Old News Articles Research Archives

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Tucson’s CJ-5 Garbage Jeep

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

In 1963, the city of Tucson, Arizona, was looking to save money on garbage costs. That summer an experiment was tried whereby a CJ-5 towing three garbage trailers was used to cut garbage transportation costs. I could not find any information on how long the experiment lasted.

This first photo showing the jeep, trailers and how a trailer was dumped into a larger truck, was published in the Tucson Citizen May 24, 1963:

1963-05-24-tucson-citizen-cj5-garbage-jeeps-lores

This article from May 22, 1963, published in the Arizona Daily Star, provides more information on the experiment:

1963-05-22-arizona-daily-star-jeeps-garbage

 
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Reporter William Rives’ First Jeep Ride

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

In a June 11, 1941, article in the Austin American-Statesman, William T. Rives describes his first “blitz buggy, jeep or jitterbug, as it is variously called” ride while visiting Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas.

1941-06-11-austin-american-statesman-reporter-rides-in-jeep

 
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A 1941 Attempt to Ban the Term “Jeep”

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

This article was syndicated through numerous newspapers. So frustrated was one Captain with the multitude of definitions for the word “Jeep” that he warned soldiers not to use it and cited examples of why it was so confusing. This article is from the Johnson City Press out of Tennessee, November 14, 1941:

1941-11-14-johnson-city-press-tennessee-jeep-names-lores

 

 
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1941 Article Shows Jeep Backing Up City Hall Steps

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

The Argus-Leader out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, published this photo on November 28, 1941, showing a Ford GP backing up Sioux Falls’ City Hall steps. It includes another “75mph” claim.

1941-11-28-argus-leader-sioux-falls-sd-lores

 
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1941 Article Highlights Bantam’s Complaints

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

This August 07, 1941, article in the News-Herald out of Franklin, Pennsylvania, underscores that Harry S. Truman was going to “blow the lid” off the “lobbying” actives of the OPM as a result of American Bantam being “frozen out” of a jeep contract. Truman showed them, lol.

Clipping from The News-Herald - Newspapers.com

 
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1941 Article: 1300 Miles in a Jeep

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

It sounds like this report and soldier had a very uncomfortable ride in the “roman rack”. I am a bit surprised that the jeep garnered so many laughs. Note the BRC-40 in the top pic. The article appeared in The Morning Call, out of Paterson, New Jersey, November 22, 1941.

1941-11-22-the-morning-call-paterson-ny-lores

 
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1941 Article Highlights Hollywood’s “Jeep Keepers”

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

This is the first time I’ve heard the term Jeep applied to a prop storage box. This article appeared in the March 04, 1941, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

1941-03-04-stlouis-post-dispatch-hollywoods-jeep-keepers-lores

 
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October 1941 Article About Jeeps as Anti-Tank Solution

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

This article was published in the October 26, 1941, issue of the Birmingham News.

1941-10-26-the-birmingham-news-anti-tanks-bantam-brc60s-lores

 
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1941 Full-Page Look at the “Leaping Jeep”

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

This full page article published July 22, 1941, in Baltimore’s Evening Sun includes photos of Bantam BRC-60s and Ford GPs.

1941-07-22-evening-sun-leaping-jeep-full-page-lores

 
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1941 Full-Page Article on the Jeep

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

This is a second full-page article on the jeep, this time with two large photos in the May 04, 1941, issue of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

1941-05-04-stlouis-globe-democrat-jeep-rides-lores

 
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Article and Photos of the Bantam T2E1

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

UPDATE: This article from August 28, 1941, published in the Daily News (New York City), describes the Bantam BRC-40 T2E1. This is the second generation of of the T2E1, (reportedly, the first generation of the T2E1 had a the full body, which itself was a derivation of the T2, an anti-tank jeep that had the gun between the seats; however, there apparently is some debate on how to define the versions).

Also mentioned below is the Ford Swamp Angel. I’ll have more info on that in an upcoming post.

1941-08-28-daily-news-t2e1-bantam-brc40-lores

This is a T2E1 from an angle I’ve never seen. It was published yesterday on the Quest Masters Museum Facebook page:

1941-09-t2e1-bantam-brc40-w 1941-09-t2e1-bantam-brc40

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Originally published May 31, 2020:

An article from 1941 appears to describe the T2E1 Bantams shown in photos below (a few more photos here also).  The article describes the rifles as 47mm, while the photo captions correctly describe the rifle as a 37mm. Perhaps the difference is that the article was written in July, while the photos were taken late in August? So, maybe, 47mm rifles might have been initially considered? (47mm anti-tank guns were developed by France as early as 1931)

This article was published July 21, 1941, in the Lansing State Journal out of Michigan:

Clipping from Lansing State Journal - Newspapers.com

#1 Originally posted 01/31/2014:

This is likely a reprint, but still a good photo of the Bantam BRC-40 T2E1.

Bantam-brc40-t2e1

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#2 Posted August of 2018:

Continue reading

 
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1941 Articles, What is a Jeep?

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

This first column describes seven different uses for the term ‘jeep’. It appeared in the November 15, 1941, issue of the News Journal, out of Mansfield, Ohio:

1941-11-15-news-journal-mansfield-oh-what-is-a-jeep

A few days later, this blurb was part of a column called the Daily Knave, published November 18, 1941. It highlights some of the alternative uses of the term “jeep”.

1941-11-18-oakland-tribune-what-is-a-jeep

 
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1941 Article with Ford GP

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

This photo and article featuring a Ford GP was published June 09, 1941, in the Democrat and Chronicle out of Rochester, New York. It highlighted Major Harry Miller’s jeep modification, which added a 37MM gun to the rear of the vehicle.

1941-06-09-democrate-and-chronicle-rochester-ny-bantam-brc-40-lores

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Originally posted February 07, 2015:  This post emphasized the Camp Lewis connection.

This June 9, 1941, article from the Spokane Daily Chronicle notes the Ford GP belongs to a Fort Lewis unit visiting California for maneuvers.

1941-06-09-spokane-daily-chronicle-fordgp

 
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Shriner Jeep Patrols

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

Here are a couple 1960s photos of the Shriner Mini Jeep Patrols. These jeep patrols and shiners in all kinds of mini-vehicles still ply the parade routes (This Facebook group includes modern photos and videos of them).

This first photo is from May 12, 1963, and published in the Marshall News Messenger (Marshall, Texas):

1963-05-12-marshall-news-messenger-shriner-jeep-patrol

This second photo was published in the Tyler Morning Telegraph (Tyler, Texas) on December 07, 1963:

1963-12-07-tyler-morning-telegraph-shriner-jeep-patrol

And here’s a 2007 video of them in action:

 
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A Few Jeep Stories from 1943

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

This article demonstrates the hazards a jeep faced in the field. The article was published December 16, 1943, in the Kansas City Times by Kenneth L. Dixon.

Clipping from The Kansas City Times - Newspapers.com

 
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1946 Article on Salt Lake City’s Sheriff’s Jeep

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

This November 25, 1946, article in the Salt Lake Tribune highlighted the first big test for the Sheriff Office’s new CJ-2A. Lacking today’s causeway to Antelope Island, the trip required often navigating over or through water. I can imagine such a drive was a big unnerving, unless a route was marked by marker-sticks. Today, the southern portion of the island is owned by the State of Utah. Bison, Sheep, and Antelope roam the island, as do bikers, hikers, and tourists.

1946-11-25-jeep-sheriff-antelope-island

 
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1944 Article about “MA”

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

This article about an older woman named “MA” appeared in the August 08, 1944, issue of the Austin American. I just thought it was a neat story only tangentially related to jeeps.

 

1944-08-18-austin-american-burma-theatre-chinese-ma

And, in a big detour here, the author mentions the “Friend’s” ambulance unit, suggesting that most or all of the unit were Quakers. My grandmother grew up a Quaker in Hopewell, Virginia, where the Branson clan (her maiden name) were longtime Quakers, first arriving in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1776 (in NJ before that).

The family attended the Hopewell Friends Meeting House (where my grandmother and non-Quaker grandfather would marry in 1939). Abolitionists, the family’s “Branson House” was part of the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, the family found themselves serving food to one side or the other, depending on who had control of the area. Based on the stories, both sides took what they wanted and demanded to be fed.

One family story from the War describes the day a cannon ball blasted through the house unexpectedly.

Another tale tells how a Union spy traveling with the Confederates, as a Confederate Officer, left a gold dollar under a plate after he ate. The family found the dollar when cleaning up after the soldiers had left. They only learned the officer was a spy following the war, because years later he returned and explained what he’d done during the war and that it was he who had left the golden dollar under the plate. As of the late 1980s, according to my great aunt in a letter to my sister, someone in the Branson clan was reported to still have that gold dollar.

 
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1944 Article on Former Decorator’s Japanese Prisoners

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

This is a fun article about a former decorator turned jeep jockey named Pvt. Hurshal (Peewee) Wilson in New Guinea ‘captured’ 17 prisoners. It appeared in the Medford Mail Tribune (Medford,Oregon). His jeep was named “Helen” after his girlfriend.

Hurshal would survive WWII and leave the Army a Tech 5, but his relationship to Helen did not. Instead, he married Deedra R (Harman) Wilson. He passed away in 1991, his wife passing later in 2006, with both buried at Riverside National Cemetery. There is no evidence they had children.

After finding the article, a search on eBay led to this photo of Hurshal:

1944-05-03-hurshal-peewee-wilson1 1944-05-03-hurshal-peewee-wilson2

Here’s the article:

1944-05-03-mail-tribune-medford-or-17-jap-prisoners

 
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Jeepsters and the Sunkist Lady

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

UPDATE: This article provides more information about this stunt Jeepster and plane. It was published in the March 20, 1949, issue of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

1949-03-20-fort-worth-star-telegram-jeep-jockey-endurance-jeepster-plane1-lores 1949-03-20-fort-worth-star-telegram-jeep-jockey-endurance-jeepster-plane2-lores

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Originally Published Dec 8, 2012:


The Sunkist Lady was an Aeronca 15AC Sedan airplane flown by Dick Riedel and Bill Barris used to set a world-record for endurance flight.  They spent a total of 1008 hours and 2 minutes aboard the airplane, ending their flight in April of 1949. Unfortunately for them, their record was broken six months later.

What makes this relevant for jeep fans was that to keep the plan in the air, the crew used Jeepsters borrowed from local dealers to race down the airport runway so the crew could hand fuel and food to the two pilots.

Thanks to Colin for forwarding the story!

Here is a link to a story and a video about the flight (124 MB): http://www.cityoffullerton.com/depts/airport/the_sunkist_lady.asp

Here is a second article:  http://vintageairphotos.blogspot.com/2012/03/saga-of-sunkist-lady.html. The picture below is from that article.


 
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1946 Ralph McGill Column: Jeep Jockey in Germany

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

I’d be very interested to know if the driver’s kidney issues improved once he his jeep driving days in the military were over. This article appeared in the February 21, 1946, issue of the Atlanta Constitution.

1946-02-21-atlanta-constitution-ralph-mcgill-jeep-jockeys-lores

 
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1942 Santa w/ Kids in a jeep

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

This 1944 newspaper photo of Santa in a jeep shows a military jeep with a taller-than-normal windshield, almost 2A like. This was published in the December 28, 1942, in the Bull Horn out of Norman, Oklahoma.

1944-12-28-bull-horn-norman-ok-santa-jeep-lores

 
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1947 Press Photo of Japanese Kids in Toy Jeeps on eBay

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

This press photo was taken March 30, 1947, at a Japanese department story where kids got to test out riding jeeps from a Japanese manufacturer who added “Kiroy was Here” to the dash. I don’t think these models of riding jeeps have been documented.

View all the information on ebay

“1947 Press Photo Children playing with toy jeeps at a department store in Japan. This is an original press photo. Japan (General). Japanese children, visiting a Tokyo department store, try out toy jeeps bearing the slogan “Kilroy was here,” placed on them by the Japanese manufacturer.Photo measures 7 x 8.75inches. Photo is dated 3-30-1947. ”

1947-03-31-kilroys-here-japanese-kids-jeep1 1947-03-31-kilroys-here-japanese-kids-jeep

I was able to locate a corresponding photo in a newspaper. This one appeared in the March 31, 1947, issue of the Des Moines Tribune out of Iowa:

1947-03-31-desmoines-tribune-kilroy-in-japan-toy-jeeps-lores

 
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November 1946 Carl’s Motor Co. Dealer Ad

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

This looks like it may have been a full-page ad for Carl’s Motor company, despite the news stories sprinkled within. Note the photo of Bob Hope in a CJ-2A that seems to be promoting Carl’s Motors (I wonder if Bob Hope knew it).

1946-11-22-wilmington-daily-press-journal-carls-jeep-dealer1-lores 1946-11-22-wilmington-daily-press-journal-carls-jeep-dealer2-lores

 
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1946 Photo of Jeep Supplying Rural WV Schools

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

As of December 1946, Wyoming County Schools in West Virginia still had 52 one-room schools attended by 1200 students. To serve and maintain those schools throughout the year, the county purchased a CJ-2A.

1946-09-15-raleigh-register-wv-rural-schools

More details about the rural schools in this article from the December 27, 1946, issue of the Beckley Post Herald out of West Virginia.

1946-12-27-beckley-post-herald-rural-wv-schools

 
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Damn the Torpedo ‘Fuel’, Full Speed Ahead

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

A September 23, 1956, article in the Lansing State Journal (Michigan) tells the story of an auto parts dealer who bought some surplus fuel, only to find out it was a special type of fuel.

1956-09-23-lansing-state-journal-MI-torpedo-fuel