Langworth’s Kaiser-Frazer book represents gold standard of auto histories

I only needed to quickly doublecheck a fact when I recently reached for Richard Langworth’s book, Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit. A few hours later I finally pulled myself away from it.

The book just sucked me in. That’s partly because Kaiser-Frazer’s story is surprisingly fascinating — and important to understanding the postwar U.S. auto industry. However, I was also reminded that The Last Onslaught is one of the best auto histories in my library.

As with Langworth’s other early automotive histories — such as on the Hudson, Studebaker and the Chrysler/Imperial brands — The Last Onslaught offers a more substantive history than the books that now dominate the shelves of the big-box bookstores. The current fad seems to be oversized coffee table books, with lots of big pictures and breezy but superficial text that is comforting to the fanboi/collector. Infotainment over easy.

The definitive old-fashioned automotive history book

In contrast, Langworth presented exhaustive research in a well-organized and nuanced manner. This is not the Reader’s Digest version of Kaiser-Frazer’s history. The almost 300-page book presents a detailed play-by-play of the automaker’s life. The text is augmented with reproductions of advertisements as well as tables that include production data and even paint codes.

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The photographs are mostly black and white but unusually comprehensive. The images help bring to life key players, proposed designs and Kaiser facilities — but without overshadowing the text.

Note that we’re talking about old-fashioned dense text, not the new-fangled kind that is large enough to have been borrowed from a Dick and Jane book.

A balanced but tough-minded journalistic exercise

Langworth’s analysis might be best described as first-rate business journalism. The Last Onslaught does not possess the theoretical sophistication of the best scholarly books, but it also doesn’t appear to suffer from niggling fact errors that can result when the writer is not a car buff (go here for further discussion).

The Last Onslaught was published in 1975, so Langworth was able to interview a wide range of direct participants who were still alive. Aaron Severson (2013) suggested in a Curbside Classic comment that the book more heavily reflected the views of those around Joseph Frazer because the Kaiser contingent didn’t make themselves available for interviews. Langworth (2013) dropped by to offer a clarification — only upper management didn’t talk and the book’s conclusion “recognizes the position of both sides.”

My sense is that Langworth exercised strong journalistic skills in presenting a balanced assessment of Kaiser-Frazer’s demise. He was both sympathetic but also tough-minded in his conclusions.

Book’s analysis is colored by the time’s groupthink

Some of Langworth’s specific views strike me as colored by the Detroit groupthink prevalent in the 1970s. For example, he wrote that the lack of a V8 was “without a doubt the single most important factor in the sales decline after 1950” (p. 238). This was a similar assessment to one he offered in his Hudson (1993) book.

I don’t reject Langworth’s perspective but suggest here that industry dynamics were more complex and even somewhat contradictory. In Kaiser-Frazer’s case, the automaker arguably could have gotten by just fine without a V8 through the mid-50s — and perhaps even the entire decade — if its cars had been no larger and heavier than a late-40s Studebaker Champion. That would have been a pragmatic way to achieve his apparent goal of producing a more efficient car for the “common man.”

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That said, Langworth makes a useful point in his conclusion that Kaiser-Frazer could have saved money if it had followed Dutch Darrin’s advice to develop a more compact car based on the automaker’s existing platform rather than a brand-new one used for the ill-fated Henry J (p. 238).

Given how long ago this book was written, Langworth’s overall analysis has held up remarkably well. I hope that today’s writers use The Last Onslaught as an inspiration for their own work rather than aiding and abetting the dumbing down of automotive history. Of course, finding a good publisher can also be a stumbling block. Langworth’s book was part of the Automobile Quarterly Library Series. Alas, that media outfit is no more. Who, if anyone, has picked up the mantle?

Kaiser-Frazer: The Last Onslaught on Detroit

• Richard M. Langworth; 1975
• Princeton Publishing, Princeton, NJ

“The car that did evolve was a pod-shaped affair resembling an overturned bathtub, with wrap-around bumpers covering the sides as well as the front and rear ends. Access was had by lifting the whole upper shell, which was hinged on one side. Though sources state that FRP (fiberglass-reinforced plastic) was to be used in production versions, the prototype was made of plaster of Paris. ‘Kaiser,’ said one reporter, ‘is probably the only man in the world who owns a plaster of Paris automobile that runs.’ In addition to f.w.d., the plaster car utilized torsion bar suspension along lines Gregoire had set down.” (p. 31)

“‘He wanted to build 200,000 cars in 1949,’ Frazer said, ‘which I said couldn’t be done. I calculated that at that budget we’d lose about $36 million. I had put up half the collateral on the first loan ($20 million from the Bank of America in 1948) personally. I refused to go on any more. It was a pretty hot meeting — names were called and a few other things. I said we had to get economy minded. Henry wouldn’t see it, so we parted.'” (p. 106)

“By any yardstick except price the Aero-Willys was a fine little automobile, possibly the most successful of the Fifties compacts in its excellent combination of refined, clean styling and thoughtful engineering. Its price wasn’t in line with that of the Henry J, but it was substantially below that of the Nash Rambler, and dealers said they thought the reputation of the rugged Jeep was favorably rubbing off on passenger car sales.” (p. 208)

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RE:SOURCES

• Langworth, Richard M.; 1979, 1993. Studebaker 1946-1966: The Classic Postwar Years. Motorbooks International, Osceola, WI.
• ——–; 1993. Chrysler & Imperial 1946-1985: The Classic Postwar Years.Motorbooks, Minneapolis, MN.
• ——–; 1993. Hudson 1946-1957: The Classic Postwar Years. Motorbooks International, Osceola, WI.
• ——–; 2013. Commentator in “Zebra Fur And Lion Pelts? Polar Bear Hides And Grizzly Fur? 1951 Kaisers Show Off Exotic Interiors.” Curbside Classic. Posted 10:01 a.m., Oct. 5; accessed May 3, 2021.
• Severson, Aaron; 2013. Commentator in “Zebra Fur And Lion Pelts? Polar Bear Hides And Grizzly Fur? 1951 Kaisers Show Off Exotic Interiors.” Curbside Classic. Posted 2:19 p.m, Jan. 20; accessed May 3, 2021.

This is an updated version of a review originally posted on March 26, 2013.