FRIDAY FEATURE: 72 Skylark Custom- Two Owners in Four Decades

Another fun Friday Feature- This time we're looking at an all original 1972 Buick Skylark Custom recently acquired by one of our customers. Prior to its arrival in Southern California last month, the Skylark had passed through two owners in forty years.

The original owner, a bachelor named Myron, purchased the car brand new April of 1972. He chose a well equipped example, with a 350 V8, Turho Hydramatic, Air Conditioning, Sonomatic radio, speed minder, left and right mirrors, body side molding and even door edge guards. Myron must have been very pleased with the car and kept it sparkling like new until he traded the car in eleven years later in May of 1983.

 A young man working on the wash rack of the Buick dealership took a liking to the trade in and convinced the sales manager to let him buy the car. And there it stayed for the next twenty nine years. During that time Jace grew into adulthood, married Carla, and raised their own family with the Buick happily in the corner of the garage. With their own daughter preparing for college, Jace decided the time was right to find a new owner for the Skylark after forty years in exactly two sets of hands.

As it enters it's forty- first year, the little Skylark is 100% original cosmetically- paint, interior, chrome, rubber- all factory finishes. The car runs like a scared rabbit and handles well. The odometer shows just 59,000 miles. We wish our customer, Brad, well with his new acquisition and thank him for sharing the sweet story with the Reynolds family.  

Fun Friday: Greetings from Covina

Greetings from Covina, California. A lush garden of citrus and tropical plants and the home of Reynolds Buick since 1915. We're very proud of our hometown and its rich history, and so today we're going to remember some of the fun sights of Covina and West Covina that we grew up with. (And isn't the vintage postcard neat?)

Where it all began, almost. Actually, Irv Sr. got his start selling Buicks out of a desk in Webber's Garage, but he did well and built this beautiful showroom at the corner of Citrus and Badillo in 1922. As you can see, it was done in a Beaux Arts Motif which was popular at the time. The brand new 1936 Buicks at the curb establish the date of the photo. Can you imagine a brand new Buick for $1,029.00?

A much loved icon of mid-century architecture, Covina Bowl opened in 1955. The pyramid roofline and sign lent itself well to an Egyptian theme, with banquet rooms called the "Egyptian" and the "Pyramid." The interior has been lost, but thankfully the fabulous exterior has been preserved for everyone to enjoy. Possibly the best surviving 50's bowling alley in Southern California.

The Alpha Beta was a Southern California Supermarket chain which was founded in 1915, the same year as Reynolds. The Alpha-Beta concept at that time referred to alphabetizing the merchandise to make self-serve shopping easier and more convenient. The first market named Alpha Beta opened in Pomona in 1917. Like many Southern California retailers, they experienced huge growth in the 1950's and 1960's. Their parent company bought Ralphs in 1994 and assumed their identity.

The Carousel was a live perfornance theater adjacent to Eastland Center that opened in 1965. It was constructed as a "theater in the round' which was in vogue in the 1960's. It was also a popular venue for live bands. Many of Covina's teenagers remember seeing the hot acts of the day at the Carousel- bands like Buffalo Springfield, Stills and Young, even Simon and Garfunkel played the Carousel.

Approaching Eastland Center from the San Bernardino Freeway, westbound, early 1960's. Office towers under construction around the perimeter of the Eastland Center and the famous Huddles restaurant.

One of many drive-in movie theaters around the Covina area, here is the Edgewood Drive In Theatre in Baldwin Park, shown in a 1973 photograph. Other drive-ins in the area included the Big Sky in Duarte, the El Monte Drive-In, the Star-Lite in South El Monte, the Covina Twin in Covina, the Fiesta 4 in Pico Rivera and the Foothill in Azusa. The Edgewood site is now Kaiser Permanente Hospital.

Eastland Center was the sixth major shopping mall built in Southern California, and the first to be build adjacent to a freeway. The initial section opened in 1957, and was a two level open air design in an ultra modern style. The anchor tenants were the May Co, and W. T. Grant. It has been susbtantially altered from its original design.

The color and distinctive sign tower at Eastland Center was a local icon.

Jack In The Box began in Long Beach, CA in 1951. They pioneered the drive in window replacing the carhop. The circa 1960 design of the drive-in restauants is considered to be a marriage of art and architecture - a mondrian meets "building as sign." In reality, the design was intended to skirt local sign regulations in the communities where they were built. A Southern California classic.

The much loved and sadly missed Huddle Restaurant of 1958. It was built on a site adjacent to the Eastland Center and featured outrageous "Googie" style architecture. The Huddle chain was well known for their architecture with no two restaurants exactly alike. Their flagship was a beloved icon in Palm Springs for many years.

More views of the iconic Huddle Eastland

A double relic- newspaper advertisements for Drive In Movies. Circa 1968.

White Front Stores were founded in Los Angeles in 1929 and consisted of only two location. Purchased by Interstate department Stores, they set out on a massive expansion plan in 1959. Incidentally, the term "White Front" referred to their custom of placing appliances (known in the industry as "white goods" in the front windows.)

The classic American success story- Mc Donalds. Founded by the Mc Donald brothers in San Bernardino, brought to retail glory by Ray Kroc. He simplified the menu and created the Speedee Service System, as well as creating the standardized look that we all remember. This location was on Azusa Avenue.

The first Taco Bell was built by Glenn Bell in Downey in 1962 and the chain expanded rapidly. Franchises were offered beginning in 1964. This is the original look, complete down to the Pepto Bismol color. Not sure that was very appetizing!

The Vineland Drive In is located in the City of Industry, One of many in the Covina area originally, it is the sole operating survivor now. It has a dual purpose, operating both as a swap meet and as the only operating drive in theater in Los Angeles County.

Reynolds Buick was outgrowing its downtown Covina location by the late 1950's, so plans began to be made for the new showroom on Citrus where they operate today. Here is the architect's rendering from 1963.

And just over a year later, here it is in all it's finished glory. Note the brand new 1964 Buick and GMC models on the show floor. It remains largely original today.

We're proud to have been part of the fabric for ninety-six years now and hope to continue the community for many more.

Futurliner: GM Forward into the Future

Starting with the revolutionary Buick Y-Job of 1938, General Motors virtually created the concept car. A vehicle designed not for sale, but for trying revolutionary ideas and testing the public's reaction to them. These vehicles were fully operational, and GM Styling Chief Harley Earl actually tended to drive them as his personal transportation.

But one of the most ambitious programs involved GMC Truck and Coach- the legendary Futurliner. The Futurliner is special because it was created not just to dazzle the public, but to literally carry the superiority of General Motors from town to town.

Charles Kettering came up with an idea he called "Parade of Progress", which involved taking the impressive science and technology exhibits GM created for World's Fair displays and caravaning them through smaller towns across America. The transport vehicles themselves would be rolling advertisements for GM.



The Parade of Progress began in 1936 with a fleet of nine specially bodied trucks known as Streamliners. Their concept was to use specially designed trucks that would not only carry the display, bit could also house them. The success of the program convinced GM to reach for something grander and in 1940, the twelve Futurliners made their debut.

The Futurliners were made by the GMC Truck and Coach Division to a space age design by styling wunderkind Bill Mitchell. They were huge bright red coaches- thirty three feet long and almost twelve feet high- and featured a plastic domed driver's canopy, dual front and rear wheels with enormous whitewall tires, an entire lower body covered in ribbed aluminum and enormous gold GM letters on the front. They proudly carried the General Motors Parade of Progress lettering in cast aluminum on their flanks, and in addition to hauling the display, their sides opened up to house displays inside the vehicles. Mechanically they featured enormous four cylinder diesel engines and four speed transmissions. Quite a sight to see these twelve bright red spaceships coming down the highway- they very clearly carried the message that General Motors was carrying the future.

The Futurliners were utilized in the Parade of Progress until the war placed the effort on hiatus. They were stored until GM decided to resume the program in 1953. Several modifications were made to the behemoths- the plastic domes (which were very hot) were replaced with a more permanent roof and wraparound windshield, they were repainted in a two tone red and white combination, the powertrains were updated to six cylinder gas engines with Hydra-Matic transmissions, the net result of which made them much more pleasurable to drive. They carried the Parade of Progress to some thirteen million spectators before the program ended after the 1956 season. That newfangled television, which many people saw for the first time at the Parade of Progress, was seen as a better way to spread the word of General Motors.

The twelve coaches were sold or donated, and many had long second careers- Goebel Beer, The Michigan State Police, Peter Pan Coach Company, and even Oral Roberts made use of former Futurliners as promotional vehicles. Amazingly, nine of the twelve have survived in varying condition. One in Van Nuys has been converted into a Motor Home, a couple have undergone meticulous restorations - one sold for over $4 Million dollars at a Scottsdale Auction- and one is even being painstakingly restored in Sweden. GM's largest concept vehicles continue to fascinate and delight to this day.

Here's a GM Film from the '50s about the Parade of Progress


And a great site about the restoration of Futurliner #10 is here.