Thanks to Matt for sharing this document. This 16-page September 1947 issue of WO Sales News begins by announcing the addition of the “step” on CJ-2As. In an older comment by Bill Norris, “According to the 49 parts manual they [the steps] were available on 2As after serial number 129806”. This seems in relative accordance with the timing of the article.
The next story introduces the Laurel C. Worman hardtops, followed by another introduction, the Jeep-A-Trench.
On page six is an interesting story about a caravan of wagons that brought television to smaller towns across the country. To that point, television was only available to areas within a fifty mile radius of a large tower. When the jeep caravan arrived in towns, it offered twice-daily shows via a portable studio setup.
On page eight is a discussion of how to arrange and display jeeps. There are many car museums that could benefit from these insights! I’m not much of a fan of “parking lot” style museums.
The remainder of the pages discuss dealer info, marketing, testimonials, and other highlights.l
I find it interesting that all of the Kaiser newsletters use quotation marks for the ‘Jeep’ name, but this older Willys-Overland newsletter does not. My guess would be that the Kaiser lawyers made them write it that way.
Marc, thanks for the note. I will look at the other WO Sales News issues to see how they handled the word. I will have to look to verify the time, but I believe WO started using the apostrophes around the word Jeep after Ford sued WO over use of the term Jeep in 1943. In some publications, the use of apostrophes has been haphazard, but for the most part WO used the apostrophes in advertising. It is possible Kaiser, which has a more sophisticated marketing arm, may have been much more consistent.
Is it possible (or likely) that the apostrophes were used when the legal ownership of the name was still be adjudicated?
Certainly, no one used them later and we don’t see them in ads (or reference material) today.
Yes, that was my feeling as well. In my opinion, the apostrophes appeared as a way to circumvent the trademark issue. However, when WO was awarded the trademark in 1951, WO, then Kaiser, continued to use the apostrophes in a lot of advertising, I believe pretty much up to when AMC got involved in 1970.
To quote our 4yr. old grandson…..WHAT ?? Page 13 a Willys Jeep wins a dirt oval race in Gardena Ca. Race was 300mi with average speed of 54mph for entire race. Race had 16 vehicles with a 47 Mercury in 2nd place…which would have been a full size flathead V/8….and the Jeep was 10 laps ahead at the end. The attendance was 50,000 and the first place winnings were $12,000 !!! I would really like to learn more about Ready Eddie Korgan .
After the war, there was a real hunger for racing and men just back from the war got busy building jalopies, midgets, stock cars and up the ladder to Indy cars. I have had several dirt midget car projects that came out of California and raced at Gardena and other short track “bullrings”……never, ever did I realize that Jeeps could have been a part of the equation.
Does anybody have any idea how Eddie Korgan pulled off this unbelievable feat ??
The Jeep with the plow on the back in the farm equipment display appears to be attached with a TMC lift, not a “Jeep Approved” Newgren lift. I’m not sure how much of the west coast Transport Motor Company covered, but I suspect that Kraus might have been one of their dealers.
This brings up again the question of how much control the distributorships had over what add-on equipment dealers offered.
Barry: That’s a good point. Not sure how to figure out the answers to that.
Allan: I made a mental note of that article, then completely spaced it. The topic of jeep racing really hasn’t been covered very deeply, especially, as you point out, a subset of racing in general. It might prove an interesting topic to explore.
Wow. What a find. Thanks for posting.
Interesting piece about the TV caravan. It came to the city near me, but I’ve been told that there wasn’t a regular TV station until 1951 or so.
And famous owners of Jeeps…
the Duke of Windsor (aka the ex-King) is a surprise, though I doubt if he ever drove it. Probably for the staff to do gardening.
Roy Rogers, no surprise there.
General Arnold…the beloved commander of the Army Air Force in WWII…surprised he didn’t b get a surplus military Jeep. As a benefit of being a retired five star general, he was assigned an aide/driver.
Despite having several heart attacks during the war, FDR personally allowed him to remain in the service. He retired in 1946 to his farm in California and died in 1950.