Walter McCarthy Provides the Answers to His Mystery Photo Challenge
Last week, VanderbiltCupRaces.com contributer Walter McCarthy provided this challenge to all viewers to identify this photo.
The Challenge: Provide some or all of the following information:
-What is going on in the photo?
-What is the year and make of the car?
-Who is in the car?
-Bonus: Where was the photo taken and its year?
The answers are below.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Update 1/15/2013:
Walter McCarthy: All the correct information in the picture is a s follows:
This was a teeter-totter contest held at the 1939 VMCCA Raceland Meet in Framingham, Massachusetts. The teeter contest was won by 21-year old Austin Clark, Jr. with 1910 Ford touring car. Clark won the contest since he was able to go back and forth between the low and reverse pedal of the Ford using both feetmaking it a lot easier than other cars.
The copy accompanying the photo read:
"The teeter contest was then gotten underway, and was carried off in decisive fashion by Austin Clark in a 1910 Ford who achieved perfect balance by riding his low and reverse pedals alternately. Smith H. Oliver’s first trial was successful through his admirable stop in the exact center of the platform, but in a second attempt he found it impossible to slip his Stutz’s low and reverse gears as readily as did the planetary Model T. He was awarded second place.
This event taught many members the planetary low speed bands must grip tightly if steep grades are to be climbed, but this was cheerfully charged to experience for there were no consolation prizes. The design of the teeter was agreed to be a masterful calculation, since a perfect balance was possible, but not crazy enough to create ties and run-offs."
Congrats to Ted, Phil, Hugh, Roger and Walt for solving parts of the mystery!!
Comments
I’ll take a wild guess as what’s going on,he’s trying to balance the vehicle,as to what year and make it is,I can’t, I can say it’s a pickup truck and as to where it is and what year, by looking at the picture it does’nt look like the early 1900s, more like 1950s on a field somewhere,have no idea who driving it, that’s the best I can do, How’d I do? Howard, I’ll check back tonite or some time tomorrow. It could even be early 60s by the clothes they’re wearing.
I can answer the What’s going on question. The car is being driven onto a Teeter Totter, and the idea is to get the car in the right spot to balance the Teeter Totter.
Phil
We both have the same idea,I just did;nt know the name Teeter Totter. Am I right on that answer? Still don’t know about the other questions. Any hints on this one Howard? I’ll be back
The Teeter Totter game was popular at club events in the 1950s and 60s. The idea was to balance you car in the shortest amount of time to win. We still had one in the early 1970s at the Boulder Flatirons Old Car Club vs the Longmont Antique Car Club meets in Colorado. I am guessing the car here is a 1911 Ford T or and early 1912 before they added fore doors to the touring cars.
Howard,
The car looks like an early Ford T. Looking at the body, it looks like an ‘09 Touring.
I agree that it’s a teeter totter, trying to balance the car. I think that the photo was taken in the early ‘60s or late ‘50s. I can’t figure out who the driver was.
Roger Price
O.K. folks you got the device named correctly, it is a teeter totter, and yes, the car is a real early Ford T circa 1909 (later brass radiator model T’s had front doors) . The driver is Henry Austin Clark Jr. , and I believe the location is Massachusetts and it is pre WWII, say 1939.
Thanks for taking my answer as correct,even though I did’nt know what it was.
I once did that at the BMW Driving Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Believe it or not, I was able to fine-tune, and get the teeter-totter into an exactly level position by using the electric fore-aft seat adjuster for my seat!
Walter,
Do you have a record of who was there with a Simplex - Crane with a Victoria top? Just saw an amazing movie of the 39 Meet and the Simplex - Crane sure looks like the one in the Museum. Also shows up at the 1940 Meet.
Regards,
Roberto
(Seal Cove Auto Museum)
In answer to my own question, it was Cameron Bradley. The car can be traced back to its original Bar Harbor owners, Edward and Lucy May. The Mays lived in “Keewaydin” on upper Main Street Bar harbor in 1925. It appears that the Whitney family purchased the car from Mrs. May in 1937 and later sold it to Cameron Bradley. Cameron Bradley was the owner of Winter Harbor Maine Trading Corporation in Winter Harbor, Maine. He was also a founding member of the Veteran Motor Car Club of America and a founder and director of the Wolfpen Antique Automotive Museum, in Southborough, Massachusetts.
This wonderful information is thanks to Richard Washburn whose grandfather was the May’s chauffer in Bar Harbor from 1925 to 1946.
The car was last owned by John W. Rich Sr. and went to AACA Museum after his passing in 2011.