New LIFE pix from February 1949

[streamliner]

ps: It works best if you use Walter Winchell's voice (the narrator of "The Untouchables") when reading the story...

[Tuckerfan1053]

I dunno, I'm thinking maybe Drew Pearson's voice. (Guy was an even bigger sleazeball than I suspected, it turns out. Pearson helped drive one of Truman's cabinet members to suicide after turning public opinion against Tucker.)

[streamliner]

Agreed! Here's a most appropriate photo of Drew Pearson...

[Larry Clark]

I have been asked whether I know where the remaining Tucker bodies were at the time of the auction. I have been buried with work the past ten days when this excellent set of postings has taken place and unable to take time to look through my copies of records to answer the question. So far I have not found this information. I can tell you from having seen the actual records on many occasions that I do not think the Federal Archives will be much help but this is certainly on my list of things to look for when next I get back to Chicago to review records. I will post if and when I find something.

As to the postings, I am really excited to see the Life Magazine pictures. I believe we are seeing 1051 through 1058 with the gap for 1057 (that we know where it was). I am 100% confident one of these bodies we are seeing resulted in a car. I have looked for years for proof of what the Life Magazine pictures show. Great work to those of you who kept digging on this one. We all owe you thanks. Great job!

Larry

[streamliner]

It is truly amazing how those LIFE photographers capture amazing images over and over, year after year. The one of #57 in the styling studio speaks volumes on so many different levels.

We’ve gone over it before http://www.tuckerclub.org/bbs3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1761&p=5070&hilit=exact#p5070, but I have to point something else out: You’re looking at the shell of what would have been the Tucker ’49, silently standing guard over the remains of the leftover clay from the “Tin Goose” mockups from both the Tremulis and Lippincott teams of designers. You can even make out the outlines of the tarps where the clay models once stood. The time span between the clay on the floor and #57 is 3 ½ years, but here they are, side-by-side. Both still there, just waiting to be rediscovered almost 60 years later.



Phil Egan’s description of the clay remnants isn’t needed, but adds a whole new dimension and color to the black-and-white images you see:



It’s old meets new, both the very first and the very last fully completed body of the Tucker ’48, both destined for a tragic and premature demise.

How ironic it is that you see the guys in the golf cart surveying the leftovers, oblivious to the drama and history that they just literally drove over, more concerned over the money about to be received in the auction than the history the Tucker created. And that Preston Tucker’s vision was exact opposite to that – wanting to make history more than the money. Yet here they are, doing exactly what they wrongly accused Tucker of doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if, when you examine these photos frame by frame, that you see ol’ #57 turn its back just slightly to the g-men passing by…

What a great job LIFE has done with their photo archives. Bravo!

[Tucker Fan 48]

Picture of Preston Tucker with 3 gentleman. Not sure who they are or when this was taken

tucker plant 2.jpg (94.43 KiB) Viewed 1052 times

[john]

There is a much more rational explanation. One so deviously clever that it could only be masterminded by none other than Preston Tucker himself:

It has always been known that Tucker was a bit of a showman and wasn’t afraid to exaggerate the truth. It’s known that he would even paint cars a different color to make it appear as if there were more completed cars than there actually were. He would even go so far as to sell radios and luggage for cars that didn’t even exist! He has a history of deception against the investors and the motoring public in order to line his own pockets with cash.

He knew that the Feds were onto him through Otto Kerner as well as the bankruptcy court’s efforts to expose him. It was only a matter of time before his house of cards would tumble. There was sufficient evidence to suggest that Tucker may have to spend a considerable amount of time in prison. Tucker knew that no legal case is a slam-dunk for either the prosecution or the defendant. Tucker also knew that there would soon be a grand jury convened against him. He was already advised by his attorneys as to what they would have to prove to a future courtroom jury:




He decided that the best way to make it appear as if his intentions were good was to use others as future witnesses in his case.

Tucker called for a sales meeting with the last remaining dealers (suckers) on February 3, 1949, even though he knew there could be no sales as the plant had already been shut down and the remaining employees let go months earlier. So why have a sales meeting? Only to use them as witnesses to the state-of-affairs at the plant at that time. No doubt there were tours given at the plant to show where the cars were being made. Even Jim Gaylord was allowed into the super-secret styling studio for a few photos of future proposals in rendering form. One of the photographic stops was at the welding assembly line where bodies are attached to the frames. Tucker made sure that “his” photographer got several photos specifically of this location. You’ll see that there are very few photos, just token pics, of other areas of the plant.


Tucker’s Payoff Man

However, the photographer was a bit nervous about the deal they had made and wanted to ensure his safety following the meeting, so he secretly photographed Tucker’s payoff man in the men’s restroom where the payoff of an undisclosed amount of cash “or other services rendered” was made. The photographer, then going by the code name of “automan”, hid these negatives in a safe deposit box to be used only in the event that if Tucker threatened him, he could use these negatives of proof of the payoff. Luckily for him, Kirby didn’t need to present a defense, and these photos were never used, until they were found and published by LIFE some 60 years later. Even today, these photos deceive, as evidenced by the confusion that the production line was still active at the time.

Immediately following the meeting, on or about the week of February 7, 1949, Tucker ordered Alex Tremulis to remove one of those bodies from the welding line and take it over to the styling department and make it look as if a future 1949 model was in the works. Also, he made sure that Lencki cut up body #57, given to him before the dealers meeting, to make it appear as if a convertible model was also in the works. With not one, but two new models in the prototype stage, surely he could show a stronger defense that he intended to produce a full line of cars. A week later, Preston Tucker would offer to resign to give himself an alibi. He wouldn't even be at the plant while these cars were being worked on, so how could he have possibly been behind their last-minute manufacture?

On February 15, Otto Kerner announced that a grand Jury was to be convened to look into the fraud committed by Tucker. By that time Tucker’s plan for self-survival had already been carried out by those closest to him.

Since no defense was required at the trial, the convertible and the modified ’49 model just sat there, waiting to be disposed of. The last-minute theatrics of bringing those cars into the courtroom wasn’t required. That’s why nobody knew or would admit to knowing anything about their existence until their true value increased enough to warrant restorations, and the true intentions of their origins would be long-forgotten. Even Tremulis, with his knack for quoting numbers, eventually confused the convertible with the car that he had redirected over to the styling studio.

It all adds up to one of the greatest deceptions of all time...

The characters and events depicted in this reply are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Streamliner,
Quite the piece for I like TaterTots!.
BUT>> I think you will find that Tuckers son made comment way before this was happening>>> about a Tucker with a roof cut off of it>>> point, the picture of that car is adted and known, it was not 57 and dates do not line up whatsoever !!