The information may be in James Ward's "The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company." Issue #125 of "The Packard Cormorant" also has an article on the events of 1956. As I recall (Ward's book is packed away at the moment) Conner Avenue was only running a single eight-hour shift Monday through Thursday, with production divided between half seniors and half juniors. At the close of business on Thursday, June 21th, the total of cars to be assembled stood at 162 units, 84 Clippers and 78 Packards. On Friday, 60 Clippers and 60 Packards were produced. On Monday, June 25th, the last 42 automobiles were assembled, with the last car off the line being a Patrician four-door sedan, #5682-4775.

A few nits to pick -- Packard never went out of business. They simply stopped making cars: Packards and Clippers in Detroit, 1956 and South Bend in 1958, Studebakers in South Bend in late-1963, Canada in 1966. Along the way they bought the Studebaker Corp. in 1954, changing their name to Studebaker-Packard Corp., changing again to Studebaker Corp. in 1962. After 1966, they made money selling items other than cars and trucks.

And, yes, there were many car clubs years ago. The Packard Club started in 1953, the Classic Car Club in 1952, and the AACA way back in 1935.

Just a minor correction -- it's "GOGGLE" (as in safety goggles), not "GOOGLE" (the Internet thing). The building was built in the 1800s to manufacturer goggles, among other items.

And - the deadline to mail in your registration forms is next week. They MUST be received by June 30th, (that's "RECEIVED" - not "postmarked") or they will be returned and not processed!

This looks like a 1952 model. No PACKARD letters on the hood (1951 only), crest on the grille (which started with the very late 1951s), and the two wings on the Pelican are straight back (1952 only). The vehicle number should start with 2579-____.

What Clipper?

"....and who was running Edsel? James J Nance." Wrong!

James J. Nance went to Ford in November 1956 as V-P of Marketing. In September 1957 he became VP-General Manager of the Lincoln & Mercury Division. (Richard E. Krafve was the VP-General Manager of the Edsel Division, and had been since the division started.) Nance was ordered to merge the Edsel Division into the L & M Division in January 1958. So, during the time the Edsel was born and during its first four months of production "who was running Edsel?" Richard E. Krafve.

He worked for Ford, and brought his vertical grille ideas -- just in time for the Edsel (although Roy Brown was the head designer for the Edsel Division).

Jones' Packard renderings were published in The Packard Cormorant #73, and used by Robert Neal a few years ago in his "History as it Should Have Been" article in TPC #152.

Or, Packard could have bought Studebaker in 1938, before the Champion came out. The 120/110 could have been dropped with the Champion carrying the mid-priced banner, while "Packard" would be reserved for the high-priced line.

Silver was for the 1956 replacement engines. There was a fellow in California with a '56 400 with a sliver engine. After losing several points at a judged show, he painted it bronze.

The 4-way merger proposed in the early 1950s was NO myth.

The May 17, 1952 issue of Business Week devoted a full-page to Nance joining Packard. The headline read "Nance's Idea: Merge Packard." The newsweekly reported that "Nance intends to make Packard the nucleus of a big new auto company - big enough to join the Big Three, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford - in a new Big Four. Nance's idea is to merge Packard with one or more of the other independent auto producers, most likely Nash-Kelvinator. It was on the understanding that he could tackle something like this that Nance took the Packard job."

"Putting Packard together would be one way to cure some of the problems," Business Week concluded, "as well as add to the number of dealer outlets and widen the line. Such a union might sound attractive, too, to an outfit like Nash. If not, there are other possibilities. The Detroit Athletic Club bar has cooked up many a merger that never came off. But no one should be surprised to learn any day that Hudson, Studebaker, Nash, Packard or Willys really was involved in a merger made up of some combination of those named."

So - what Business Week had guessed at was being talked about at the Detroit Athletic Club, as well as other area watering holes. And it had been "received favorably," Business Week reported, "by the powers-that-be, including such big shareholders as the Newberrys and the Macauleys."