Old News Articles Research Archives

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Winter Park Villager: A DJ-3A Surrey Pulling a Matching Trailer

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, DJ-3A, Features, Old News Articles, Postcards • TAGS: , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE:  The two post cards at the bottom of this post were on eBay several years ago. I recently came across some newspaper clippings that give background about the Winter Park Villager tram’s purpose. The service began November 28, 1966, but I could not find an end-date.

This first article discusses the jeep tram’s beginnings:

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Article dated November 13, 1966, from the Orlando Sentinel

This next article notes that Monday, November 28th, as the launch date for the jeep tram service.

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Article dated December 1, 1966, from the Orlando Evening Star

This short article from March of 1967 describes some of the tram’s stops:

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March 03, 1967, in the Orlando Evening Star

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This Winter Park Villager shows a DJ-3A Surrey pulling a matching trailer in Winter Park, Florida. One of these postcards is currently on eBay.

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Here’s another view of the same combo. One of these postcards is currently on eBay

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1942 Jeep Day in Mansfield, Ohio, Raises Big Bucks

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

The June 13, 1942, issue of the News-Journal out of Mansfield, Ohio, happily reported on the unexpected amount of bond sales at the city’s previous day’s “Jeep Day”. The committee had hoped to sell $10,000 worth of bonds, but topped $25,000 instead. I’m sure it was all due to the jeeps!

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1953 Exploration of Manuelito Canyon, New Mexico

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

Gallup’s local Willys dealer organized a trip to Manuelito Canyon, according to an article int he October 14, 1953, issues of the Albuquerque Journal. Some local Gallup area residents had hoped at the time that the canyon would become a national park. Instead, in 1964, it was named a National Historic District. There is (was?) a visitor’s center, but it is temporarily closed (and was so as of January of 2020, which predated the pandemic).

I like this photo with the line up of wagons. I’d love to find the original or reprint of this. 
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1944 Article on “WAC Jeep Day” in Fort Worth, Texas

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

This May 18, 1944, article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram describes the upcoming “WAC Jeep Day”. The Fort Worth recruiting team would offer free jeep rides to those women who fit the WAC’s specifications. I’m guessing the women had to be “U.S. citizens between the ages of 21 and 45 with no dependents, be at least five feet tall, and weigh 100 pounds or more.”

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1946 ‘Come in and Drive a Jeep’ Ad

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

Instead of qualifying for the WACs, it might have been easier to wait two years and drive a jeep with no strings attached! This ad published in the May 29, 1946, issue of the Knoxville News for the Sam Horne Company shows a woman test driving a jeep.

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1973 Article on PNW4WDA Clubs and Jeepers

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

This July 28, 1973, article in the Longview Daily News shares information on the rising number of jeep clubs in the Longview area. I figured the text would be easier to read if I posted it separately at bottom. The CJ-5 on the upper left is running the recently introduced Desert Dogs.

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1946 Photo of Louisiana’s Forestry Jeep

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

This June 29, 1946, photo in the Daily Advertiser shows off an early MB conversion into a Louisiana Forestry Jeep. Developed by the Louisiana Foresty Commission, the state purchased five of these rigs.

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The Weekly Town Talk out of Alexandria, Louisiana, also ran the photo on the same day, but with a different caption:

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1943 Article on FDR and Jeeps

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

This article shows FDR in jeeps. It was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune February 02, 1943.

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1944 Article Says the Big Three Automakers Are Tepid on the Post War Jeep

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

The April 27, 1944, article in the Star Tribune out of Minneapolis argues that Ford, GM, and Chrysler did not believe the post-war jeep would be as successful as hoped, due to (1) the hard suspension and (2) a lack of appeal to the “woman of the family”. It seems they were right to be wary from a family perspective, but the big three didn’t foresee the wagons, which attempted to address both of these issues.

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1946 Jeep Trip From Hawaii to the Midwest

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

This photo captures three friends traveling from Hawaii to the midwest via Minnesota. Akira Tanaka, sitting in the driver’s seat, helped establish the military intelligence company that was part of Camp Savage in Minnesota.This was published in the September 16, 1946, issue of The Minneapolis Star.

I tried to learn more about these three, but didn’t have much luck. There was an Akira Tanaka that went to work for General Motors and built himself a home that was featured in a 1955 article in the Detroit Press. So, it’s possible that he graduated from College in Michigan, then went to work for GM. If that’s the case, he developed several automotive patents for the company.

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1944 January Drive in a Ford GP

• CATEGORIES: Bantam-FordGP-WillysMA-EarlyJPs, Features, Old Images, Old News Articles This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
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A side photo of Smiley, John Henkels ‘new’ Ford GP.

The January 30, 1944, Sunday issue of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune made John Henkels and his son front page news for the purchase of their 1941 Ford GP from Wilensky’s auto parts. What a cold drive back to Fulda, Minnesota, that must have been!

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1944 Article on the Burma Jeep Trains

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

The article shares information on why the GI’s had to use jeeps on the tracks and the dangers they faced. The photo is from a later newspaper.

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January 31, 1945, in the Evening Sun, Baltimore, Maryland.

From the Tucson Daily Citizen, October 23, 1944:

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March 1943, Ford Announces it Will Begin Ford GPA (SEEP) Production

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

A variety of newspapers announced on March 09, 1943, that Ford would being producing Ford GPA (SEEPS) at its production plant in Detroit.

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February 1945 Ireland Denies Jeep Trademark

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

On February 11, 1945, the Pittsburgh Press shared the news that Ireland had ruled that the word Jeep could not be trademarked there. There were two reasons for that decision: 1) the word had not been stamped on the vehicle(s) and 2) the term ‘Jeep’ had fallen into public domain as a result of usage.

Both concerns seem valid. Even today, there’s confusion around the brand in terms of Willys vs. Jeep. However, one could argue that both issues were the result of Willys-Overland’s effort to win a war, thus the company sacrificed normal naming (in terms of vehicle models), advertising, and trademarking issues. So, why should they be penalized?

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1949 Trip Down Africa in a Jeep

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

On December 06, 1949, New York Artist and former Gallery owner Elenore Lust drove her WWII jeep  into Capetown, completing a 13,000 mile trek from France to South Africa. Their trek took them across ten countries. During one long stretch in the Sahara Desert she and her husband Paul Koston, who didn’t know how to drive, had to spread wire mesh on the sand, drive atop it, then roll it up, move it to the front of the jeep, then drive forward again, a process they repeated many times.

Unfortunately, I could not locate a photo of her and her jeep, but I was able to find a photo and an obit, which shared that after teaching art in South Africa, she returned to the US and began teaching art in Pennsylvania up until her death.

This article from the December 07, 1949, issue of New York’s Daily News provides some details about the trip.

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Here’s the only photo of Elenore I could find. It was printed in the June 08, 1988, issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

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Her obituary was published in the April 24, 1997, issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

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1953 Photo of Working Model Jeepster

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

The Tribune newspaper out of Coshocton, Ohio, shared this photo and caption on the May 24, 1953. It shows three-year-old Terry Schley driving a model Jeepster his father built for him. It includes a feature that auto braked when the foot is lifted from the accelerator.

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1950 Photo of Roy Fisher’s Willys “Jeep” Dealership

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

This 1950 photo from the Gateway to Oklahoma History archives shows Roy Fisher’s jeep dealership. His dealership was active between 1946 and 1950 in Oklahoma City, OK. It was sold about the time this May 1950 photo was taken. Note the CJ-2A Fire Jeep in the second story window. The vintage Willys sign with the drop “J” logo is cool as well.

Here are a few ads from the Roy Fisher Willys ‘Jeep’ dealer era.

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January 05, 1950, Daily Oklahoman.

Here is the sale announcement from the May 25, 1950, issue of the Miami News-Record out of Miami, Oklahoma:

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1945 Article on Los Angeles County Jeep Patrols

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

The December 19, 1945, issue of the Los Angeles Times noted that the county sheriff’s department hired 85 deputies and purchased 25 jeeps to tackle a jump in criminal activity in the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County. This may have been the largest and earliest attempt to employ jeeps by law enforcement in the US (Outside of the military of course).

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1955 Article About California Jeep Trip That Turned Bad

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

This story about a jeep trip that turned deadly was repeated across the country. I tried to find “Amazon Canyon”, which is supposed to be east of TwentyNine Palms, but couldn’t locate it.

This version of the article appeared in the June 27, 1955, issue of the Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska).

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More on the Jeep vs. Peep Debate

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

This January 15, 1942, article in the Amarillo Globe-Times highlights the continued debate concerning the jeep vs. the peep.

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1949 Ad from Dealer M. O. Trindel

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

This ad March 05, 1949, ad in the Beatrice times (Beatrice, Nebraska) from M. O. Trindel, and authorized Jeep Sales and Service provider underscores his enthusiasm for the Willys 1949 line-up of vehicles. His argument that Willys-Overland’s lack of innovation (models didn’t change yearly) was a competitive differentiator that I hadn’t considered, but this meant there was much internal innovation. I would argue that instead of Willys-Overland and Willys Motors innovating internally, they left the innovations to the special equipment folks, from tops and hubs to winches and other pto equipment.

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1941 Article on the ‘Jeep’ Army Car

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

The jeep has four speeds forward? This article appeared in the Abilene Reporter-News out of Texas on March 02, 1941.

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1941 Article Jeep and Dust Clouds

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

This June 18, 1941, article in the Los Angeles Times discusses how a “trapped jeep” uses a dust cloud to a escape the ‘enemy’.

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December 1961 Article About Sheriff’s New Jeep

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

This Times Record (Troy, New York) article on December 14, 1961, shares the news that the Rensselaer County Sheriff just received a new jeep (FC-150) and boat.

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July 1953 Newspaper Announcement for Kaiser Willys

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

On July 30, 1953, newspapers across the country ran full-page or nearly-full-page ads announcing the combination of Kaiser Frazer and Willys-Overland into Kaiser-Willys. Maury spotted an actual ad, though not full-page, from the Minnesota Morning Tribune that is for sale on eBay: View all the information on eBay

Here’s an example of a full-page ad below that was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

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