1926 Series 33 – 1952-1997

Way cool car. Thanks for the hostory. It alsways makes the car that much more cool.

Thanks, Paul. As long as we now have a thread about old photos of dual-valve Series 33’s, here’s one of our car from a postcard sent by Frederick Bissell of Dubuque, IA, to Henry Austin Clark while Bissell owned the car back in the 1940’s and early 50’s. Clark the used the photo to illustrate 1922 Pierce-Arrows in the “Standard Catalog of American Cars 1809-1942” which he co-wrote with Beverly Rae Kimes. I have both spoken and corresponded with Bissell’s son John who is my age, and who well-remembers the car from his youth. A few years ago, John found a brass key tag that went with the car,and was kind enough to send it along.

In the early 50’s, Bissell sold the car to C. R. Bradshaw of Indiana, whose family is shown here in a photo published in a 1953 “Horseless Carriage Gazette”. I’ve been able to speak with one of the boys in the photo who also remembers the car well. Bradshaw was one of the founders of the Rolls Royce Club of America. In the mid 50’s he sold the car to Rob Lyons, which is when it first began to show up at PAS meets and in PAS literature. Bradshaw’s son remembers that his father kept detailed files on all his cars, but no one has been able to find the file for this one. Too bad………

Paul, what a nice car, are we going to see it in person at the 2016 PAS meet in Texas ??

You are lucky to have such a long pictorial history of your car. Most of us are lucky to have just one image of our cars with a previous owner.

Greg Long