Re: Brown Bomber article
Posted by Leeedy On 2016/4/13 20:09:51
Quote:
MrBumble wrote:
Finally, who thought up that name? The Brown Bomber? Must have been something that came to Macauley while he was in the bathroom ...
No idea how the name "Brown Bomber" got morphed over to the Ed Macauley car, or how the Detroit press supposedly applied it to a car, but the real Brown Bomber was a good family friend and came to visit a number of times. He also once owned a large ranch and farm in Michigan not far from what is now known as Rochester. He was boxing champion, Joe Louis-not a car. And I assure you, Joe wasn't in the bathroom when he got that moniker... from the Detroit and world press. He was in the ring. And with all due respect to Ed Macauley and his car, I can assure you that Joe had one whole lot more celebrity-spread a lot farther around the globe than this ever-morphing car. The arena next to Cobo Hall in Detroit is? Joe Louis Arena. How many arenas are named after the car?
Joe later became part owner and host of a short-lived ultra-modern (for 1955-56) new Las Vegas casino where my dad and uncle were involved in the business. It was called the "Moulin Rouge" and was the very first integrated casino/hotel in Las Vegas. It was famous enough to feature top entertainment and even made the cover of Life magazine. The fave meals in the restaurant (I still have my menus) were "Two-fisted Champburgers" and "Champsteak." And by the way-Joe loved Cadillacs and Packards. Ask me how I know.
Watch the pages of upcoming The Packard Cormorant magazine for an article on "brown" and Mr. Macauley.
As for the DeVille style roof with Landau Bars on the exterior... like it or not on the Macauley car... a similar roof on Dutch Darrin's Kaiser Darrin created a sensation with it debuted... and this was years later. Why was it bad on the Packard, but "good" on the Kaiser-Darrin? Should I mention it was also considered "good" design feature on late 1940s Jaguar 3-position drophead coupe? The girls sure liked them!
As for Predictor... Ohhhhhh! Another time when we can safely say, "Ya had to be there." Whether anyone today can look back kindly on Predictor or not, the facts are it was one of the most imitated dream cars ever... AND it was the most popular car shown at the Chicago Auto Show when it debuted... and Chicago was one of the nation's more premier car shows back then. When a retrospect story appeared in 1978 in a magazine, I can assure you that of all the cars in that story, Predictor drew the most mail from fans... and I mean... a lot of it! So dislike it if you will in 2016... but in 1956 it was a different story. Today, Predictor and dream cars like it are either... ya get it... or ya don't. But that still doesn't change the facts.This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=175244