From the sliding glass doors of his white brick ranch home in Bristol, Ind., 44-year-old David Sanders can see a 7,200-square-foot wood structure about 200 feet in the distance.
In the stable-like quarters is a vast collection of Chryslers, Fords, Packards, Pontiacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Lincolns. But these cars aren’t full-size automobiles of the gas-guzzling variety.
They’re pedal cars, child-size metal vehicles of the foot-powered variety.
“I’ve enjoyed the lines and features of cars all my life and so small toys intrigue me,” says Sanders, a former car collector who now owns more than 200 pedal cars. “I just think pedal cars are neat.”
Sanders finds the toys at swap meets, estate sales, auctions, toy shows and antique stores and from private individuals. One of his most prized mini-mobiles is a 1937 black Steelcraft Auburn, with chrome sidepipes and pneumatic tires.
Sanders’ museum is still under construction, and he expects to finish it around the end of March. It will include a replica of an old-time fire station, where 21 firetrucks and fire-chief pedal cars from 1921 through 1964 will be displayed. Another area will have a Wurlitzer jukebox and assorted memorabilia. Sanders will exhibit his ’50s and ’60s pedal cars there.
“It’ll be like a walk back in time as you go through it,” he beams.
Sanders is not alone in his passion for pedal cars. Once property of 3- to 8-year-old tykes, yesterday’s toy cars are today’s hot collectibles.
According to John Rastall, publisher of Wheel Goods Trader, a monthly magazine dedicated to the enjoyment and preservation of antique and collectible pedal cars, there are more than 6,000 enthusiasts in the U.S. who collect and restore wheeled toys, also known as juvenile automobiles, kiddie cars and sidewalk autos.
“Pedal-car collecting started around 1980, when a few auto enthusiasts began to buy pedal cars to accent their car collection,” says Rastall.
Aficionados not only include automotive fans such as Sanders but also nostalgia buffs, toy collectors and investors who believe pedal cars will increase in value. Most are men, age 18 to 65, on a hunt for toy cars produced from 1900 to 1975.
Sanders, who remembers “driving” a blue 1949 Pontiac Steelcraft kiddie car as a child, became interested in the miniature vehicles again after seeing a couple at his neighbor’s house in 1994. A year later, Sanders went to an auction in Goodland, Ind., looking for a cabinet. Instead, he took home his first three pedal cars–1960s Murray toys, for $175 a piece. He was hooked.
Sanders sees pedal cars as a way of continuing his love affair with the automobile but without the upkeep.
“I got tired of the maintenance involved with the classic cars. There was always something to do–change the oil, the battery. Pedal cars don’t take up as much space, either,” says Sanders, who once owned 23 vintage automobiles. He still has five, including a ’57 dust rose Thunderbird.
Pedal cars today can range from $250 for an early 1960s AMF firetruck to $60,000 for a rare, 1925 Alemite Paige with its original convertible top, according to Jane Dwyre Garton, author of “Pedal Cars, Chasing the Kidillac” (Schiffer Publishing).
Dwyre Garton is married to Anthony Garton, the great grandson of Eusebius Bassingdale Garton, founder of the Garton Toy Co. in Sheboygan, Wis. Garton Toys was once one of the largest pedal-car makers in the country.
Dwyre Garton says the publisher chose her to write the book “because I had direct access to information about Garton Toys and pedal cars. Plus, I had a good entree into pedal-car collecting.”
The popularity of the pedal car and the growth of the pedal-car industry pretty much mirror that of the automobile. Like the motor car, juvenile autos started to catch on in the early 1900s, though the earliest kiddie cars were built in the 1890s. They were handmade from spare parts, mostly by fathers for their youngsters.
Rastall says the first commercial maker was probably Toledo Metal Wheel in 1901. Garton, Kirk-Latty, Sideway-National and Gendron soon followed.
Eugene DeGraw, 58, a collector from Indianapolis adds: “Companies thought Junior would like to have a car like Dad’s. But pedal cars were also used as promotions by car dealers–`buy a full-size car, we’ll give one to your boy.’ “
DeGraw has more than 25 pedal cars in his finished basement.
Pedal cars also appeared on calendars, post cards and magazines and were used to advertise products from insurance companies to cereals including Mutual of Omaha, Cream of Wheat, General Electric and Texaco.
Like their adult counterparts, kiddie cars were made of steel, though initially they had wooden frames. The small vehicles were sold in catalogs and department, hardware and toy stores. Pedal cars were made not only in the likeness of family cars but also racing cars and firetrucks as well as boats, tractors, locomotives, airplanes and space ships.
Until the late 1940s, pedal cars were purchased mainly by affluent parents for their children to play with on sidewalks and at home. In the 1920s, a simple pedal car might run $10 to $12, says DeGraw, a significant purchase. A model “with all the bells and whistles” such as hand-brakes and breakaway windshield, could run $50 or more.
Rastall estimates that there were as many as 200 pedal-car makers, manufacturing more than 6 million cars. Many companies were around the Great Lakes with proximity to steel mills.
Most experts say Murray Ohio was the largest. Garton, Gendron and Junior Toy (later AMF) were among America’s top producers.
Dwyre Garton writes that Murray Ohio built millions of pedal cars, more than any of its competitors, until 1973, when it turned to bicycles and power mowers.
The Cleveland company began in 1919 as a subsidiary of Murray Body Co. of Detroit, a supplier of fenders, gas tanks and other sheet-metal parts for cars. Management, however, thought it unwise to depend totally on the cyclical automobile. In a move to diversify in the early ’20s, the company entered the wheeled-toy market, building miniature trucks.
In 1924, Murray began making pedal cars under the name Steelcraft. By the late ’30s, they were made under the Murray label.
The Murray Champion, the company’s top seller in 1951, frequently is one of the first cars in a collection. The cute car has a molded body and head and tail lights stamped in and painted on. It sold for about $14 in the ’50s, and now commands $500 to $1,500.
And though boys and girls were featured in pedal car ads and toy catalogs, most pedal cars were powered by boys.
“Girls were more into dolls and buggies,” says Sanders.
But Viktor Schreckengost, 93, designer of the Champion and chief designer for Murray from 1937-1971, recalls that in the 1950s, Murray produced some pedal cars with feminine appeal.
One was a turquoise station wagon. “It had an open area in back so kids could haul things around, and it had a Swiss music box that played `Whistle while you work.’ Murray got permission from Walt Disney to reproduce the song,” says Schreckengost. “We also made a pink and white ice cream truck–girls loved it.”
Garton made juvenile autos from 1904 and 1975, longer than any other manufacturer, and shipped 1 million between 1948 and 1962, says Dwyre Garton. The most coveted is the Kidillac.
The Kidillac, a kiddie Cadillac, was produced from 1950 to 1963. It was often featured in Cadillac showrooms. Like adult autos, accessories and colors, from the mundane to bright orange or “Elvis pink,” would change each year to boost sales.
The Kidillac also came in dozens of versions, including fire and police cars, selling for $16 to $37. Expect to pay $1,200 or more today if it’s in decent condition.
Garton also produced novel pedal cars in the 1950s, among them the Space Cruiser (1953), the Dragnet Auto (1956) and the Hot Rod Racer (1953 and 1956).
Then there is Gendron, the Toledo company that built pedal cars between 1904 and 1940. According to Frederic W. Strobel, president and chief executive of Gendron Inc., which now makes wheelchairs, hospital gurneys and replicas of its cars, Gendron made hundreds of Pioneer, Skippy Racer, American National and Blue Streak toy autos.
Junior Toy Co. began making tricycles and scooters in Hammond in the 1930s. In 1952, it bought Junior Toy. And in 1956, it began turning out cars after acquiring pedal-car maker BMC.
AMF was among the last to use metal in its juvenile autos. Until the early ’80s, AMF made metal cars, including a hydraulic weapons carrier, firetrucks, mail trucks, patrol cars, dump trucks, tractors and Mustangs.
AMF was purchased by Roadmaster in 1982. Roadmaster stopped making pedal cars two years later.
In the late ’60s and early ’70s most pedal manufacturers switched to plastic bodies.
“Plastic was lighter and cheaper to produce,” says Dwyre Garton. It was also easier to meet stricter U.S. guidelines, which included the elimination of sharp edges and “pinch points” that could cut little fingers.
By 1975, pedal cars were going out of style. Toy competition was heavy and the profits in pedal cars were slim. Manufacturers went out of business or turned to more lucrative items such as garden equipment, bicycles, tricycles, wagons and plastic ride-on toys.
Thoroughly modern pedal cars
Love the look of yesterday’s pedal cars but feel sticker shock over today’s prices?
Perhaps, a reproduction is for you.
John Rastall, publisher of Wheel Goods Trader magazine, says dozens of companies offer reproductions. Among them: Back to Basic Toys (800-356-5360) and Vintique Pedal Cars (618-549-1598).
Vintique, of Olney, Ill., is producing a remake of the 1966 AMF Fire Fighter 508.
Vintique’s president and founder, David Camfield, was a toy designer for AMF and Roadmaster from 1969 to 1998. Camfield acquired AMF’s original dies and molds in 1986 and is using them to make the replicas priced at $500.
Pedal Toys Inc. in Dodge Center, Minn., sells assembled reproductions with body styles from the ’50s for $229 to $399.
Owner George McNeilus, 55, a pedal-car collector, says Pedal Toys “started out as a hobby and now it’s a fairly sizable business. I’m an old-car nut who got out of control. I just thought there were a lot of people out there who liked the toys but didn’t want to pay the $1,200 to $1,500 price tags.”
He created Pedal Toys in November 1998 hoping to market 500 to 600 replicas in ’99. Pedal Toys has sold 3,000 reproductions this year.
McNeilus has police car, taxi cab, dump truck and firetruck models. The firetruck comes with a bell and wooden ladders.
Some use the cars as decorations, and others purchase them for children. The juvenile autos are made of steel with lead-free paint and adjustable pedals and have passed child safety laws, says McNeilus.
For the hobbyist, Pedal Toys markets a “you-paint-it, you-assemble-it” reproduction pedal-car kit for $139, including shipping. Call Pedal Toys at 800-770-5638.
For the first time in decades, Gendron Inc., which now makes wheelchairs and hospital gurneys, will sell full-size replicas of the pedal cars that came off its line in the 1940s.
“Collectibles from the ’30s and ’40s is a lucrative business,” says Frederic W. Strobel, Gendron president and chief executive. The cars will be available in April or May. “We’re capitalizing on the fact that there’s a good market, and we’re the original company.”
The first car built will be a cream and red Pioneer Roadster, with an optional trailer. Special features will include a working hood and headlights and a simulated motor.
Later in the year, Gendron plans to unveil the Pioneer Fire Engine and the Air King Pedal Airplane, both reproductions of 1940 Gendron pedal cars.
These cars, priced from $400 to $500, are simply collectibles. Call 419-445-6060, ext. 215, or visit www.gendronwheel.com.
Cadillac to Kidillac: One designer fits all
In their hey day, pedal cars were designed by the same industrial designers who styled real automobiles.
Brooks Stevens, for example, took on assignments from as many as 40 automakers from the 1930s through the 1970s, and he is credited with designing several Jeeps, the Excalibur and the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile.
Stevens also designed dozens of kiddie cars for toy manufacturers, including Gendron Inc. and AMF, from the 1930s to the 1950s.
It is unclear whether Harley Earl or William L. Mitchell, both General Motors bigwigs, designed Garton Toy Co.’s Kidillac.
Earl directed all GM automotive styling until his retirement in 1958. The first Chevrolet Corvette in 1953 was Earl’s brainchild.
Mitchell started at GM in 1935 and is credited with designing the 1938 Cadillac 60 Special. He left in 1949 to form an industrial design firm, backed by Earl.
Research by Jane Dwyre Garton, author of “Pedal Cars, Chasing the Kidillac” (Schiffer Publishing), shows the Kidillac was most likely drawn around 1949 by Mitchell. Chances are good, though, that Earl tweaked the Kidillac.
In 1953, Earl called Mitchell back to GM. Upon Earl’s departure in 1958, Mitchell became a vice president and chief designer for GM and was responsible for the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray and the 1970 Chevrolet Camaro, until his retirement in 1978.
But the most spectacular kiddie cars, according to Dwyre Garton, were made in the 1920s and 1930s.
“It was the golden years for pedal cars,” says Eugene DeGraw, 58, an Indianapolis collector.
Many toy autos closely resembled full-size cars, with Gendron making some of the fanciest.
Gendron pedal cars featured adjustable windshields, elaborate hood ornaments, electric head and tail lights, rearview mirrors, upholstered seats, nickel-plated fenders and radiators, bumpers, pneumatic tires, license plates and working side doors. Some even had battery-powered electric motors.
Frederic W. Strobel, president and chief executive of Gendron Inc., says one of the company’s snazzier numbers, such as a 1925 Gendron Packard Coupe, commanded as much as $250.
Most of these toy autos were recycled in World War II for the production of steel tanks, guns and ammunition. Because of their scarcity and beauty, these cars fetch $10,000 to $60,000.
Most pedal cars were produced from the late ’40s to early ’60s.
Dwyre Garton says this was due in large part to the fact that “it was after WW II and steel was available again. It was also a time when Baby Boomers were happy and into spoiling their children.”
The prices–from $12 for a pedal-and-rod driven Murray Champion to $37 for a chain-driven Garton Deluxe Kidillac with battery-powered head and taillights– made the toys more accessible to the growing middle class.
Dwyre Garton says collectors think of pedal cars as “little pieces of art.”
DeGraw says every toy auto has a story and tells of his 1925 Alemite Paige. On Christmas, a poor boy won the fancy pedal car in a raffle at the five and dime.
DeGraw learned this from a friend, who bought the car in 1989 from the “boy,” by then 69 years old. In 1997, DeGraw acquired the pedal car, along with a photo of the boy sitting in it, “grinning from ear to ear.”
“Finding original pedal cars can be tough, but they can be acquired not just at swap meets and auctions, but also at flea markets and even the odd garage sale, unearthed from cluttered basements and dusty attics.”
John Rastall, publisher of Wheel Goods Trader, a magazine dedicated to antique and collectible pedal cars, advises anyone thinking about collecting pedal cars to “learn before you buy.”
He recommends magazines and books on pedal cars. “The Internet is wonderful too.” Wheel Goods Trader’s site is www.wgtpub.com. Parts and accessories are available at www.bluediamondclassics.com.
While hobbyists enjoy restoring or customizing pedal cars, Rastall cautions that if you want a car to retain its value or appreciate, get it to its original condition.
“Education is everything,” says Rastall. “And if a car is in good shape, leave it alone.”
