Tucker Revival Attempt 1954

[Nickshu]

Hi....long time reader, first time poster.

Anyone know any information about an attempted revival of the Tucker name in 1954? I visited the Cammack Collection in Alexandria, VA and saw a letter from a group of investors attempting to solicit investment in a "new" Tucker car in 1954. The letter was sent to all former Tucker distributors and dealers and was titled "Dear Tucker Suckers,". They included a sketch of a proposed new Tucker car, a sleek two door coupe which looked kind of like a shortened Ford Thunderbird. T

Sparked some curiosity...I assume the idea never got off the ground. If I get back up to Cammack in the future I'll take a photo of it.

[SuperFleye]

Would love to see photos of that car.

it doesn't sound like you are talking about the Carioca:


Any Tucker historians here know anything more about it?

[Nickshu]

No, not the Carioca. After the trial I believe that the rights to the Tucker name was bought by Peter Dun, so purely speculative...but perhaps this group gained permission to use the name. Tucker was not allowed to use his name for the Carioca...why it's simply called the "Carioca" not the Tucker Carioca.

[streamliner]

Could it possibly be the 1952 Tucker Talisman that you saw?



Any additional information such as the names of the individuals, the investing companies or the date(s) of the letter(s) would help a lot in pinpointing who may have been involved...

[Nickshu]

No, not the Talisman, it looked different. I will get back up there sometime in the future and snap a photo of it. I'll try to call Dave and find out some more info soon, there were names on the letter too, but none I recognized.

[JP]

Dear Nick,

I guess that you might see the following .......

http://tucker.sarashi.com/

[Nickshu]

Dear Nick,

I guess that you might see the following .......

http://tucker.sarashi.com/

Yes that's it! Except the copy that Dave Cammack has is tiled "Dear Tucker Suckers,". Do you know any info on it or what transpired? I always thought Dun and Bradstreet purchased the Tucker name rights at the auction.

[Larry Clark]

Nick: the intellectual property rights of Tucker Corporation, including the extensive set of blueprints ultimately purchased by David Cammack, were put up for sale by the Bankruptcy Court from October 18 - 20, 1950. The particular rights up for sale: "the right, title and interest in and to all patents and patent applications, including trademarks of Tucker Corporation, debtor herein, together with the goodwill of said debtor corporation." When the rights did not sell, the Trustees agreed to sell the same to Jay E. Darlington. Of particular interest to me, the goodwill language included the following:

"Also all the goodwill of trademarks of Tucker Corporation and the trustee pertaining to the manufacture or sale of automobiles, including the right to use the tradename "Tucker" in connection with the manufacture or sale of automobiles, but expressly excluding the right to use the name "Tucker Corporation" or "successor to Tucker Corporation."

I found the above document many years ago while doing research in the Federal Archives in Chicago. What is interesting is that Darlington's partner, Pat Dunn, said he personally scratched out the purchase cost of the document so people would not know how much Darlington paid for the rights. I have a photocopy of the document- in both places where the cost is listed it is scratched out.

What is ironic is that the heirs of Darlington/Dunn thought the blueprints and other great stuff acquired by Dave Cammack were so worthless that they tried to dump them off to be buried at a landfill.

About Dun and Bradstreet, you are partially on point. Patrick Dunn told me back in 1988 that he worked as an investigator for Dun and Broadstreet for 38 years. He used his relationship with them to help Darlington negotiate to purchase the intellectual property rights. I believe Dunn became a partner with Darlington at that time in the property rights. The investment firm they created for the rights: Plancorp 792, Research Associates.
Larry

[Tuckeroo]

I have a photo of a framed xerox picture of the design...the only thing "Tucker" about it seems to be a proposed rear-mounted six cylinder engine. I will attempt to post it asap (having trouble moving jpgs from one place to another at the moment.)

[Randy Earle]

I can see parts of that Talisman in GM cars from the early '70s.

[Nickshu]

Larry, That's interesting. What was the relationship between Darlington and Dunn? I know from talking with David Cammack that Dunn's family approached him years ago and wanted $10 million for all the documents. After Dunn passed away the kids did try to throw the stuff in the dump, but the landfill refused to accept it. They held on to it and one of the kids contacted David via TACA and he acquired it for (as he says) "a much more reasonable price". He said when he went to pick it up it the boxes filled the entire floor of a 2 car garage stacked 4-5 feet high.

This collection is more than just blueprints...actually only about 1/3 of it is blueprints, the rest are literally tens of thousands of Tucker Corp documents, patents, correspondence, charts, reciepts, memos, diagrams, etc, etc. I spent a few hours up at David's place just sifting thru and reading....incredibly fascenating. He has catalogued maybe 60% of it so far.

[jnbgoch]

The investment firm they created for the rights: Plancorp 792, Research Associates.
Larry

this is interesting......