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

 

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: http://www.25thaviation.org/johnkerry/id15.htm
http://www.johnkerrytruth.com/
http://www.usvetdsp.com/main.shtml

 

Yes, that of Walter P. Chrysler.

 

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


God Bless,
Dan'L

Fun to Read: http://www.25thaviation.org/johnkerry/id15.htm
http://www.johnkerrytruth.com/
http://www.usvetdsp.com/main.shtml

 

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 .......

(I'm not trying to be funny or make a joke, that's what the book said. I
read it a long time ago, and don't remember the title/author. This one bit
stuck with me, however.)

 

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: http://www.25thaviation.org/johnkerry/id15.htm
http://www.johnkerrytruth.com/
http://www.usvetdsp.com/main.shtml

 

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

 

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

 

Please elucidate your point of view.

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

 

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

 

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

 

From: "Dori A Schmetterling" 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: http://www.25thaviation.org/johnkerry/id15.htm
http://www.johnkerrytruth.com/
http://www.usvetdsp.com/main.shtml

 

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

 

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: http://www.25thaviation.org/johnkerry/id15.htm
http://www.johnkerrytruth.com/
http://www.usvetdsp.com/main.shtml

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

Except that the intent was to list Great American Automotive
Geniuses, which is where my interests lay. I could care less about the
Euro-genius or Japanese-genius or the occassional Tiawanese-genius factors, as
they held NOTHING for the history of my country.

Funny, . . . I wrote the O.P. and don't remember including anything
resembling an "introduction." Please elaborate.

As a result of encapsulation, I took the opportunity to leave out a
few minor details of Chrysler's life. A book was not my intent ---- a
synopsis was.. Should I have also mentioned his family, . . . in particular,
his son's tastes in art, particularly nude art, as well as sexual
excentricities, . . . . and his penchant for covering those fetishes, by buying
up all kinds of artifacts. The old man had a true sense of value, when it came
to collecting things, (although, many say it was Mrs. Chrysler, who had the
true tastefulness and sense of appreciative value), and Junior was kinda
following in his parents' footsteps, first by collecting furniture, (until
after his first wife left him, and then moving to the art-world and finally
really erotic stuff, showing very little taste. But, . . . . None of that is
important, in the overall picture of Walter P. Chrysler and his contributions
to the Industrialization of America, during the first half of the twentieth
century.

BTW, we DO agree on the Delorean thing. The government was WAAAAAAY
out of line, on that sting thing, and John Z. was a true automotive genius,
especially when he was first named head of Pontiac, and took the suits on the
top floor of the General's offices to task on just about everything, even
bucking the Board of Directors to get the GTO out the door, in '64. His candid
admission that he did it, to keep pace with those employee-racers over at
Chrysler, was priceless.


God Bless,
Dan'L

Fun to Read: http://www.25thaviation.org/johnkerry/id15.htm
http://www.johnkerrytruth.com/
http://www.usvetdsp.com/main.shtml

 

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
--
For direct contact replace nospam with 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}.

http://www.megastories.com/ireland/glossary2/delorean.htm

This seems a good summary of what I mean.

DAS