Bob P. could this be true?

[Radsman]

I came across this Time magazine Milestone obituary link dated Monday October 18, 1954 about George Mason. The last line I find a little hard to believe- "...world's second largest". Could this even possibly be true or an exaggeration?

Died. George W. Mason, 63, president and board chairman of American Motors (Nash, Hudson): of acute pancreatitis and pneumonia; in Detroit. Tireless Carmaker Mason became president of the Kelvinator Corp. when he was 38, engineered the 1936 merger with Nash and consolidation with Hudson early this year (TIME, Jan. 25). At the time of his death, he was dickering with Studebaker-Packard for another merger that would have resulted in the world's second largest auto firm (behind General Motors).

[BobPalma]

Boy, you'd have to stretch something to make the argument that American Motors would be "bigger" than Ford Motor Company in 1955 if AMC encompassed Packard, Hudson, Nash, and Studebaker as George Mason wisely envisioned. Maybe the combined company would have more square feet of manufacturing space due to duplicity of facilities when merged? More dealers?

There would be so many ways to measure "bigness" that I'm sure a clever writer could find some legitimate way to make that claim. But even combined, the four companies wouldn't approach total Ford Motor Company production and sales; they together barely got 6% of the 1954 domestic automobile market, IIRC. Ford probably got close to four times that percentage, if not more. BP

[Gary1953]

At the time of his death, he was dickering with Studebaker-Packard for another merger that would have resulted in the world's second largest auto firm (behind General Motors).

I didn't think this was common knowledge at the time.
Surely Chrysler would have been bigger also.

[Milaca]

Aside from the size of what this merged company could have been, I'm happy it didnt come to fruition as the Studebaker Hawks, Larks and Avantis (and the Champ pickup) likely never would have been. In a perfect world, Studebaker would have merged with International Harvester thus offering a full line of cars, SUV's, pickups and trucks.

[Bob Andrews]

Died. George W. Mason, 63, president and board chairman of American Motors (Nash, Hudson): of acute pancreatitis and pneumonia

What a way to go. Sounds so curable, at least by today's standards.

In 1982, my good friend and mentor, and one of the greatest race car builders/designers/drivers ever to live anywhere, the great Jimmy Shampine, died in a race car. The wreck wasn't much to see- spun sideways and hit on driver's side. The car drove into the hauler. Jim was removed from the car with a concussion, broken hip, and bruises and bumps. He was pronounced dead at the hospital an hour or so later from a ruptured spleen that went undetected until it was too late.

Today, a CAT scan would have been ordered and found it immediately, and he likely would have lived. No such technology back then.

Two observations:

1. As much as we yearn for the "good ol' days", the advances in medicine really are great to have.

2. The glands, like the spleen and pancreas, are pretty mysterious.

[Warren Webb]

I have some Road & Track magazines from 1955 stating in their ads that Studebaker-Packard was the #4 automaker in the world. I am not familar with the numbers of Nash & Hudson. Chrysler was struggling until they came out with some better looking cars in 55. My gut tells me it may have been possible for the AMC/S-P combo to be #3, #2 I doubt it, but would be curious to see the numbers (from 1954-the time of the mergers)

[barnlark]

Maybe they meant second largest auto firm in debt.

[woodysrods]

Bob
You said Jimmy was pernounced dead at the hospital an hour later....same thing would have happened today!
I waited three months for a Cat scan. By then the ailment requireing the Cat Scan had healed itself.
We wait 2 to 3 hours just to get thru the emergency room doors, then at least another 1/2 hour before you actually see a Doctor.
Good Roads
Brian

[Bob Andrews]

Bob
You said Jimmy was pernounced dead at the hospital an hour later....same thing would have happened today!
I waited three months for a Cat scan. By then the ailment requireing the Cat Scan had healed itself.
We wait 2 to 3 hours just to get thru the emergency room doors, then at least another 1/2 hour before you actually see a Doctor.
Good Roads
Brian

Brian- scary stuff- and indefensible! Thus far we still have private hospitals and health care here in the U.S. If the same accident happened today Jimmy would have been in the scanner in a couple minutes. They figured he was bleeding internally but could not determine where. While they were deciding where to cut he bled out internally.

I live an hour from the border with Ontario. We have some high-quality hospitals here. For decades Canadians have been coming in and paying for treatment in our hospitals. I have many Canadian friends that ask, if the U.S. goes single-payer they'll have nowhere to go! I tell them it ain't over yet, the people are pushing that back. But that's another story.

[clonelark]

Here are automobile production numbers clear back to 1899.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Automobile_Production_Figures

[raprice]

I'm aware of Mason trying to merge Nash, Hudson, Studebaker and Packard into one company. I don't think he had any illusions about building a mega-company. The advantages, of course, of doing something like this would be to give the company greater parts buying power. They could, like GM and Ford, use common parts for all the makes. In the long run, their profit margin had the possibility of being better than each company going it alone.
George Mason was a forward thinking car executive. He did a great job at Nash-Kelvinator. I have no doubt that he could have pulled the merger off, if the stuborn execs of Studebaker and Packard could read the handwriting on the wall. Unfortunately, we never got to see if Mason could pull it off.
Rog