Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

My stepfathers father was a detective for Dearborn, MI Police back in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He carried a camera on the job to document crime scenes and he kept a scrapbook documenting what he thought was interesting. I never met the man however I'm sure he could tell some stories. Among the many shots of car wrecks, Ford plant riots and petty thieves were these three shots of what I believe to be a smoke screen system installed on a 1928 or 1929 Packard. Please excuse the poor quality as these are photographs of photographs. There was no article or description with these shots however they were on the same page of the book.

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that is awesome,there is alot of moonshine history down here in Georgia,mostly 40 ford stuff.A packard rum runner is too cool.

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Todd (tfee), on one of those rainy days you could tell your grandchildren the story of your stepfathers father. Autumn wind, a pot of tea, cookies, ... , one can't go wrong with this.

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LOL, I'll do that.

The car looks like it is parked behind Dearborn city hall.

Pacards1 you may be right. I will be in Dearborn tomorrow morning and I'll bring along my camera.

Hi

Large, fast luxury cars were popular with rumrunners during Prohibition. Remember, the light, fast Ford V-8 would only become available on the cusp of it's repeal. Lincoln were the preferred make.

As an auto historian, I would be interested to see the photos of the Ford Plant riots, if they aren't too graphic and inappropriate for this Forum. Perhaps submit them to Big Kev for approval before posting. Thanks.

Steve

Flint too.

I believe we have a match. I took this photo this morning of the back of the Dearborn city hall west annex. I couldn't find a date marker on the building however it must have been built after the main city hall next door which was constructed in 1921.

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Steve, I believe the Ford shots I have are from the "battle of the overpass" in 1937 but they are not marked as such. I don't have them in front of me and I'm reluctant to post them without my stepfathers approval. I will ask him if he is OK with it. The entire scrapbook needs to be scanned in and a copy should go to the Dearborn Historical Museum in my opinion. My biggest obstacle on this front is that my stepfather has the book in Florida where he lives and I am obviously in Michigan. The history of Dearborn is largely the history of the Ford Motor Co. and the book shows it. The riot pictures I mention are not very graphic (no blood) so I don't think they would disturb anyone however without my stepfathers approval I can't post them. He is coming up to see the grandkids in September, perhaps I can get him to bring the book with him at that time. I'll let you know if I can post more.
Todd