Credit Colin and Glenn for uncovering this information.
A rare 1945 Christmas Al-Toy that was on eBay recently
Mr. Stub Cole, at the right, and Harold Bell, Sales Manager for Willys, at the left, seated at a table with an unnamed WGN radio announcer. On the table is an Al-Toy Jeep and on the bookcase behind Mr. Bell is another Al-Toy Jeep and a smaller model of a Jeep towing a trailer.
“About one year ago, Glenn Byron and I became involved in correspondence with Mr. and Mrs. David (Sue) Cole, part time residents here in Arizona and Michigan. The conversations revolved around the story that David Cole’s father, “Stub” Cole had gone to work at Willys in the latter part of 1945 for the purpose of getting the farm implement accessories and documentation then being supplied for Jeeps out to the dealer network. He left his
family in Michigan and lived in a couple of hotels in Toledo during the time he worked at Willys.
During this time, he took home a tan Al-Toy Jeep for David’s brother and at Christmas 1945, he brought two more Al-Toy Jeeps home. One was tan, like the first one, but the third Jeep, which he gave to his wife, was done differently than the others. It was silver, with a red interior and the underside was painted green. The wheels were cream colored and it had a spare tire mounted on the right rear fender. The Cole family always called this the Christmas Jeep due to its Christmas colors. As close as the family can remember, Stub left Willys in about April or May of 1946 and returned to Michigan.
Fast forward to 2011. David and Sue are trying to plot some of their family history and realized that David still had his original Al-Toy Jeep from 1945. They contacted the remaining family and learned that David’s brother’s tan Jeep and the “Christmas Jeep” were still in the family. With that, Sue began searching the internet for anything on Al-Toys and came up with Glenn’s name. She contacted him and he replied, copying me on the correspondence. Photos of the three Jeeps were sent to both of us and we realized the “Christmas Jeep” was indeed special and we made arrangements to meet with the Cole’s at their winter home in Cottonwood, AZ. Glenn and his family were on a vacation out west, to coincide with the FC Roundup here in Phoenix and we also got to meet Dave and Ann at the FC Roundup as well. We arranged to meet the Coles in Cottonwood on March 25th and look at the Al-Toys and share their findings on Willys history where their father was involved.
The photos below show the 1945 Christmas Al-Toy Jeep and a tan one in their original condition in March, 2012. We talked about the condition of all three Jeeps and possible things to do with them. The two tan Jeeps had been played with and had some pencil markings left over from nearly 70 years ago and there were a couple of items that they would like to have repaired, but wanted to leave the Jeeps as close to their original condition as possible.
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