Stutz Bearcat ~ America's First Sports Car

by Ramona K. Cecil

My husband loves cars, especially vintage cars. I can’t tell you how many hours this past summer and fall we’ve spent perusing car shows. Some of his favorite models among the vintage cars are sports cars. While he doesn’t own one himself, he knows a lot about them and loves looking at them. What he might not know is that the vehicle considered “America’s first sports car” was built in our own home state of Indiana.

The Bearcat, originally “Bear Cat,” made its debut in 1912. A high performance roadster built by the Stutz Motor Company of Indianapolis, Indiana—formerly the Ideal Motor Car Company—the Bearcat was designed to appeal to the wealthy client with a “need for speed.”

1912 Stutz Bearcat - Notice small "monocle" windshield 

A century ago, the Stutz Motor Company was among the most prestigious of car companies, their automobiles highly sought by the rich and famous. Several innovations by company engineers earned Stutz a reputation for building fast, durable, safe, and stylish cars, and made the name synonymous with automotive excellence. The groundbreaking innovations included the most powerful and quietest V-8 engine on the market, the first under-slung chassis, dual overhead cam engine, and the first use of safety glass.

Stutz Wisconsin Engine design

The first car to bear the Stutz name was build in five weeks and then immediately entered in the 1911 Indianapolis 500 race where it finished in eleventh-place, earning the moniker “The car that made good in a day.”

Number 8 Stutz car lined up for a race

A year later the company rolled out the Bear Cat; America’s first sports car. In its debut year, the Bear Cat was entered in thirty automobile races and won twenty-five of them.

1912 Stutz Bear Cat

                       

In 1915 driver Cannonball Baker—for whom the Cannonball Run car rally is named—broke speed records when he drove a Stutz Bearcat from San Diego, California to New York in 11 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes.

Edwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker in Stutz Bearcat

The Stutz Bearcat put the “roar” into the Roaring Twenties. Along with flappers, gangsters, speakeasies, and raccoon-skin coats, the Bearcat became an iconic symbol of the era. 

Hollywood movie featuring a Stutz Bearcat

1923 Stutz Bearcat

Hollywood fell in love with the Stutz automobiles, but seemed to have a special affinity for the sporty Bearcat, which became a status symbol. In 1923 a Stutz Bearcat cost $2,765.00; almost $48,000.00 in today’s money. Famous owners of the Bearcat included illustrious names like actor Gary Cooper, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Jay Leno numbers among the current celebrity owners of a Stutz Bearcat sports car.

Jay Leno with his 1918 Stutz Bearcat

Made for speed and beauty, the Bearcat somewhat lacked in comfort. The exceedingly stiff clutch gave rise to the rumor that it was purposely engineered that way to discourage women from driving what was considered a “man’s” sports car.

Despite all the time my husband has spent admiring Stutz Bearcats at car shows while doubtless dreaming of driving one, I don’t see a Stutz Bearcat in our future. But should our fortunes change and my husband find himself behind the wheel of one, I wouldn’t decline an offer to climb in beside him and take a spin around town in America’s first sports car—one of Indiana’s own. 

Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com 

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BOOK GIVEAWAY AND WOMEN OF THE 1920S

Anne Greene here.

The 1920s woman was sometimes called a flapper. She became the symbol of young women who championed new ideas about womanhood. Women no longer submitted to strict Victorian morality. Instead, they changed the social status of women by transforming the concept of the ideal woman.

In the previous few decades, the Gibson Girl, with her long luxurious hair, her hourglass figure, and elegant tailored gowns, had been the ideal of femininity. She was corseted, educated and accomplished, and her priorities consisted of finding a husband and starting a family. The Gibson Girl used flirtation and femininity to achieve her goals. Flappers rebelled against this model of womanhood.

Rebellious flappers cut off the long hair their mothers prized, favoring the short bob. They rejected the waist-constricting corset, and the hourglass figure. Their loose-fitting dresses, with drop waists and knee-length skirts, created a boyish silhouette which some women enhanced by binding their breasts. Flappers wore makeup, which had previously been associated only with prostitution. Make-up's new popularity also changed the way it was used. Instead of attempting to imitate nature, flappers used cosmetics to create small bow mouths and pale skin. This starkly contrasted with the rosy look their mothers prized. However, young women in the 1920s wanted not only to look different from their mothers, they wanted to act differently too.

Flappers rejected traditional rules of propriety in favor of a modern, fast-paced lifestyle. They were frank and socially liberated. Many of their ways shocked their elders. Young women engaged in activities previously limited to men, such as smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol – even though Prohibition made drinking illegal. They listened to jazz music and danced new, energetic dances, like the Charleston and the Black Bottom. Their parents objected that these dances were wild and obscene. They loved automobiles, finding speed and risk a perfect fit. Women insisted on driving.

Young women in the 1920s also distinguished themselves from their Victorian counterparts in their attitudes about sex. Flappers followed Freud and believed that both women and men had natural sexual desires that were not shameful. Older generations found this interest in sex immodest. Flappers considered sex an expression of women's right to a full life. They criticized Victorian ideas about gender roles, seeing them as impediments to gaining social equality with men.

Flapper culture instigated baby steps towards a more liberal society, but many attempts to make changes in acceptable behavior and gender roles failed. Most young women who cut their hair and dressed like flappers did not go to the extremes of flapper behavior. This made flapper culture more acceptable, but watered down its message of social change.

Flappers wanted equality with men in the business world as well as the social world. Women had just won the right to vote and wanted the right to work in the non-traditional women’s jobs like teaching and shop work.

If you had been living in the 1920s would you have remained at home like the Gibson Girl or would you have wanted wider spaces? Leave a comment for a chance to win my new book, ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS.

ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS is a World War II romance where Steel Magnolias meet Band of Brothers. While test flying planes as a Woman Air Service Pilot, WASP, Mandy McCabe escapes her dead-end life in Hangman’s Hollow, Tennessee. But, can she escape from her past? Major Harvey Applegate lost his wife to the WASP program, and he’s convinced Yankee Doodle Gals have no place flying in the war effort. He determines to protect the remaining WASPs by sending them packing back to the home front. Can a man burdened with memories of death undertake added emotional danger? Will their new love survive the test? One love. Two goals. Someone has to give. 

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. Her Scottish historical novels, Masquerade Marriage and Marriage By Arrangement, won awards. A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. Two new books released this year, Angel With Steel Wings and Red Is For Rookie. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. Tim LaHaye led her to the Lord when she was twenty-one and Chuck Swindoll is her Pastor. View Anne’s travel pictures and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.Amazon.com. Talk with Anne on twitter at @TheAnneGreene. Visit Anne’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/AnneWGreeneAuthor. 

MUSIC DURING THE 1920s JAZZ AGE OF FLAPPERS

ANNE GREENE here. Music defines an age and I love the optimism of the 1920s. Along with jazz, big bands were extremely popular. Happy-Go-Lucky characterized the 1920 songs. No previous decade in America had been so confidant.  

The Great War to end all wars had been won several years earlier. America enjoyed prosperity like never before. Women had earned suffrage. Clothing and hair styles grew freer for both men and women. Women had a choice of staying home or choosing a career. Jobs were plentiful. The economy boomed. America entered the Jazz Age. 

The phonograph record surpassed the sales of sheet music and piano rolls. Radio moved from being an expensive novelty into a major piece of entertainment. By the late 1920s movies went from silent to sound and created another medium for the decade’s music. Prohibition and the opening of Speakeasys provided ample opportunities for musicians. 

Young people went crazy for dances like the Charleston and the Black Bottom. The swing debuted as another popular dance style. Record companies sold records in huge numbers. Songs like Sweet Georgia Brown, Dinah and Bye Bye Blackbird became instant hits.  

Some of the 1920s songs you will recognize. I know none of you remember the music of the 1920s, but perhaps your grandmothers sang these songs.  

Some of the more popular songs lasted through the 1940s. Songs like Honeysuckled Rose, Ain’t Misbahaving, Stardust, The Man I Love, Blue Skies, and What Is This Thing Called Love.  

Band leaders like Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller started developing the Big Band sound while playing in Jazz Dance Halls.  

See if you recognize any of these songs: Yes Sir: That’s My Baby, If You Knew Susie, Tea for Two, All Alone, Lady Be Good, Indian Love Call, Lady Be Good,  When My Sugar Walks Down The Street, Moonlight and Roses, I’ll See You In My Dreams, Look For The Silver Lining, Ain’t We Got Fun, Make Believe, All By Myself.  

Leave a comment and tell me which songs your mother or grandmother sang around the house. Did they tell you stories of dancing to the Big Band sound?  

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. Her second novel, a Scottish historical, Masquerade Marriage, won three prestigious book awards. The sequel Marriage By Arrangement released November, 2013.  A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to awesome new worlds and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Anne makes her home in McKinney, Texas. Anne loves to talk with her readers. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.Amazon.com. Visit http://www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com for information on writing an award-winning novel. Talk with Anne on twitter at @TheAnneGreene. View Anne’s books, travel pictures and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com.

For a chance to win a free copy of Anne's new Scottish Historical Romance, go to http://www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com and join her site.

FASHIONS DURING THE ROARING 1920s!

Anne Greene here:

 

In December I discussed Christmas During the Roaring 1920s. In January I discussed the Flapper In The Jazz Age. This month for  Valentine's Day, I’m homing in on Fashions During The Roaring 1920s. In March, I’ll discuss Accessories and Hairstyles During the Roaring 1920s.

 

When we think of the 1920s we tend to think of ancient history. But events that occurred after World War I still affect our lives today.

 

FASHION CHANGED AFTER WORLD WAR I. Social customs and morals relaxed in the optimism brought on by the end of the war and the booming stock market. Women entered the workforce. People ignored the prohibition on alcohol. A revolution occurred in almost every sphere of human activity. As women earned the right to vote, fashion trends became more practical. Flappers discarded the constrictive corset, an essential undergarment to make the waist thinner.

 

Undergarments transformed to conform to the ideals of a flatter chest and more boyish figure. The chemise or camisole and bloomers replaced the confining corset. Soon those shortened to panties or knickers. All-in-one lingerie grew popular.

 

The development of new fabrics and new closures in clothing affected fashion. Natural fabrics such as cotton and wool were abundant. Silk was highly desired for its luxurious qualities, but the limited supply made it expensive. Artificial silk patented in the United States became known as rayon. Rayon stockings grew popular as a substitute for silk stockings. Rayon was also used in undergarments. Before the 1920s buttons and lacing fastened clothes. Now metal hooks and eyes, zippers and snaps developed to make dressing easier and faster.

 

Improved production methods enabled manufacturers to produce clothing working families could afford. People’s fashion sense grew more sophisticated. Working-class women looked for modern dresses to transition from farm work to urban careers. Women adopted a modern look that suited their new careers as typists and telephone operators.

                                                     

 

For the first time in centuries, women's legs were seen with hemlines rising to the knee. A more masculine look became popular, including flattened breasts and hips, and short hairstyles such as the bob cut and the Marcel wave.

 

But the 1920s also loved luxury. High end designers favored expensive fabrics like silk, velvet and satin, while department stores carried less expensive variations on those designs made of new synthetic fabrics. The use of mannequins grew widespread and showed shoppers how to accessorize the new fashions. The modern fashion cycle, established in the 1920s, still dominates the industry today.

 

Clothing fashions changed with women's changing roles. Although society matrons of a certain age continued to wear conservative dresses, sportswear worn by younger women became the greatest change in post-war fashion. The tubular dresses of the teens evolved into a similar silhouette that sported shorter skirts with pleats, gathers, or slits to allow motion. The most memorable fashion trend of the Roaring '20s was the flapper look which was functional and flattened the bust line rather than accentuating it.

 

The straight-line chemise topped by the close-fitting cloche hat was the uniform of the day. Women bobbed their hair short to fit under the popular hats, a radical move in the beginning, but standard by the end of the decade. Low-waisted dresses with fullness at the hemline allowed women to literally kick up their heels in new dances like the Charleston. In 1925, shift dress with no waistline, and a hem approximately one inch below the knee emerged.

 

Proper attire for women was still enforced for morning, afternoon, and evening activities. In the early part of the decade, wealthy women still expected to change from a morning to an afternoon dress. Afternoon gowns featured long, flowing sleeves, with sashes, bows, or artificial flowers at the waist. Evening gowns, slightly longer than afternoon gowns, featured satin or velvet, and were embellished with beads, rhinestones, or fringe.

 

Clothing styles consisted of more than just the cloche and flapper. Casual clothing was introduced to the public. Women began to wear pants. Certain styles of women’s shoes were unique to this decade. Some of the breakout shoe styles included the ankle strap button shoe, the t-bar shoe, and shoes trimmed with sequins or other materials.

Men began to abandon formal wear when more and more men opted for suits with long suit jackets for special events and shorter suit jackets for casual occasions.
 

All in all the decade brought in practicality and fun. The US was young, lively, and full of expectations. Nothing was impossible.
 

Would you have enjoyed living during the 1920s? Leave a comment for a chance to win Anne’s newest book release, Marriage By Arrangement. This makes a lovely Valentine's Day gift for a loved one.

                                                        

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines.  

Her second novel, a Scottish historical, Masquerade Marriage, won the New England Reader Choice award, the Laurel Wreath Award, and the Heart of Excellence Award. The sequel Marriage By Arrangement released November, 2013.  A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. She makes her home in McKinney, Texas. Tim LaHaye led her to the Lord when she was twenty-one and Chuck Swindoll is her Pastor. View Anne’s travel pictures and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.PelicanBookGroup.com. Or at http://www.Amazon.com. Visit http://www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com for information on writing an award-winning novel. Talk with Anne on twitter at @TheAnneGreene. Visit Anne’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/AnneWGreeneAuthor.

 

CHRISTMAS DURING THE 1920s

ANNE GREENE here. 

The 1920s ushered in significant changes in American life. Most Americans acquired their first radios and automobiles and achieved the highest standard of living in the nation's history.

The celebration of Christmas changed as well. President Calvin Coolidge celebrated with the first national Christmas tree in the White House. He lit the sixty-foot fir in an impressive ceremony in 1923.

Cotton ornaments, inexpensive and unbreakable, enjoyed great popularity. By the late 1920s, however, Americans imported spectacular glass ornaments from Germany. In the 1920s, advertisers standardized the popular image of Santa Claus, originally created by German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast.

The Friend Telegraph on December 11, 1925, remarked in an editorial entitled "How Times Change": In Christmas seasons gone by, it was not considered good form for a young man to give his best girl articles of wearing apparel. To do so indicated that her people neglected to clothe her. A man’s gift had to be an album, a toilet set or something along that line.

In the 1920s Christmas giving grew more sensible giving the recipient gifts they could use. People bought more for the home. Rather than pictures and mementos, a chair, a new rug, dishes or silverware, labor-saving devices and even new-fangled cooking utensils became favorite gifts. “Give a woman something serviceable to wear or something she can use in her home and you gladden her heart. Give a man something for his auto, or something he can wear besides neckties, and you win his thanks.”

The 1920s became the age of flapper fashion and jazz music. New fashions in art and architecture, from art deco to modernism jumped into fashion. Frank Lloyd Wright built his ultra-modern homes. In 1927, Lindbergh made the first flight across the Atlantic. Hot toys included die-cast metal toys, the Raggedy Ann doll, and, toward the end of the decade, the yo-yo.

A Christmas Budget in the 1920s purchased such items as:

A Persian rug: $40.00

Winter overcoat: $18.50

Fountain pen: $2.50

Silk hat: $7.50

RCA Radiola: $115.00

RCA Radiola with loudspeaker: $150.00

One-pound box of chocolates: $6.50

Ladies’ silk umbrella: $10.00

Toy tool chest: $1.55

Juvenile model bicycle: $48.75

Girls’ ice skates: $5.00

Beautiful jointed doll with wig, dress, shoes, and stockings: $1.95. 

Victrola brand phonograph: $99.80.

One of the most popular dances, the Charleston, lent its name to a dress completely covered in fringe, that would move and shake along with the body's movement, revealing the legs. This embroidered or shawled dress invaded all of high society. These were the Fitzgerald years, and many of the period's actresses wore these fringed dresses in either short or long versions. This would make a popular Christmas gift.

In the News in the 1920s:

Prohibition Made Its Presence Felt:

Shortly after the Volstead Act went into effect, federal authorities issued an announcement that America’s newspapers included in the Christmas Eve edition: The use fermented wines for sacramental purposes during religious services is forbidden.

At an elite Christmas party attended by Charming H. Cox, the governor of Massachusetts, prohibition agent Harold Wilson seized four bottles of White Horse Cellar whiskey. A major scandal ensued, and the bottles disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Headline of an article in the December 5, 1926, Providence Journal, urged procrastinating wives to show more thought during the holiday season. The article is accompanied by an illustration of an unnamed acquaintance who dreaded Christmas and spent the holiday in bed, with ice-bags at her head and feet.

Christmas Advertising in the 1920s:

(In 1897 Francis P Church, Editor of the New York Sun, wrote an editorial in response to a letter from an eight year-old girl, Virginia O'Hanlon. She had written the paper asking whether there really was a Santa Claus. It became known as the Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus letter.)

So by the 1920's the image of Santa had been standardized to portray a bearded, over-weight, jolly man dressed in a red suit with white trim.

Santa suggested the newspaper reader enjoy the following for Christmas dinner: Tradition dictated fowl, cranberry sauce, and mince pie or Christmas pudding, plus the usual items not absolutely required by rule, such as stuffing with the fowl, and rich giblet gravy, sweet and Irish potatoes, some kind of salad, fruit cake and Mincemeat pie. All these items could now be purchased at your local grocers.

Christmas Traditions in the 1920s:

Home-made Christmas cards became popular. They were often unusual shapes and constructed with foil and ribbon. These cards were too delicate to send through the post and people delivered them by hand. A gift of Christmas cookies accompanied the card.

The tradition of hanging the Christmas stocking was thought to arise from the following story: A poor man had three daughters. He was so destitute, he didn’t have enough money for a dowry, so his daughters couldn't marry. (A dowry is money paid to the bridegroom by the bride’s parents on the wedding day.)

One night, Nicholas secretly dropped a bag of gold down the chimney and into the house. The bag fell into a stocking that had been hung by the fire to dry! This meant the oldest daughter had a dowry and could marry.

The same gift was repeated later with the second daughter. Determined to discover the person who had given him the money, the father hid by the fire until he caught Nicholas dropping down a bag of gold. Nicholas begged the man not to tell anyone what he’d done, because he didn’t want to bring attention to himself.

But soon the news got out, and when anyone received a secret gift, he thought that Nicolas gave the gift. Because of his kindness, the church proclaimed Nicholas a Saint.

Besides the many unfamiliar Christmas songs filling the air, Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland, and Let It Snow, Let It Snow were popular. And, of course, people sang the Christmas Carols we all know.

Christmas really was not so different from the way we celebrate Christmas today.

Which one of those 1920s gifts would you have given the man in your life? Leave a comment for a chance to win Anne’s newest release, MARRIAGE BY ARRANGEMENT.

ANNE GREENE delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. Her second novel, a Scottish historical, Masquerade Marriage, won the New England Reader Choice award, the Laurel Wreath Award, and the Heart of Excellence Award. The sequel Marriage By Arrangement released in November, 2013.  A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. She makes her home in McKinney, Texas. Tim LaHaye led her to the Lord when she was twenty-one and Chuck Swindoll is her Pastor. View Anne’s travel pictures and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com. Anne’s highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.PelicanBookGroup.com. Or http://www.Amazon.com.

Visit http://www.anneswritingupdates.blogspot.com for information on writing an award-winning novel.