Woodies Surfboards and Art Exhibit
Weekends of October 22 to December 18,
2011.
Nothing conjures up images of
classic California Beach lifestyle more than the great American Woodie
automobiles, and the surfboards that always go alongside. We have invited
owners of Woodies from Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties to
display their cars at the museum, and the surfboards shown have been made by
Ventura County residents.
A display of art work
showcasing Woodies will include featured artists Evelyn Jenkins Drew and Ralph
Allen Massey. Evelyn Drew's artwork has been used on the Surfrider label of
Rosenthal Estate Wines. Paintings by Ralph Allen Massey will include "After Hours" and "Hawaii 48".
The exhibit is sponsored
Rosenthal Estate Wines.
The Murphy Auto Museum is a supporter of the Ventura County Wine Trail and the Downtown Oxnard Art Beat.
1950 Ford Woodie of Rick and Eliane White of the Santa
Barbara Woodie Club will be the on display this October.
Malibu Pier by Evelyn Jenkins Drew
Click image below to see paintings.
Hawaii 48 by Ralph Massey
Woodies have influenced our language: The first Woodies, which were used to ferry passengers from train stations to hotels, were called “depot hacks.” Later, “hack” became a slang term for taxicabs that provided the same service. In the ‘60s, the early history of Woodies influenced the name for another form of transportation that carried a lot of people and luggage: the station wagon.
“In their early years, Woodies were not produced on an assembly line, but were hand-made by independent craftsmen that added a look of carved elegance to what began as an unfinished body,” said Karen McClaflin, Executive Director of the California Automobile Museum. “Later, U.S. car makers turned to wood to re-create that elegance in cars that stood out from the crowd as buyers were starved for a new, stylish look after years of war when no cars were produced at all.”
In the U.S., however, the first Woodies were built for their utility. Wooden bodies were added to truck chassis which could handle the weight of many passengers and luggage at travel resorts, train stations or by sports teams, and became known as station wagons or estate wagons. In 1928, Henry Ford began mass producing Woodie bodies for the Model A after purchasing a half-million acres of hardwood forest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In the ‘40s, General Motors followed suit by producing Woodies on its own assembly lines.
Thank you to our sponsors and supporters that made this exhibit possible:
Rosenthal Wine Estates
Surfboards: Augie Castaneda , Hurvey Favre Felix , Shawn Demmon , Mike Ortega , James Kaye
Skeeter Rader : Coachmen Car club
Glenn Eldridge : Westcoast Gearheads
George Pumphrey : Santa Barbara Woodies Club
Brett Hardison : Ventura County Model T Club
Artists:
Evelyn Jenkins Drew
Ralph Allen Massey
Vince Felix
Woodie Owners:
Rick & Elaine White : 50 Ford Woodie (Country Squite Wagon)
Jerry Reisinger : 52 Pontiac Tin-Woodie ( Chieftain Station Wagon)
Bob Gehricke : 50 Ford Woodie