We occasionally provide excerpts from The Great American Car Wash Story. Former ICA Executive Director Gus Trantham and veteran commercial writer John Beck wrote this book in 1994. It represents the most complete history we have found of the industry in North America. Enjoy.
CHAPTER 2 FLEETWOOD AND THE HOLLYWOOD MANIA
The peregrinations of James Hill’s horseless carriage around Fleetwood must have stimulated many ideas in the heads of some of the very town fathers who banned his vehicle from the streets of the town, for Fleetwood was soon to become the home of a company that was to make custom car bodies for some of the greats in show business as well as many others in the upper crust.
Fleetwood is located in Berks County, Pennsylvania, which attracted many early settlers of German extraction who became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch with a reputation as careful craftsman who took pride in the perfection of their work. The turn of the century found many of these Pennsylvania Dutch working in vehicle factories in such towns as Reading, Hamburg, Boyertown … and Fleetwood. These factories produced many fine cars, such as the Daniels, the Dile, the SGV, the Acme, the Duryea “Buggyaut” and others known only to antique-car lovers.
The Duryea brothers, who established their plant in Reading, are credited with having produced the first truly manufactured cars in the United States after having invented the spray carburetor and adopted the first pneumatic tires.
But of particular interest to car wash operators would be the way the Fleetwood Metal Body Company was founded in 1909 to make custom cars built around chassis and engines carrying what were to become some of the greatest names in automobile history: names such as Packard, Rolls-Royce, Lincoln, Dusenberg, Mercedes-Benz and Isotta-Fraschini.
Needless to say, the people who ordered these custom-built Fleetwood cars were in the clover. People such as Andrew Carnegie and the Vanderbilts as well as many of the royalty from overseas. In this country, especially, many Fleetwoods were ordered by Hollywood movie stars such as the great Theda Bara, the ever-popular Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino the magnificent lover, to name a few. This generated a great deal of publicity for the Fleetwood name and helped to launch a Hollywood mania for luxurious automobiles.
Needless to say, these Fleetwood cars were considered by many to be the best in the world, using as they did the finest engines, the richest leathers, the best suspension systems, the most luxurious of fabrics, the most meticulous craftsmanship available.
Such vehicles likewise demanded the best in car care, and it may well be that the care demanded by the Hollywood stars in having their cars washed may have played a key role in popularizing car washing as a professional service.
