The Magic of Murphy Bodies

Part of this depended on the desire of the customer as tastes varied, so some recognizable feature off a designer’s drawing board may have morphed through stages. Indeed, design motifs were to order and seldom were exactingly duplicated. The entire concept of a custom coachbuilt car was a reflection of bygone days when unique horse-drawn coaches dignified households and owners as an individual expression of personalized transport.

By 1915, most coaches and carriages with single horses were fading in appearance as that industry bade its farewell decline upon superior encroachment of the automobile. By 1920, few carriages were constructed unless a black-suited and aged Mr. Potter (a la “It’s a Wonderful Life”) still stuck to the old way.

Sensing the pizzazz of the automobile era, Walter M. Murphy encouraged his designers to embody their techniques on the automobile with uniquely Californian expression. The company bearing his name began in earnest during 1921 in Pasadena, Calif., an area that came to be considered swanky during the 20th Century. The Murphy name became appreciated for the modern lines and personalized touches that set its bodies apart from most contemporaries. Initially, Murphy’s income came from being a Simplex dealer, and then an early dealer of Leland-built Lincolns. Mr. Murphy had many of those early Lincolns made more fashionably modern with lower roofs and brighter colors when buyers demanded, making them better suited to southern California’s trendy and vibrant culture.

In the 1920s, simple things mattered in design. Roof lines were curved, colors were becoming the epicenter for experimentation, appointments bloomed and other well-applied expressions garnered the “oohhhs” and “ahhhhs” of moneyed clients who wanted to wear their cars like a mogul’s best-fitting, hand-tailored suit, or a motion picture star’s best long mink. 

The chassis upon which Murphy’s bodies appeared practically ran the alphabet of notable car makers. It included the imported Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz to accent the blend, plus very American brands. Murphy bodies appeared on chassis by Buick, Detroit’s Cadillac (which was making a stab into the luxury market as never before) and even the uptown department-store-named Hudson, the once-monumental and aged Locomobile, Peerless and its implied betterment, plus Packard which was, by then, a dominant force for people of all “proper” high-class tastes. No custom-design house seemed proper unless Packard was included, partly due to that company’s desire to approve of special designs on its chassis — thus setting a standard. Duesenberg was often associated with Murphy, as it built more bodies for the Duesenberg Model J chassis than any other coachbuilder, and was also a dealer of the brand. The relationship was reciprocal, adding further prestige and excitement to each brand. Truth be told, the respected names of all the chassis associated with it were good for the Murphy business as it showed Murphy was a coachbuilder for all seasonings.

Many of the greatest names in automobile design penned bodies for Murphy, among them Franklin Q. Hershey, W. Everett Miller and Philip Wright. Their sporty and innovative designs while at Murphy occasionally incorporated convertible tops that not only folded, but completely disappeared. They drew unusually thin pillars between the windows that gave Murphy bodies better visibility and a lightness of design. A couple Murphy sedan bodies designed by Hershey had door window frames that extended into the roof to aid entry and egress. Generally, Murphy designs proved profitable as buyers seemed to line up for their special orders to be taken.

For a time, business was so keen that Earle C. Anthony, major West Coast distributor for Packard, was nurturing special designs of more major note, per Murphy. At times, the designs were drafted by the Murphy staff, approved by purchasers, then subbed-out to other firms for completion. 

The world looked good for the Murphy operation until the economy took a dive in late 1929 due to the Great Depression. By 1932, it was hard to find many millionaires who braved the rocks and rotten tomatoes aimed by the homeless and jobless as expansive and expensive luxury cars graced the byways. A major shift in the automobile coachbuilding business had hit hard. Murphy workers felt the sting. By 1932, Murphy, as it had been known, was a thing of the past. However, two former Murphy employees, Christian Bohman and Maurice Schwartz, came to establish their own coachbuilding firm in Murphy’s dust.

Tastes eventually made an uptick as an occasional far-sighted car collector appreciated a coachbuilt car’s lines as a piece of art, including those lines found on a Murphy-bodied classic custom. There was pure dash, formality and personal expression behind those surviving four-wheeled classic customs. No longer were coachbuilt designs seen as beached whales amid a market which had its tide go out — far out. Most large classic customs were seen as gasping, gas-guzzling behemoths worth a mere $300 by the 1940s only to stop the ebb and enhance the flow toward a future by the 1950s. By then, classic customs, especially those by Murphy, were showing a promising future and began to retake their high-water mark as they became considered collector investments of refinement.

What happened to Murphy was duplicated, much to the chagrin of other classic custom coachbuilders during that period of decline followed by rise. Today, the name Murphy stands among the greats, its metalwork and interior accents reflective of an era never to be repeated, when cars were often brawny, sometimes petite, ultra- costly and extravagant, awe-inspiring, and the manifestation of dreams.

That was the era of classic customs.

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