A big thanks to Barney Goodwin (of Barneys Jeep Parts) for sending me this early edition of the Kaiser Willys News. This is issue #3. A couple interesting things about this issue. Perhaps the biggest curiosity is that there isn’t much related to jeeps in this issue, confirming that even by early 1954 there was still a lot of integration still going on. Issue #2, seen in the post below, also didn’t have much information related to jeeps. Volume 4 of the newspaper, which appeared in May (and can be seen below the #2 issue), had a few more jeep specific references.

The last issue of Willys News I posted was from the summer of 1956. I don’t have any others for 1956. I also don’t have the January 1957 issue, but I do have some eBay pics (from 2013). It looks like a good one (see post below this one).

This issue of Willys News highlighted a new advertising campaign, the “Gets there . . . works there . . .  anywhere!” magazine ads (will highlight those on Thursday). Page 3 has some advertising reprints (lower left pic), showing the diversity of ‘Jeep’ ads (I hope to find examples of all of these for a future post). Also on page three appears to be “NEW LIFE” ads that include concentric circles. Maybe that was a local parts dealer campaign. I’ll have to see if I can find newspaper examples of that campaign from DC newspapers of the time. On Page 2, there’s an image of the Light Rescue Truck, featured in yesterday’s post about the Light Rescue Truck brochure.

Ted Bumiller’s trip around the world was highlighted in this issue as well. More information this trip, including reference to a film about it, can be found in this 2016 film and lecture post.

Regarding the back page article, it’s a bit hard for me to believe that the motorhome the Murray’s built on a truck chassis (with an inline 6?) was capable of sustained cruising of 70 MPH, especially given that modern interstates had yet to be built (the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956––aka Interstate Highway construction bill––hadn’t yet been passed when this issue of Willys News was published).

Lots of interesting items in this issue.

I don’t have the January 1956 issue, but this February 1956 issue discusses the introduction of the DJ-3A Dispatcher.

This issue of the Globe-Trotter is undated, but I’m guessing it is the March/April 1956 issue. I’ve published some of this a few years ago. Here is the whole issue.

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More vintage articles in this final issue for 1955.