Vanderbilt Cup Races

Packard

One of Peter Helck’s early clients was the Packard car company. Here is a 1930s Packard advertisement featuring his artwork. The famous tagline, “Ask the Man Who Owns One,” appears in this full-page advertisement.

To conceptualize his artwork for each ad, Helck needed reference material. This is an original image staged for one of Peter Helck’s drawings for a Packard advertisement. When was the last time you saw a Packard speeding across a beach?

While there's no accompanying information on these images, I put on my detective cap to learn more about this set. This 1932 Packard was factory-fresh: a 4-door sedan with suicide rear doors, taken to a sandy waterfront in the Detroit, Michigan area. The license plate is an exclusive format for vehicle manufacturers, indicated by the “M” for manufacturer followed by “62”.

I made this quick composite, listed clockwise: the plate in the image above; a confirmed 1931 Michigan manufacturer plate; a standard 1931 Michigan plate; and a standard 1932 Michigan plate.

The Packard plate format matches the documented 1931 manufacturer plate, but the state text is reversed. Comparing the two standard Michigan plates shows that in 1931 the Michigan state text was at the bottom, while the 1932 plate has it at the top. This confirms the image was taken when the car was brand new, and the photoshoot was done exclusively for Peter Helck’s artistic reference.

The final result of the 1932 Packard advertisement, using the images above as a reference, is shown here.

Another Packard advertisement illustrated by Peter Helck is shown here; this one is from 1945. Interesting note, this ad’s headline text, “robot bombing” is referring to the German V-1 flying bomb, an early type of pulsejet-powered cruise missile. A horrifying unpiloted self-guided aerial weapon carrying roughly an 850-kg to 1-ton explosive warhead. They were also known as “buzz bombs” or “doodlebugs” and created significant damage to London and other allied cities.

While no documented timeline shows when Peter Helck stopped illustrating for Packard, we believe it was around the time of this advertisement.

Here is a surviving 1941 Packard that was used by the army during WW2.

Mack Trucks

Unlike consumer-vehicle ads aimed at families, commercial and heavy-duty truck ads targeted business owners who needed to transport goods or provide services. Mack Trucks advertised in magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and other entrepreneur-style publications.

This Peter Helck illustration is part of a 1943 Mack Truck advertisement.

Here's a factory press image of a Mack Truck from our archives.

The image above was likely used as a reference for this ad from 1943.

All of the  Mack truck advertisements Peter Helck illustrated appear to be from 1943.

Below are more examples. 

1943

1943

1943

Here is a rare Mack Truck Ambulance photograph I found in the archives. I could not find an advertisement that used this style of emergency vehicle in Peter Helck’s artwork.

A detailed shot of the chassis, wheels, and bed of a Mack Truck found in the archives. Peter Helck likely used this image as a reference for accuracy in his illustrations.

Hope you have enjoyed this installment of Peter Helck's  artwork. Stay tuned for more coming soon.