Seeing Gotham

Touring New York City in style in the early years of the 20th century! An open vehicle with solid rubber tires was acceptable to folk who for at least two generations paraded about in horse drawn open carriages and barouches and felt very good about themselves indeed (tourists today pay exorbitant prices to do so in Central Park!) This tour bus, not much more than a truck fitted with seats, was small compared with others of this kind that were easily three times this length and carried perhaps as many as 42 passengers.

Today we would want cushier seats with safety belts, an enclosure with conditioned air and large windows, and the driver would need to be amplified so we could hear the canned script – we could not be expected to be ferried about in the equivalent of a delivery truck or depot hack, but I am sure these tourists were content to pay the fare to satisfy their curiosity about life in Gotham. A very good time was had by all!

REO Speed Wagon (The Vehicle)

In case you were expecting the 1980s rock band!

REO was started by R.E. Olds in 1905 (his former company, in which he was no longer involved, became Oldsmobile), building cars and trucks until 1975. The Speed Wagon was a light truck – the precursor of today's pickup truck – made after 1910 and continuing for some years. Manufacture of cars ceased in 1936 after the worst years of the depression and competition forced the company to concentrate on trucks. The Speed Wagon had several forms including fire trucks.

This looks like the 1917 model Speed Wagon which was a 3.25 ton vehicle with canvas top, canvas roll-up sides and snap closure isinglass doors, here shown tied back. It cost $1125. The name is painted on the ends of the gas tank which is mounted behind and below the windshield where the dashboard would normally be.

The truck in this photo is carrying both bottled milk and milk in cans; since there is no company name visible it may have supplied products to retail food stores rather than home delivery, but who knows. Why the spare mount only has a rim instead of a complete tire is a good question – what good would that be if you had a flat? Note that the rear tires have tread for traction but the front tires are smooth. The REO name was pronounced as a single syllable even though it was based on Olds' initials (the Olds name was never used for this company because of conflict with the other Olds company name)

How To Vandalize A Photo 101

Whoever owned this photo took lessons from Attila the Hun and is excused from the beginner’s course – advance directly to the professional level!

First, I know things happen, I know this is only a snapshot, but let’s not be overly polite and just say there are no excuses for this (and don’t give me that threadbare tale about how the dog did it)!

Second, if you come across a badly damaged photo that you think is kind of neat and should be saved, and if tape is all you have to make repairs, please stick it on the back of the photo – NOT on the front! As my Mom would say, “Use your head for something besides growing hair!” (I did, and now I have very little).

Third, what’s with the holes? Okay, I really don’t want to know!

In spite of it’s deplorable condition, this was such a wonderful image – not technically, but for all the other reasons that make you look at a photo and grin. And because the car looks like something Daisy Duck drove! So I rescued this sadly abused child of the camera and gave it a decent home – and spent a few hours making it presentable.

The car is a 1912 Detroit Electric; Thomas Edison owned one in that year, too. The woman’s expression is an interesting one – as are her Wicked Witch of the West pointy shoes. Do you have a caption?