Assorted photos from the album of Wordsmith Ken
Here is a selection of pictures from my days as a working auto writer/editor, plus some general car-related photos you might find interesting. I'll be adding more, so come back later for a look. (Note: the scans of the Dodge below don't do justice to the photos. I'll work on improving them. And thanks, Sherwood, for supplying the originals.)
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I graced (or disgraced!) the September, 1961 cover of Popular
Science which was reprinted for Pontiac to use as handouts at Auto Shows. I drove one of
the new Tempests from Detroit to NYC for the New York Auto Show in the fall of ''61. Does
anyone remember that the Tempest had a thin, flexible driveshaft, and that the
transmission in the rear -- or "cogs in the caboose," as we called it then. I will try to get more Forward Looks photos for this page, folks, but I just don't have any handy right at the moment. I may have helped build this '49 Dodge (below & left) when I labored over a hot oven at the old Dodge Main Plant. The story of the summer I spent working there is covered in "The Worst Job I Ever Had" on the Ken's Stories page. |
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| The Ford Rotunda in Dearborn was the fifth leading tourist
destination in the nation during the 1950s ahead of such places as Yellowstone Park, the
Washington Monument and the Statue of Liberty. It burned down in November, 1962. I worked there in 1951-52 when it still housed some Ford offices. I was a reporter on the Ford Rouge News, a biweekly employee paper. All offices were removed in 1953. |
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This was the cover (left) on the November 1957 issue of Motor Life,
a Petersen Publications magazine. I was Detroit editor of ML for four years, from 1955 to
1959, when I left to join Popular Science. That's me in the light sport coat, holding the
camera. I think the Rambler shown just might have been one of the few, very few, that were
equipped with Bendix fuel injection. I drove such a car at Daytona Beach in a 1/8-mile
sand drag race, but the timing of this cover does not jibe with the time I drove that car.
I'll have to dig out the trophy (the Leadfoot Award) I won in that event and photograph it to use on this page. It was a huge (about 13EEE) boot, plated like a child's shoe is often done, and mounted on a thick slab of wood. There's kind of an interesting story that goes with it, involving Hot Rod's Ray Brock and Mechanix Illustrated's Tom McCahill. Maybe I'll write about it one of these days. I'm attempting to find the article, Plymouth's Biggest Changes For 1958, so I can scan the text and include at least part of it on this site. |
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