One of my favorite interviews was with Gerry Huth, who started Hollywood Plastics with Bill Campbell (fiberglass cars and boats), but is best known for his company, Huth Mufflers, and the bending equipment he designed and built in the 1950s. Gerry built one of my favorite cars from the 1940s, the 1948 Huth Custom Cadillac, pictured above. I interviewed Gerry about this sport custom, and was curious about why he built it. “I built it to attract attention to our muffler business, which was much more like a speed shop than what you think of a muffler shop today,” he said. “People were fascinated by the new designs of cars right after World War II and crowds would gather at our shop to watch the progress. It was a lot of work, but worth the effort – just once, though. It took me over a year to build that car! I built cars before the Custom Cadillac, but that one was my last.”
I asked Gerry what shows he took his Custom Cadillac to. He burst out laughing and said, “Geoff, there weren’t any shows back then to take cars to. That didn’t start until later.” Indeed, the first car show of significance was the Hot Rod Exposition in 1948. The Huth Cadillac, by the way, has been missing since 1950, so if anybody knows where it is, we’d like to hear from you.