Actually, virtually all of the firms in American Motors history had
some earlier connection with Chrysler :
NASH : Charles Nash was Walter P. Chrysler's boss at Buick. When
Chrysler retired from active management at Chrysler in 1936,
Charlie Nash decided to do likewise at his firm. It was Walter P.'s
idea to bring aboard George Mason as Charlie's successor (and
as a result, merge with Kelvinator, which Mason was heading at
the time).
HUDSON : The founders of the Hudson firm (Roy D. Chapin (Sr),
Roscoe Jackson, Harry E. Coffin, F.O.Bezner, had an idea to
produce a car. They sold the idea to E.R. Thomas (of Thomas-
Flyer fame) and between the group of them Thomas-Detroit
was established. But sales were sluggish and Hugh Chalmers
was brought aboard. They original group designed a smaller,
lighter car of 20hp. Neither Thomas nor Chalmers was willing
to invest money into this venture. Thus J.L. Hudson, Jackson's
wife's uncle, put up the money. A new factory was built on
Jefferson Avenue, across the street from the Chalmers factory
(the one imploded to make way for the Jeep Grand Cherokee)
At this point, the three firms separated - Thomas retreated to
Buffalo; the Thomas-Detroit becoming Chalmers which went on
to become part of Maxwell, then Chrysler; and Hudson to
merge with Nash to make American Motors.
WILLYS / WILLYS-OVERLAND : The idea of the Jeep was pushed
ahead by one Joseph Washington Frazer, who had become
president in 1938, after leaving his position as sales manager
for Chrysler Corporation. The "Plymouth" name was Frazer's idea -
named after the binder twine and not the trans-Atlantic voyage.
Fraser left Willy-Overland in 1944 to take over Graham-Paige
and later was involved in Kaiser-Frazer. Willys-Overland
was taken over by the Kaisers in 1953, and sold to AMC in 1969.
J.W. Frazer had been with Chrysler since 1923, being the hand
behind the "New Good Maxwell", and with General Motors
(1919-1923) and starting out at Packard in 1912.
Walter P. was also involved in Willys-Overland in 1920-1921,
being brought aboard by the banks that were owed millions
due to sluggish sales of Willys-Overland products and over-
expansion on the part of Willys-Overland. Chrysler and the
three musketeers (Owens, Skelton and Breer) designed a new
six-cylinder car, the Chrysler, to be built by the Willys Corporation
in its Elizabeth, New Jersey, plant. But, the car and plant were
sold at auction to one William C. Durant, who used the plant
for his "Star" car, and the car design for the "Flint". If you have
wondered why the 1924 Chrysler was a Model B, and whatever
happened to the Chrysler Model A, now you know.
GRAHAM BROTHERS / GRAHAM-PAIGE / GRAHAM : The 3 Graham
Brothers began making trucks after World War I. By the early
1920's they used Dodge Brothers mechanicals exclusively, and
their trucks were sold through Dodge Brothers dealers. By 1926
the Graham Brothers firm was owned by Dodge Brothers and the
3 brothers were part of Dodge Brothers management. In 1927
they left Dodge Brothers and purchased Paige-Detroit Motors.
An attempt to produce a line of commercial vehicles in 1930-1931
called the Paige was challenged by Chrysler Corporation,
claiming the brothers had agreed not to market commercial
vehicles after leaving Dodge Brothers.
The Grahams, by the way, had an earlier claim to fame. They
perfected a way of blowing glass bottles to produce a strong
crown - permitting the development of bottle caps. Their
firm is now the "Owens" in Libby-Owens-Ford.
The Graham family sold their interest in Graham-Paige Motors to
Joseph Washington Frazer, who had just left Willys-Overland.
The 1947 Kaiser and Frazer designs were derived from a Graham-
Paige design for a post-war car. Graham-Paige pulled out
of the car business altogether in 1947.
I have often wondered why Frazer left Chrysler. He left just
after Chrysler retired and was replaced by K.T.Keller. Did Frazer
feel he had no future at Chrysler? Was there disagreement between
Keller and Fraser? Given the conservatism of Keller and the
opposite for Frazer (having given us the Willys Americar, the Willys
Jeep and the Kaiser and Frazer), this could have some merit.
KAISER / FRAZER : These were based on a car being pushed by
J.W. Frazer of Graham-Paige at the end of World War II. When
the 1949 models were being planned, the Kaisers wanted to
produce more cars than 1948. J.W. came back with that as K-F
would be selling a three-year old design against new or one-year
old competitors. He believed they could sell 70,000 cars and make
a small profit. The Kaisers wanted to build 200,000 cars, which
Frazer believed would result in a $36 million loss. Frazer was
on his way out, with the assistance of the Kaisers. The results
for 1949? 58,000 cars built and a $32 million loss.
(Wonder what Chrysler Corporation would have been like if Frazer
took over in 1936 and not Keller. Bet Chrysler would never have
slipped below Ford during the 1950's. )
So, Chrysler had quite an involvement with American Motors
and the firms that had combined under its banner.
As for AMC being acquired just for the Jeep, not really. In 1987
all AMC had was the AMC Eagle, the Renault Alliance, the Jeep
and a new car (Renault Premier) in a new, state-of-the-art, plant
in Bramalea, Ontario. The Renault Premier would become the
Eagle Premier and formed the basis for its successor, the LH
line of vehicles. (As for the other Canadian plant, in Brampton,
it is now Wal-Mart's Canadian warehouse.)
Considering the rest of the AMC line-up, only the Jeep was viable.
The AMC Eagle was dead, with only 2,017 produced from July 1987
to December 1987. The Renault Alliance had gained such a
reputation for poor reliability and under-powered gutlessness
that there was nothing Chrysler could have done to save it.
None of the above cars were Chrysler products, and Chrysler,
as far as I can see, is not claiming that they were. Chrysler is,
however, claiming they are part of the Chrysler heritage,
which they are. They may not have had any influence on today's
Chrysler Concorde, but then neither does a 1961 Dodge Polara.
Bill W
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