My Favorite Ride: Newspapers and 75-year-old car ads can be yours

A few years back, this column was the front-page anchor for The Herald Times' Auto section, which contained pages of ads from local car dealers.

Rows of thumbprint photos of cars for sale, their special options and sticker prices listed beneath, were published every week. These ads were the bread-and-butter of newspaper advertising departments, since there were hundreds of cars for sale in a competitive market.

Those half- and full-page ads brought revenue to the newspaper, which helped determine how much space was available for the news stories and feature columns in the paper each day.

Back when advertising revenue drove a newspaper's financial success, days that are long gone, the mix in the daily paper was about 60% ads and 40% news.

The inside pages of the Auto section offered classified ads from individuals looking to sell their cars and trucks.

Car ads have been prevalent in newspapers since the days of Henry Ford and the Chevrolet brothers more than a century ago.

Flipping pages through the past

Volunteers recently reviewed decades of bound editions of Herald-Times newspapers, under that name and those that came before. As they perused and prepared them to be sold at auction, they were captivated by not just the news stories, but the ads.

Perusing the pages: Column: Volunteers discover Monroe County's past while prepping for sale

When I was turning the pages of those newspapers last month inside a giant Cook warehouse, looking for noteworthy stories to entice buyers, my progress was slowed. I got distracted by the ads.

My friend and colleague Carol Kugler, tasked with reviewing old World Telephone newspapers from 1942, 1945 and 1948, fell into the time warp trap. The local newspaper had that name until it became The Herald-Telephone, then The Herald-Times.

The news stories from the 1940s reflected events of the day, and the ads were nearly as telling about people's lives and priorities.

So many ads reflecting the times, providing insights into American culture.

"Laura, you've got to write a column about these old car ads I found," Carol said. She photographed some that caught her eye from three months in the 1948 edition so I could, well, write a column about those old car ads.

Stepping back 75 years

"See Studebaker's thrilling 1948 Commander!" shouts the headline over a white two-door sedan displayed in a 1948 Harry Stephens & Co. car dealership ad. The text pulls in potential buyers. "All over America the word for style is Studebaker! New look outside! New outlook and new comfort inside!"

I have a hard time telling an old Kaiser from a Frazer, but a Paul Brown Motor Sales ad from back then pictures one of each under a headline that lets you know either one "gives you more miles per gallon!"

Chevrolets were big sellers in the 1940s, and University Chevrolet in Bloomington ran big ads in the newspaper touting the car line.

Curry Buick, still in business in Bloomington, was already an established Buick and Oldsmobile dealer 75 years ago in what is now the Curry Building on West Seventh Street. Their ads highlighted Buick's "new sparkling models" for 1948.

One features a brand-new car called a "Fashion Plate for '48."

A sentence beneath a long, sleek Buick in another 1948 Curry ad states, "There's New Glamour in the Way it Goes."

Ad copy today just isn't what it used to be.

Carol found a pretty cool ad for Hudson automobiles. Eleven people are surrounding and admiring the car featured in this 1948 Hanson Motor Company ad. Fashion note: All the men are wearing hats.

"Sweeping the nation like wildfire" is in big letters across the top of the half-page advertisement

"Sweeping the nation like wildfire" isn't a phrase modern ad copywriters would use to sell cars, given the world's wildfire devastation. "This time it's Hudson" wouldn't work in 2023 either, since Hudson stopped making cars in 1954.

Another Hudson: My Favorite Ride: Adding a 1923 Hudson Speedster to the collection

Tim Lloyd, are you reading? The Bloomington man owns four old Hudsons, including a 1948 Hudson Commodore 6. His daily driver the past 11 years has been a pretty rusty aquamarine1954 Hudson Hornet you may have seen around town.

And finally, an ad for Firestone's Super-Cushion automobile tires, described as "amazing." Because who doesn't want a set of super-cushion tires on their car?

These old newspapers can be yours

I mentioned an auction of bound volumes containing original newspapers holding decades of local news — and ads such as the ones you read about here.

The news of the day, dramatic headlines and advertisements for everything from girdles to ground beef are printed on these pages.

Your opportunity to bid on any of the hundreds of volumes ends Wednesday, Sept. 13, the last day of the auction. Time is running out. This is a one-time opportunity to own a big piece of local history.

Ink on real newsprint. Pages you can turn. Local history you can fall into.

Go to https://edsindian.hibid.com/auctions and take a look. Let me know what treasures you find in the bound volume you purchase. Proceeds from the auction will go to a nonprofit fund to support journalism in Monroe County. Find out more here: Local News Fund

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact Herald-Times reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: My Favorite Ride: These 75-year-old newspaper car ads can be yours