Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
Harry Hower, a chauffeur in the Chicago area in the early 1900s, got into the tire business and proposed an idea about the whitewall to the Woodbury family. By 1918, the Woodbury’s and Harry were in business and the Vogue Tyre Company was born. Over the decades, celebrities and notable people have used Vogue Tyre products on their vehicles with Vogue whitewall tires.
In 1928, Mr. Lloyd Dodson contracted with Vogue Tyre owners Harry Hower and Margaret Woodbury to begin selling their distinctive whitewall tires. When the Great Depression hit in 1929, he turned to the local entertainment industry to sell upscale tires to the movie stars. In 1942, he bought Vogue Tyre and remained its chairman until his death.
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How about the red line tire?
Some of you know about Paul Deesen. He was a designer in the Chevy studio in the late 50's/early 60's and then in the Pontiac studios. He did the front and/or rear ends on some prominent Chevys, he added the "skegs" to the sides of some of the mid 60's full size Pontiacs. He also designed the original GTO fender emblems, the squarebody S/T Blazer, and the interior of the GMC motor home.
Like most young men, when he first started working he was quite poor - but he had right priorities. He purchased and drove an early model Corvette (a '57 ) but couldn't afford new tires. They were blackwalls and he wanted whitewalls so he grabbed a white crayon out of the kid's coloring book stash and made his own white stripe tires.
After a while the white stripes started wearing off and looking bad. He went back to the crayon box and....no white crayon.
So - he grabbed a red one instead.
It was typical back then for the studio chiefs to troll the parking lot looking for ideas on employee cars in the lot. Paul's car caught one of the studio bosses' eye and they decided to pursue it. They contacted one of the tire manufacturers and...the rest is history.
K
http://deansgarage.com/?s=paul+deesen