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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.08.14 15:58l 57 Lines 2554 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 12
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Sent: 140812/1500Z 33299@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Aug 12, 1988:
"Tucker: The Man & His Dream" debuts
On this day in 1988, director Francis Ford Coppola's critically
acclaimed biopic "Tucker: The Man & His Dream" premieres in U.S.
theaters, starring Jeff Bridges as the brash Chicago
businessman-turned-car-designer Preston Tucker who shook up
1940s-era Detroit with his streamlined, affordable "Car of
Tomorrow."
Remembered by some as a visionary and others as a flamboyant but
failed opportunist, Preston Tucker (born in 1903) was inspired to
build cars by his friendship and pre-World War II business
partnership with the race car driver and auto designer Harry
Miller. In the renewed prosperity following the war, Tucker
believed that Americans were ready to take a chance on a new kind
of car, and that he, as an independent entrepreneur, was in the
position to take risks that the big, established car companies
were unwilling to take. He hired a skilled team including
designer Alexander S. Tremulis and chief mechanic John Eddie
Offuttas and leased an old Dodge aircraft engine plant in Chicago
with plans to design and produce his dream cars.
Based on clay mock-ups built to scale, the Tucker team produced a
metal prototype, dubbed the "Tin Goose," in June 1947. The
following spring, the teardrop-shaped, 150-horsepower
rear-engined Tucker "Torpedo" began rolling off the line,
accompanied by the memorable advertising slogan "Don't Let a
Tucker Pass You By." Among the Torpedo's innovations were a
padded dashboard, a pop-out windshield and an innovative
center-mounted headlight.
Despite rave reviews in the automotive press, Tucker's company
fell under harsh scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), who investigated the automaker for mail fraud
and other charges. The investigation caused a flood of negative
publicity for the company, while Tucker struggled to keep
producing cars with a fraction of his staff. His efforts were in
vain; in March 1949 the company fell into receivership and its
assets were seized.
Tucker was ultimately acquitted of all charges, but his dream car
would never rise again; only 51 were produced after that initial
prototype. Forty-seven of those still exist, and a number of them
were used in the making of Coppola's movie, which revived
interest in the Tucker '48 and the story of the man behind it. At
the time of his death in 1956, Preston Tucker was working on
plans for a sports car, the Carioca, to be produced in Brazil.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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