8089: ERB's Automobiles I

When Edgar Rice Burroughs made that observation at the age of 59 in a 1934 issue of Rob Wagner’s Script magazine, he knew he was living in an extraordinary epoch of human history. Before his life ended, he would see still other momentous inventions, including television and the atomic bomb. Burroughs loved some of those inventions, and disliked others. The one he loved most of all, though, and the one that too often caused him distress in return, was the automobile.

At the age of 38, ERB purchased his first car in the summer of 1913, while he and his family were living in San Diego. It was a Velie, a brand of automobile produced by the Velie Motors Corporation in Moline, Illinois. Years later, Burroughs recalled making that major purchase: “My stories were now selling as fast as I could write them and I could write them pretty rapidly, so I bought a second-hand automobile and became a plutocrat.” Irwin Porges’ ERB biography contains a photo of Emma and children Joan and Hulbert standing by ERB’s old Velie in Tijuana, Mexico, during the family’s 1914 visit there.

During his family’s sojourn in California between October 1913 and mid-March 1914, ERB completed and sold five stories. From magazine sales of those stories and syndication fees, Burroughs earned about $6,000. With more cash than he knew what do with, he decided it was time to upgrade his conveyance. Before leaving San Diego for the East, he ordered a new Hudson automobile for delivery in Chicago when the family arrived. (The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson brand automobiles in Detroit from 1909 to 1954.) Within a year, though, Burroughs had invested in another car, a 1915 Mitchell. (Founded in 1900, Mitchell-Lewis Motor Company made wagons and motorcycles before manufacturing automobiles from 1903-1923.)

Touring the environs of Chicago in his automobile became one of Burroughs’ greatest pleasures prior to moving his family to California in 1919. In a 1914 biographical sketch, the author noted, “Next to Mr. Burroughs’ devotion to his family comes his love of motoring. Rain or shine, summer or winter, you may see him every afternoon with his family upon the Chicago boulevards or far out on some delightful country road beyond the city limits.”

By 1916, though, Burroughs had purchased the first of what would become his favorite automobile brand — the Packard. (The Packard Motor Car Company built luxury automobiles in Detroit starting in 1899.) A dozen years later, ERB wrote in a letter to friend Bert Weston, “I imagine you will get a lot of pleasure out of your new Lincoln roadster, but for me I am afraid I am a dyed-in-the-wool Packard user.”

The 1916 Road Trip East & West

In those last few years in Chicago, Burroughs was not content simply to cruise around the city’s hinterlands. When it came time to take a vacation in 1916, his love of cars led him to plan a long motoring and camping trip with his family. The original destination was Moosehead Lake in the Maine woods. According to Burroughs’ own records, the meandering trip eventually lasted three months and nine days, putting 6,008 miles on odometer of his Packard Twin Six 1-35 touring car.

The trip began on June 14, 1916, with the Packard in the lead, followed by an Overland delivery car, and a trailer. The caravan’s passengers included ERB and Emma with children Joan (8), Hulbert (6), Jack (3), a maid, a chauffeur, and an Airedale terrier pup named Tarzan. The original itinerary included Indiana, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Frustrations of various sorts began piling up almost immediately. “Detroit is a nightmare of a place to drive a car,” Burroughs noted in his journal of the trip. “Narrow, winding streets, packed solid on both sides with cars where ever the law permits them to park.” After a month on the road, ERB and Emma decided to bag the eastern trip and head for Los Angeles. The family arrived back at their Oak Park home on July 28. They left for LA 10 days later with ERB at the wheel of the Packard and a new chauffeur driving the Republic truck ERB had purchased to carry the family’s luggage.

After encountering bad weather in the mid-West states, ERB gave up on camping. On September 9, 1916, he wrote in his journal, “Have shipped the bulk of equipment by freight … Shall drive through to Los Angeles over the Santa Fe Trail as rapidly as possible.” Porges described that phase of the trip.

“With the rains of Kansas and Colorado behind him, Ed was happy to drive through Arizona and New Mexico, covering distances of from 140 to 200 miles daily on roads that were at least temporarily dry. However, there was little improvement in the quality of the roads.”

That appears to be an understatement. According to Hulbert, the only pavement they drove on during the entire trip was in the bigger towns, and even there it “consisted of red bricks and in some cases four-by-four wooden plank road.” They crossed deserts on packed sand roads, and Hulbert recalls having to stop on some narrow mountain roads because the Packard’s front wheels were too wide apart for it to make some turns in the road. At such times, the whole family had to exit the car and watch as ERB physically shimmied the front and back ends of the car around enough for it to make the turn.

On September 23, 1916, the three-month adventure finally concluded when the caravan arrived in Los Angeles. Three months later, a representative of the Republic Motor Truck Company asked Burroughs to write the text for “a little book detailing your experiences with your Republic truck on your recent transcontinental journey.” Titled “An Auto-Biography,” the booklet was distributed “compliments” of the Republic company.

Despite all the struggles encountered during that road trip, ERB never lost the love of adventure that driving excursions provided. A photo in the Porges biography shows ERB, Emma, the children, and the family car in California’s Mariposa Grove of Big Trees in August 1919.

The 1924 Trip to Mono Creek

In August 1924 ERB and his sons left LA in his Packard for a week-long fishing trip in the Sierras. They stopped for the night at a remote location along Mono Creek. The next morning the car wouldn’t start. Porges described how ERB tackled the problem.

“The handyman had forgotten to place tools in the car, but Ed, a pioneer in long auto trips under the most difficult and primitive conditions, had through circumstances become a fairly skilled mechanic and troubleshooter. He succeeded in opening the carburetor with a jackknife and can opener, and within an hour the trio was on its way.”

Their car troubles were just beginning, though. Again, from Porges:

“The battery ceased to function and the lights became too dim to view the road. The travelers arrived in Mojave at 2:30 a.m., and near dawn they ran out of gasoline. Luckily they were on a down grade and coasted to within two miles of Saugus; then they pushed the car the remainder of the way. More pushing followed to make the car start.”

The 1925 Trip to Grand Canyon

Though chaotic affairs, the Burroughs family road trips continued throughout the 1920s. In August 1925, the family vacation was a driving trip to the Grand Canyon. They returned to the Grand Canyon, this time the north rim, in 1927. That trip, which included visiting Zion and Bryce canyons, was perhaps the most ill-fated automobile vacation the Burroughs family endured. Porges summarized ERB’s account of the many mishaps.

“As they lurched across the Mojave Desert after leaving Baker, it was easy to understand why the steep two-thousand foot ascent should be a staggering feat for the Packard … Plagued by bad roads and a never-ending sequence of misfortunes that included flat tires, battery failures, and a leaking radiator, the vacationers also managed to get mired twice in thick mud, and on the return trip, the Packard surrendering against impossible odds, had to be towed by the Buick all the way in from San Bernardino. The seven-day tour ended at Tarzana on September 4.”

By the mid-1920s, ERB ‘s income had increased to point where he could afford to own multiple automobiles. The Porges biography contains a photo showing three cars sitting side-by-side in ERB’s garage — two new Packards and a Hudson roadster. Still, ERB may have been plotting with his Nebraska friend Bert Weston to get a new Lincoln at a reduced price. In an April 13, 1927, letter, Weston went over the details of the plan.

“Here is the dope on the Lincoln car. The car you would get would be like ours, except it would not have disk wheels, and the extras over the standard 7 pass sedan would be; wheels, or rather tires, carried in wells on the foot boards, 1 extra tire, rim and cover, and trunk rack in the back. The list price on this Lincoln f o b Omaha is $5394.30. I can buy it for $4544.30, or a saving of $850 over list. There is $1,000 profit to the deal on this car … I to buy it for myself for my own use in Calif. You to be along and drive it out there for me, and incidentally use it till I arrive. It would have my Nebraska license, and would be my car. Then after a few months, I could not come to Calif. I could sell it to you. See?”

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, ERB continued taking automobile vacations with family members. In July 1928 the destination was Mexico. An auto-camping trip to Lower California’s Ensenada area in September 1929 was an escape for Burroughs and his two sons. That same year, in an article titled “My Diversions” revealed another way he shared his fascination for automobiles with Hulbert and Jack.

“I had an old Packard Twin-Six sedan for a number of years and when I found it desirable to replace it with a later model, my sons and I converted the old sedan into a truck, cutting off the tonneau behind the driver’s seat and mounting a dump body on the frame. This gives us a powerful two ton truck and in the afternoon, whenever I am able to do so, I take this truck back into the hills, sometimes hauling a load of manure from the stables on the way out and then loading the truck up with top soil, or gravel, or flagstones for the return trip.”

The 1930 Trip to Oregon

The family’s summer auto excursion in 1930 took them up the Redwood Highway to Grants Pass in Oregon. As this was the family’s annual vacation, Burroughs had planned all the logistics carefully. He explained in a letter to his friend Bert Weston.

“There are trailers that hook on behind a car with a special hitch. The big one, which is called a Pullman and is twenty feet long, was hauled by my old 1921 Packard Roadster. This car contains two lower berths, two upper berths, long divan, lavatory, toilet, refrigerator, clothes press and various drawers and compartments for clothing or what have you. The other trailer, which we used as a commissary car, was hauled by a Ford Pick-up car that I bought for the purpose. It was our dining room and kitchen. We took the cook and his wife, who slept in the commissary car.”

The 1933 Trips to Death Valley & Arizona

No matter how much ERB planned these auto vacations, though, all sorts of unforeseen complications could crop up. Another example is the family’s spring trip to Death Valley in 1933. After departing from their Malibu home in a Lincoln Twelve Sedan, ERB drove through Barstow in the afternoon and then on into Death Valley "challenges”. “We were stranded without ice water and only a few cookies,” he later noted. They eventually arrived at Furnace Creek Inn. A couple of days later, they drove to Dante’s View, 6,000 feet above the valley. According to Porges, they faced “new challenges" on the drive home to Malibu, which took 9 hours and 25 minutes.

The trip to Death Valley would be the last auto vacation for the Burroughs family. Daughter Joan, who turned 25 in 1933, did not accompany her parents and brothers on the Death Valley trip, and Hulbert (23) and Jack (20) also had lives of their own beyond the family. However, it was a growing alienation between ERB and his wife Emma that led to the final demise of the Burroughs family automobile excursions. In the summer of 1933, just a few months after the family returned from Death Valley, Burroughs decided to take a “thinking trip” alone to consider his marriage with Emma. With a trailer packed with mess equipment hitched to his luxurious front-wheel drive Cord automobile, ERB headed for Arizona.

According to Porges, Burroughs soon found the combination of excessive weight and steep grades too much for the Cord. He detached the trailer and left it for pickup on the way home. Driving on, he stayed at a ranch lodge owned by friends on the Little Colorado River, 11 miles from Springerville, Arizona. Although he remained there at least three weeks, Burroughs could not reconcile in his mind the continuation of his marriage to Emma. ERB was granted a divorce in Las Vegas on December 4, 1934. Four months later, he married Florence Dearholt in the same city.

The story of Edgar Rice Burroughs and the automobile picks up again in 1938, when, in August of that year, the couple sailed to Hawaii for a vacation. When they left Honolulu on September 29, 1938, they sailed not for California and home, but to Vancouver, B.C., instead. Burroughs wanted to pick up a new 1937 Packard he had ordered. He did so in Vancouver on October 8, and he and Florence drove down the coast in it, arriving in Tarzana three days later.

ERB’s Wheels in Hawaii

Needing to reduce his expenses, ERB and Florence moved to Honolulu in April 1940. The couple soon became a fixture in the city’s high-society social scene. In a 1941 letter to Bert Weston, Burroughs described the socializing and a new automobile he had purchased.

“Hotel del Coronado, Hotel Arroyo Seco, touring in a magnificent Buick; and then back to the old family manor to take up idling in a big way. About the Buick, you hurt me. It has never failed me. Even after a five ton truck with ten tons of crushed rock telescroped it, it still ran to the repair garage under its own power, after we had picked a fender out of the rear wheel port. You must not have treated yours right: maybe you spoke to it harshly, causing it to weep oil from its hydraulic brakes. You should be more understanding with a sensitive car like the Buick.”

ERB’s excessive drinking at parties caused tension in his marriage with Florence. Porges gave an example when it came to driving. “She had never cared for drinking, and now with Ed drunk almost every night, she was forced to do all the driving. She dreaded driving his huge Pierce Arrow convertible over the mountain roads in the dark.” This and other problems led to a separation. Florence and her children sailed for the mainland in March 1941. She was granted a divorce in May 1942.

After Burroughs received his United Press credentials as a war correspondent in November 1942, the U.S. military provided him a government vehicle. In a letter to daughter Joan in January 1943, he revealed, “I am occasionally up at 4 a.m. and off for a story in Bouncing Baby, my jeep.”

ERB’s Final Cars

On October 28, 1945, Edgar Rice Burroughs flew from Honolulu to Hamilton Field in California. He would spend the remaining four and a half years of his life surrounded by his family in Southern California. His first year back he drove his old wartime Buick, which he had shipped home from Hawaii. To replace it in 1947, he purchased a new convertible Roadmaster coupe.

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ love-hate relationship with the automobile came to a crushing conclusion on April 8, 1948. His attempt to enter busy traffic on Ventura Boulevard that day resulted in a three-car accident. The next day, the Los Angeles Times reported the sequence of events. “A similarly new sedan of the same make … was unable to stop in time … (This) car struck the rear of another new sedan of the same make … (the) car then collided with Burroughs’ rendering all three neither shiny nor new.”

According to Porges, ERB’s eyesight had been failing him. “His narrowed peripheral vision and lack of good depth perception caused him to misjudge the distance and speed of the other vehicles.” Porges eloquently and succinctly summarized Edgar Rice Burroughs’ history with automobiles. “As a result of this accident and a realization of the hazards of driving at his age (72), his long love affair with the automobile came to an end. From the secondhand Velie of 1913 to the Buick Roadster of 1948, it had been an eventful thirty-five years.”

ERB's Roadster Coupe is to the left in the photo
taken after the three-car collision on April 8, 1948.

— The End —

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