Origin of name Chrysler?

Is Chrysler a last name?

I saw a joke about "John Chrysler" being non-existent in the NewsRadio TV show.

What is the origin of the name of that company?

-Ramon

Reply to
Ramon F Herrera
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Ramon writes:

Yes, it's the name of a guy, born in Hayes, Kansas, who grew up to be a mechanical genius, worked on the railroad, bought a Locomobile, while he lived on a farm and worked on the railroad that became the Illinois Central. He bought this new Locomobile after attending the Chicago Auto Show, and he had it shipped to his home in Olwein, Iowa via rail, whereupon he had it towed by a horse and ropes, to his farm, just outside of town. He took the car apart and put it back together several times before trying to drive it, only to end up in a ditch, and had to get the neighbor to pull him out with a team of horses. Only a few years later, Walter P. Chrysler went to work for Buick, and became the president of that great company. He later left Buick to head up the Chalmers Motor Company, and went on to a couple others, before going back to his roots at the Chicago auto Show, with the car that he had introduced at the New York Auto Show, only months before, the New 1924 Chrysler. All this is detailed in a book co-authored by Boyden Sparks, and recognized as Walter Percy Chrysler's Autobiography. The Title is "Life of an American Workman" most hard copies of the book were first published in hardback form, in 1950, although the book had previously been published as a series in the Saturday Evening Post, as early as 1937. The Saturday Evening post also published a few hundred copies as leather covered hardback versions, which were of a size we'd call "coffee-table-size" today. The book is a really easy read, and is a tremendous lesson in character for a young American. I highly recommend finding a copy at your local library and reading it. You won't be sorry.

God Bless, Dan'L

Fun to Read:

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Reply to
Dan Larsen

Yes, that of Walter P. Chrysler.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

That's kinda what I said. TMI, Dan??

God Bless, Dan'L

Fun to Read:

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Reply to
Dan Larsen

I read a history On WPC, and the book had this interesting tidbit (I won't vouch for its accuracy, however):

When WPC's family came to America, (before WPC was born), the family arrived at Plymouth rock.

You make the call .......

Reply to
Bret

I've read about everything ever written on the man, or at least the stuff that's still available, and I've seen that kind of thing a couple of times. I usually pass it of as "overzealous use of artistic license," and forget it, as soon as possible. I doubt that it takes any credibility away from those things that we know to be true, and the hundreds of things that have been corroborated over the years, . . . . . like his railroad seniority, working in several roundhouses, on steam locomotives, or the fact that he made his own tools, (which are preserved, along with his toolbox, in the WPC Museam at Highland Park, MI), or the evidence that indicates that he couldn't drive a car, but could take one apart and put it together in his sleep, (okay, . . . .but you know what I mean). He was a very interesting man, who had a very interesting life, filled with interesting visions, interesting philosophies, and interesting relationships, all leading to the successful conclusion of an automotive legacy that lives on today, albiet in somewhat beleaguered forms, all over the globe. I have several copies of "Life of an American Workman." Promise me you'll read it, cover to cover, and I'll gladly send you one, (the e-mail address is good -- send me a mailing address), for your perusal.

I also enjoy reading about the other great automotive geniuses, (opinions vary -- I'm admittedly being polite), Henry Ford, his ancestors, Bill Durant, Louis Chevrolet, James Packard, John Dodge and his Brothers, Fred Duesenburg, Albert R. Erskine, David Buick, Harley Earl, Preston Tucker, Alfred P. Sloan, John Z Delorian, as well as Walter P. and his "Triple Threat" of the

1930s. If these kind of men don't embody a Great American Spirit, and a forgotten time in our history, that is rarely spoken about today, nothing does. It sickens me, as much as anyone, to see the bean-counters and lawyers take over the automotive industry, and if we don't hold onto heroes like WPC and the like, (whatever their excentricities), we stand to suffer in the long run.

God Bless, Dan'L

Fun to Read:

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Reply to
Dan Larsen

Your response didn't hit my server til sometime after I'd posted mine. Wasn't trying to step on your toes.

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Interesting list. I esxpecially liked inclusion of John Delorean, a mega-crook who cheated the British taxpayer out of millions of pounds.

Funny you are not interested in those other great geniuses and pioneers like Gottlieb Daimler, Karl Benz, Wilhelm Maybach, Louis Renault, Andre Citroen, not to mention Rolls & Royce et al....

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

Please elucidate your point of view.

...Briggs and Stratton...Fichtel and Sachs...Callard and Bowser...

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

He still was apparently a decent engineer, despite his personal problems.

What about Ferdinand Porsche? Probably had more effect on the modern auto industry than any other man... not to mention Soichiro Honda and various other Japanese and European players...

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Named after it's founder, Walter P. Chrysler.

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

From: "Dori A Schmetterling" snipped-for-privacy@schmetterling.co.uk comes the following off-point commentary:

You should have paid as much attention to the rhetoric, as the list, itself. The key phrase you'd have been looking for was:

What was it about Renault, Maybach, Benx, Citroen, or Daimler, or Rolls & Royce, that would embody anything American??

Oh, that's right, . . . . having forgotten WWII, . . . . . most Brits have a special disdain for us Americans. Too bad.

Say, didja hear about the Montreal Expos Baseball Team?? Proposal is that the American Commissioner of Baseball is going to have them playing all their home games at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. next season. Sorry Canada! Maybe among all those political decisions, a few will have some economic consequences you weren't counting on.

God Bless, Dan'L

Fun to Read:

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Reply to
Dan Larsen

You see, Dan'L, being an American in this forum is discouraged. Being an American who leans somewhat conservative is verboten. Being a proud American who leans somewhat conservative results in your being treated with the same disdain usually reserved for a dead, half-eaten squirrel on one's front porch.

You're not supposed to represent us as the defenders of Democracy, or as the world's lone benevolent super power. Socialism is good. American capitulation is even better. We Americans would be better off if we just learned to love the world the way it is, and stop being such a bunch of show-offs with our tremendous economy and health care system that is the standard against which all others are measured. We should give away more for free -- it's not fair that we have so much, while the rest have so little. Didja know we ride on the backs of the poor, impoverished western Euro-peons, and then repay them by dragging them along into conflicts over oil? I betcha didn't know that all their roads are better over there, too, and nobody ever dies in a car in Europe. Here in the U.S., of course, we've got government agents flying in black helicopters with handguns practically *falling out of the aircraft* so that said agents can selectively kill those Americans who

*should* have died in the rampant car accidents, but didn't. (We're such a violent society. I'm kinda ashamed. How about you?) Maybe we should contract out the positions on the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff to the U.N., and forget about this stars-and-stripes nonsense. I'm sure they can take care of that for us after they're finished monitoring our upcoming election. Sovereignity is so twentieth-century, don'tcha know?

I bet the Maple Leafs could find a spot that would take 'em south of the border as well. After they move out, there will be more room for reasonable leftist Americans to move to Canada, an altogether more sensible place.

Sorry for the rant. There's only a few of us who'd get the joke anyway.

--Geoff

Reply to
Geoff

That's perfectly okay, Geoff. I thought I was alone in this wilderness. Fear not, . . . . the two of us, appropriately armed with our Jeeps, keyborads and Glock 23-C's, can prolly handle several thousand of the wimps, Audie Murphy-style. ROFL!

God Bless, Dan'L

Fun to Read:

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Reply to
Dan Larsen

I suspect that starting a list with "great automotive geniuses" and ending with "Great American Spirit" would rub non-Americans the wrong way. The introduction would lead one to suspect it would also include the great automotive geniuses of other countries.

Incidentally, your capsule biography of Chrysler didn't mention Maxwell! Maxwell was a floundering auto company which he headed; the first Chrysler was a new Maxwell model, and then the name of the company was changed.

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

I've never heard he was a crook of any size, nor that he cheated the British taxpayers out of anything. He tried to start a company, he got the British government to help fund it; it went broke. That's just failure, not criminal behavior.

Yes, I am aware that while the company was going down the US government set him up and entrapped him into trying to raise money to keep it afloat with cocaine. I regard that as poor judgement brought on by desperation (and utterly reprehensible behavior on the part of the government), not criminality.

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

Thanks a lot for your very complete answer, Dan.

I am currently driving from Miami to Boston, with a little detour to California and happened to pass in front of that city/town around the same time that you were sending your posting yesterday. :-)

The name of the town is actually spelled "Hays".

Thanks again,

-Ramon

Reply to
Ramon F Herrera

I did see that phrase but didn't quite get the connection. You listed some Americans who were great. My point is that the others I listed were equally great (or even more so, maybe, in the case of Daimler & Benz), thus this greatness and achievement has nothing to do with any American or other "Spirit".

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

Perhaps I put it a bit strongly, but he still cost 'us' USD 100m. He persuaded the British government to pour money into his venture that only ever made 8000 cars. While at GM he was clearly a talented engineer, and then had this perhaps visionary but misguided idea that he could make a commercial success of it. No doubt he would have sold a few more if the US govt hadn't stung him but he took 100 million of our money {I suppose 'our' (British) government has a share in the culpability}.

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This seems a good summary of what I mean.

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

The above statement is one of the most jingoistic statements that I've ever seen. And I write that as an American.

Most great ideas, inventions or great cars didn't happen in a vacuum or in isolation. Each inventor/developer borrowed ideas from others.

Chrysler, Duryea, Ford, Olds and many other American car inventors/developers and businessmen borrowed ideas from other developers around the world. If you think not, you do not truly know the history of the auto industry.

Carl Benz of Germany was the first "auto" maker in the world to offer cars for sale in 1889, long before the first American car was offered for sale. Word of this spread across the Atlantic and American experimenters began their activity, with the Duryea Bros offering their first cars in the 1890's.

Europeans were building cars with driveshafts, four wheel brakes and steering wheels when American developers were still using chain drives, 2 wheel brakes and tillers. Of course soon after experimentation began, Americans also added their contributions. For example, Kettering's electric starter was one of the major developments. Cadillac's demonstration of interchangeable parts was another milestone.

The knowledge that crossed between developers certainly did add to the history of America and of other countries. That knowledge was certainly trans-Atlantic.

Doug

Reply to
sparks065

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