The Golden Hudson

Every American auto manufacturer, along with most of the nation’s truck makers, was represented by a uniquely designed float. One crowd favorite was the Hudson Motor Car Co. float, which featured a continuously repeating live comedy skit. 

The two automobiles carried on the Hudson float bracketed the Detroit automaker’s 37-year history. One of the first Hudsons, a sporty “Twenty” roadster, was positioned at the front of the float. Introduced in mid-1909 as a 1910 model, the “Twenty” had quickly established the fledgling automaker as an industry comer.

A couple dressed in period-authentic driving attire was seated in the historic early Hudson. Much to the amusement of onlookers, a baton-waving “Keystone Cop” emphatically lectured the driver, as he wrote him a ticket for illegally parking near the fire hydrant also on the float.

At the rear of the float deck sat the “Golden Hudson,” a 1946 Super Six Convertible Brougham. Its special gold paint commemorated the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of Detroit’s auto industry.

Occupying the gleaming Hudson’s custom tan leather-and-vinyl interior were a “driver” and two passengers. The trio acknowledged spectators’ cheers with enthusiastic waves.

The Golden Hudson’s crew were models selected by the automaker’s public relations firm. According to a report authored by Detroit Free Press columnist Mark Beltaire, the firm had arranged for the automaker’s float to visit the Hudson plant the preceding day, “so the employees could see it before the parade.” Unfortunately, the float arrived at the plant just as a cloudburst let loose. “The models were soaked through, and there was a foot of water in the new convertible atop the float,” Beltaire wrote. “Only frantic repair work got it in shape again for Saturday’s parade.”)

Prior to the parade/cavalcade day, 14 surviving auto pioneers from the industry’s earliest days gathered for a special tribute dinner. The group included Henry Ford and Charles B. King, whose 1896 jaunts in their experimental “gas buggies” had introduced automobiles to the streets of Detroit. During the evening, 10 of the aged guests of honor became the first inductees into the Automobile Manufacturers Association (AMA) Automotive Hall of Fame.

The parade and cavalcade launched seven days of festive civic events celebrating the Jubilee. Next came an Antique Automotive Exposition at Detroit’s Convention Hall. Many of the cavalcade’s antique car owners had stayed over to show their machines. Additional vintage vehicles were provided by manufacturers and suppliers.

Mixed in with the 200-plus antique cars on display were several experimental and concept vehicles, plus 20 of the latest 1946 automobiles. The new cars stood as bellwethers of peacetime progress, even as the auto industry strove to deal with continuing postwar production challenges. 

Studebaker rushed an early example of its dramatically restyled 1947 models to Detroit for the Jubilee, thus becoming the first automaker to reveal a fully restyled post-World War II production model.

The antique car portion of the Exhibition was a judged event. Topping a lengthy list of award categories was a special Grand Prize, arranged by the AMA. In addition to a gold ribbon, the Grand Prize winner would receive the 1946 Golden Hudson Convertible from the automaker’s float!

The Grand Prize went to Mr. and Mrs. George Green, who had driven their 1904 curved-dash Oldsmobile to Detroit from their Lambertville, N.J., home to participate in the Golden Jubilee cavalcade. Their estimated 1,002-mile journey, multiplied by their vehicle’s 37 years of age, scored them a winning 42,000 points.

Charles B. King presented the Greens with the Grand Prize gold ribbon, followed by the keys to their new gold Hudson convertible. King additionally commended Green, who owned a machine shop and was a single-cylinder Oldsmobile specialist, for completing the hours-long cavalcade “without mechanical difficulty.”

According to the Hudson-Essex-Terraplane (HET) Historical Society, the Golden Hudson was, “… the first convertible built after WWII, and the only convertible built by the Hudson Motor Company to be painted gold in 1946.” Hudson would go on to produce 1,037 examples of the model for 1946, out of a total model-year production of 93,870 units. Listing for $1,426, the Super Six’s 121-in. wheelbase was shared by all 1946 Hudsons, six- or eight-cylinder. (Hudson’s eight-cylinder line didn’t enter postwar production until late in the 1946 model year.)

Leaving their new gold Hudson in Detroit, the Greens continued westward in the single-cylinder Oldsmobile, bound for California. (It was their second trip to the Golden State and back to New Jersey in the little tiller-steered antique; the previous journey having been in 1938.)

Eventually, the Golden Hudson, complete with its 1896-1946 Golden Jubilee participant license plates, was delivered to George Green’s shop in New Jersey. (Author’s note: Several years ago, a pair of the Jubilee plates, along with several photos of the Golden Hudson taken upon its arrival in New Jersey, were posted to eBay. To our regret, the offered lot was already sold.)

Following the successful completion of his second transcontinental tour, Green continued to restore single-cylinder Oldsmobiles. He and his machine shop were featured in a 1953 True Automobile Year Book article, in which author Jerome K. Westerfield took note of the 1946 Golden Hudson.

“The car reposes in [Green’s] spotlessly clean garage, along with a 1932 wire-wheeled Studebaker coupe,” Westerfield observed. He then quoted Green as saying, “The Studebaker has just turned 90,000 miles…and it’s good for many more; besides, I have the Hudson; I’m sort of keeping it in reserve.”

The Hudson was still being held in reserve in 1970, when a fire started in what was thought to be the “fire-proof” garage where it was stored. Only a “burned hulk” remained by the time the flames were subdued.

George Green died in 1974, at 88 years of age. Two years later, the severely fire-damaged Golden Jubilee Hudson was acquired by a marque fan. In 1978, that gentleman sold the remains of the historic 1946 car to HET Club member Glen Johnson, of Brigham City, Utah.

Johnson immediately tackled the daunting challenges of restoring the 1946 Detroit Auto Jubilee parade car. Four years later, he showed the reborn Golden Hudson at the 1982 HET Club’s national meet, held in Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Following Glen Johnson’s passing in 2019, his wife Maizie and son Cary donated the Golden Jubilee Super Six to the HET Historical Society. The unique car is now on display, along with a comprehensive collection of other Hudson-built vehicles and memorabilia, at the National Hudson Motor Car Museum (NHMCM) in Ypsilanti, Mich.

The museum shares its under-roof space with the Ypsilanti Automobile Heritage Museum (YAHM), which focuses on automobiles, powertrain components and other motor vehicle-related products manufactured or otherwise connected to the Ypsilanti area. 

The Hudson aspect of the combined museums is rooted in the brand’s local heritage. From 1927 to 1957, the town’s Hudson Sales and Service outlet was located at the present NHMCM location. Although the late Carl L. Miller took over its operation in 1932, it wasn’t until the mid 1950s that the dealership was renamed Miller Motors.

After Hudson’s withdrawal from the market in 1957, Carl’s son, Jack Miller, sold used cars at the dealership. He preserved the site’s long Hudson association by continuing to supply parts and services for the orphaned vehicles, while also ensuring the dealership showroom and parts department retained a Hudson focus. It was during this period that Miller Motors became known as “the world’s last Hudson dealership,” and Jack Miller acquired the sobriquet, “Mr. Hudson.”

In 1995, the well-preserved Miller Motors became the cornerstone of the expanded facilities that housed the newly dedicated Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum. 

The following year, Jack Miller orchestrated the 1946 Golden Hudson’s special appearance at Detroit’s 1996 North American International Auto Show. The historic car’s display highlighted the 100th anniversary of the auto industry in Detroit, while also serving as a reminder of the City’s 1946 Automotive Golden Jubilee.

Jack Miller served as the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage museum’s curator until 2013, when health issues intervened. He passed away in 2020, at age 81.

Eight decades have passed since Detroit’s 1946 Automotive Golden Jubilee parade and antique auto cavalcade rolled down Woodward Avenue. Although mostly forgotten today, the event likely remains the best-attended auto-themed activity ever. Few artifacts remain from that historic day, making it all the more remarkable that the Automotive Golden Jubilee Hudson float car, which turned hundreds of thousands of heads in Detroit on a chilly June day in 1946, can now be viewed and appreciated in an appropriate museum setting. 

Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum
100 E Cross St, 
Ypsilanti, MI 48198
ypsiautoheritage.org
734-482-5200

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