Update: The 1946 VMCCA Jubilee Anniversary at the Mineola Fair Grounds
In June 1946, the Veteran Motor Car Club of America sponsored its 50th Anniversary Jubilee featuring a parade of over 75 vintage cars and nine races at the Mineola Fair Grounds on Long Island. Update (June 13, 2020): Another film on the Jubilee has been posted on YouTube.
Courtesy of Walter McCarthy and the Long Island Old Car Club, highlights of the Jubilee were also captured in a 4-minute film posted on VanderbiltCupRaces.com in 2009. Walter McCarthy has forwarded this 1946 Bulb Horn article on the 1946 Jubilee.
Below is the article, images from the event and a repost of the film.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
YouTube Film (58 seconds)
Submitted by John Santos
Veteran Vanderbilt Cup Race driver Joe Tracy
Joe Tracy and Peter Helck
Far right: 1911 Breese Racer
Official Program
From left to right: Peter Helck, Joe Tracy, unknown, and Jerry Helck
Comments
Thanks again for another great film. Boy there were a lot of old cars in that one,I’ll have to watch it again and take a better look at them. If I only knew about this back then,I would know more about the Vanderbilt Cup now,back then I was only 5yrs old and we had a 1946 Plymouth 4door delux,which I learned to drive and my parents gave it to me and I drove it to the ground,that goes to show how long the car lasted,about 20yrs I’d say,probably would have lasted longer if I didn’t get a hold of it
That was a pleasure to watch. Thanks for posting it.
Ken Harris
As well as enjoying the film, I liked reading the article. It was written with flair.
Watched that film again and if I’m not mistaken I saw some from the late 1800s or early 1900s,like 01-03,am I right or wrong on that one?,don’t know what kind they are,just by looking at them and remembering seeing them one time or another elswhere.
As always, I really enjoyed the film and the automotive history. It’s fascinating to realize that I was only 2 years old when all this took place, living nearby in Manhattan. Great fun to see the Old 16, and realize that it’s still running, and still an active part of automotive history. . . . . . . . .
Priceless automtive history jumping off the screen. Thanks Howard !
great video - one of the cars in the film was a 1910 Mercedes town car that I bought with a partner at a Auction at the Javits Center in NYC, in early 1990’s
The 1947 Glidden Tour (second of the revised tour, 1946 was the first)
started in Hartford
there was a car display in the State Armony and a special CT license plate was issued for the month of Sept 1947
Yeeks! Just think about it. That was a 50 year span; it is now SEVENTY-THREE (*73*) years later! Whooie - was Shaw ever sexist! Sam, III
Great seeing this 1946 race footage (2 months after I was born). It’s unlikely I got to see it in person, having spent the day instead on Ave M in Brooklyn - while family & friends listened to the Dodger game at nearby Ebbets Field!
Hmm. There’s a white 134” wheelbase 1927 S or 1928-30 SS Modell Mercedes, as I noted in the LIJ Highlights blog post (q.v.), pulling away from the throng at 0:34 - 0:38 in parade sequence and (blurrily) at 1:13 in the race sequence, but it’s NOT Chas. Addams’ car. Wonder whose it was. Sam, III
Wow!
Among the files of the Peter Helck Family Collection is this check for $16.14 made out to Peter from Henry R.W. Finn, Treasurer of the VMCCA, sponsor of the 1946 Jubilee Rally in Mineola. Each of the club’s 75 members who contributed $25 to the event received a prorated amount of the proceeds after expenses. Finn’s analogy as to the less than desired monetary gain to the club was that the exhaust was more than the intake, and that “multiple downdraft carburetion with larger intake valves would have been very helpful”. Accounting for an average inflation rate of 3.64% between 1946 and today, the real amount due the Helck family is $231.84!
And the bank the check is written against is now part of Capital One, so a deposit still may be possible!
I’m also showing a license plate for #16 found among the Helck collection similar to the ones Jerry shows above for the Hartford’s Golden Automobile Jubilee in 1907.