by Paul R. Spitzzeri
We at the Homestead have long noticed that among the common depictions in 1920s-era personal snapshot photographs are the pride taken by people with their most expensive assets, namely their houses and their automobiles. In our collection, we’ve tried to have a representative sampling of a variety of these types of images, from luxurious cars parked in front of substantial residences to smaller vehicles at humbler abodes. No matter the ride or the edifice, pride is almost certainly the motivating factor for such documentation.
The featured artifact from our holdings for this post does not, on the surface, have a great deal to tell us. A modest coal black Nash coupe is parked on the drive in front of a simple wood-frame garage, evidently detached from a residence. On the reverse is a basic inscription “This is our garage and drive way, June 25, 28” and the car certainly fits the environment as such a vehicle probably cost around $1,000, depending on whether it was purchased new or used, and the house was likely a middle or working class dwelling.
But, we know that the Nash Motor Company built a good many cars for just such a clientele, not unlike other, better-known, manufacturers like, say, Ford or Chevrolet. The name “Nash” has not appeared on cars for some seventy years, three decades longer than it existed, but the story of the company and founder is one worth remembering when it comes to automotive history.
Charles W. Nash (1864-1948) came from one of those very humble backgrounds that have often been cited as the embodiment of the American Dream. He was born in Cortland, Illinois, west of Chicago and then resided in Michigan, but, after his parents separated when he was six, he was abandoned and left a ward of a court. He was sent, under a guardianship order, to Flushing, northwest of Flint, which proved propitious, even though he ran away at age 12 and found farm work when he could, as well as received a meager education, and also was employed as a carpenter.
In his mid-Twenties, he went to Flint and was hired at a carriage works that became an early automobile manufacturing plant under William C. Durant, who became one of the most important figures in the industry and was essentially a mentor, though just a few years older. Durant took over the small local company, Buick, in 1904 and, four years later, founded the General Motors Corporation, which took on such makers as Olds, Cadillac, Oakland (Pontiac), along with accessory, paint, and parts companies, while also encouraging the formation of Chevrolet.
Nash, who was an officer with the carriage company by the end of his two decades with it, became vice-president of Buick, helping to guide it to prosperity, but, when Durant was fired by the GM board in 1912, it appointed Nash his successor. He proved to be adept at operations, improving profits (which were often shaky under Durant), while also vastly improving efficiency and production and expanding into the international market. In 1916, however, Durant wrested back control of GM and Nash left, soon taking over a Kenosha, Wisconsin manufacturer, Jeffrey Motor Company.
Rebranded as Nash Motors, the firm was well-known for its Rambler model, while the first Nash vehicle was soon introduced, with a former GM engineer working at the company. A huge boost was the firm was securing government contracts for trucks used in the mobilization and fighting by the United States during the First World War. Nash built the firm into, by the late 1920s, the fourth largest auto manufacturer in the nation behind Chrysler, Ford and GM, which were known as The Big Three. Production by Nash Motors climbed from just over 12,000 in 1917 to north of 137,000 a decade later.
When Nash took over Jeffrey, the Los Angeles Tribune of 20 August 1916 ran a feature on him, remarking,
Like other great captains of American industry, Mr. Nash carved his own destiny. He is in every sense a self-made man, having defeated countless obstacles that arose in his climb from an orphaned youngster of six years to his present position as one of the most prominent manufacturers in the country.
A week later, the paper reported that the company was being renamed after Nash and the sales organization across the country reorganized, including in southern California, which was the car capital of the world, while the new owner commented that he hoped to double production, while he intended to keep personnel and keep the quality of the models intact.
Nash told the press, “I have had the ambition to direct the activities of an organization of my own” and “I have got there now.” Two large structures, one five stories high, were being built for body manufacturing and as a foundry, to handle the production boost and he added, “the name of the company will be changed, but we shall maintain and improve, if possible, the quality of its products.” He then announced,
We have a fine plant, with as high grade, up-to-date machinery as any automobile factory in the country, and if it does not turn out a lot of high-grade motor cars the fault, I guess will be mine. I am proud to have our company, backed by such a plant, bear my name.
The success of the firm by 1927 was such that, at the beginning of the year, the Los Angeles Times, in reviewing the stock market with respect to the industry, remarked that “the leaders in that group snapped back quickly from the early low levels, as impressive demand for Nash Motors reasserted itself, lifting that stock to new record high levels.
Moreover, the company handed out $650,000 in employee bonuses and, in March, articles promoted the stock options that Nash workers received, totaling some $17 million, while it was added that the company had social and athletic clubs, with 90% of personnel holding memberships and enjoying movies and staffing a band and orchestra, while there was an athletic field, baseball diamond, clubhouse and tennis courts. Employees also participated in an advisory council.
An advertisement in the Burbank Review from that time commented that “Nash sales in Southern California, as well as in the entire country, are increasing at a marvelous rate because of the remarkable Nash value offerings.” It was added that sales the prior year were far more than in 1924 and 1925 combined, with it fully expected that the new year would well outpace the one just concluded.
With three series, the Light Six, Special Six and Advanced Six, ranging in price from $1030 to $2370—the one featured in this photo was the cheapest in that Light class—and with quality the determining factor in terms of the motor, crankshaft and brakes, readers and potential buyers were informed that “never was the truth of the Nash slogan more apparent than now” as “even just a casual inspection will reveal to you why “Nash Leads The World In Motor Car Value.”
The Long Beach Press Telegram, also at the start of 1927, ran an ad to announce a new Light Six two-door sedan, offered at the lowest price in company history at just $1,092. Four months later, the Monrovia News had an advertisement that asserted the Nash line was “Prominent and very popular in the public life of America,” while noting that “C.W. Nash has never built a more popular model of Nash than this Advanced Six Sedan” depicted. The emphasis was that “this Nash—every Nash—is in a value class all its own” with it and its siblings built better than average cars but priced no higher.
By mid-1927, reported the Hollywood Citizen-News of 13 July,
Sweeping aside all precedent in public favor the three entirely new series of Nash cars displayed by dealers throughout the country last week were given the greatest public reception ever accorded in the 11 years’ history of the Nash Motors Company . . . Outspoken approval and enthusiasm were voiced by thousands who crowded the Nash showrooms . . . and the public indorsement was made in the substantial form of record-breaking sales.
Smoother body styling, improvements in mechanics and “stunning new color combinations” were highlighted by those visiting the rooms, while it was remarked that “even greater amazement was expressed over the almost unbelievably smooth performance of the cars by those who had an opportunity to drive them.”
The result, it was mentioned by the firm’s general sales manager, was that the month was anticipated to be the most successful July in the company’s history. Some 6,000 persons visited the New York City dealer and the distributor there crowed that “this has been the greatest day in Nash history.” About 2,100 persons thronged the Denver showroom and the Boston distributor had to telegraph “we are practically cleaned out of new models” and added “please rush additional shipment.”
The situation was such that the Pomona Progress-Bulletin of 27 September informed its readers that demand after the release of the new series “makes necessary expansion at three of the company’s plants, involving expenditures for buildings and additional equipment of approximately $1,200,000.” These facilities in Wisconsin and Arkansas were needed, Nash reported, because “at no time since July 1 has the Nash Motor Company been able to fill all orders for the Standard Six line.”
With such a banner year, it was small wonder that the Christmas bonus for 1927 was $100,000 more than the previous year, totaling about three quarters of a million dollars. Meanwhile, the end of the year brought word in the Pasadena Post that Nash was appointed a director of the Crown City financial institutions, the First National Bank of Pasadena and the First Trust and Savings Bank of Pasadena.”
As the new year dawned, the Los Angeles Express quoted the manufacturer as opining,
There is no justification for believing that there will soon be a downward revision of automobile prices. The industry’s obligation is to give the greatest possible value for the money, and, while the year 1928 will be a good year for automobile makers and dealers, there will be strong competition and dealers will have to offer a high type of service in order to get business.
He clarified that just because certain cars were priced low, it was not to be expected that makers of higher value vehicles would automatically do so because “as a matter of fact, it seems to me that our greatest obligation to the automobile buyer lies in the greatest value possible for the money he invests.”
Yet, the Times of four days later replayed Nash’s announcement “of reduced prices” because “these reductions follow hard on the heels of heavy sales at the opening motor shows of the year, where the Nash display, with its emphasis on style and new color harmonies, is attracting great attention.” The lowest prices, for the Light Six two-door sedan and coupe, were at $845, while the cost of a five-passenger four-door Advanced Six sedan was $1,495. It was concluded that “this move [w]as the aggressive forerunner of big Nash expansion in sales throughout the country.”
Those cuts were reflected in advertisements that followed, including one in the Highland Park News-Herald of 9 March, which promoted a five-passenger sedan at $1,012 delivered to the the Hartzell Motor Company, which became the local distributor back when Nash assumed control of Jeffrey almost a dozen years prior. The piece promoted the two dozen models manufactured as well as “39 alluring color effects,” while the frame, brakes, shock absorbers and “straight line drive” motor highlighted as continuing reasons why “Nash leads the world in value.”
As the date of the photograph approached, another major announcement was heralded by the company through ads taken out, like those in the Times of 17 June, that “looming on the horizon,” meaning four days later, was the fact that “the World will have a new and finer motor car.” Not much was to be said, no doubt to keep the planet in a sustained state of suspense, but Nash was quoted from an address at his Kenosha factory that, “I can say nothing more to you than this—it has been the ambition of my career to build such a car as the new ‘400’ [series.]”
Four days later, the San Pedro News-Pilot told its readers that,
Twin-ignition, high compression engines, and custom finished, Salon type bodies led an imposing list of advancements new to the American automobile industry when The Nash Motors Company formally introduced its exclusive “400” series of cars to the motoring public of the harbor district today at the salesroom of Leon Parker, San Pedro Nash dealer at Fifth and Pacific avenue. Hundreds of people inspected the new models and enjoyed rides in the latest Nash creations.
There were sixteen models in the series said to be “engineered to a degree of operating efficiency and riding comfort never before attained in the same price class” meeting the company owner’s stated goal of satisfying “a universal demand for luxurious motor transportation at moderate cost” as well as his personal “fulfillment of personal engineering ambitions that have extended over thirty-six years of sound, successful manufacturing in the vehicle field.
Nash expounded on this by telling the press “it has been the dominating ambition of my whole manufacturing experience” to build autos of reasonable cost that had everything “the country’s costliest cars offer.” With $2.5 million invested in dies and machinery so that the series could be manufactured, the 400 realized his fondest dreams, including revolutionary engines, the newest in enclosed bodies, and a dozen advancements in design and equipment in three distinct groupings of models.
While the Great Depression came some sixteen months later and, as with the rest of the American economy, auto sales tumbled, the Nash firm was able to continue being profitable. In 1932, Nash relinquished the presidency, while remaining chair of the board, though five years later, the merged firm of Nash and Kelvinator, the refrigerator and freezer maker, took over operations and he effectively retired.
Nash settled in this region and died at his Beverly Hills residence in 1948, just a little under a decade before his name was removed from vehicles made under the American Motors Corporation (AMC) formed when Nash merged with the Hudson Motor Car Company, with AMC’s president being George W. Romney, father of recent presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor and Utah senator, Mitt. The Nash name, however, continued for some years in other countries.
This modest snapshot showing a humble little Nash coupe may not look like much on the surface, but there is some remarkable history there with the firm and its owner, who built a remarkable career and life during incredible expansion of the auto industry from about 1910 to 1930.