FRANKLIN CLUB NEWS
Copyright ©2007 The H. H. Franklin Club, Inc. All rights reserved.
- July 1, 2007
Your WebMaster will try and keep this page up-to-date as news comes into the desk. If you have news that other members maybe interested in, please just tag the blue WebMater below and sent it to us.
National Club News
July 1, 2007
The Franklin Club web site always brings us very interesting people, here is one great guy we have been e-mailing with:
The picture shows my Father, Chief Warrent S. Berkowich U.S.N, my sister Miriam, and me with the Franklin. I was 2 to 3 years old at the time, that is me sitting on the running board. My Dad knew Mr. Franklin and I can remember driving up to New York for my Dad to take the car to the where they were made. I think it was Syracuse, New York. You maybe interested in knowing that when Dad traded this car for the Olympic Franklin, I cried and carried on and made his life miserable. I said to him, "All my friends family get new cars every year, and you will be driving this one when I am twenty one", and he was. My Father's last Franklin was the Olympic Model which he drove until 1955. Michael Brooks
This picture was taken in Washington, DC
June 14, 2007
Below is a picture of new club member James D. Rogers, I (your webmaster) watch the restoration of this beautiful Franklin for many years. We helped to ID all the holes on the fire wall, ID parts that the restorer had no idea what they were. Best of all this Franklin has an interesting history of which part was in Japan for WW2. Your webmaster feels this Franklin is one of the best.
March 26, 2006
John Tschopp passed away at 4:15 this Sat. afternoon. Roy had to work today, so after he returned home,
Nancy and I picked him up. We got to the hospital, and found John's room. The door was closed, so I knocked. there was no answer,
so we all waked in. The light was off, and John's head was turned to the left, away from the door. I called out his
name a couple of times, but received no response. Nancy noticed that the heart monitor was on, but had only a blank
screen. we left the room, and asked at the nearby nurse's station if the family was about, as earlier today, John' daughter
in-law had told me that someone was with John 24 hours.. Thestation nurse called the nurse responsible for John's room over,.
and she informed us that the family had left. When we voiced surprise at their leaving, she further stated that they had all
left after John had died at 4:15 P.M.. We had arrived at the
room at approximately 5:05 P.M.. From the hospital, we proceeded to John's house in Carillon. We weren't sure if we should stop by, but did. It proved to be the right thing to do. The family was very happy to see us, and were a little dismayed to know that an hour after passing, John was still lying in the bed and no one had even pulled the sheet over his face. There will be a three hour visitation at a Plainfield funeral home, on either Monday or Tuesday afternoon. Then, John will be taken to Lafayette, IN, for burial in the family plot.
On the way home, we discussed John's history in the Franklin Club, and decided that he got involved in the Midwest Region about 1962.
Roy, my mother, and I have known him for over forty years. If memory serves me correctly, he and Maxine ceased to be regular Midwest Region Meet attendees sometime in the 1980s. I believe their last FranklinMeet was when Roy left after the Sat. tour, drove down to Barrington, and brought them up to the Sat. evening banquet at the last Rockford Meet.
Lee Nelson
June 1, 2005
From Andre and a wonderful Franklin:
The Marathon is an annual event for 30 years in Ottawa and a beautiful Franklin Day! Lois and I had my friend Carl and his wife Claudette and their daughter Caroline who respectively finished 12 out of 90 women in the walking marathon and 5 out of 52 in the women running half marathon! Ho... and yes! The horn works loud and clear!
May 30, 2005
I will not say where or who owns this but this is a new find, never been in the Franklin Club or listed. This is a 1928 12-A Limo, never restored, never touched.
November 7, 2004
It is not often we can find a group of Franklin members having dinner the Friday before a Board meeting. But thinks to a Board member we can now see what they do Friday nights.
November 7, 2004
Over the years we have seen David Phillips walking around the campus green playing his bagpipes, but have you ever seen his Franklin? I think I saw it a long time ago but I can't remember what it looked like. Below you can see his beautiful Franklin!
November 1, 2004
Just put the touring to bed for the winter. But not before a tour of the pumpkins. Note these leaves blocking the fan intake...not good for a Franklin!
WebMaster: What a nice way to but a Franklin a way for the winter, but knowing Andre, it will be on the road this winter!
August 20, 2004
Thanks goes to Bouvard Hosticka
The September 2004 issue of Scientific American has the following note
taken from its September 1904 issue. This appears in their '50, 100,&
150 Years Ago' feature. This might be worthy of posting on the web site.
[Start QUOTE]
SPEED DEMONS- "The previous record for an automobile running under its
own power overland from San Francisco to New York was beaten by Messrs.
L. L. Whitman and C. S. Carris in a 10-horsepower, four-cylinder,
air-cooled Franklin runabout, upon which they had made the 4,500 miles
in 33 days without any serious mishaps. That this particular make of
air-cooled motor car could so successfully break all records for a long
transcontinental trip over roads, trails, mountains and across trackless
wastes of alkali and sage brush, was something that came as a surprise
to all automobilists"
[END QUOTE]
This is the very car that made the transcontinental trip in the Franklin Museum today.
October 2003
If you were at Hershey this year you saw a Franklin to top all Franklins, below is a 1911 Franklin race car.
October 4, 2002
Frank -
I just got a copy of the Nov. issue of Cars & Parts. There's a feature article on the Deauville, a nice little report on the Syracuse Centennial celebration as well as a report on the Gilmore/CCCA show with a great photo of Nippert's Speedster.
Pass the word
tom
June 2, 2002
1928 Charles Lindbergh Franklin
Dear Sirs:, Hello, my name is Bob Bailey, Vice-Chairman of the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. , web-site www.Saratoga Automobile Museum.org.
The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn has recently loaned our museum the 1928 Franklin given to Charles Lindbergh by the Franklin factory after his Trans-Atlantic flight. Lindbergh, subsequently gave the car to Henry Ford in 1940. We are in the process of putting together an exhibition on the vehicle, in part to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Lindbergh’s flight.
Can you advise us if you have or know where we might secure any information, photos, film footage etc. of Lindbergh and the Franklin car? We have a copy of Lindbergh’s diary (War Time Journals, which talks extensively about the Franklin).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Bob Bailey
Dear Mr. Bailey,
Frank Hantak forwarded your e-mail to me. Unfortunately, I do not think I can be of much help but will try. I assume you know what the Henry Ford Museum has. I do not.
I do know Lindbergh was loaned other Franklins from 1930 onwards and I've seen film relating to the Lindbergh kidnapping case where he arrived at the NJ courthouse in a 1932-34 Franklin Twelve (V-12). I've read his War Time Journals but it was a long time ago. My guess is he used his 1928 as his daily car only from 1928-1930. I do not recall ever seeing film of him and his 1928 but of course some may exist.
Our Franklin club library may have some pictures but probably nothing unusual. Our current librarian does not have email so I've included our most recent past librarian (Pete Kunan) in this email.
I recall reading a statement his 1928 was his first car. Previously he had a motorcycle.
My only other ideas are contacting some other museums, especially regarding photographed and filmed activities of his from 1928-1930. You can probably find contact names and numbers faster than I so I just give some ideas:
Lindbergh museum somewhere in Minnesota
National Archives and Records Adminstration, College Park, Maryland
National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC.
Hope this helps, good luck, and sorry I could not be more helpful.
Best Regards,
Roy Canfield
Supervisor Technical Publications
Champion Air
8009 34th Ave South, Suite 500
Bloomington MN 55425-1674
Tel: 1-952-814-8779
Fax: 1-952-814-8977
2nd Fax: 1-952-814-8718
Email: Roy.Canfield@championair.com
Hello Bob,
My name is Peter Kunan and I'm the former librarian of the Franklin Club. Roy Canfield sent me a copy of his reply to your inquiry about photos, film, etc. relating to Charles Lindbergh and his Franklins.
As I recall, there was none of either one in the library while I was its custodian. However, there were some newspaper clippings of Lindbergh's visit to Syracuse. Probably more immediate to your request was an interesting relic in the form of upholstery samples from the car the Franklin Co. gave Lindbergh after his flight. There was no other description pinpointing which car it may have been, but I feel it was from the 1928 Sport Sedan in the Henry Ford Museum. There are two pieces, one is a striped broadcloth, dark gray in color, and the other is a light blue broadcloth. I personally would be interested in knowing if these match what is in the car at present.
Roy mentioned the Lindbergh Museum in Little Falls, Minnesota. I lived in Minnesota for a number of years and was able to visit this museum built on the site of his boyhood home. Naturally, I kept an extra eye open for items relating to Franklin, but do not remember any. In fact, I happened to bring the upholstery samples and showed them to the staff, but none seemed to recall any other Franklin items in their museum. That was nearly fifteen years ago, however, so it may be well worth another try on your part.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but hope this sheds a little light on your search.
Peter Kunan
February 17, 2002
Look who we have here, tag the picture to see and read more
look at left of next page an tag Samantha
June 1, 2000
By: Scott Dwyer
I had the distinct pleasure of attending the AACA Reliability Tour in Frederick, Maryland. This tour is for 1915 and earlier cars and is similar to the Gas and Brass tours.
John Rendemonti brought his magnificent 1912 Model D Torpedo-Phaeton. This was the car previously owned by Stan Wilkinson, a long-time Franklin Club member and professional restorer. The car was without a doubt the center of attention on the tour. It is very infrequent that Franklins are seen on tours like this, let alone one of the big models. John and I spread the gospel of Franklin to the multitudes with great success. I preached Franklin history and together with John expounded the magnificent engineering attributes of the true faith.
The car ran flawlessly. Fast, powerful, smooth, sleek.... It was impressive to all and bested by none. I even got to drive the car for a day --- an experience I never dreamed I would do, having known that car for over twenty years and never even ridden in it.
It was an immensely proud feeling to be "the Franklin man".
Reported: Dick Pratt
I thought you might like this picture for the web. It was taken on 5/21/00 at the bonnie eagle car show in Buxton Maine. There were 2300 cars at the show and about 45 in our class. Gardner took 2cnd place with his coupe and I took 3thd with my 29 model 130.
From Gordon Howard
AUTOWEEK for 2/28/00, page 16, article on Northeast Classic Car Museum,
about 1/3 is about Franklins and pretty accurate.
Midwest Region Meet held May 13. 14 and 15, 1999
Leaving KC, Mo one morning, looking out from the Pykiet's beautiful 1926 11-A
30 minutes later the sky upon up with gallons of rain.
Visitors from the east - Susan Roberts, Franklin Club President and David Roberts
Mr. and Mrs Pringle came up from Georgetown, TX
Fannie's Restaurant dinner Sat. night
Web Site Reporter:
June 11, 1999
A wedding of Franklin's and their owners.....
Roland Kemp - Now Mrs. Anne Russell and Dan Russell
The Franklin family wishes them the very best.
But where are the Franklins?
WebMaster
May 28, 1999
Here is an e-mail from a son (Bernard Helman) of a Franklin owner (P. Helman) in Belgium
On behalf of my father, who can't unfortunately speak English, I am sending you a picture of the Franklin 1911
G Touring, picture taken while doing a rally in France. The car left Reims (where French Champagne is made) to Southern France for a trip of 1200 kms ( +/- 460 miles). The people on this picture are not my parents. You can already publish this picture if wanted. My father will make in a near future a new one so the whole car is visible.
We will also write to Mr Hanson (the owner for many years) to get a few more informations about the car's history and we will tell him what the car accomplished since 1987.
1911 G Touring owned by Mr. P. Helman in Belgium
FLASH
1. History of the Car, Club and Region
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Last Revised -
June 14, 2007
Copyright © 2007 The H. H. Franklin Club, Inc. All rights reserved.