Some alumni of the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild are holding a reunion @ Carillon Park in conjunction with the Dayton Concourse d'Elegance on September 17, just a few weeks away. There will be 40 or so vintage models on display, stop by if you are in the area.
That was one of my earliest unfinished projects in the early 1960's. Got all the literature, drew up a plan bought a big block of balsa, and stopped. When did the contest change from building the Fisher Body Coach to concept car models? Bob
I don't remember the exact dates (I don't remember what I had for dinner last night! I have a great memory, it just isn't very long) but Harley Earl instituted the Guild in 1930 for boys 12-19 to build an exacting scale replica of the Napoleonic coach that is the symbol of Fisher Body. I submit that only a handful of HAMBers would have the skill set or patience to build one of those coaches. Here is what those kids started with - a pile of wood, sheets of brass some screws and bits of cloth and cans of bursh paint; This is what they generated by the hundreds; Using nothing but a big book of detailed plans; That contest continued that way until I think 1936 when Earl and the gang figured out they were discovering fantastic craftsmen but not necessarily great designers. They opened the competition to both coaches and autos in 1937 for a couple years until the war. After the war it was all cars starting in 1948 when they dropped the coach competition in favor of just cars. There was a period in the 60s - 70s when virtually all of GMs and many of Ford, Chrysler and other makes of cars designers were all Guild alumnus. Here are some of the Guild alumni designer @ GM. There are a couple guys I know who are missing from this photo; Folks 'in-the-know' about auto styling would recognize many famous car designers who were Guildsmen. In addition to the famous names above; Tatseos, Jordan, Schuster, Russinoff, Semple, a guy from Ford you may have heard of is Virgil Exner. It was a pretty big deal.
I have a few cars that my dad made back in the 60's. Sadly, he passed away this past Tues. We made sure the Craftman's Guild was mentioned in the obit.
So sad to hear about your dad. I can attest, the pain subsides and the good memories take over. That is the urgency we Guildsmen are feeling; our generation is fading fast so we are trying to get the story out there so it isn't forgotten. Mentioning the Guild in the obit is critical for Guildsmen; we gain a bunch of our self image from that experience. I would love to see some photos of your dad's cars. Did he win any awards?
So sorry, to here about your dad. I would love to see pictures of his models too. I remember wanting to inter that contest. But like said, I was to young, and didn't know how to go about it. All I could think about back then, was the cool concept cars that we would be driving in the future. And what the future cars may look like. My parent's ,took me to the 1965 worlds fair. I was in {Heaven}. If I could ever live one week over again, that would be it. And { Willys36 } please keep us posted on the reunion! THANKS Ron...
Will do. I'll take pictures of all the Guild cars there and post them here. Might even shoot some Concourse cars if they are interesting. Nah, they are tea sippers, not Sam Adams guzzlers!!
Try to imagine what it was like in December 1930, with the economy falling apart and you open a copy of The Open Road for Boys and this hits you on page one. Bob
I would stare at the spec sheet that GM sent me for hours imagining all the wonderful designs that were captured inside that magic sheet of paper. It was in the 60s, not the 30s but I entered the contest in '61 from a Boys Life ad.
Just got back from the reunion. Didn't realize Dayton was such a big GM town. EVERYONE I talked to worked for GM, their dad worked for GM, etc. The Guild display was in conjunction with a big car show. There were probably 200 cars there. Here was my favorite. Here are some pictures of the cars on display. I didn't take pictures of my cars at the show! One thing we are doing is contacting museums around the country to establish Guild exhibits. The youngest Guild Alumni is 65 and we worry about what will happen to our models and the Guild story. Tony Simone, top winner in '61 is ramrodding the project. He produced a high quality promo film on YouTube to show the museums and is making 13 of these in-progress models to demonstrate the process the kids went through to make the cars. I picked better wood than this; big knot like that would make finishing difficult not to mention hard to carve!
no, that's the way I got it. it's been in a Plexiglas case from day one. I believe it's a 1/2 size version of the original kit coach. other than the 1983 date on the plaque, I know nothing else. I have owned it for about 25 years.
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