Vanderbilt Cup Races

On a recent post about the auction at the Tucker 75th Anniversary celebration, one of the items listed was a Tucker employee badge.

While maybe not as rare as the cars themselves, these badges were worn by Tucker employees in the factory. 

Surprisingly little is known about these small, 1 1/2 inch badges. Even some discussion with noted Tucker historian and President of the Tucker Club of America, Mark Lieberman, as well as Great-Grandsons Mike and Sean Tucker has been limited about the information as to the badge's identification colors and numbers.

This one is a new addition to the Kroplick Tucker memorabilia collection.

Sean Tucker did provide an incomplete list from factory archives that does provide a slight bit of insight into the letter and numerals found on the badges.

Sean states;

"I am sure the colors and numbers have significance - but we are unsure exactly what it is. We do have a number of employee records from the AACA that indicate a "clock number" for a specific employee - I suspect the badge number corresponds to that but I cannot say for sure."

Could the 'Clock Number' be a reference to a 'time clock' as a means to identify the employee on their time clock punch card?  Unknown and just speculation...

And how about the color? Is anything known about that?

There were 1,300 employees at the time of the factory's peak operation with 35,000 anticipated when the factory was to be in eventual full swing operation. Could the color denote the area or department an employee worked? Again, unknown with nothing but dead-end information.

This red badge is from the display of The Henry Ford museum.

A blue badge.

UPDATE:

In the Facebook group, 'Preston Tucker LLC', reader Wayne Schalk posted this photo of his Grandfather's employee pin badge. It's in slightly rough shape, but this one being quite different from all other badges. 

Wayne states, 

"My Grandfather, Walter Schalk Sr., lived in Berwyn. I know he was also night watchman for the Ford Motor Co. (which I have a number of his factory layout books, etc). Unfortunately, I don’t have any recollections regarding his time patrolling the Tucker plant."

It is a patrolman's pin badge that appears to have no information about it in any corner of the Internet. It looks like Green Duck (the manufacturer) adhered the usual pin badge to the star, but did not stamp the star. My guess is if one was to remove the badge from the star stamping, you'd find the Green Duck stampings. I don't imagine many were made and they were possibly identified by the etched '#16' on the back of the star.

Thanks for letting us document this rarely seen patrolman's badge Wayne! You certainly have a rare piece of Tucker memorabilia on your hands!

Mark Lieberman has forwarded this image of other patrolman's badges with the obvious look of the usual Green Duck badges.

Counterfeit Tucker badges? Maybe.

Joe Kahn, Administrator for the 'Tucker '48 Automobile' Facebook page, recently posted this alleged employee badge  with the caption;

"Crude fantasy piece, or hen's teeth of Tuckerdom?"

When queried about the badge, Joe Kahn didn't have any information on it or its legitimacy, but did provide his thoughts on badge colors saying; 

"...We always thought the colors on the badges were security clearance, but only know that black is executive."

Judging by the crudeness of the badge, especially compared to known authentic badges, it seems unlikely these are legitimate.

Seen here an authentic (executive?) badge in black.

Sean had also mentioned badges with 'stars'. Again, the meaning of the stars has been lost in the last 75 years, so we can only guess. Could it have been for upper tier executives?

It seems only Preston Tucker can answer that at present time.

Badge and photo courtesy of Mark Lieberman

Inspection of the rear of the green C1 499 badge displays the manufacturer's stamp as well as union and patent stampings.

The Green Duck Corporation, established in 1906, was a well-known Chicago political badge and pin back button manufacturer.

For almost 100 years under various owners, the company was mostly known for their great political pins for various political hopefuls from both parties.

Aside from their FDR beginnings among others, maybe their most famous would be their 1950's 'I Like Ike' campaign buttons.

Underscoring their commitment to impartiality, in 1960, then Green Duck Company vice president Earl Butler  stated;

“We were as happy to be of service to the GOP as to the Democrats, and vice versa. Where politics is concerned, ‘I’m For Me’ and Green Duck is for Green Duck. That’s the way it’s got to be.”

One does not survive on political buttons and slogans alone, so around the mid century mark, Green Duck started producing pins of all kinds.

Seen here they helped usher in the Beatles to the U.S. in the early 60's.

Sadly, the company's long and interesting history ended just shy of 100 years in the late 90's.