The Motion Picture Director (Sep 1925 - Feb 1926)

1 9 26 THE MOTION PICTURE DIRECTOR 25 ^ Motor Car Trend .£r 1926 ANOTHER great national preview has come to a close, and has been 1 followed closely by many local premiers and debuts. This screen parlance refers to automobiles, and with good reason : probably no other industry, trade or profession uses more high-class passenger automobiles than the motion picture industry and its workers. Cars are a vital necessity to stars, directors and members of technical and producing staffs. For the army of extras and other itinerant workers in films the automobile is no less necessary as a means of speedy transportation from studio to studio, and aside from the use of commercial cars and trucks, an unusual number of good automobiles are to be found in studio transportation departments. These cars are used in pictures and for emergency transportation of all sorts. Truly, the motor car has an important place in film production. Every January, in the Grand Central Palace, New York City, leading motor car manufacturers collaborate in a comprehensive exposition of the latest developments in 6y CHARLES H.BIRD opment and improvement of personal transportation. And just at this time of year investigations into probable trends are seriously hampered by the amusing “veil of secrecy” in which over-anxious motor car men attemp to swathe their business. But information as vital as the news of automotive doings, has a way of circulating, and so it may be authoritatively stated that the outstanding trend of passenger transportation for 1926 presents a very definite advance toward a paradoxical combination,— that of speed and safety. Cars of 1926 are built to travel faster, to afford even greater comfort to passengers, and at the same time, to be controlled with greater ease. Another encouraging trend is the rapidly spreading custom among leading motor car builders of abandoning yearly models. That, more than anything else, has established owner confidence. Today, the automobile owner, who selects a new car from the line of any of the fifty dependable manufacturers can rest assured that the style and value of his chosen vehicle is not going to be almost totally wrecked by the sudden advent of an entirely new model, sprung on an unsuspecting public within six months of his original purchase. Standardization in basic principles of design and construction has come to stay for two excellent reasons. First, owner confidence, that most vital asset, must be maintained, and second, “Old Man Overhead”, the ever present enemy of the manufacturer must be kept down, and radical changes of design send manufacturing costs skyrocketing, to the ultimate ruin of those who persist in attempting to snatch success through sensationalism, rather than achieving it by means of the slower, surer process of sound merchandising of dependable products. Significant proof of the actual time and space blanking spirit of this present era of rapid transit, is seen in the fact that, simultaneously with the opening of the New York Show, new model cars, identical with those displayed “for the first time” in the Grand Central Palace, began to appear on the Pacific Coast, notably, in the fine salons of the Hollywood and Los Angeles motor car distributors and dealers. And with them came several surprise announcements of great eastern mergers, all tending toward the inevitable plan o f further standardization. The Stutz vertical eight, one of the most striking developments of the new year, is introduced here under the sponsorship of Lynn C. Buxton, who for years has stuck to the Stearns-Knight line. But WillysOverland Inc. of Toledo announced the purchase of the Stearns factory. This brings the manufacture of all cars with the sleeve-valve engine under one head, although the various plants are to be operated as separate units. The new Stutz is replete with unique automotive design. That is the national automobile preview. Naturally, a good two-thirds of the population of United States are on the qui vive to know what the outcome will be, what new departures will be introduced in various makes of cars, for they all have cars at home, the style and value of which are going to be more or less affected. The great question of the day on the street, among motor car owners, is “What’s the Trend”? That word trend is a term somewhat difficult to interpret in the face of the kaleidoscopic progress being made in the devel General Motors’ new low priced creation is the Pontiac Six, featuring this Coupe and a Coach distributed as companion cars to the Oakland line.