Student Jalopies of the 1940s

[David Conwill]

I thought everyone might get a kick out of these old LIFE photos I just discovered:

A California Tech student driving a Ford jalopy, 1941.

Russian flyers Anatoly Barsov and Peter Pirogov enjoying a ride in a topless jalopy, 1949

Available full-size by plugging jalopy source:life -aldwyn -palm -gop -scenes -boys -winter -caps -love -"World'S" -atkins into Google’s “Image” search.

-Dave

 

[The Wolf]

Those jalopies were shown in the pop culture of the time.
In comics (Archie had one), cartoons ("All the Cats Join In" segment of the Disney movie Make Mine Music and movies (The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer).

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Widebrim]

Great photos! Notice that the college boys went hatless. I wonder if the student in the first photo found himself in uniform a year later?...

 

[La Strada]

Interesting post!
Saw the 1933 film "The Wild Boys Of The Road" tonight.
Could not find a still image to post but they have a great jalopy with "Bear Hunting" "High Voltage" "Mostly Teddies" written along the car.
I once met a very old man at a junk yard in Gallop NM that had similar statements listed on his business card. Those phrases and sense of humor has always held a great interest for me that I'm curious to learn more about.
Anyone know more about their origins?

 

[David Conwill]

("All the Cats Join In" segment of the Disney movie Make Mine Music

That, via the 1960s "Music With Von Drake", was one of my major inspirations for my love of big band music, 1940s fashion, Model T touring cars, and hot rods. I think I first saw it when I was 4 or 5 and nearly wore the VHS tape out over the years.

I think Monogram even released a model kit in the 1950s of a graffiti-covered Archie-style jalopy.

-Dave

 

[David Conwill]

Just noticed. Is "Sieg Heil" written underneath the license plate on the Cal Tech kid's jalopy? Weird.

-Dave

 

[Feraud]

Interesting post!
Saw the 1933 film "The Wild Boys Of The Road" tonight.
Could not find a still image to post but they have a great jalopy with "Bear Hunting" "High Voltage" "Mostly Teddies" written along the car.

Yes. Great film. Eddie sells the car for a few dollars before hitting the road when his dad loses his job.

 

[LordBest]

I rather suspect that the chap in the first picture is being over optimistic about pursuading as many as five young ladies into such a conveyance.

 

[David Conwill]

I rather suspect that the chap in the first picture is being over optimistic about pursuading as many as five young ladies into such a conveyance.

Haha, I’m so square, I read that as “Capacity: Five Gallons.” Yes, I agree that 5+1 in the front seat of any Model T is certainly optimistic. I’m not sure that three would fit and still allow operation!

-Dave

 

[BellyTank]

Haha, I’m so square, I read that as “Capacity: Five Gallons.”

I think it's what's known as a pun...


B
T

 

[dhermann1]

When I was a kid in upstate NY, farm boys would take the frame of an old car and create a vehicle they called a hoopy. They were far from street legal, often having no brakes, etc. One I remember had a can of gas in the front seat with a hose. It was the passengers job to make sure the gas flowed from the can to the motor. Hoopies were usually used to bring corn or other freshly picked produce from the field to the barn or roadside stand.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

He probably did. Makes me wonder what ever happened to that happy go lucky kid...

Great photos! Notice that the college boys went hatless. I wonder if the student in the first photo found himself in uniform a year later?...

 

[Edward]

Just noticed. Is "Sieg Heil" written underneath the license plate on the Cal Tech kid's jalopy? Weird.

-Dave

Wondered that myself! If it is, I guess maybe that wasn'tg considered to be as shocking as in the UK... weren't there still a fair few US-based companies doing business with Nazi Germany prior to Pearl Harbour? I can understand that - after all, wasn't the US primarily isolationist in foreign policy prior to that, so a war in Europe was unlikely to interest most folks much?

 

[BellyTank]

"Neutral" Sweden was doing business with Germany- one instance,
was supplying high spec. bearings for tank turrets. When caught out on this issue,
the Swedes in question promptly stopped supplying the bearings and SOLD the tooling
to Germany... good business ethics.


B
T

 

[Edward]

"Neutral" Sweden was doing business with Germany- one instance,
was supplying high spec. bearings for tank turrets. When caught out on this issue,
the Swedes in question promptly stopped supplying the bearings and SOLD the tooling
to Germany... good business ethics.


B
T

Heh. Yeah, "neutral".... friend of mine's grandmother was born in one of the Aryan breeding camps in "neutral" Sweden!

 

[cptjeff]

Wondered that myself! If it is, I guess maybe that wasn'tg considered to be as shocking as in the UK... weren't there still a fair few US-based companies doing business with Nazi Germany prior to Pearl Harbour? I can understand that - after all, wasn't the US primarily isolationist in foreign policy prior to that, so a war in Europe was unlikely to interest most folks much?

Some were, like Prescott Bush, who funded them. There was also support for Hitler and the Nazi party in the US, Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh stand out as notables in that category.

 

[dhermann1]

Uhhhh . . . . jalopies, guys, jalopies.

 

[Hal]

"Neutral" Sweden was doing business with Germany- one instance, was supplying high spec. bearings for tank turrets. When caught out on this issue, the Swedes in question promptly stopped supplying the bearings and SOLD the tooling to Germany... good business ethics.

And if she hadn't - she would have been occupied. I accept that being occupied might have been the mroe honourable option, but Norway and Denmark were fortunate to have an unoccupied neighbour - the Danes saved their Jewish population by shipping it to Sweden, and the Swedes trained young Norwegians who fled there (among whom was a friend and colleague of mine) in anti-German warfare. Perhaps we'll never know the whole truth.

 

[BellyTank]

Hej! Nice Jalopies!

Edward, was that Sweden, or Norway?... the Nazi kid farm.

This thread has a very strict title-
So I will add a Jalopy that could be from the '40s, or '30s and
could have been owned and/or built by a student

Currently under construction:
'20s Austin Seven "Special"- hand-built ply coachwork, soon to be
covered in canvas and painted.

...Perhaps we'll never know the whole truth.

I lived in Denmark for years and now live in Sweden- which truths do you need exposed..?


B
T

 

[Edward]

And if she hadn't - she would have been occupied. I accept that being occupied might have been the mroe honourable option, but Norway and Denmark were fortunate to have an unoccupied neighbour - the Danes saved their Jewish population by shipping it to Sweden, and the Swedes trained young Norwegians who fled there (among whom was a friend and colleague of mine) in anti-German warfare. Perhaps we'll never know the whole truth.

Certainly the historical reality is unlike the simple black and white, "goodies and baddies" approach to WW2 that we have been fed by Hollywood for years. Far from the popular conception of Churchill as the great hero who stepped into the breach to save us all when cowardly Neville Chamberlain couldn't or wouldn't, we now of course know that whatever his prowess as a leader, Churchill was, in the experience of many who met him, a thoroughly unpleasant person, while, as I understand it, Chamberlain is now thought by many to have been acting out of pragmatism at Munich, where far from caving in he actually bought Britain time to prepare for a war with Germany, a war for which it was simply not ready in 1938. I haven't done my own investigation into this latter theory as of yet, but I offer it simply as an indication that even things which are accepted as popular fact are subject to challenge.

Edward, was that Sweden, or Norway?... the Nazi kid farm.

Sweden is what I've been told - they did live in england for some years in more recent times, but these days they're near Malmo, I believe. Not sure where the camp was exactly in Sweden, but the family definitely seem of the belief that that's where it was (I've never met the woman herself).

Currently under construction:
'20s Austin Seven "Special"- hand-built ply coachwork, soon to be
covered in canvas and painted.

From what Dad tells me, these were popular as a cheaper means of owning a sporty little car right up into the 60s. He rebuilt a 1936 Austin 7 from the ground up in 1974 (having sold a similar era Morris 8 to fund it), and acquired a rotted out old Special as a donor car for certain parts. I think the Specials disappeared into the 60s for the most part, the 7 by then having become sufficiently rare that it wasn't any longer a cheap way to have a car, nor practical (think: spares availability, etc) for daily use. They strike me - as the original hotrods, I suppose - as a precursor to the modern kit car. Of course, back in those days before the MoT and other such modern safety standards regulation came in, some of those homebuilds I'm sure were incredibly hairy to travel in. Then back in those days htere was little enough traffic, I suppose, that it was probably less of a worry, if you spun on the road or couldn't stop so easy at a junction, you were less likely to hit another car. My dad's family didn't hve a car until into the sixties - he actually owned his first car before ever my grandfather could afford one. Dad, when very young, used to collect car registration numbers - him and a friend would stand on a bridge and note the numbers of cars they saw passing. Back then, he says (I think this would have been the late 50s), they had to wait quite a while for a car at times - these days they'd go past so quickly you wouldn't even be able to catch the number.