--■ --� III II IIII I II II II II II II II II II II II IllI I II IIIIII I llllll 11111111111111111 I I . I I I II1 11111111111111 II 111111111 �,.' J ' ..� •••.·I t'i.111111 . il� I I I I I 111111111111111111111111111111111.11,1111 111�1 111'.IM111.1 1111 11111 11 1111 I I I II I I 1111 11111 lllllll llllllll II I t: � i n ,&,-io IHI llll IIMIII Of ,&,-i .&IJIOMIOil�I 61,-,IIJI is a richly detailed account of one of the most important men in American HRYSLER automotive history, based on full access to both Chrysler Corporation and Chrysler family historical records. Chrysler emerges as a man who loved machines, an accomplished mechanic who also had highly developed managerial skills derived from half a lifetime on the railroads, a man whose success came from his deep understanding of engineering and his total commitment to the quality of his vehicles. Vincent Curcio traces Chrysler's rise from a locomotive wiper in a Kansas roundhouse to the head of the Buick Division of General Motors, to his rescue of the Maxwell-Chalmers car company, which led to the successful development of the 1924 Chrysler-the world's first modern car-and the formation of Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Chrysler was quite different from the other auto giants-a colorful and expansive man, deeply involved in the design of his cars, a maverick in establishing his headquarters in New York City, in the world's most famous art deco structure, the fabled Chrysler Building, which he built and CHRYSLER OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sao Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright© 2000 by Vincent Curcio Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Curcio, Vincent Chrysler: the life and times of an automotive genius/ Vincent Curcio. p. cm. Includes biographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-507896-9 1.Chrysler, Walter P. (Walter Percy), 1909- 2. Chrysler Corporation-History. 3. Automobile industry and trade-United States-History. I. Title: Life and times of an automotive genius. II. Title. HD9710.U52 C453 2000 338.7'6292'092-dc21 [B] 00-021335 Book design by Adam B. Bohannon 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper This book is dedicated to Pierre Sorlin Who encouraged me to write a book of larger social scope and deeper background than I had previously attempted