John B. Brokaw Co - Brokaw Body Co. - 1919-1920s - Los Angeles, California
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John B. Brokaw Co - Brokaw Body Co. - 1919-1920s - Los Angeles, California |
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| our letter inquiring about Jack Gerrity was received last Thursday. I first
met Jack in 1921 when I was the body designer for the Walter M. Murphy Co.
in Pasadena and he was the body designer for the John B. Brokaw Co. in the
old building of the Earl Carriage works in the 1200 block on South Main
Street in Los Angeles. That was a short lived venture with no significant
contribution to custom automobiles. However Jack was a clever designer,
perhaps five years older than I. Frank Kurtis (Sr.) found a job with the Brokaw Body Company in L.A., which made, among other things, custom automobile bodies. The elder Kurtis then left for the Don Lee Coach & Body Works in downtown Los Angeles. One of Brokaw's better-known clients was movie cowboy Tom Mix, for whom
it crafted a custom Duesenberg with steer horns affixed to the radiator
shell. (a Duesenberg Model A convertible (Mix later became friends with Harley Earl) xxxxx The younger Frank Kurtis spoke very little English but, being bright and large for his age, was put into an advanced class at the local school. He thrived, but his father didn't, and the family drifted from town to town. In Schofield, Utah, father Frank opened a blacksmith shop and made his son an apprentice. Young Frank soon became an expert welder and metal fabricator. In 1921 or '22, the family migrated to Los Angeles, whereupon young Frank quit day school and began to take night classes in drafting and architecture. His father found a job with the Brokaw Body Company in L.A., which made, among other things, custom automobile bodies. One of Brokaw's better-known clients was movie cowboy Tom Mix, for whom it crafted a custom Duesenberg with steer horns affixed to the radiator shell. The elder Kurtis then left for the Don Lee Coach & Body Works in downtown Los Angeles. Soon afterward, his son, now 15, joined him as a helper at 75 cents an hour, a princely wage at the time. Working at Don Lee put both father and son on a first-name basis with the shop's chief body designer, Harley Earl, who would leave for Detroit in 1927 to become head of General Motors's new Art & Colour section. Meantime, young Frank honed his metalworking skills and soon became one of the premier tin benders in Southern California. There was almost nothing he couldn't do with aluminum or sheet steel. Soon, he was using his spare time to build custom bodies for chassis rescued from crashed or clapped-out cars, mostly Fords and Buicks that he bought, fixed up, and sold at tidy profits.
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| For more information please read: American Originals: The Sports Cars Of Frank Curtis – by Michael Lamm – Collectible Automobile, October 1999 pp28-41 Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Car Beverly Rae Kimes - The Classic Era Beverly Rae Kimes - Packard: A History of the Motorcar and Company Beverly Rae Kimes & Henry Austin Clark Jr. - Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 Richard Burns Carson - The Olympian Cars Raymond A. Katzell - The Splendid Stutz Brooks T. Brierley - There Is No Mistaking a Pierce Arrow Brooks T. Brierley - Magic Motors 1930 Nick Georgano - The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile: Coachbuilding John Gunnell - Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975 James M. Flammang & Ron Kowalke - Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1976-1999 Daniel D. Hutchins - Wheels Across America: Carriage Art & Craftsmanship Marian Suman-Hreblay - Dictionary of World Coachbuilders and Car Stylists Michael Lamm and Dave Holls - A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design Thomas E. Bonsall - The Lincoln Motorcar: Sixty Years of Excellence Fred Roe - Duesenberg: The Pursuit of Perfection Arthur W. Soutter - The American Rolls-Royce John Webb De Campi - Rolls-Royce in America Hugo Pfau - The Custom Body Era Hugo Pfau - The Coachbult Packard Griffith Borgeson - Cord: His Empire His Motor Cars Don Butler - Auburn Cord Duesenberg George H. Dammann - 90 Years of Ford George H. Dammann & James K. Wagner - The Cars of Lincoln-Mercury Thomas A. MacPherson - The Dodge Story F. Donald Butler - Plymouth-Desoto Story Fred Crismon - International Trucks George H. Dammann - Seventy Years of Chrysler Walter M.P. McCall - 80 Years of Cadillac LaSalle Maurice D. Hendry - Cadillac, Standard of the World: The complete seventy-year history George H. Dammann & James A. Wren - Packard Dennis Casteele - The Cars of Oldsmobile Terry B. Dunham & Lawrence R. Gustin - Buick: A Complete History George H. Dammann - Seventy Years of Buick George H. Dammann - 75 Years of Chevrolet John Gunnell - Seventy-Five Years of Pontiac-Oakland
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