Collector Car Corner – More on the Checker and Hertz companies

Collector Car Corner - More on the Checker and Hertz companies

Mug shots of Fannie and John Hertz.

Collector Car Corner - More on the Checker and Hertz companies

Reader John Weinberger sends along this photo of Chicago city officials checking our a brand new Hertz Yellow Cab back in the early 1930s. (Submitted photo)

Q: Hi Greg, and I’m wondering if you could by chance run the column you did about Hertz Rentals and Checker Cab company? I remember reading that column but I misplaced it. It was very interesting and many years ago. Thanks much, Ellie K., Kalamazoo, Michigan.

A: Ellie, I’d be glad to. The column you speak about had to do with a letter from John F. Weinberger, from Chicago. He told us that he used to go to your town of Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Checkers were built. He knew an employee of the Checker company, who was retired and told him the Checker plant burned to the ground in the early 1940s. He also sent along a photo of Chicago City Officials checking out a new Yellow Cab.

Notable, as you mentioned, is John Hertz, who started his career as a newspaper carrier for the Chicago Morning Times and then became a reporter.

Hertz later got into the car sales business and created a cab company utilizing the company traded used cars back in 1915. Hertz’s cabs were in direct competition with Checker Cab, and from the historical articles I’ve seen, it looks like the competition was deadly, literally, with many shootings. In 1926, Hertz sold his majority interest in Hertz Cab and Hertz “Drive-Ur-Self” car rentals to General Motors for a seat on the GM board.

Hertz also receives credit for putting the color Yellow at the top of the heap. Today, Chicago boasts about 1,500 Yellow Cabs and numerous Hertz Car Rental locations. I would say he put to better use his customer “trade-ins” than did his competitors.

Hertz, a noted Philanthropist, died in 1961. He was big into thoroughbred horse racing and won the Kentucky Derby twice. He also receives credit for installing the first stoplights in Chicago at Michigan Avenue in 1924.

In 1957, he and his wife, Fannie, founded the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation with a goal of supporting applied sciences education. This was originally accomplished by granting undergraduate scholarships on a national scale to qualified and financially-limited mechanical and electrical engineering students undertaking a curriculum fully accredited by the Engineering Council for Professional Development. The foundation is still a respected concern, with more information on fellows and fellowships available at www.hertzfoundation.org.

Thanks for your letter.

(Greg Zyla is a syndicated auto columnist who welcomes reader questions or comments at 116 Main St., Towanda, Pa. 18848 or email at greg@gregzyla.com).