HISTORY

This Day In History: Legendary Carmaker Preston Tucker Dies

Elizabeth Blackstock
20 minutes ago • Filed to: HISTORY

On December 26, 1956, a man named Preston Tucker died at the age of 53. His name may not be immediately familiar to some of us, but he was one of the many people who made a substantial change in the automotive industry, whether folks at the time wanted to give him credit or not. And his goals were absolutely incredible.

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Tucker started working in the mailroom at General Motors and became the vice president of a Packard dealership in Indianapolis by the time he turned 30. There, he became good friends with Henry Miller, a racing driver who very likely planted all kinds of fabulous ideas in Tucker’s head.

While he did invent a gun turret for Navy ships that was used in World War II, Tucker is best known for something informally called the “Tucker Torpedo”—or, officially, the Tucker 48. Named after both its creator and its model year, the Torpedo was… a hot mess. Only 51 models were made before the company was forced to file for bankruptcy.

The media wasn’t particularly keen on the Tucker 48, nor were the Big Three (which Tucker believed had played a role in his demise). But that’s ignoring the fact that this car was innovative in so many different ways. In fact, the Tucker 48 was one of the first cars to have some of the first elements of modern cars that we’d recognize today.

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Preston Tucker


Preston Tucker

Born: Preston Thomas Tucker; September 21, 1903; Capac, Michigan, U.S.
Died: December 26, 1956 (aged 53); Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S.
Known for: Tucker 48, Tucker Combat Car, Tucker Gun Turret, Tucker Aviation Corporation, Franklin Engine Company/Air Cooled Motors.

Preston Thomas Tucker (21 September 1903 – 26 December 1956) was an American automobile entrepreneur who developed the innovative Tucker 48 sedan, initially nicknamed the "Tucker Torpedo", an automobile which introduced many features that have since become widely used in modern cars.

Production of the Tucker '48 was shut down on 3 March 1949 amid scandal and controversial accusations of stock fraud, of which Tucker was eventually acquitted. The 1988 movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream is based on Tucker's spirit and the saga surrounding the car's production.

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Legacy



Tucker 48 at the Blackhawk Museum

In 1954, a group of investors tried to revive the Tucker Corporation by soliciting investors, mostly former Tucker distributors and dealer owners, for a new car. This effort was led by George A. Schmidt, former president of the Tucker Dealers Association. They developed sketches for a sleek 2-door convertible, but were unable to generate enough support to get it off the drawing board.

Tucker's defense attorney, William T. Kirby, later became Chairman of the Board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Otto Kerner Jr., the U.S. Attorney who had aggressively pursued the Tucker Corporation, was later convicted on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and related charges for stock fraud in 1974. He was the first federal appellate judge in U.S. history to be jailed. Kerner was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $50,000.

The location of the former Tucker Corporation, 7401 S. Cicero Avenue in Chicago, became the corporate headquarters of Tootsie Roll Industries and the Ford City Mall (the building was owned for a time by Ford Motor Company). The building was so large that it was divided in two, with a large open area between the two resulting buildings.

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