Harry Truman takes Chrysler out for an ice cream cone
A friend in Detroit’s Automotive Press Association emailed me a paean
to President Harry S. Truman, which got me to thinking about HST’s
love of Chryslers.
A few years ago, the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and
Chrysler (under whatever corporate name it had at the time) got
together, found Truman’s two 1941 Chryslers, restored them and they
are now on display, In those still-salad-days for the auto industry,
Chrysler came up with $120,000 for the project. (Presidential
Libraries and Museums, in case you didn’t know, are built and
equipped by private fund-raising, but the Federal government takes
care of upkeep.)
With a fair amount of diligence, you can find information about the
two 1941s on the Truman Library’s website. But I’ll save you the
trouble, because it requires a little interpretation.
Here’s the original invoice for the cars:
Receipt for Truman's Chrysler
likelihood he would be re-elected to a second six-year term
representing Missouri, he ordered two new Chryslers, a Royal Club
Coupe and a Windsor four-door sedan. They were delivered the day
after the election. Truman traded in two cars: a 1938 Dodge that he
had campaigned in, and a 1940 Chrysler sedan, most likely driven by
his wife Bess and his daughter Margaret, who lived with them.
The invoice from Lon’s Car Exchange in Kansas City (Independence is
more-or-less an eastern suburb) is a rare historical document for
auto historians, because it nails the retail cost of new cars, the
used car values, the optional radio price and the miniscule sales tax—
all compared to today’s prices.
Two of Truman's Chryslers
Photos of the interiors of the Chrysler show a principal reason for
Senator Truman to make the trade: the 1941 Chrysler were standard-
equipped with Chrysler Corporation’s Vacamatic (Fluid Drive) two-
pedal automatic transmission. This wasn’t as far advanced
technically as Oldsmobile’s and Cadillac’s one-pedal Hydra-Matic but
fitted the purposes of the Truman family just fine.
Besides, like some other presidents, Harry was a dedicated Chrysler
fan, as he demonstrated in later years.
Truman became a dark-horse, understated vice-presidential candidate
in the 1944 Democratic Nominating Convention as Franklin D. Roosevelt
ran for a fourth term and, as everyone knows, became president when
FDR died in April 1945. Today Truman is recognized as the president
who made more crucial decisions than any other American president in
history, though he was widely dumped on during his years in office.
Truman and wife Bess were early fans of the automobile
D. Eisenhower succeeded Truman in the White House early in 1953,
Harry and Bess packed their luggage in their 1941 Chrysler Windsor
sedan without fanfare and drove home to Independence. In later
years, Truman continued to buy Chryslers and only Chryslers. The
Truman Library website shows HST driving (no Secret Service
chauffeur!) a Chrysler, probably a 1959, and taking delivery of a
1969 or 1970 model at a dealership a couple of years before his 1972
death.
Mundane cars like 1941 Chryslers are hardly the iron that collectors
yearn for, but I wish I knew more about how the Museum and corporate
people managed to track down Harry’s cars so many decades after they
were originally delivered in 1940. Now someone needs to find the
1938 Dodge and the 1940 Chrysler he traded in.