Jenin Tuckers

[Tucker Fan 48]

by plancor 792 on Sun Jun 07, 2009 3:51 am

I have been able to put together the following which I feel is correct.
Nick Jenin at one time owned the following Tucker automobiles.
1003 - Engine Number 4 ?
1005 - Engine Number 5
1007 - Engine Number 33575
1012 - Engine Number 33511
1014 - Engine Number 33523
1025 - Engine Number 33546
1026 - Engine Number 33565
1037 - Engine number 33547
1045 - Engine number 33551
1046 - Engine Number 33553
1049 - Engine Number 33512

Richard,

Last year you had posted this list of Tuckers that you believed Nick Jenin once owned. In my research I've come up with two
questions about it. First, I've read that Tim Lamoureux of Santa Monica, CA. bought #1009, which was not on your list, from
Nick Jenin around 1963 or 1964. Would you feel that is true? If so, any idea when Nick bought it and from who?

Second, you listed #1014 as a Jenin car. Bill Hamlin said in an article published in the October, 1972 issue of "Car Classics"
magazine, that he had purchased #1014 in 1952 with over 70,000 miles on the odometer. Since Hamlin, his daughter, and
Coppola are the only owners until the present, the only time Jenin could have owned it was prior to 1952. Is that possible or
did Hamlin purchase it from someone else and who?

As always thank you for your time with my questions !

[MD]

Tucker Fan,

I can answer part of this question for you... Nick Jenin did own #1014 for a while and Bill Hamlin did buy the car from him in 1952.

Martyn

[Tucker Fan 48]

Thanks Martyn !

Another piece of the giant puzzle

Would I be correct that this would have been the first Tucker that Nick Jenin sold then?

It appears he bought several from Ezra Schlipf. All I've been able to find is that he began
collecting his cars prior to 1952 and that he paid between $3,500 and $6,500 for each of
the cars. There does not appear to be much else written about how or when Jenin acquired
several of his cars, (or at least I've missed it). Most are documented when he sold them.
Is there one car that is known to have been his first Tucker or did he buy a group of them
at first?

[MD]

It's probably a safe bet that #1014 was the first one Jenin sold. I don't think he started actively advertising any for sale until the early 1960s. I'm not sure which car was his first, Richard may know. Richard spoke with Mr. Jenin several times over the years. He said that when he purchased his first Tucker, he thought that only a few were built, but every time he found one and bought it, another one would show up, so he just kept buying them! I believe his collection consisted of about six cars in the early '50s. He modified #1046 with the front-mounted Olds engine during that period.


Martyn

[Nickshu]

I believe Nick Jenin also owned the only remaining Tucker test bed with a 589. This, along with several other Tucker parts were left abandoned at a Ft Lauderdale fairground, under some bleachers unprotected from the weather until they were purchased and restored by David Cammack.

[plancor 792]

Dave Cammack purchased the 589 test bed and Tucker 1026 from Nick jenin along with a lot of other parts. Jenin had them stored under the grandstand at the Michigan State Fairgrounds. However at that time Nick was living in Ft. lauderdale, Florida
Richard

[Larry Clark]

In my opinion, Nick Jenin is someone not sufficiently celebrated by today's Tucker followers. His gathering together ten Tucker cars was an incredible testament to his belief in the uniqueness of these cars (he correctly said in a newspaper interview in 1960 that while the Edsel car might be unique, like the Tucker was unique, he did not believe Edsels would ever be highly collectible). Nick is recognized in the Serbian-American web Hall of Fame, with his brother Peter was arguably well ahead of NASCAR with Raceway Park outside of Chicago (he was a co-owner from 1947 to 1952) and saved/restored/owned and ran an upscale bed and breakfast hotel, the Pillars, in the heart of Fort Lauderdale that is today one of the most recognized boutique hotel properties in the USA (their web page still celebrates Nick Jenin and his relationship to Preston Tucker). See: http://www.pillarshotel.com/aboutus.asp

Preston Tucker visited Nick at his Florida hotel many times until his untimely death. They were good friends.

Nick Jenin may have enjoyed going around the country showing off his Tucker cars but he was no fly-by-night guy. It is a shame we do not have a better account of his adventures of finding, buying and owning Tucker cars.

Larry

[Tucker Fan 48]

Larry is absolutely correct. Jenin promoted the cars for many years when it wasn't popular. He also owned
over 20% of all the Tuckers built. It also appears that the frame he removed from #1046 has finally been
found and according to Tucker expert Al Prueitt is under the car in Madison WI known as the convertible.

[CDB]

By dumb luck I have found a newspaper article published on May 8, 1960, appearing in the Miami News entitled "The Car Arrived Before Its Time" by Agnes Ash. It deals with interviewing Mr. Jenin about his Tuckers. Hopefully this article will shed some light not recognized before concerning Mr. Jenin and the Tucker automobile. One thing he revealed was that he drove a Tucker to a fifties' (1956) Motorama show in Miami. The car drew so much attention that it kept people from going inside the Motorama and therefore Jenin was asked to move the Tucker by a GM representative. I will try to post here the whole article in a later post (or have my legal assistant Carla do so). Stay tuned and let me know how much if anything this adds to our knowledge about the Jenin Tuckers! Charles

[CDB]

Here is the Miami News Article published on May 8, 1960, entitled "The Car Arrived Before Its Time". Here is also the link to the article: http://www2.palmbeachpost.com/archives/ ... blication=

[CDB]

Note that the article as of the time it was written says Jenin owns 10 Tuckers. Also at least one was painted black. Charles-if you use the link, the article is listed on page 11. Once you pull it up it is on page 37 of the paper. You have got to love the "Times Square flat story" and the documented fact that Mr. Tucker until he died was still trying to pay back every nickel owed to his investors! Apparently the article was written because the then new book, "The Indomitable Tin Goose" written by Charles T. Pearson and published by Abelard-Schuman, had just been released the week before. Further, Jenin to help promote the book had driven a black Tucker to New York two weeks before the article coinciding with the 1960 International Auto Show at the Coliseum there. The article says that the press greeted the car with printed accolades. I am unsure as to whether the car was actually on display at the show. Does anyone have pictures of the event with the Tucker on display?