This old photo shows a series of early wagons lined up, along with a committee of men, to welcome the Willys Overland Motors Service School to Seattle. That might be Boeing field?

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“1950’S WILLY’S JEEP DEALERSHIP SERVICE MEN SCHOOL SEATTLE PRESS PHOTO ORIGINAL. THIS IS AN ORIGINAL PHOTO. NOT A COPY.  MEASURE 8 X 10 INCHES. ”

UPDATE II: This post was originally posted in January of 2011 (yes, hard to believe it was eleven years ago!). The post covers some of the history about Willis Ray Willey, which is a pretty cool name for a site about vintage jeeps. Who else had a name that includes both “Willis” and “Willey”? Anyway, this post is full of some great and useful comments. It’s taken on a life of its own.

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UPDATE: Thanks to Mike for sorting out Willis’ real name. He was Willis Ray Willey, while his twin was Willard Roy Willey.

It might not surprise you that my interest in history has led me to become the family historian.  As a part of my self-assumed title, I make it a point to look through the family albums and scan images whenever I’m visiting.  This morning while looking through my grandmother’s album, which contains images from Fighting Creek, Idaho, the place her parents homesteaded in 1911 (they actually won a land lottery), I stumbled upon the unusual photograph of a man in an early motorcar that I show below.  I called mom over and asked her if she recognized anyone in the photo, as I didn’t.  She said she didn’t either.

About mid-day I was talking to my aunt (mom’s sister) and briefly described the photo.  I described the guy as ‘wild looking’.  Well, my aunt said that there was once this guy with the name of Wild Willy or something that used to be a colorful character around the Spokane area.  I got curious about who this guy might be and why the unusually nice photo, for a photo taken in 1933, ended up in a family photo album.

So, I powered up Google’s image search feature and input a variety of search strings until I spotted a picture of a guy who looked like the guy sitting in the car.  The story accompanying the photo said his name was Willis Ray Willey and, while he didn’t have a jeep,  he had quite the unusual, adventurous story.  So, I thought I’d share a brief summary of it.

To read more about Willey, visit this article from Nostalgia Magazine. Willey reminds me of the Camel Man, who Hein ran into a few months ago in Australia.

For comparison, view this modern photo: http://almostoneaday.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-bridge-series-monroe-street.html

In the picture above, we appear to have Willis Ray Willey in his 1904 REO, the first year that the Ranson E. Olds Automobile Company built a car.  This photo was taken in 1933 (note the ’33 on the license plate).  The photo is taken with the Monroe Street bridge and the Spokane Falls in the background.  Willey planned to drive this car from Spokane to the 1933/1934 World Fair in Chicago.

You’ll note that Willey is only wearing shorts.  It turns out that Willey was a sickly youngster.  After examining him, a doctor suggested that he improve his constitution by exposing himself to the elements.  So, over time, he reduced the clothes he wore, eventually only wearing shorts whether winter or summer.

Apparently, that did the trick, as he never got sick, at least not until he was on his trip to the Chicago World’s Fair.  See, it turned out that simply wearing shorts wasn’t very common practice and, in fact, wasn’t tolerated.  People complained when they saw him and police would arrest him, with many arrests occurring on his way to Chicago.  According to Nostalgia Magazine, he did make it to Chicago, where he was arrested again. However, this time they cut off his hair and beard and he promptly got sick and remained sick for 3 months.

Now in the photo above, you’ll note that along the side of the seat it reads “Postcards 3 for 25 cents”.  One of the ways Willey made money was by selling postcards of himself; I guess he recognized just how much of an oddity he was.

If you look below, you can see two of the postcards he sold.  One is of him on Treasure Island in San Francisco, with a dog, a coyote, a turtle and multiple possums (click on photo and scroll down to see closeups).  The other is of him ice skating at LIberty Lake (thanks Jerry).

Yes, quite the character indeed!

Jim sent me the following pics ….

“I was recently entrusted with a collection of photos that were taken by Chief Photographer’s Mate Paul Madden while onboard the USS Essex during WW2. The pics of Madden are for a little background. The first pic is of him, the second is of him after returning from an air mission where he was wounded (shrapnel in the head)”

“The third pic is what happened to the Jap Zero that wounded him. The fourth is the Purple Heart he got for that wound.”

Jap diving on Essex missed.

“Below are some Jeep photos(attached) on board the Essex, which is the main reason for this post.”

Flight deck – Essex
Jeep towing dive bomber

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The Press photo below appeared in at least one newspaper. On October 18, 1943, the Chillicothe Gazette (Ohio) published this pic and caption:

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Published April 9, 2021: Based on the bumper, I’d say this is a GPW. I had hoped to locate the photo in a newspaper, but had no luck.

“Vintage original 1943 press photo of Grumman TBF / TBM Avenger with Jeep on Wake Island, (approximately 20cm x 15cm), with “Keystone” press stamp & description to rear. OK condition, with wear.”

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This pic and caption came from a 12/2019 ebay auction:
Good photo of a stripped(?) jeep maneuvering a Hellcat aboard an aircraft carrier.

“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.”

Looks like a slat grille.

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“1943 Press Photo American jeep passes workers on a supply route in Italy. This is an original press photo. Italy — An American jeep rolls along the broad supply route in an Italian wilderness that a short time ago was a mere mule-track. Skilled United States engineers literally carved out the road during the battle for Naples, using bulldozers, cranes and Italian laborers to rush through the job.Photo measures 9 x 7.25 inches. Photo is dated 10-12-1943.”

Morihisa Ochi posted this photo on FB of a GPW in Nagasaki after the Atomic Bomb. The top is interesting. According to him, “GPW in Nagasaki, Occupied Japan 1945 After a big factory near Ground Zero was blown off by Atomic Bomb, USMC used this area as a rifle range.”

Sam spotted this photo with an 1946-1947 CJ-2A (and other photos) at the Digital North Carolina archives. According to the description, the photo shows “Van and George Watson hauling seed corn to dryer plat at Watson Seed Farms INC. with World War II Surplus Willy’s Jeep. Watson Seed Farms had 2 jeeps.”

https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/8919#