Hot Rod Gallery II: More Great Photos and Stories from Hot Rodding's Golden Years

By Pat Ganahl

Travel back to hot rodding's golden years with this sequel that showcases even more historic never-before-seen photos from author and historian Pat Ganahl's collection.

This edition features even more dry lakes shots, post-war rods, lead sleds, show circuit cars, and a chapter on marvelous mills. Ganahl even dug a little deeper into the early 1960s. He was pleasantly surprised to find more great stuff in old files and folders that were hidden away for decades but are now highlighted in Hot Rod Gallery II: More Great Photos and Stories from Hot Rodding's Golden Years.

In the best-selling original book, Hot Rod Gallery: A Nostalgic Look at Hot Rodding's Golden Years: 1930-1960, Ganahl opened his archives and shared 192 pages and 350 photos of some of the most interesting and best photos of his collection. Filled with fascinating images of some of the coolest cars and builders, long-forgotten car clubs, and great shots of the dry lakes, nostalgia fans flocked to grab a piece of hot rodding history all in one convenient package. Well, if some is good, more is better, right?

If you liked the first edition, you may like this one even more. Ganahl guarantees that it is filled with images you have never seen, and he offers his commentary and a lifetime of expertise in this selection of fantastic images from his expansive archive. You can spend hours looking at all the details and soaking in the history in these images, and we know you’ll enjoy this book as much as you did the first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Car Tech
• Release date: Aug 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781613256183

Book preview

Introduction

Not many sequels turn out better than the originals. But it does happen. You must have liked my recent compilation, Hot Rod Gallery, because the publisher strongly requested that I do a second volume, basically the same as the first. To that, my immediate reaction was: But I cherry-picked … err, carefully selected … all the best images in my collection for that book. I don’t want to produce a second-rate follow-up with second-rate material. But I promised to comb through my extensive archives to see if there was enough good material left to do another good book. I was in for a big, and pleasant, surprise.

First, there are 30,000 to 40,000 images in this archive that I’ve been collecting for more than 40 years. The first book used just 350 of those, so there were plenty more to peruse. And since I knew I only had room for 350 photos, and I had a fairly good idea which ones I wanted to put in that first book, I didn’t have to sift through the collection all that thoroughly.

This time I did. And, frankly, I was amazed at some of the stuff I found. I’m talking about stuff I didn’t find the first time, as well as stuff I didn’t even remember that I had. I’m not a disorganized person. In fact, certain members of my family have accused me of tending toward the anal-retentive. So, to start with, these prints, negatives, and color transparencies are divided into groups according to car type and age. They are also divided into sections for prints, as opposed to original black-and-white negatives, black-and-white copy negs with proof sheets, and color transparencies. The prints are arranged and labeled by car type and era in one file cabinet, while proofs with negs are similarly filed in another. Most of the color slides, which range from 35 mm to 4 × 5, are stored in clear archival sleeves kept in large three-ring binders, again titled by car type and decade.

In the first book I explained in some detail how I acquired (and continue to acquire) this material, whether it was given to me by people who knew I would save it and use it in books and magazine articles for you to see and enjoy, or who let me copy photos out of their old albums with my own camera and film. In either case, I’d sit down with the person and write as many notes as possible on the backs of prints or proof sheets, identifying photos as best as their memories allowed. I have also sat down with numerous pioneers in the rod and custom field to interview them, whether for a specific book or article, or to describe a photo collection, or just to get their memories on tape. This separate archive comprises about 100 90-minute cassette tapes collected over three decades. As you can imagine, many of those interviewed are no longer with us; but I have their words on tape.

I’ve selected pictures that are historic, fun, informative, just cool, and sometimes weird or wild.

It would be even better if you could tell that both cars are driven by girls (they are) but where else but in Los Angeles could you expect to see two hot rod roadsters racing side-by-side in a concrete river? And who was there to get this dramatic, ground level photo? Only in the movies, of course. This was one of several hot rod B movies made in Los Angeles in the 1950s. For details on this rare photo, see Chapter Seven.

Yes, we’re talking photo prints, film negatives, color transparencies, and audiotapes. First off, this stuff takes up a lot of room, so it’s stored in various places. Second, I can see all of you immersed in today’s digital era cringing or scoffing because I’ve saved this ancient material in such ancient formats. First of all, there is no way I could scan and/or digitize (and categorize) all of the material I have. It would take the rest of my life to do that, and then what would I do with the originals; throw it all away? I’ve watched various companies and institutions (including museums) attempt to do this in recent years with minimal success.

No, I consider the fact that the photos in this book are printed from the original film to be one of its strong attributes. Of course, given today’s publishing processes, each of these photos had to be scanned in a high-resolution digital format, to be sent to the publisher for layout, and then to the printer to make this book. I can tell you, after decades in this business, that today’s digital printing methods are not only much more efficient, but much more accurate and of significantly higher quality than the old four-color separation methods. But the point I want to stress is that the images you see in this book were all made directly from the original film (in the case of all color), or from original old black-and-white prints, original negatives, or my own copy negs taken years ago from old scrapbooks.

As I mentioned in the first book, all of this film is old. Some of it has been scratched and damaged. Early Ektachrome transparencies fade and color-shift toward magenta. And in many cases, amateurs using cheap cameras took these photos. But other than cleaning each piece of film as well as possible, I scanned them as-is. I don’t use or even have Photoshop. I don’t do photo enhancement. When these scans arrived at CarTech, the art director there, who has much more sophisticated equipment than mine, color-corrects faded and shifted transparencies (often to my description of the exact color the car should be), adjusts exposures, and cleans dirt or scratches as much as practical. But, what you see in this book is taken from and is still as close to the original photo as possible.

Archive Gold

I suppose you could say that someone who ardently collects and stores anything the way I’ve collected rod and custom photos (and stories) is some sort of miser. What made me think of this is folk tales in which the miser squirrels away small caches of his hoard in various nooks and crannies, eventually forgetting about them, and then being overjoyed when he stumbles across them years later. In a way, that’s kind of what happened when I started searching through my archives this time.

First of all, in addition to my fairly orderly files arranged by types of vehicle or activity and era (e.g., 1950s Drag Racing; Early Street Rods; Early Lakes; 1960s Car Shows), I have another set of folders, in another file cabinet, of photos I have either acquired from a particular source or photos on a particular person or subject. For instance, George Barris has given or lent me many photos from his huge collection over the years, so I have a separate file of just Barris photos. I have a similar file of photos I got from painter Junior Conway. I have another file of pics I either got from, or pertain to, Tom McMullen. Or Art and Jack Chrisman. Or the Oakland Roadster Show.

Then there are photos from projects I was involved in, such as a large Hot Rod Art show presented at the Oakland Museum of California by Phil Linhares in the 1990s, and a similar but smaller show I curated at Art Center College in the 1980s, both of which had a variety of classic rod and custom photos hung on the walls, which I have kept in separate folders in separate places. Another was the big 75th Anniversary of the ’32 Ford, for which I produced half the show cards, including vintage photos of each Deuce. This fat folder is in a totally different file cabinet.

Yet another file holds work envelopes for all of the stories I’ve done for The Rodder’s Journal, in chronological order, plus another for the many freelance articles I’ve written for numerous other magazines through the years. Most of the photos for these are on digital discs, with the originals hopefully refiled where they belong. But I was surprised to find plump folders in these drawers with photos, notes, etc., on the Hirohata Merc, the Ayala Brothers, Joe Nitti, Doane Spencer, George Du Valle, and Stone-Woods-Cook, to name a few. I even found a whole trans-file in a garage cabinet full of freelance articles I did in the 1970s, complete with 2¼-inch negs and trans. You get the idea.

Finally, I have complete files on each book I’ve done, stored in envelopes, chapter by chapter, including many original photos: Ed Roth, Von Dutch, custom cars, supercharging, Ford performance, and so on. You can probably understand how photos from my historical files went into these books, and then didn’t always get put back in their original places.

More and Better

So, yes, I found plenty more material in my voluminous files to make a sequel that is not only just as good, but in a couple of ways, I hope, even better.

To start, in the first book, being a photo gallery, I selected images as much for their photographic qualities as for their image content. As I stated in that intro, they were not just pictures of cool cars, they were great photos that included cool cars. That meant I chose the sharpest focused, well-lit, best composed photos, also including dynamic action when possible, and including people to show who these early hot rodders were: what they looked like, how they dressed, how they wore their hair, how old they were. It was a graphic window into this new culture of hot rodding, as it developed.

This time, I’m not going to be so photo-critical. I think all the photos in the first book were great. I had plenty to choose from. But (in addition to plenty of new ones), I’ve included wonderful pictures I passed over the first time because they were a little too soft-focused, scratched, whatever. This Gallery won’t sacrifice good content over minor photographic flaws. Besides, there’s something genuine, some allure, about old photos that look old. There’s even an app on your iPhone to make your new photos look that way, right? So rather than f64-sharp, Ansel Adams poised and composed photos, I’ve selected pictures that are historic, fun, informative, just cool, and sometimes weird or wild.

Another criterion for photos in the first book was freshness, if that word can be applied to old photos. In other words, photos that weren’t familiar because they had not been seen before. Again, that leaves a lot of wonderful pictures on the cutting room floor. I’m still going to include as many never-before-seen images as I can, as you’ll discover. But there are many great photographs in my collection that made their way onto magazine covers, or were seen in other places, precisely because they were great photographs. Two things about this: First, if you have every issue of nearly every rod magazine ever published, and refer to them regularly (as I do), there are some photos in this book that will look familiar to you. But you’re hardcore, avid. There are a whole lot of other readers of this book (the majority) who are seeing these wonderful photos for the first time, who are seeing and learning what hot rodding is, where it came from, and how it developed.

The second thing is that, especially in our instant easy-access Internet age, you might have seen some of these photos reprinted in any number of books, magazines, or websites, again because they are good and/or striking images.

Let me give you one example. The August 1963 cover of Hot Rod featured the new XR-6 roadster with Tex Smith at the wheel, chatting with the pilot in the cockpit of a shiny F-104 looming next to it, while the redhead in the roadster looks away, bored. Some of you will remember it. Several months ago I found a good 4 × 5 color transparency that was obviously taken at the same scene, but from a completely different angle. The roadster is parked near the gaping tail of the jet, the hood off, and Tex is kneeling in front showing the interested pilot and redhead (standing behind) some detail of the Weber-carbed engine. It’s such a dynamic photo (unseen as far as I knew) that I decided to include in Chapter Seven as a tribute to the recently passed Tex.

Then, earlier this week, I received a copy of the long-awaited Tex Smith autobiography that he finished just before his death. There, on page 119, is a full-page reproduction of what appears to be the same photo. Then, just last night, I got a preview copy of the latest The Rodder’s Journal, which happens to have 10 pages of excerpts from Tex’s new book, including that same photo, again, full-page and full-color. I know the book publisher sent this image to The Rodder’s Journal electronically, but I can’t figure how Tex had it, because I have the original transparency (color film) in my files, where it has been for decades. The only thing I can think is that Tex had a color print made of this image in the 1960s to hang on his wall, and that’s what he used for his book. I was considering killing this photo from my book. But then I thought, no, there are many more readers who haven’t seen this striking photo before, plus it’s a tribute to Tex.

The main point is that if you’ve seen any of the photos in this book recently, or even if you have the old, faded magazines they might have appeared in, these are reproductions, sometimes many generations removed.

Reviews for Hot Rod Gallery II

[ellis_dee-585807 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was sent a free copy of this book for the purpose of this review.This is one of the best coffee table books I've had on display in a long time. This book is packed full of great information about the early years of hot rod from the 30's to the 60's. Gain insight about the major custom shops of the era, as well as racing venues. This is full of wonderful vintage photos and it is hard not put it down until the end.

[robtcm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful companion to 'Hot Rod Gallery', this new addition from the people at CarTech brings us even more from world of souped up cars. Auto enthusiasts of all types will love this presentation with all of it's great photos and fascinating stories about the people behind these great custom vehicles. An excellent book..... highly recommended.

[halstead898-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This took a little while to recieve it. There were tons of pictures in it and it looked very good. I gave this to my father because he loves cars. While he was interested in it, it wasn't something that he just had to look at right away. The pictures were interesting but he merely flipped through it quickly when he first got it.

[macygma · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pat Ganahl has compiled another top-notch book on hot rods. This one picks up where Hot Rod Gallery left off. More photos, more history and lots more to learn!1945-1960 was the peak periods for hot rods especially in Southern California. The GIs were out of the military and anxious to marry, buy a car, settle down in a GI house, buy a car, get a good job, buy a car. Sense a trend here? The cars they saw at the drag strip, street racing and at shows were pretty cheap at the time. The builders of these cars didn’t mind selling them because there was always another one to customize. There are photos in the books showing absolutely fabulous hot rods. Cars that I have never heard of, never seen but would sure like to! Also, AMT and Revell started the model car craze in about 1958 and boys (and big boys!) all over the country fell in love with cars that were 1/25th scale and very buildable. The only thing keeping them back wad their imagination.Altogether another excellent source for photos and info on hot rods in America and the men who built them.

[readerbynight · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great racing, rebuild and photo historic book from Car-Tech, authored by Pat Ganahl. Who can say enough about these racing machines? What a great era of excitement and entertainment, not to mention what these drivers did and learned while building or rebuilding these vehicles. The lines on many were fantastic. Beautiful, smooth, imagine what the younger generation of racers would have learned and the older had learned that would stand them in good stead in the future (not so easy after automatics and electronics became the norm). These books are priceless in their content.

[johnnyapollo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another great collection of photos and commentary by Pat Ganahl. If you've owned or at least looked over the first volume "Hot Rod Gallery" you'll know the fine quality of this sequel - full of photos, anecdotes and commentary of hot rods and builds. Not only is this a fine pictorial essay of rat rod culture, it's also an historical account of racing from an that started what we call custom culture - the conversion of a conventional car into something else, something worth dragging down main against your rivals. I love the many photos of wrecked junk as "before" and what each car became after conversion. There are also some good photos showing classic techniques, like bodywork leading (whole chapter on it actually) that's a nearly lost technique.If you're into classic racing this is a fine continuation by Pat Ganahl of his earlier volume, you'll be pleased with this one also.Note that this book was obtained via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

[fugitive_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a no brainer of a high recommendation. When one of the main editors of several of the flagship hot rodding magazines spends 40 years photographing and archiving this history of, well, hot rods, you get what you get. Arranged chronologically from about 1930 to the 1960's, this is the penultimate hot rod coffee table book with the ultimate book being the original, Hot Rod Gallery by Pat Ganahl: A Nostalgic Look at Hot Rodding's Golden Years: 1930-1960. Accompanying the 350 photographs is extensive documentation about the rods themselves, the locales, and the people - I particularly like the vintage "babes" hanging around a lot of the cars. Because of the denseness (number of photographs, extensive text) this is a book that could REALLY benefit from an index which it lacks. But since I wouldn't consider this a reference work, I'll give it a pass. This is pretty much a loving homage to the art form of the hot rod.

[tomdonaghey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

HOT ROD GALLERY II by Pat Gahanl is a car lovers dream, part 2. With the first selection of classic rods, Mr. Gahanl provided classic car lovers everywhere with wonder photos and stories of Hot Rods from coast to coast. So how could he top that winning performance? Simple. He unearthed more classic photos of the cars, the men and the women who were in the spotlight for so many thrilling shows and demos. Do you miss those by-gone years or were you never there, doesn't matter. With these two books you can gaze in awe and wonder at the machines that, even fifty years after, cause a thrill to run up your spine. I know, going to a show is better, coming in close to see the classic lines, the gleam of the chrome, maybe even hear the roar of an engine, but if there is no show, no place to go, you can sit back and enjoy anyway. While many of the photos show machines that no longer exist, there is a vast number here that are modern cars or, better yet, cars that have been lovingly detailed and pampered for the past half century and are available for viewing. As is usual in a CarTech book, the stories that abound enhance the visuals, giving the reader many long hours of enjoyment and, possibly, lure younger car lovers into both seeing and building their own show rods. There are so many great ideas and designs presented here that the book could be used in a technology class for future designers. I had a lot of fun poring over these pages, soaking in the beauty and glamour of the Hot Rods presented, and it made me want to head out to the next classic car show. I won this book through LibraryThing.

[peggyk49 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hot Rod Gallery II by Pat Ganahl is another great book from CarTech. It's filled with loads of great black and white and color photos. I think anyone, even for those not into car culture, would enjoy these vintage photos and accompanying text. I received Hot Rod Gallery II as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program.

[hardboiled-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Before you buy this book I would suggest adding a bit of pin striping and chrome to your coffee table so you have a place to display it equal to its quality. The book is that good. It along with Volume 1 is a testament to hot rodding and the breadth of Ganahl's collection of hot rod photographs and his knowledge of its history. This volume is packed with a wide array of pictures, both black & white and color, that by themselves tell a compelling story of the evolution of hot rods from the autos of the day to the visionary mechanics who molded them into iconic rides. Add to those pictures Ganahl's back story and this time period truly comes alive. Too often we get so caught up in today's technology we forget what it took for early "rodders" to not just design and build these cars but do it with such craftsmanship and artistry. If you are at all interested in cars take a trip back through time and let this book give you an appreciation of how far we've come and how it all began.

[mramos_710291 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another fine publication by CarTech publishing. Pat Ganahl has brought us another volume of hot Rod history. Filled with stories and rare photos. With the number of photos I know he has in storage I hope we see a Hot Rod III. The author was able to keep this book up to the high standards we expect and it was a pleasure to read.

[hermit_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Pat Ganahl has complied another great Hot Rodder coffee table book. This tomb of hot rod history is filled with photos and stories that every hot rod fan will want to own. A must have for any automotive historian or fan. I enjoyed every page.

[david.a.rainey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Car Tech doesn't seem to be able to put out a bad book. The book features great information on the early beginnings of Hot Rodding in the 30's through the 60's. The book gives details about the major custom shops of the era, as well as racing venues. The book is filled with wonderful vintage photos. It's a great reference to cross check against my collection of 50's hot rodding magazines such as Car Craft, etc. I received this book free from Library Thing's, but that had no bearing on my review. This is volume 2, I need to find volume 1 now.

[amilligan_13 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another fabulous book from CarTech. My husband could not put it down. From the pictures to the write ups he loved this book. HE read it from cover to cover!