In the 1930s and again in 1940, photographer Fred R. Jolly and an assistant drove V-8-powered Ford sedan deliveries across the United States to photograph the nation’s people and places.
In the 1930s and again in 1940, photographer Fred R. Jolly and an assistant drove V-8-powered Ford sedan deliveries across the United States to photograph the nation’s people and places for Caterpillar. They covered 13,000 miles from Jolly’s home in Peoria, Ill., to Cape Cod, Mass., in a 1937 Ford sedan delivery. On that trip, they stopped along the Atlantic Ocean and then drove west to International Falls, Minn., located along the Canadian border, followed by a drive even farther west to Denver. The 1937 Ford averaged 2,000 miles per week for 13 weeks, and the two men shot about 900 still photographs and 25,000 ft. of 16mm color and black-and-white film for the Caterpillar machinery company. It was the first trip that the photographers made.
In 1940, they then drove a new Ford Deluxe sedan delivery on a 1,000-mile-per-week trip that included a stop at a terracing job that Caterpillar tractors were working in Indiana.
On the earlier 13,000-mile trip, the 1937 truck proved very reliable, traversing more than 5,000 miles of secondary roads, including very rough caliche clay trails in Texas. On a three-week summer side trip just after a six-week drought, they traveled the southern logging territories in Arkansas over roads covered with ankle-deep dust. They then entered Louisiana, driving over logging roads that were “plenty wet.” This leg of the trip took them through a woods and over bumpy railroad track ties.
The travelers eventually entered Texas, encountering knee-deep mud in the oil fields near Galveston. They saw heavy-duty trucks get bogged down in slime and tractors being used to tug them out. Somehow, the ’37 Ford sedan delivery made it through and safely delivered them to the 1.2-million-acre King Ranch. There, they spotted cowboys in Ford V-8 woodies towing horse trailers. King Ranch bordered the Rio Grande Valley where they photographed orange grove workers and shot a film about the methods used to grow citrus.
On the East Coast leg, the men visited the area where the Pilgrims had first landed in America. They learned that the landing didn’t really occur at Plymouth Rock, but instead at Provincetown, located at the tip of the cape. Even before World War II, this locale was an artists’ colony; a seaside village with crooked streets and dozens of quaint shops, where Portuguese fishermen dropped their nets into the nearby water.
Many photos were taken at sites where Caterpillar tractors might be used, such as rock quarries, logging camps, road-building project sites, dams, snowy cities and earth-moving mines. Near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., a planned highway that was to run from Lewistown, Pa., to Bayonne, N.J., was being cut through rock along a river that was 282-ft. high, 500-ft. long and 43-ft. thick. One section cost $ 300,000 per mile.
Once, the Camera Car (the name lettered on the Ford’s doors) was used to photograph the damage caused by a tornado that flattened a small Illinois town. The cameramen filmed Caterpillar tractors helping the storm’s victims clear debris. More than 100 photos were taken at a time when photographers used large Speed Graphic cameras and large, heavy tripods. Taking a professional-quality photograph required quite a bit of setup time. The 16mm movie cameras were also bulky.
Jolly designed his own 8×10 “candid” camera for still photographs. It was somewhat large, but did not require a tripod, a focusing cloth or a lot of time to set up. It was equipped with a range finder, a synchronizer for flash photos and a viewfinder. He also made good use of a smaller, hand-held motion-picture camera.
On a trip to a northern United States logging operation, the cameraman and the Ford sedan delivery had to endure negative-33-degree temperatures. A breakdown would have meant spending a cold night in the woods, but the Ford kept running. After three weeks, Jolly returned to the Caterpillar factory in Peoria with another feather in his cap.
In total, the photographers logged about 75,000 miles in the 1937 Ford sedan delivery over areas with good roads and unimproved roads.
The official purpose of the trips was to make still photos for advertising and publicity use, and motion pictures for sales promotions and training. Their trip reports documented that they had gone over plowed fields, through swamps, down sandy orchard rows and up and down steep rocky trails. At times, they had to drive the Ford for many miles in low gear, or in extreme heat and cold.
“The Ford took us where we went and back,” they said of the reliable V-8 sedan delivery.
If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.
Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.
View the original article to see embedded media.
*As an Amazon Associate, Old Cars earns from qualifying purchases.