History Matranga Mercury at the 1951 Oakland Roadster show

Jeff showed this photo of the Gil Ayala 1940 Mercury before and mentioned that Ron Kellogg said that the car sat inside the Ayala Shop where this photo was taken. I had my doubts about this being inside the Ayala shop, since I had heard that shop was always crowded with cars, and stuff. And this "shop" looks so clean, and large. I asked my friend Memo Ortega, who visited the Ayala shop from 1951 and up, and in 1958 bought Gil's 1942-46 Ford Coupe.
He thought that he recognized the guy in the photo as the one that always buffed all of Gil's paint jobs, but that he did not really recognize anything else in the shop.





Well last night I was looking for something else and I came across this photo of Jack Stewart's 1941 Ford (most work by Ayala, but finished by Barris) and it appears to me that these two photos where taken at the same location. The door in the back looks to be the same. The large stain on the bottom of the door which you can see behind Gil's rear fender, scan also be seen just behind the roadsters rear wheel in the Jack Stewart photo.






According the Barris #2 book this photo was taken by Dean Moon at the Urich Motors shop in Whittier.... And there was a small car show. Which makes sence since Gil's 1940 Mercury has some sort of display card in the windshield.

 

WOW, 11 pages in just 3 days. Where in Iowa was Bob Orr located.

 

Can't wait!!!!

 

Rik..yours eyes for the details are amazing! this is the same spot for sure! but as i remember, Bob Drake told us, that is was taken at a mercury dealer in lincoln CA. but i could be wrong.
thanks for starting this thread...
-palle

 

You could be right about that Palle...I was scanning that day And did not make the notes I should have made when Bob started to talk about the days.
I do remember that there is/was some confusion as to who took this photo Dick Moon, or Dick Dean.

 

In the R&C article on the 1949 Roadster Show this photo below is also shown.

However on the AHRF site this photo is placed in the 1950 - first - Roadster Show....

Fun stuff!!!

 

Yep you're right! I noticed that when comparing the March '50 HRM coverage with what is in that R&C article, it clearly shows that the majority of the pics are from the 1950 show. I did notice a few cars that appear setup differently.

The Tony and Will Silva's A roadster and Larry Neves' T track roadster appear to be placed differently they were Nor-cal cars so is probable they were there in '49-'50. Ken Fuhrman's A was another car there in '49. Look forward to seeing those pics Rik


It will teach me to jump head first. Usually I do cross checking that'll learn me for not doing so! this discussion got me all excited & it still does.

 

Same place in my opinion. There is also the same semi-circular plywood faced counter present in both photos to the right of the garage door. Several fellows can be seen standing near it in the background of the first photo with the Gil Ayala 1940 Mercury.

 

HERE WE GO.........ROD &CUSTOM got it wrong! I feel all the photos are from the 1950 show.Almost all the cars are listed in the 1950 program. The building of the roadster was advertised for the 1950 show.I think the photos from Fredslides were the 1949 show.As Rik said,Mary Slonaker stated the 49 show was mostly foreign and exotics with about ten Hot Rods. The Hot Rods garnered so much interest ,the Slonakers decided to do a Hot Rods only show in 1950.The huge trophy was dreamed up as a marketing tool and was ready by late 1949. The First National Roadster Show was advertised in Hot Rod ,october 1949.On January 19th 1950 about 100 Rods ,Customs and Race Cars opened the First Oakland Roadster Show. Looking at the Program ,about 80% of the cars were Track Roadsters from local racing associations.

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ROD&CUSTOM RON

 

Thanks Ron!!!. It really goes to show how much confusion occurs with the passing of time. Even the guy who took the pictures didn't know what year he took them in.

Did pictures not have the date they were developed put on them back then? I realize it would not give a precise date of anything as time might pass before they were developed but you would think most guys would develop the pictures relatively close to the time they were taken.

 

Another interesting note in this program is the Al Marx 34 roadster.Rodders Journal just did a great article on this car. I don't know if anybody knew that the car was entered in the show. I also have some earlier photos that may have been shown before.
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ROD&CUSTOM RON​

 

In the opening photos of this thread there are the pictures of Nicks car.......When the showcard with the number 417 is on the drivers side there is no Kustoms L.A. plaque but when the showcard is on the passenger side there is a plaque on the front bumper?? More importantly though ........ why is there not a Kustoms L.A. plaque on Sams mercury? If this is the first time the public has ever seen a 49 mercury chopped and in a show, wouldnt you think that George would have ran a plaque without any hesitation???? He sure had one on Nicks car for this major show.

 

Another interesting story on this car.Don Rocci is a friend and has told me he sold the Roadster Pickup after the 1950 show. The car was completely re-built as a Roadster with a trunk, and became the Frank Rose 1954 A.M.B.R. car.

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Ron.... Those photos on the 34 Ford are amazing!!!
And the scans of the first Oakland Roadster show program are fantastic as well...

Fantastic material!

 

Since Sam's 1949 Mercury could be seen from both sides there could have been a Barris sign on the drivers side of the car.
There is a small card in the passenger vent window... perhaps that says Barris... It to light to see anything on the photo I have.

 

Interestingly the photo used for Lee Chape's streamliner in the 1950 Oakland Roadster Show Program seams to be taken at the 1949 International show that the Slonaker's organized.



Fredslides collection

 

Thank you Rik , for sharing great story. I just finished reading the article on Marcia Campbell in RJ this morning.

 

Lee Chapels Sreamliner was a hometown car from Lee's Speedshop in Oakland and appears to have been in both shows.
ROD&CUSTOM RON

 

Not trying to backtrack here but I just thought I would back up a statement I said since I like to "decide what I think really happened".

- "In this build up shot,Sam stands proudly by Jerry's white primered ride.White,and eventually tinted,primer was very popular in those days."
- George Barris.... Kustom book vol-1 page 69.

Sorry for going back to this Rik,just thought I would share this.

 

Ron ,thank you for these scans.With your help of showing these,some history is really getting set straight.

 

I love how some these of these cars were put on an angle like this,I think it just gives the audience a great view of the car.

 

Getting back to the first post on this thread.
I'm still working on getting a better scan of the #B photo in the background of the Matranga Photo. But more than likely this car is the 1946 Cadillac Convertible with Padded top that was built by Barris.

So far I have not been able to find any information on this car. But since Barris used this car on his Business Cards, his bills and also as business advertising at the second Oakland Roadster show I assume it was a Big Custom for them.
But so far I have only come up with one real photo of this car, and a few photos with the car sitting in the background of photos taken of other cars.

Does anybody know anything about this great looking custom... owner's name, or perhaps has some more photos of it?

 

Amazing photos Ron!! I haven't received my copy of the Rodders Journal yet, so this really helps. Do you know what shop it is parked outside?

 

Rik, I have been doing my best looking for that Cadillac myself, so far without any luck. Maybe the truth can be found in an old car show program?

 

Sam came second in the Full Custom Class with his Merc

 

Judging by the unfinished interior I guess there were many other more important things that had to be done to the car before the show then mounting the plaque. Also do we know if it really was such a big deal back then about chopping the first 1949 Mercury? It is certainly a big deal for some people today, but I wonder how these guys felt back then. I guess it became a bigger deal for them afterward looking back?

 

This thread is very interesting. So much that when reading it I thought that it would be a great article/review in Customs of Swedens club magazine, Lead News. But if I'll go forward with this, I need some permission to use all the posts as references/information by those who provides it, that means all of you. Off course, your names will be mentioned, also this thread.

 

No it wasnt a big deal back then and even talking to Jerry today he dont make a big deal about it.That is why he has never came forward to contact a magazine or anyone to make his point.He said him and Sam were very good friends and it really wasnt even talked about besides around the shop.He said it really didnt matter because Jerry would let Sam drive his car whenever he wanted.He said when it was first done it white primer there would be some guys from the valley that would come to the shop to get a look at the "White Ghost" and they would have it under a cover and they would only pull the cover off if the guys seemed like good guys.I think maybe it was kind of a big deal to some guys but I dont think to Jerry or Sam it was.

 

Both seemed to be very unassuming guys who could care less about any of that type of drama. They loved customs not accolades.

 

thanks for the travel in the time machine guys !! what an amazing thread !!