University of Southern California Digital Library

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In doing research for the 1933 National Air Races, which was held in Los Angeles July 1-4, 1933, I stumbled upon a small portion of the digitized “Dick” Whittington Photo Collection held by USC.

“The (Wayne) “Dick” Whittington Studio was the largest and finest photography studio in the Los Angeles area from 1924 to 1987. Specializing in commercial photography, the Whittington Studio took photographs for nearly every major business and organization in Los Angeles; in so doing, they documented the growth and commercial development of Los Angeles.

Clients included Max Factor, the Broadway, Bullock’s, and May Co. department stores, the California Fruit Growers Association, Signal Oil, Shell Oil, Union Oil, Van de Kamp’s bakeries, Forest Lawn, Sparkletts Water, CBS, Don Lee Television, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, real estate developers, construction companies, automobile, aircraft, and railroad companies, and drive-in theaters”.

The collection consists primarily of roughly 500,000 negatives; the rest are photoprints.”

The attached are a few of the Pierce-Arrow related digitized photographs. I am sure there are many more still waiting to be uncovered.

– Ben

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p15799coll170/searchterm/pierce%20arrow!pierce%20arrow/field/all!all/mode/all!all/conn/and!and/order/title/ad/asc

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Pictured is an wreaked 1928 Series 36. Description of the car reads as follows:

“Pierce Arrow, File A11326, owner Sander Dickey, Southern California, 1933. “

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll170/id/63471/rec/14

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Finally a picture from the 1929 Los Angeles Auto Show. If I remember correctly, (and correct me if I’m wrong) it was held in a tent that caught fire. Every car, make, and model was destroyed in the fire.

“Pierce-Arrow cars at auto show, Southern California, 1929.”

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll170/id/33423/rec/16

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Ben: Great photos. Many thanks.

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While looking through more of the photos of the Whittington collection, I noticed that they are categorized with an individual’s name. After doing some quick research I was able to find information on the owner of this Pierce-Arrow.

HOWARD WOSTER DAVIS

1885 – 1959

In 1924 he became a member of the board of governors of the Los Angeles Realty Board then won the 7th District City Council seat in May 1927. He retained his seat on the city council till 1935 when he took “voluntary retirement”.

In April of 1933 (the same year as the accident of this Pierce-Arrow) Davis wrote an article to the Los Angeles Times “detailing the joys and sorrows of being a City Council member.”

“. . . I enjoy it. I think politics is the most intriguing game in the world. I enjoy the maneuvering necessary to put through an ordinance I believe will help my district and the city, and sometimes the difficulties and red tape only increase the zest. . . . Today it seems to be the custom for public officeholders to deny they’re politicians. I’m a politician.”

He died December 13, 1959, in Coronado, California, at the age of 76.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_W._Davis#

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More on the LA Auto Show fire.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/03/05/the-day-the-los-angeles-auto-show-went-up-in-flames/

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More photos from the 1929 LA Auto Show.

These are from the LA Times with before and after pictures.

http://framework.latimes.com/2011/11/18/fire-destroys-1929-auto-show/

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While looking at the pictures from the Whittington collection I came across this description:

“Pierce Arrow car from Jack-Germond, 5600 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 1929”

Naturally this sparked my curiosity…

Jack – Germond

Jack Germond is found as “automobile sales executive” in the publication “Motor West”. In Volume 35, Page 76 of the 1921 printing it announces his acquisition of the Wills-Sainte Claire car. He is described as “…well known automobile sales executive of many years’ standing…”. I was not able to find any mention of involvement with Pierce-Arrow.

Paul Engstrum.

The gentleman standing in front the Pierce-Arrow pictured, with the pipe in his hand, is Paul Engstrum.

He was the grandson of Franz O. Engstrum, a construction company executive.

“The F. O. Engstrum Company, incorporated in 1904, had up to two hundred employees, all “skilled and independent workmen.”Although it first specialized in large carpentry projects, the Engstrum company soon became well-known as one of the most prominent general building-contracting firms west of Chicago, specializing in reinforced-concrete construction of large institutional and commercial buildings. (The firm was said to have built the first cast-in-place concrete structure.) These included the Court Houses in Riverside and Ventura, the Security National and Citizens National Banks on Spring Street in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Polytechnic High School, the County and California Hospitals, Fire Station No. 23, the seven-story Elks Hall, the Ocean Park Bathhouse, the Agnews State Hospital, and Tower Hall at what is now San Jose State University.”

Paul Engstrum was the “playboy” of his day. Paul managed to have four marriages within 10 years before his fourth wife divorced him on grounds of cruelty and non-support in 1929, the year of this picture. “He wore many business hats, working at one time as a civil engineer for his father’s firm (dissolved after F. O.’s demise), later operating the Duro automobile refinishing company. Still later he was described as a “newspaper and advertising man,” which led to a stint as the “official host” of Los Angeles County”.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll170/id/32775/show/32772/rec/10

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Everyone, thanks for posting all this. It is really fascinating.

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The first photo shown, of a 1920s touring car, looks like it could be one of the images from the 1920s southern California photo collection donated to the Society/Museum 10-15 years ago. Could those donated have been taken by Whittington, too?

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Hi Brooks,

That’s a great question. The “Dick” Whittington company was large and there is a possibility more than one copy of the same side/subject was produced. In looking what the online collection has posted, I found that they have the two slides pictured with the, what looks like, a new sleeve for the glass negative. I am curious who, or the relevance of, the name Ed Nathan. And why a steam shovel?

– Ben

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll170/id/68147/rec/13

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…and a few more related to the above post.

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The Series 80 touring car shown at the beach is the same touring car in the same location. but shot from a different angle, and with someone in the driver’s seat, in “There Is No Mistaking A Pierce-Arrow.” The photo I used came was among the Whittington photos in the Huntington Library in Pasadena.

A second large southern California photo collection of that time was taken by a fellow named Hawkins. Some were also in the Huntington, but a great many had yet to be archived by anyone and were rumored being stored in someone’s garage. I do not know if they have been saved.

I hope you get the chance to compare those Pierce photos with the Society’s southern California collection; they were digitzed some time ago.

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Great stuff – thanks, Ben.

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The Packard Co. had loaned the earliest(or one of the earliest)

Packards for the Show. It was valued for an un-godly amount for

the day and was a total loss.

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