August 1999
Aug. 12
Dean Tryon from N.C. is here today. We took off the carburetor. Dean plans to take it back to N.C. for restoration. The carb is a Holly with engine speed governor that is vacuum controlled. We decided to go to Northwest since they might be able to come up with a carb repair kit. In we walk in with the Holly carb and the distributor. We laid our parts on the counter and after the clerk looked at them he said what vehicle and year. We said it was for a 1953 Futurliner. He gave us a long stare and then he said "Are you those crazies from Zeeland?". He later told us that his boss "Sammy" had shown them the photos that I had given Sammy. The clerk then proceeded to start digging for a carb repair kit that included governor repair parts. Although he had to go through about four books he managed to find a repair kit and a governor repair kit. He also found all the items necessary to rebuild the Delco distributor. Once Dean finishes the carb and distributor, he will ship them off to Bill Bicknell in Ohio when Bill is ready for them.
We just recently found out that the large cast aluminum "GM" letters on the front of the Futurliner were anodized in "Gold". The latest pictures we received from Douglas Dean confirms this. We do have a great color picture of a single Futurliner that came from Douglas private collection.
Aug. 30
Dear Don,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you about the Parade. As I may have stated, I was lecture supervisor during the final six months before the Parade hit the road in 1953 and continued in that capacity during the showings until December of '53 when I became an advanceman (one of four) for the show until June of '54 when I was promoted to asst. regional manager for Public Relations at San Francisco.
I supervised the setup of the show by the men a of course the assignments for the lectures on the various "live" show exhibits. I have located a number of 8x10 glossies of various activities, such as the setup of the main tent, lecture demonstrations, photos of the Futurliners on the road in the Kentucky hills, etc. I don't know whether or not you can use them (about 15) but you're welcome to copy any of them you wish. Let me know and I'll send them to you....and you can return them after making any copies you may wish. :Hope this will be helpful....
Best regards,
Frank Faraone
