Triangle Motors Home Movies

[JoeKeys2010]

I uploaded a family movie made in approximately 1949 of my grandfather's KF dealership Triangle Motors in Jacksonville, FL.  In the move which I have not enhanced or added sound to, you can see the exterior of the showroom, various Kaisers including a Traveler and a Virginian with a three piece rear window.  My grandmother's Carabbean Coral 1949 Kaiser can be seen at the end of the film as well as what looks like a Frazer that belonged to my Great Uncle but the port holes on the side are something I have not seen before.  If you look closely on the interior shots you can see some signage and advertising posters.

I found these films in my grandmother's attic many years back so they were not stored as well as I would have like.  They are in rough shape but I managed to transfer them over to a digital format and then upload them to YouTube.  I don't know how rare footage like this is but I thought it was pretty neat and wanted to share it.

I have some more films made in 1947 prior to this build being completed that I will load on YouTube later if folks find this one to be interesting.

Here is he link:    http://youtu.be/44U5NzIAuiU

[r1lark]

Neat film Joe, thanks for sharing. Quality seems very good compared to other vintage films that have been transferred to digital. How exactly did you transfer this to digital format?

[51Deluxe]

Great looking footage Joe and a nice insight into life at the dealership in times gone by. If possible I would love to (with your permission of course ) use portions in my Kaiser-Frazer documentary film. Also would love to see any others you may have.

[JoeKeys2010]

I loaded the film on a real to real projector and put a Hi 8 video camera on a tripod then started both. The film was shot on 8mm film and was not stored correctly so I am surprised they lasted at all.

Anyone who wants you use it is welcome to do so. I thought it was neat. My grandfather is the one without the tie.

Prior to building the showroom he owned three used car lots. One of the car lots was on Riverside (Jacksonville). I have some footage of it but it appears as a simple car lot with a Kaiser or two on the yard and a KK sign. In some of the early news paper ads he used this lots address.

The cars on this lot look like 47 or 48. Grandmother cut the newspaper ad to fit in a scrap book so I don have dates.

Wish I had some of the signs and posters.

[51Deluxe]

"the film was shot on 8mm film and was not stored correctly so I am surprised they lasted at all. "

Film is actually very durable. It takes a lot of time and terrible storage conditions to hurt it. Extreme heat can make it brittle, but dust can be cleaned off to some extent. My Super 8 films shot in the early 70's still play just fine. I'll have to dig out the footage I took from behind the steering wheel while driving my first car, a '59 Mercedes 180A purchased for $95, at age 14.

[JoeKeys2010]

My film is brittle and stinks bad.

[joefrazer]

Joe, thanks for posting the film. Precious little imagery from the inside of a KF dealership exists so seeing this is great. Now, where can I order an Indian Ceramic hardtop like the one in the movie?!

[Gordie]

Those are great!  When the 1949 Buick came out with port holes they were an instant success and the auto supply stores all started carrying them as an add-on accessory for any car and they were popular for many years.  I remember in 1950 at the age of 17 I was driving from Detroit to California in my 1939 Ford and for some reason I stopped at the Kaiser Frazer dealer in Cheyenne Wyoming and still remember a customer complaining to the parts department that his new Kaiser wasn't nearly as fast as his old '49.  Perhaps that was true.  Anyway I wished that I had taken pictures of the dealerships.  I started collecting sales brochures of all the new cars 1n 1947 and went to all of the local dealers weekly.  I got to see the showing of the new Tucker and the Davis cars in 1948 and had the sales literature on them all for many years.  When I finally sold that collection about fifteen years ago we carried out over 200 boxes of catalogs.  Now I just collect Kaiser-Frazer stuff.  Come to Puyallup as we are having a "show and tell" night just for KF memorabilia.

[JoeKeys2010]

I'm so pleased everyone enjoyed the movie. My grandfather would be proud that his short lived business venture in Kaiser Frazers would attract so much attention 65 years later. I posted some black and white photos of my grandmother standing next to her 49 Caribbean Coral Kaiser. I had not watched these movies in years and when I saw a color shot of her car it was neat. Mine will look just like it when it is done.

I saw some old gas pumps across the street in the movie and a Pontiac that belonged to my Great Aunt. I'll hunt up the 1947 film and see about posting it.

[Fid]

Joe, when I read in another thread that you were going to post this, I was going suggest that you start a new thread as it will likely garner a lot of interest. Well, you obviously thought far enough ahead to do that. Great footage indeed. I love old home movies such as this. Thanks so much for sharing. I'm going to have to post the home movie my father took of all the KF cars arriving at the plant in Dearborn at the '74 National.

[sds501]

I really appreciate your sharing of the old home movies.  I have prints from 48-54 but you can't get the same feeling as watching an old movie.  Thanks for posting these

[retired wrench]

  Really enjoyed the movie. Its not often I can say "that was before my time" but I didn't get in the car biz till 54.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The fact that there is a Traveler in the showroom puts the date after March 1949.  If I could have cleaned up the image of the large poster on the wall I might have been able to date it a bit better.

I'm glad to see that this stuff is coming out into the open.  It used to be that the only stuff on film was my reel of 1953 Kaiser & HJ ads and the Buchinger reel with a couple commercials, WORD OF HONOR (Kaiser-Willys Version) and the televised Edgar Kaiser interview from 1952 that includes footage of the plant in operation.