The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay The Radio Bench INTERESTING HISTORY FOUND IN A CHEVY RADIO

I'm restoring a 1942 UNIVERSAL Chevy radio and found something I find fairly interesting, Those of you who have worked on these have notice a lable inside,some are filled out with owners name,dealer's name,mileage when installed and the date,
This radio was sold to a Mr Crawford, by FRANK CHEV, in a new vehical 00 miles, in 7-2-42! this vehical [I beleive truck]was sold during WWII rationing Mr Crawford must have been consider High Priority, in order to buy a new Chevrolet at this time, Civilion production for Chevrolet ended January 30 ,1942, many of the last cars and truck where put in storage. 56,172 vehicals where sold to high priority people from March9,1942 to July 31,1942.
It would be interesting to find out who Mr Crawford was and why he was on the high priority list , but I have no idea where the radio came from, does any one know of a FRANK CHEV that was in buisness during WWII?

Bill,
the only source I can think of is the folks on the VCCA and in particular, Ray Holland, "Chevyradioman" Do you use their site because I could ask if you like.

Fred

I have though of the VCCA, I've been a member for over 30 years.
I've also been trying a few other avenues, tring to see if the US high priority list is still around.

major manufactured goods like vehicles were allocated "at the moment" via certificate rationing - only after an applicant demonstrated need, there wasn't a list of individuals, rather local rationing boards you applied to if your occupation was on a list of "essential occupations" ... like farmer

Z Frank Chevrolet in Chicago was supposedly the largest Chev dealer in the US during WW2, might have been from there

Bill