Wild Flowers 1930

This is a very rare film produced for The Studebaker Company as a soft sell ad. That was shown in movie theatres. Once thought to be lost. This print turned up a couple of years ago.

[@richardunicorn7879]

Ah yes, the humongous wooden Studebaker Champion. Sad to think that such a work of art was burned to the ground on purpose, but on the other hand, what does a company do from a business standpoint with a 40-foot wooden car in Indiana? It would have eventually fallen into disrepair and been lost to history anyway. As a music lover and a Studebaker enthusiast I am very glad to see that this film still exists. Thanks for posting this!

[@jeffreym.keilen1095]

I have been lead to believe the five hubcaps were saved before being put to the torch. Would be nice to know what became of them.

[@fromthesidelines]

At the time, the "Studebaker Champions"- managed by Jean Goldkette, under Victor Young's direction- were heard on NBC radio on Sunday nights at 10:15pm(et).

[@mikewatkins7618]

Very interesting. When a company back then wanted to attract your attention to their product, they didn’t just shout at you about how great it is! When I watched this, I had to go back and watch that first music number a couple more times. I thought one of the violinists was Jack Benny. The camera focuses in on this fellow with glasses, and he mugs a bit for the camera. Now I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Benny. The fellow looks sorta like Benny did when he was 50 or so, but when this film was made Benny was about 30 and actually a handsome young man.

[@RatPfink66]

The car was a 40' long, 5-ton, all-wood mockup of the 1931 President Four Season roadster in two-tone green - pre-production of course. (The production model had dual sidemounts.) The film would have been shot in summer, 1930. By 1933 the monster got a new all-red paint job, but after sitting out several midwest winters it began to look pretty tired. So did its styling up against the always modern Studebaker line. It was doused with fuel and torched in 1936, as newsreel cameras cranked away.

[@hamburgareable]

Yeah, considering how the tall the mock-up is.

[@soggytom]

And if you look at the stills from the burning, you can see the red paint burned off instantly, revealing the original two-tone almost unscathed. But the car burned (quickly) from the inside out.

[@TuanBasikal]

There are probably few 1931 Studebakers in existence and fewer still of this body style. "Four Season Roadster" means it is a convertible coupe with roll-up side windows and a tightly sealing top rather than the side curtains of a normal roadster. They emphasized this by showing the windows up rather than lowered. Also car radios were a very new innovation at that time and most cars didn't have them.

[@giuliopedrali4794]

3 : 1 Scale models (circa)...

[@larryg.9187]

... I shared, and thus forwarded this clip to our local Studebaker Drivers Club ...

[@ericalbany]

The singers are "Wynken, Blynken, & Nod". Wynken and Blinken were sisters

[@fonosmith1930s]

The young women's names are Greta Woodson, Gertrude Mathews, and Lucille Mathews, and they were otherwise known as "Three Shades of Blue." They're very good.

[@RatPfink66]

Bill Moyer is tap soloist. The boyfriend is played by Ted Pearson, announcer of the Studebaker Champions program out of Chicago. He went on to many radio and supporting film roles. The girlfriend was billed as Florence Lawrence, but is too young to be the silent film star by that name.

[@jeffnewman2673]

Thank you for preserving this. Great advertising film.

[@dzadza7775]

Oh this is so nice! I want to pick the wild flowers too...especially with the dreamy songs. Thank you.,I'll have mine in Cafe Crème please..

[@tedlawrence4189]

Jean Goldkette orch. was popular on records. Victor Young had an orch. and was prominent in the music world for several decades. My late dad told me about that huge Stude. He was 13 when it was built. Stude had a large proving ground on top of Bendix Hill. It is west of So.Bend on Hwy. 2. You cannot miss it as it is the only hill around.LOL. My grandpa worked at Stude's from '43 to '56. Had several different duties. One was hanging doors. Adtef Studebaker and a dozen other companies left,So.Bend,sucked!

[@dzadza7775]

Just noticed the harp...better this has to be better than the Spectacles in The Great Gatsby!

[@nealsidor1323]

What a spectacular promotion. A lot of work went into that giant Champion, wonder what became of it?

[@thinkbolt]

This was meant to sell the car??

[@JamesButts-r5f]

Cool

[@DonBrock01]

Couldn't they use some modern editing techniques to fix some of the jitteriness and sound problems at the beginning?

[@vitaphonedisc]

It might be possible since scanners have improved. I have a sprocket less scanner now. However I haven't tried yet.