Features Research Archives

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American Central Manufacturing (ACM) Ad

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Mario posted on Facebook this great ad for American Central Manufacturing.

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1944 Photo of Jeep Stuck in New Guinea

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Certainly it isn’t the first jeep to be stuck in New Guinea! This photo included a February 25, 1944, article from the Healdsburg Tribune that updated on New Guinea operations.
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1944-02-25-healdsburg-trib-ng-article

 
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Fairchild Gardens Jeep Train Postcard on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Features, Postcards • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Still available.

(05/20/2019) This jeep-train carried visitors through Fairchild Gardens.

View all the information on eBay

“Postcard Florida CJ-5 Rambler Jeep Fairchild Tropical Garden”

jeep-train-fairchild-gardens-postcard1 jeep-train-fairchild-gardens-postcard2

 
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1962 Photo of Men Who Completed Hemet Run

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This April 20, 1962, article in the La Habra Star highlighted Sam Winner, Frances Hughes, and Cruz Gomez, who had recently completed the two-day, 300 mile Hemet Run and camp-out. The planned to followed that up with the Indio Jeep Run in May.

1962-04-20-lahabrastar-jeep-hemet-run

 

 
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1943 Photo of Jeep & Grumman aboard Carrier

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Good photo of a stripped(?) jeep maneuvering a Hellcat aboard an aircraft carrier.

View all the information on ebay

“1943 Press Photo Jeep toying US Navy Hellcat aboard an aircraft carrier. This is an original press photo. Autos – Jeeps – Somewhere off Wake Island – They say there’s nothing new under the sun, but here’s a picture of a Jeep, familiar to all as one of the most useful of the many instruments used in this war to date, at a novel task – that of jockeying a “Hellcat” aboard a carrier. This was one of the “flat tops” used to pummel the Japanese on Wake Island, October 5-6. Note two other similar ships in the distance Photo measures 8.5 x 6.5 inches. Photo is dated 10-15-1943.”

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Yellow Fleet, Black Bear Pass, CJ-6 Postcard on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Features, Postcards • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

I wonder if all the Yellow Fleet rental jeeps were painted light yellow like this one? I’m guessing the color of the photo might be off a little, which gives the CJ-6 a bit of a green tint. This was taken by Bob Petley.

View all the information on eBay

“Colorado Jeep Trail Telluride Ouray CO Tomboy Road Jeep Rentals Advertising Black Bear Jeep Road Vintage Postcard”

drive-the-yellow-fleet-cj6-ouray-postcard1 drive-the-yellow-fleet-cj6-ouray-postcard-2

 
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Black Bear Pass, CJ-6 Postcard on eBay

• CATEGORIES: Features, Postcards This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This image was taken by Bob Petley also, perhaps on the same trip as the image above.

View all the information on eBay

yellow-fleet-black-bear-road-ouray1 yellow-fleet-black-bear-road-ouray2

 
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CJ-7 Pulling a Trolley in Delaware

• CATEGORIES: Features, Postcards This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This trolley used to be towed by a CJ-7 along Rehoboth Beach, North Shores, and Dewey Beach in Delaware.

View all the information on eBay

delaware-jeep-trolley-postcard1 delaware-jeep-trolley-postcard2

 
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Jeep Parts Themed Toy Wagon

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features, toys This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Maury and I thought this jeep bank was interesting. It is a Willys-Motors-parts-department-themed wagon that is listed as a ‘1953’. It was sold on eBay and now documented at WorthPoint. Anyone seen others of these?

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/liberty-classics-1953-jeep-willys-491185253

jeep-parts-toy-wagon

 
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1994 Le Journal de Spirou Christmas Cover

• CATEGORIES: Artists/Drawings, Features, Magazine • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

TJ shared this wonderful illustration shared by the French company of Jeepstock.

christmas-jeep-car

 
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Willys/Jeep Logos, Badges & Slogans Between 1941-1953

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Maury suggested we organize and go through the various Willys-Overland and Willys Motors logos, badges and slogans seen in brochures and ads during the years between 1941-1963. I thought that a good idea as well, so here’s what we found for the pre-Kaiser period between 1941-1953.

Before we begin, when is a slogan ‘a slogan’ and when not? It is totally arbitrary on our part, but we think we’ve covered quite a few (and welcome other suggestions). Much of Part I is a synopsis of advertising-related posts published over the last year. We hope to publish part II in the next few days.

1941-1945: (A deeper dive into the ads of this time period can be found here).

As a 1951 advertising review noted, the challenge facing Willys-Overland, once winning the jeep contract, was to convince consumers that the jeep was a Willys product (even though, as Ford argued, it was a joint project). To this end. Willys-Overland’s very first ad in December of 1941 emphasized WILLYS.

Willys-Overland continued this theme with their famous war-time color ads, a list of which you can view here (1942-1946). In the Hell Bent ad, the first of the war-time ads, Willys-Overland continued to emphasize WILLYS. The company also added “JEEPS” as a third category of vehicles for the first time.

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From the June 27, 1942, ad in the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1943, while emphasizing WILLYS, the company introduced a new badge, “The Sun Never Sets on the Fighting Jeep”

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This ad, AVENGING JEEPS BLAST JAPS FROM CHINESE VILLAGE, was published in the February 06, 1943, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, page 85.

The “Fighting Jeep” phrase lasted through May of 1943. Then, was left off of a few ads, before returning on July of 1943 with the replacement of Fighting with MightyTHE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE MIGHTY JEEP.

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This ad, HEROIC OFFICERS DARE DEATH FOR MEN, was published in the July 17, 1943, issue of the Saturday Evening Post, page 97.

Willys-Overland continued to emphasize WILLYS until February of 1944, when the company abruptly switched the emphasis to JEEPS.

Continue reading

 
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1947 Twas the Night Before Christmas Card

• CATEGORIES: Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Michael shared this neat post(?) card.

1947-jeep-santa-sleigh

 
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A Few Presents

• CATEGORIES: Features, Postcards This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Thanks to a couple readers who sent me some surprise presents! Both were a big surprise and much appreciated.

This Scrambler Christmas ornament arrived in the mail on Monday, sent by Blaine . We only have two ornaments on the tree this year and this Scrambler is one of them (we are having a very low-key Christmas this year).

christmas-ornament-scrambler-blaine

Chris sent me these five post cards and, amazingly, I don’t have any of them! I’ll do some better scans of them in the near future.

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1952 Carter Products Ad

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This Carter Products Ad appeared in the January 19, 1952, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It’s an interesting throwback ad to the WWII concept of the jeep (arguably, it’s a Ford GPish illustration).

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Jeep Cooperative Advertising Radio Spots Record

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Maury spotted this Jeep Radio Ad record on Worthpoint. It turns out that the CJ-3B page has published some of the recordings from the record. So, on this Christmas morning, you can test out the sound of your new computer/tablet/phone/Internet-of-thing.

https://cj3b.info/Radio.html

jeep-cooperative-radio-spots-record

 
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1963 Kaiser Jeep “DRIVEPOWER” Ads on ebay

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

1. This 1963 magazine ad for the new ‘Jeep’ Wagoneer prominently claimed the wagon had “DRIVEPOWER”, a slogan for the Wagoneer’s new and improved and exclusive 4-Wheel Drive system. I looked to see if Kaiser Jeep attempted to trademark the term, but there’s no evidence of that at the US Patent and Trademark site. So, the use of the drivepower concept seems to have been brief.

View all the information on eBay

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2. This other 1963 Ad also uses the term “DRIVEPOWER”, but in a smaller font.

View all the information on eBay

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3. This early 1964 Wagoneer Ad defines “DRIVEPOWER” as “Wagoneer station wagon’s new, improved and exclusive 4-wheel drive system” (also published in Popular Science).

View all the information on eBay

1964-03-field-and-stream-wagoneer

4. This 1963 or early 1964 ad promoted a variety of ideas, include “DRIVEPOWER”. The ad also promoted ABC’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”, which was sponsored, at least in part, by Kaiser Jeep (see Jeep rare brochure promoting that show here).

1963-wagoneer-drivepower-ad

 
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Greatest Show on Earth

• CATEGORIES: Features, videos This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Since the last ad in the post above promoted “The Greatest Show on Earth”, I figured it would be neat to see some video footage of an ad from that show. Here is one:

 
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1953 Brochure “Your Sales Job for 1953”

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Spotted by Maury, and according to the blurb from this page, this brochure/booklet was apparently released to some Willys-Overland employees following the purchase of Willys-Overland Motors by Kaiser-Jeep in 1953. I could only find a pic of the cover.

1953-your-sales-job-kaiser-willys

 
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1943 Photo of Kids Riding in a Slat Grille

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

These kids earned their way to a jeep ride. as described in the January 1, 1943, article in the Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar (what a name!?!).

According to the Caption: “Up the steps of the 24th Street school, Los Angeles, goes an army Jeep loaded with thrilled children. The Jeep was their present to Uncle Sam, a present bought with war stamps from their savings. At the wheel Is Sergt. Virgil Yewell, Stamp sales totaled $11,190.35—a lot of nickels and dimes —and they’re buying more.”

1943-01-01-healdsburg-tribune-kids-ride-slatgrille

 
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1959 Photo of Lifeguard in new CJ-5

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This photo was shared by the Coronado Eagle and Journal on August 27,1959. It shows Lee Tompkins in the driver’s seat demonstrating how the jeep is used by lifeguards.

1959-08-27-coronado-eagle-and-journal-central-beach-cj5-lifeguard

 
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South American Gaucho Fast Attack Vehicle

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Maury shared this vehicle, named the Gaucho after a South American Tribe. It was jointly developed by Argentina and Brazil, however the Gaucho is only used by the Argentinians at the point.

http://www.military-today.com/trucks/gaucho.htm

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1941 Photo of a Ford GP in the Dirt

• CATEGORIES: Bantam-FordGP-WillysMA-EarlyJPs, Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE: Joshua notes this is a Ford GP.

The photo was published in the June 12, 1941, issue of the Madera Tribune.

U. S. Army’s celebrated little “jeep” or “blitz buggy* technique, as shown here. Camouflage removed to into a hole under camouflage to provide new fightin ” which seems to go everywhere these days, now goes take picture, during maneuvers at California’s Ft. Ord. Captain William A. Dodds designed mount for .50-caliber gun.

1941-06-12-madera-tribune-jeep-gopher

 
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1944 Article About Soldiers Playing Santa in Alaska

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old Images This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This story reported on May 29, 1944, in the Madera Tribune shares the story of how some soldiers played Santa using a jeep.

1944-05-29-madera-tribune-santa-jeep

 
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The Kia “M-715”

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Craig spotted this article in Autoweek about the descendent of the Kaiser M-715, the Kia KM450. It’s still been built, albeit with an updated power train. Still, comparing the pics, it’s amazing they still look as close as they do.

https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/classic-cars/a30270254/incredibly-a-version-of-the-original-jeep-gladiator-is-still-being-built-by-kia/

PIc of M-715 with similar stake bed setup:

kaiser-m715

 
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1943 Article About Cabrillo School Jeep War Bond Pruchase

• CATEGORIES: Features, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

This March 27, 1943, photo and article in the San Pedro News Pilot describe a big event at a Cabrillo Avenue School in San Pedro. Enough money was raised to warrant jeep rides at the school. I can imagine that must have left some memories with those kids!

1943-03-27-sanpedronewspilot-cabrillo-schools-jeep1 1943-03-27-sanpedronewspilot-cabrillo-schools-jeep2