Do 1936 Philadelphia dealership records exist?

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Jennifer,

A great looking car and a very interesting story. I would love to hear the details of how you tracked down the original owner’s name in Pennsylvania because my car (a 1928 Series 36 Touring) reportedly was sold new in New York or Pennsylvania. It came from New York to California around 15 years ago. I am trying to find any documentation of the original owner of my car.

A prior owner put together an ownership chain, but there is no documentation of the original owner, supposedly actor Al Jolson. The story is that for some unknown reason the second owner did not want anyone to know that the car had belonged to Jolson and refused to provide any confirmation or documentation of this to the third owner. The car is known in PAS and several members have told me that Jolson was reportedly the first owner, however I haven’t been able to confirm this. I will be at the Buffalo meet, so I am looking forward to hearing your story.

Thanks,

Dave

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Fantastic pic’s Jennifer-thanks for sharing!

Best-John

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A really beautiful car. Does it still mostly look like that?

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Matt, the car is still completely intact – just more deteriorated now, despite always being garage kept. That’s why I’m coming to Buffalo: to learn how to reverse the aging process and restore the car to its best possible condition. When I get the photos of present day condition back from the photographer, I’ll be able to assemble a comprehensive picture book. So if you see a lady in Buffalo carrying around a photo album about a car… that’ll be me! What can I say, it’s a little weird, but it’s the next best thing to bringing the actual car.

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Dave, I do understand your frustration in searching for documentation about previous owners. Miraculously in our case, the original owner’s name was monogrammed on a lap robe that came with the car. Mom told me this, but somehow I overlooked it on first examination. So I spent weeks looking for a paper trail (library, newspaper, state records dept, etc…) when the evidence was right under my nose. Like you, I’m now searching for documentation about the original owners. Looking forward to meeting you in Buffalo and hearing more about your story!

Jennifer

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Jennifer,

Did you run down the plate number shown in one of your pics?

Maybe it was still registered to the original owner at the time the pic was taken and your parents needed to get new plates.

Peter

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Jennifer, try looking under the rear seat for old bills, calling cards etc that may have fallen down there from the original owner. When I restored my 1933 1247 seven passenger sedan I found many items from the 1930s that helped me trace my cars history,the original family’s history and chauffeur. Good luck Doug Vogel

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Thanks for your suggestions. I’ve been really careful to preserve every crumb of evidence found inside the car or about it. Longtime PAS members could have predicted this, but being a newbie I underestimated how difficult it would be putting together a tidy ownership chain all the way back to 1936. At this point there are way more questions than answers. I have to keep reminding myself the main goal is restoring the car, and the narrative is secondary. –Jennifer

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If the front seat is upholstered in comparable fabric to the rear, I’d guess from the photos that it is a 7-pass sedan. The sliding glass partition suggests to me that it was NOT a factory installation. Seeing how the partition itself behind the seat was constructed would probably help to determine if this was built originally this way or was modified from a straight 7-p sedan, as the serial number suggests.

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