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The February issue of Turning Wheels, the Studebaker Drivers’ Club magazine, appears to provide the first new Pierce-Arrow historical “discovery” of the year – especially well-timed as 2015 is the sesquicentennial year of the establishment of the George N. Pierce Company back in 1865.
The surprise is a 1956 advertising drawing pasteup in the magazine’s “Off the Records” column, written by Andy Beckman, that is devoted to Studebaker National Museum items. This otherwise unidentified display ad for a Packard Pierce Arrow (spelled without the hyphen) shows a 1956 Clipper sedan, with tweaked front and rear fender trim, plus some nice words. The car has a small Pierce Arrow nameplate on the side of the front fenders, but nothing characteristically Pierce such as a special headlight treatment or some detail resurrecting the archer.
The drawing has no accompanying material to explain what, if any, part it may have played in the debate raging at Studebaker-Packard that Spring over continuing Packard production. So we can only guess if it is significant that 1956 was the same year when architect R. Vale Faro, located not far away in Chicago, was beginning to organize the Pierce-Arrow Society. Could there be a lot more to this story?
Many thanks to Turning Wheels and the Studebaker National Museum Archives in South Bend, Indiana, for making this ad available.
Nice piece Brooks, or should I say nice Pierce!
I notice a number of members continue to look at this post but have yet to provide an answer or clue. Yesterday, I was talking with a Packard enthusiast yesterday about the Packard Pierce Arrow who mentioned some interesting information: Packard’s DuBois dealership in Washington, DC was customizing some of the 1956 cars in a series-custom way, giving them a separate model name, Esquire. DuBois has always appeared to be the only dealer doing that in 1956, but the Packard Pierce Arrow advertising pasteup suggests someone else was trying to duplicate the effort. Perhaps this will help identify the Packard Pierce Arrow question.
Brooks, The Avanti, when first conceived, I was told, was to be called “Pierce Arrow.” Stampings (name plates) etc. were to go onto these cars and it may have been possible that the first few built were badged as such. Enter some smart executive doing research on the name. The name had been owned by two people: Peter Lapey (Grand Island, N.Y. and the owner and CEO of Friendly’s Ice Cream. This story was told to me by my insurance man- Peter Lapey, quite some time ago. He also said, “if they had only asked, they could have had the rights, free.”
I’ve always wondered if this story was true?
Bob
It appears from a quick search that the use of the name Pierce Arrow for motor vehicles is not currently an active registration. (see attached) I have no idea how thorough this search engine really might be….
I would think in the mid to late 50’s that dealers, particularly ones of a somewhat fading brand, would have gone to great lengths to try doing something different. I’ve seen 1957 Chevrolets that were upgraded when new to look more like a Cadillac, they were called El Morocco. I’d think the ad shown is a similar attempt to upgrade a car that might have been a slow seller, of course, the mystery is whether such a car was ever badged.
http://www.trademarkia.com/trademark/trademark_step0.aspx?tn=pierce%20arrow
David,
The Pierce-Arrow Society owns the Trademark and has successfully fended off multiple attempts to appropriate the name for automobiles over the past few years.
Just one more thing the Society does for its members.
Dave Stevens
Thanks Dave, I didn’t realize that, that’s great!
What’s curious is that whomever conceived this idea back in the ’50’s chose to modify a mid-range 1955 Clipper sedan (’55 had the sore thumb tail light) instead of a top-line Patrician, Caribbean or Four-Hundred.
The comments about the Pierce-Arrow trademark are very interesting. When I went to the Patent and Trademark Office in Arlington, several years ago (before the files were digitized), I found five/six trademarks. The word Pierce with an arrow goes back to the company’s bicycle days. A new version of that was created for the first cars. That is the one used by the Society and also the Pierce Manufacturing Company, who still make Pierce fire trucks (If Pierce Manufacturing still have an agent in Paris, it is again possible to buy a new Pierce Arrow fire truck in Paris!).
There is also an automotive trademark using both Pierce and Arrow spelled out with an arrow. Someone in New York City was using it then.
On the other hand, the trademark (I forget if there are one or two versions) with the family coat of arms, seen on the 1928 cars, is said to be the wrong coat of arms. Could the wrong Pierce coat of arms have been used because someone did not trace its roots back far enough?
Brooks