Even more so though is the way the car was featured in that earlier issue. For reasons that aren’t totally obvious, the feature photos of the car had been cut of their background. You can’t do that to a channeled car – especially one with open wheels. What happens is the car’s proportions are completely blown because the reader has no ground to judge the car’s proportions against.

To put it frankly, Kenny looks like a monkey fuckin’ a football sitting in his little “skinny” car with odd proportions. Who wants to remember that?