Evening star., 1949-06-12
By C!orenee R. Dore

By Clorenee r. Dore
CHICAGO. June IL oCDN -
Preston Thomas Tucker. fast
talking super er-promoter. has found
his way into a $28 900 900 fiasco
in the automobile manufacturing
industry.
During the 1s-week inquiry into
Mr.. fuckers company that was
supposed to build the dream car
of the postwar world and didn't,
about 100 witnesses testified be-
fore the grand jury.
BY all accounts, they told amaz-
ing stories of how the $28 900 900
putt-putted away.
Meanwhile, Mr.. Tucker. IS, q
rather handsome, affable. dark
haired man with q fair for loud
neckties and white socks. brooded
in his $45. 900 apartment here.
The Government put me into
business, and now it's trying to
wreck me-" he bemoaned. The
auto tycoons Of Detroit are be-
hind it."
Thousands Of Investors.
Mr.. fuckers walls are mingled
with the cries of thousands of
persons who invested in his COM
pany, visioning the miracle OF
another Henry Ford; of hope-to-
be dealers who never got cars to
sell, and of thousands Of plain
citizens who ordered a Tucker
Torpedo and probably never will
drive one.
In the midst Of it all, sounds
that are not happy are coming
from the two Federal bankruptcy
trustees who are trying to see
what, II anything. can be salvaged
from the bust
The astounding thing about the
Tucker dream was that 1t started
with a nice hunk of capital at a
time when the public, hungry for
cars, leaped for his promised
product.
No other man, with the ex-
ception of Henry Kaiser. ever
entered the industry with such
fanfare. No other man ever en-
countered a greater public
warmth for something new"
Only Is Cars Made.
But where are the famed rear
engine Tucker Torpedoes? Only
Is are known to have been made
all by hand labor. One sup
posedly finished model "fell
apart" in its test. Others are
reported unable to run backward.
All of this raises another ques-
ton: Who was and is Preston
Tucker?
He was born at Capac, Mich.
on September 81. 1908. When he
was only 8, the story goes. a
car ran over his toes and he de-
veloped a personal interest in
such machines.
At IL, young Tucker was pilot
ing an automobile-by what
special dispensation, 1t is not
clear.
At 13. he became an Office boy
in the Cadillac plant at Detroit,
during his three years there. he
says, he was an engineering pupil
Of D. Mccall White. then vice
president and general manager.
Mr.. White, who later served as
a consultant ut the Tucker fac
tory here: Is not very proud of
his one time pupil. His comment
Is: Tucker had a lot of people in
the plant who didn't know their
business. including himself"
Became Garage Operator.
From Cadillac, Mr.. Tucker went
to the Ford factory at Dearborn,
Mich. for a year.
Next he bobbed up in 1928 as
operator of a garage and repair
shop known as fuckers Serv-
ice" in Lincoln Park, a Detroit
suburb.
He sold the garage after IA
months and became a policeman
in Lincoln Park. But there was
some mixup over his age qualifica-
ton and he was dismissed.
For the next few years, Mr..
Tucker did saleswork for Stude-
baker at Detroit and Memphis,
then for Pierce Arrow at Buffalo.
Prohibition died In 1888 and
Mr.. Tucker believed there was
more money in human thirst. He
became traffic manager for the
n n.~-.I.A .l.A l.~