Graham-Paige was an American

automobile manufacturer The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % ...

founded by brothers Joseph B. Graham (1882-1970), Robert C. Graham (1885-1967), and Ray A. Graham (1887-1932) in 1927. Automobile production ceased in 1940, and its automotive assets were acquired by

Kaiser-Frazer The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation (1947–1953 as Kaiser-Frazer) was the result of a partnership between industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer.

Graham Brothers

After successful involvement in a glass manufacturing company (eventually sold to Libbey Owens Ford) brothers Joseph B., Robert C., and Ray A. Graham began in 1919 to produce kits to convert

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Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

s into trucks and modify Model TTs. That led to the brothers building their trucks using engines of various manufacturers and the Graham Brothers brand. Eventually they settled on

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

engines, and soon the trucks were sold by Dodge dealers. The Grahams expanded from beginnings in

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, opening plants in 1922 on Meldrum Avenue in

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Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, of , and in 1925 on Cherokee Lane in

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. The Canadian market was supplied by the Canadian Dodge plant. Dodge purchased the Graham Brothers truck firm in 1925, and the three Graham brothers took on executive positions at Dodge. Graham's new truck line for 1928 included four four-cylinder models ranging from and one six-cylinder model, which used the same engine as the Dodge Brother's Senior Six, here lightly modified for truck duty. The Graham Brothers brand lasted until 1929,

Chrysler Corporation Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotiv ...

having taken over Dodge in 1928. 1928 Graham Brother 2 ton (2530333134)

Graham-Paige

In 1927, with the banking syndicate controlling Dodge trying to sell the company, the Graham brothers decided to enter the automobile business on their own. In 1927, they purchased the Paige-Detroit Motor Company, makers of Paige and Jewett automobiles, for $3.5 million ($ in dollars ). Joseph became president, Robert vice-president and Ray secretary-treasurer of the company. The company's initial offering included a line of Graham-Paige cars with six- and eight-cylinder engines. For a while a line of light trucks was offered under the Paige name, soon discontinued when Dodge reminded the Grahams about the non-competition agreement they had signed as part of the sale of the Graham Brothers Company. Grahams earned a reputation for quality and sales quickly rose. Graham also had some success in

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

, which helped boost sales. The Graham company logo included profiles of the three brothers and was used in insignia on the cars including badges and taillight lens. Graham-Paige made most of their own bodies and engines. The Graham brothers had solved a long-standing Paige body supply dilemma by purchasing the Wayne Body Company in

Wayne, Michigan Wayne is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 17,593 at the 2010 census. Wayne has a long history of automotive and transportation related manufacturing. Ford Motor Company currently has two plants in Wayn ...

, and expanding the factory along with other body plants. They did not have a foundry and contracted with Continental for these services relative to their engines. Some models did use Continental stock engines. Graham-Paige's own engineering department designed most of the engines used in Graham-Paige cars. The 1938–1940 "Spirit of Motion" cars and Hollywood models are frequently incorrectly stated to use Continental engines. After World War II Continental produced a lesser version of Graham-Paige's 217-cubic-inch-displacement engine used in the previously mentioned models. These engines were used in the post-war Kaiser and Frazer automobiles. Initially, Graham-Paige withstood the onset of the depression well, but sales fell as the decade wore on. The 1932 models were designed by

Amos Northup Amos Northup (October 23, 1889 – February 8, 1937) was an American automotive designer. Regarded as a leader in the field in the United States by the late 1920s, Northup worked for the Wills Sainte Claire, Murray Corporation of America, ...

. This particular design has been noted as the "single most influential design in automotive history." The new 8-cylinder engine was called the "Blue Streak." However, the press and public quickly adopted the name "Blue Streak" for the cars themselves. The design introduced a number of innovative ideas. The most copied was the enclosed fenders, thus covering the mud and grime built up on the underside. The

radiator cap A hood ornament (or bonnet ornament in Commonwealth English), also called, motor mascot, or car mascot is a specially crafted model which symbolizes a car company like a badge, located on the front center portion of the hood. It has been used ...

was moved under the hood, which itself was later modified to cover the cowl, and end at the base of the windshield. For engineering, the rear kickup on the chassis frame was eliminated by the adoption of a 'banjo' frame. Unlike contemporary practice, the rear axle was placed through large openings on both sides of the frame, with rubber snubbers to absorb any shock if the car axle should make contact. This in turn permitted a wider body. To help lower the car, the rear springs were mounted on the outer sides of the chassis frame and not under the frame. This idea was eventually copied by other manufacturers - Chrysler, for example, in 1957. For 1934, Graham introduced a crankshaft-driven

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced indu ...

, designed in-house by Graham Assistant Chief Engineer Floyd F. Kishline. At first offered only in the top eight-cylinder models, the supercharger was adapted to the six in 1936 when the eights were dropped. Through the years, Graham would produce more supercharged cars than any other automobile manufacturer until

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

surpassed them in the 1990s. By 1935, the "Blue Streak" styling was getting rather dated. A restyling of the front and rear ends for 1935 proved to be a disaster, making the cars appear higher and narrower. Having no money for a new body, Graham signed an agreement with

REO Motor Car Company The REO Motor Car Company was a company based in Lansing, Michigan, which produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. At one point, the company also manufactured buses on its truck platforms. Ransom E. Olds was an entrepreneur who founde ...

to purchase car bodies, paying them $7.50 ($ in dollars )in royalties for each Hayes-built body. The engines did have new full water jackets. Graham added new front end styling and revised detailing to these bodies to create the 1936 and 1937 Grahams. Amos Northup of Murray Body was hired to design a new model for 1938, but he died before the design was complete. It is believed the final design was completed by Graham engineers. The new 1938 Graham was introduced with the slogan "Spirit of Motion". The fenders, wheel openings and grille all appeared to be moving forward. The design was widely praised in the American press and by American designers. It also won the prestigious Concours D'Elegance in Paris, France. Wins were also recorded in the Prix d'Avant-Garde at Lyon, the Prix d'Elegance at Bordeaux, and the Grand Prix d'Honneur at Deauville, France. Its cut-back grille later gained the car the name "sharknose", which appears to have origins in the 1950s. The styling was a complete flop in sales.Odin, L.C. ''World in Motion 1939, The whole of the year's automobile production''. Belvedere Publishing, 2015. ASIN: B00ZLN91ZG. The most reliable estimates, from period publications, suggest the total production of all three years of these cars is between 6,000 and 13,000 units. With this low production Graham limped through 1939 and 1940.

Joint venture

Desperate for a winning offering and unable to retool, Graham made a deal with the ailing Hupp Motor Co. in late 1939. According to the deal, the faltering company entered into an arrangement with

Hupmobile Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1939 by the Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit. The prototype was developed in 1908. History Founding In 1909, Bobby Hupp co-founded Hupp Motor Car Company, with Charles Hastings, for ...

to build cars based on the body dies of the stunning

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-designed

Cord Cord or CORD may refer to: People * Alex Cord (1933–2021), American actor and writer * Chris Cord (born 1940), American racing driver * Errett Lobban Cord (1894–1974) American industrialist * Ronnie Cord (1943–1986), Brazilian singer * Co ...

810/812. In an effort to remain in business, Hupp had acquired the Cord dies, but lacked the financial resources to build the car. Hupp's Skylark was priced at US$895 ($ in dollars ), and only about 300 were built.Curbside Classic.com
(retrieved 10 July 2018 Graham agreed to build the

Skylark on a contract basis, while receiving the rights to use the distinctive Cord dies to produce a similar car of its own, to be called the Hollywood. The striking Skylark/Hollywood differed from the Cord from the cowl forward with a redesigned hood, front fenders and conventional headlights, achieved by automotive designer

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fame. The Cord's longer hood was not needed, as the Hupp and Graham versions were rear-wheel drive. This also necessitated modifying the floor to accept a driveshaft. Graham chose the four-door Beverly sedan shape for the Hollywood rather than the two-door convertible, as they wanted the Hollywood to be a popular, mass-market car.

Both versions used six-cylinder engines. The Skylark was powered by a Hupp; the Hollywood was available with a standard and an optional supercharged version, both manufactured by Graham-Paige. While some 1500 Hollywoods were built, it did not stop the company's slide. After its public introduction, orders poured in. However, manufacturing difficulties caused months of delay before deliveries began. Having bodies ultimately built by the coachbuilder Hayes did not help. Customers tired of waiting, and most of the orders were cancelled. Despite an enthusiastic initial public response, the car actually ended up being a worse flop in the sales department for both Graham and Hupmobile than either firm's respective preceding models. The company suspended manufacturing in September 1940, only to reopen its plant for military production for World War II.

Postwar

The company resumed automobile production in 1946 producing a modern-looking new car, the 1947 Frazer, named for new Graham-Paige President Joseph Frazer, in partnership with Henry J. Kaiser. It also began production of farm equipment under the

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name. In August 1945, Graham-Paige announced plans to resume production under the Graham name, but the plan never materialized. On February 5, 1947, Graham-Paige stockholders approved the transfer of all their automotive assets to

Kaiser-Frazer The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation (1947–1953 as Kaiser-Frazer) was the result of a partnership between industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer.DeSoto body and engine production, and finally for assembly of the

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for the 1959, 1960, and 1961 model years.

Post-automotive legacy

In 1952, Graham-Paige dropped the "Motors" from its name and branched into real estate, and under the direction of

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in New York, and in 1959 a controlling interest in the old

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(built 1925).New York Times: "Irving M. Felt, 84, Sports Impresario, Is Dead" By AGIS SALPUKAS
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. File:StateLibQld 1 147703 Graham Brothers truck, ca. 1925.jpg, Graham Brothers truck File:1933 car&trailer.jpg, 1929-30 Graham-Paige with early mobile camper trailer at Glacier National Park; December, 1933 Image:Graham-Paige Model 610 4-Door Sedan 1928.jpg, Graham-Paige Model 610 4-door Sedan 1928 Image:Graham-Paige Model 827 Roadster 1929.jpg, Graham-Paige Model 827 Roadster 1929 Image:Graham Paige 612 Tourer, 1929.jpg, Graham Paige 612 Tourer, 1929 Image:1929_Graham-Paige_Model_612.jpeg, A restored 1929 Graham-Paige Model 612 Image:Graham Drophead Coupe.jpg, Graham Convertible Coupé 1930 Image:Graham Model 80A Crusader 4-D Touring Sedan 1936.jpg, Graham Model 80A Crusader 4-door Touring Sedan 1936 Image:1937 Graham Cavalier.JPG, 1937 Graham Cavalier Image:Graham Blue Streak 4-Door Sedan 1932.jpg, 1932 Graham Bluestreak 4-door sedan File:Stahls Automotive Collection December 2021 079 (1939 Graham Custom Model 97 Sedan).jpg, 1939 Graham Custom Model 97 Sedan File:1940 Graham Hollywood Sedan.jpg, Advertisement for Graham Hollywood, 1940 File:Stahls Automotive Collection December 2021 082 (1941 Graham Hollywood Sedan).jpg, 1941 Graham Hollywood Sedan Image:Graham-Paige 613 Interior2.jpg, Instrument panel of a Model 613 File:Graham-Paige 613 Interior.jpg, Steering column of a Model 613. One lever in the center controls the headlights, the other is the hand throttle Image:Graham Model 97 Supercharger 4-D Sedan 1939.jpg, Graham Model 97 Supercharger 4-door Sedan 1939 "Spirit of Motion", later nicknamed "Sharknose" File:1940 Graham-Paige Model 107 DeLuxe four-door sedan, front left (Hershey 2019).jpg, 1940 was the last year for the "Sharknosed" Graham (Model 107) File:Graham-Paige 8 cyl. engine.jpg, Graham 8 cyl. engine, top view dominated by centrifugal supercharger

Footnotes

References

External links

Allpar.com: Graham Brothers Trucks and Graham-Paige Motors

Graham Owners Club International
* {{commons category, position=left, Graham-Paige vehicles Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Indiana Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Michigan American companies established in 1927 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1927 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1947 1927 establishments in Michigan 1947 disestablishments in the United States 1947 mergers and acquisitions Defunct manufacturing companies based in Indiana Defunct manufacturing companies based in Michigan