My home town is Knoxville. High school classmates of mine are passing around this interesting photograph from the archives of the Knoxville News=Sentinel:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gov. Prentice Cooper and Eleanor Roosevelt drive down Gay Street en route to the dedication ceremony for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Sept. 2, 1940.
What strikes me in the photograph is its remarkable similarity to the presidential motorcade in Dallas twenty-three years later - the open car driving down a city street, lined with cheering citizens, on a sunny fall afternoon.
My classmates are in disagreement as to the make of FDR's automobile. I say it's a Cadillac, but others think it is a Packard. Any help resolvimg this dispute would be much appreciated.
The 1940 Cadillac Fleetwood convertible also had a high vertical grille. If we could make out the emblem on the front of the hood, we might have our answer.
Here's a photo of the '40 Cadillac Fleetwood. Maybe the second car in the photo is a Caddy, but I'm pretty sure the other is a a Packard. The Packard is the second photo below.
Gary
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Franklin D. Roosevelt Sunshine Special
The Sunshine Special was widely used before and during World War II to chauffeur President Roosevelt in countless public appearances. It began a more-than-50-year run of Lincolns as the "official" White House limousines.
The Sunshine Special was built after Roosevelt's inauguration. When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941 the Secret Service needed a fully armored bullet proof car to transport the President to Congress for his famous 'date of infamy' speech so they used a Cadillac that the Treasury Dept. had confiscated from gangster Al Capone.
The President continued to use the Capone car until his Sunshine Special was upgraded to the same safety standards.
Notwithstanding the above good information, I don't think the lead car in the Knoxville motorcade, the one carrying Franklin and Eleanor, is the Sunshine Special. The grille is wrong. I'm willing to go along with the Packard suggestion, though I've found no corroborating evidence that FDR used a Packard as his official car.
It could also be said that prior to 12-7-41 the Protective Services were more concerned with comfort and communications from the Presidential vehicle than with bomb/bullet proofing.
Could be the parade car was a loaner from the local Packard dealer.
Those are good points, Squire. In those days, the President's protective service may not have even taken the trouble to transport the main limousine by rail or truck from Washington to the hinterlands.
