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Chrysler empire had humble beginnings
How a small town boy with big dreams changed the auto industry
By Bob English
Thursday, September 11, 2003
In 1908, Kansas-born Walter P. Chrysler stepped onto the running board of his first automobile, a $5,000 Locomobile purchased with borrowed money - no discounts, no cash back deals - and set out on a yellow brick road that a small-town work ethic, business and engineering talent and a wide-ranging imagination soon paved with gold.
Just two decades later he was stepping out onto the observation deck of the world's tallest skyscraper - the Chrysler building. A chrome-splashed, art-deco spire that housed his new empire's offices, it is still a prominent feature of the New York cityscape. Chrysler definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore. In fact, he was the embodiment of the American Dream, having taken a life of humble beginnings to soaring heights and he played a part, along with other auto industry giants, in re-weaving the social fabric of the entire continent.
Chrysler was born in 1875 in Wamego, Kansas, the son of a Chatham, Ontario-born man who served as a drummer boy in the Civil War and became a railroad engineer. He apparently stoked the fires of his son's imagination with thundering night-time trips across the plains in his engine's cab. "Walt" was a hard-working kid who took on all kinds of small-town odd jobs, but always with an eye for opportunity and moving ahead. At the age of 17, he joined the Kansas Pacific Railway and soon became an apprentice machinist, hand-making his first tool kit.
After working for a number of railroads and getting married in 1901, he was managing the American Locomotive Company when he fell in love with the Locomobile on display at the Chicago Automobile Show. Legend has it he couldn't drive at the time, but it's a good guess that he mastered this skill quickly. He also reportedly spent days taking the car apart and putting it back together again. Chrysler's business skills came to the attention of a senior General Motors executive who sent him to see Charles W. Nash, then president of the Buick Motor Company. Nash hired him as plant manager, and he later replaced Nash (who went on to found his own car company) as president. During his Buick years Chrysler oversaw the expansion of production from 45 units a day to 550 in a large new assembly plant. But he was also feuding with the legendary Bill Durant who had bolted all the bits of GM together in the first place. He also obviously made some money during this period, as he felt comfortable quitting Buick and retiring at the age of 45.
This didn't last long, though, and in 1920 he found himself working to solve the problems of the financially troubled Willys-Overland car company. Oddly enough, the banker who loaned Chrysler the money he needed to buy his Locomobile was instrumental in this move. Chrysler was then hired to square away another carmaker, Maxwell-Chalmers, soon reorganizing it as the Maxwell Motor Corporation.
He acquired control in 1924 and introduced the first automobile to bear his name, launching in the process the third leg of what is still known as "The Big Three": Ford, General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation (now DaimlerChrysler).
Chrysler's first car was designed with the help of three of the most talented men in the business - Carl Breer, Owen Skelton and Fred Zeder - who would play a leading role in developing Chrysler products through the 1930s.
The car was attractive, though conventional in styling terms, but was powered by an advanced "high-compression" 3.3-litre, L-head, full pressure-lubricated 6-cylinder engine that produced 68 hp. It also had 4-wheel, hydraulically operated brakes, a novelty at the time. Both features had the naysayers whining along in top gear, but they were subsequently proved wrong, with production reaching more than 180,000 units by 1927.
Yet another success story was in the works and Chrysler boldly added new chapters, such as the acquisition of the highly successful Dodge Brothers Inc. in 1928 and the introduction of the Plymouth and DeSoto brands. By 1930 Chrysler was the second largest carmaker in the world and offered buyers a choice of more than 30 models ranging in price from under $800 to more than $3,000 for the Imperial, introduced in 1926 as a rival to Cadillac.
Unlike GM's Cadillac, which was built by a separate division, Chrysler's Imperial was always the top of the Chrysler lineup. By 1931, the 2270 kg luxury car was powered by Chrysler's first V8 engine, a 6.3-litre, 125 hp L-head and was a true rival to Cadillac and Lincoln.
One of the more adventurous designs Chrysler approved during the 1930s was the Airflow, created by the engineering trio mentioned above. This was a highly advanced car for its day (1934) with V8 power, a unique structure and wind-tunnel tested aerodynamic bodywork. It promptly went out and set speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, but proved to be an unfortunately slow seller with a too-conservative public until it was finally dropped in 1937.
Having turned from an adventuring Dorothy into something of a Wizard of Oz himself, Chrysler apparently never lost the common touch. He would often stop to help stranded motorists on occasion (although this bit of history doesn't mention whether this was limited to his products or not). And he and his wife continued to enjoy a busy social life that had begun in their courting days. She apparently tried to talk big, outgoing Walt into opera. He preferred musicals.
Walter P. Chrysler died in 1940 at the age of 65 of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving behind a company that remains a dominant force in the market to this day.
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