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Interesting article from Curbside Classics:

The last Packard-badged vehicle - a pickup truck?

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Actually what may seem to be news or a "discovery" today in 2021 has actually been revealed many years ago in The Packard Cormorant magazine, the glossy publication of the Packard Club.

This Packard truck was covered along with original factory photos of the truck. So the existence of these trucks as well as their place in Packard history has indeed been documented and is known–unlike as implied by the linked source.

For whatever reason when histories of Packard pop up on the internet and in today's publications, a curious thing happens. These new postings and articles never seem to mention or look for what has already been covered by the Packard Club (also known as "Packard Automobile Classics").

The Packard Club's published histories have been monumental over the years. The Packard Club has existed since 1953 when Packard was still making cars. The club and its publications certainly deserve recognition for keeping the Packard flame alive when there were no other histories or sources preserving the name and what the company did. The place were people ought to look first seems to be the most ignored source today. That's too bad.

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That could possibly be because their Web site is so out of date and dated with no security on simple things like the classifies ads. Many regional chapters including NorCal where I live have phenomenal sites but the main club really does not put on a good face to the public which may be why it is ignored.

I was unaware of the fact that this was known beforehand. I am a member of the Packard Club as well as the regional club where I live.

As noted, the Packard Club website is from an earlier era of the Internet, and does not (as far as I have been able to find) have a search feature. The Cormorant magazine index is available, but only as a PDF download.

Realistically, unless one had a physical copy of the magazine issue with the article about the Packard trucks in question, I don't know how anyone would be able to find out.

Just like many other things in the modern world, if it's not on the Internet, it doesn't exist, for practical purposes.

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Yessss, these are important points. Yet these points illustrate that despite facts being facts, some today only recognize facts now if they can see these facts on the internet. Otherwise, they don't exist. This is the sad dilemma of the internet age and even the computer age.

I well remember going into a tire store wanting to buy a specific set of tires. The counter guy dutifully fired up his computer and then announced to me that not only did the store not carry that tire, but he did not recall ever seeing any in the store. Young fellow.

Of course, I was incredulous and merely pointed to the overhead rack just behind the fellow. There in plain view were a set of four of the very tires I wanted to buy! Yet the store guy was insisting to me there were none in the store and they didn't even carry the tire. Why? Because the computer on the counter told him so... in spite of the real things less than 10 feet away.

There is a danger in placing all of the world in the hands of a web site or a computer screen. While perhaps "for practical purposes" things not said or shown on the internet "don't exist" for some...they very well often do exist. And I know several people very deeply into Packards who don't even use computers or smart phones. Can we afford to ignore them and make internet reality the only reality? I sure hope not.

Yes, I know, it's a problem all across the modern world - there is a lot of stuff in libraries that is effectively ignored because it hasn't been digitized.

I WAS able to find some mention in the Packard Club website about these trucks, though they are listed in the "unusual" category as "1956 Packard Truck Argentina"

I guess I would say that having this information up on Curbside Classics and other websites is useful because it brings "nearly lost" information back in an accessible manner.

That said, if someone had access to the Cormorant article and could scan it, or even just point it out with some relevant quotes, it is relatively simple to post that to this website and to Curbside Classics in the comments - then the "real story" becomes known to a new generation.

I'm not sure what issues might arise by scanning and posting here something from a copyright-protected publication which The Cormorant is. In the past when I've scanned and posted from The Cormorant, I've first sought permission.

I'm not looking for a flood of requests but I've got all the back issues to 1963 and don't mind making the occasional copy for someone's personal use. The pdf index you can download from PAC's website is searchable IIRC.

Jerome (JeromeSolberg), take a look at -> this car.

Some valid and relevant points made on both sides of this conversation. Leeedy, I sure identify with your 'tire story'! It seems like a lot of store clerks and counter folks are so computer-dependent these days, that if it isn't easily findable of their work screen, their 'job is done'. Maybe it's just me, but it usually seems like it's the older guys who 'cut in' here and go do some physical checking, and think outside the box a bit. I know there are some cracker-jack youngsters out there too, but digitization, for all it's advantages and time savings, has also become a dependency issue that, if used for the sole source of info, can end up falling short of telling 'the whole story'. Chris.

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Exactly Chris... this is also why we have so many absurd stories on the internet about Packard bicycles.

Or about Packard Panthers– wild stuff. This is why somebody would spend over $700,000 for a Panther that was done completely wrong, with bogus information and claimed to be a later car that it never was. Yet ignored the fact that it IS the first one made. Why? Because the internet and auction companies said so! Who ya gonna believe? Some old dude and a Packard Club article on old-fashioned paper in a magazine for members? OR car hawkers/flippers, auction companies and fancy whizz-bang web sites? (and this car is allllllll over the internet!!!). Forget the facts. Heaven forbid that we might actually have to go physically look in an old magazine or ask the club and people in it that have the facts. Let's go for the instant internet stuff that is just a marvelous click away! AND you can even get it on your phone!

And just recently a big company with a fancy web site is circulating a story that claims Packard Predictor was delivered from Italy without the interior installed. Wow. This despite the fact that in the video I saved of Predictor being uncrated, styling chief Bill Schmidt is sitting in the driver's seat, swiveling it (kinda hard to do if there was no interior). But the company has a web presence, swoopy web site and a huge audience. Let's ignore the Packard Club (which has provided lots of facts, including unknown inside information several times) and let's go for the internet stuff!

Or how about the 10-20 different versions of Earle C. Anthony's Packard neon story on the internet? All from "respected and knowledgeable sources" with whizz-bang web sites with "security" ratings, etc. These sources will tell you Mr. Anthony bought TWO signs (don't take my word for it... take a look and see). By the way, not true–no matter how many web sites, museums and neon "experts" say so.

These web sites will even quote prices Mr. Anthony supposedly paid. Not.

They'll tell you the first sign was mounted on top of Mr. Anthony's Packard dealership (not even close to being true).

And these sources will show you pictures claiming to be from 1923 of a Packard neon ... mounted on a building that did not exist until 1929–and the photo obviously (to someone who really knows) taken even after that!

The Packard Club revealed the exact, accurate story with photographs of Earle C. Anthony's neon Packard signs– years ago. But do we wanna recognize this accurate history? Or ignore it and go for the click-bait internet oleo? You know what has happened.

Mr. Anthony's papers DO exist and that is not at all what they say. Not at all. I got these papers fifty years ago directly from the company's assets and people who worked for Earle C. Anthony, Inc. No. These papers are not online. And the neon sign story (the accurate one) is not online either. But it exists.

So who're you gonna believe? A fancy-dancy web site that follows the popular myths every neon person swears by (courtesy of the internet)? Or somebody who knows? Nahh... let's go for door #1. It's quick and easy and we can click our computer mouse... and use links... or even do it on our phones. And we've got the almighty "wiki" (what a prize "source" this one is). No need to rely on things printed on paper–like in stuffy old libraries, museums or collections.

These are just a few examples of many that illustrate internet reality is not always reality reality.

Thank heaven for the internet and people who have done wondrous things with it. We owe them a lot. But not blind allegiance or singular dedication and the sole route to knowledge. Hopefully we have not yet become lemmings. Even the stuff that is on the internet has usually come from somebody's hard work in the past (the thing that some folks today want to pretend never existed–even while they discuss old cars). It is easy for someone to come along years later and post some thing on the internet and be praised and get credit for what appears in today's world to be a fact or new discovery. One can always stand tall doing so by standing on someone else's shoulders. Recognizing original sources is not a terrible thing. Ignoring them is.

There are plenty of very knowledgeable sources (real people) in the Packard Club. Some of them are the very reasons why this history has been kept alive since the 1950s. This stuff hasn't just fallen out of the sky. People physically saved it and promoted it. A lot of these people are already gone. Others are old guys who don't even use computers. But one can still ask them questions–even if it can't be done via DIY or point-and-click method or smart phones. Their names and even addresses are listed in every directory and every magazine... regardless of how cutting-edge whizz-bang the web site is or isn't. It is important to remember that the whole world is not digitized and online. And... there was also a reason why "snopes" was invented.