E.L. Cord: The Man Behind the Cord
By: Sam Maven
Tags: Cars, Cord, Automotive, El Cord, Classic Cars

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. If that wasn’t the motto by which Errett Lobban “E.L.” Cord lived his life, it should have been.

Before staking a name for himself as a pioneer in the automotive industry, E.L. tried his hand at many jobs. Some ventures were successful while many were not.

E.L. was born on July, 20, 1894, in Warrensburg, Mo. to C.W. and Ida Lobban Cord. His father was a grocer and his mother was a teacher.

Having dropped out of school, E.L. became a used car salesman. He followed that up with a stint as a mechanic and service station supervisor. Using the money he made selling cars, he started hauling ore from an Arizona mine. After growing tired of that grind, he moved to Phoenix and began selling cars again, as well as racing.

Other companies E.L. worked at included an electric company, a bus service running between Los Angeles and San Diego, and a car rental agency with one car. Additionally, he also tried selling real estate.

Despite these setbacks, E.L. always quickly gained his footing and got back up. He was approached by Jack Quinlan, whom he had sold cars for before, to purchase part of his dealership, which had just received distribution rights for the Moon car.

In 1924, with a sizable sum of commissions in his pocket, E.L. left Quinlan’s dealership to start working for the Auburn Automobile Company, which was struggling to stay afloat. He negotiated a deal with Auburn that gave him full decision-making authority, 20 percent of the profits and an option to buy controlling interest in the company. The kicker to this deal was he had to save Auburn.

By November 1925 E.L. was able to buy out the owners.The following February, he assumed the position of President and full control of the company. At the helm of Auburn, he set out to increase the footprint on the industry, buying Lycoming, Duesenberg, Checker Cab, New York Shipbuilding and other smaller companies.

In 1929, he founded the Cord Corporation as a holding company for the 150 companies he owned, predominantly in the transportation industry. That same year, he introduced the Cord L-29, the first car with his name attached to it. The L-29 is a ground-breaking vehicles as it’s the first American production passenger car with front-wheel drive. According to Second Chance Garage, the car provided a number of advantages over other cars of the day, such as “a lower center of gravity, less wind resistance, reduced weight and greater cornering power.”

In order to collect input from the public, E.L. along with a mechanic drove a prototypes of the L-29 back and forth across the country, logging 10,000 miles.

In October 1929, the stock market crashed. Unfortunately, as could be expected, the crash and cost to purchase a Cord L-29 kept a lot of would-be buyers at bay. To stem the decrease in customers, Cord started to heavily promote the car’s safety and value. Despite these efforts, sales still lagged.

By 1931, Cord stopped producing the L-29, but E.L. was not ready to hang it up yet. He set out to create a E-1 prototype, which was 20 inches longer than the L-29, but quickly changed course.

Possibly to stem the amount of loss to his many businesses after the stock market crash, E.L. started dabbling in what today we would call “Insider Trading.” The SEC and IRS caught wind of this and investigated him.

He was named the Chairman of the Board of the Auburn Automobile Company in 1931, and two years later was appointed to the same position with the Cord Corporation.

In 1935, E.L. introduced the Cord 810 and 812 at the 1935 New York Auto Show where they are well-received and even take some orders. The 810 features another American automobile first —hidden headlights that are hand-cranked.

Two years later, E.L. sold his 30 percent stake in Cord, making him a millionaire. Upon leaving the automobile industry, he dove back into real estate and mining, and eventually became a state legislator in Nevada. In 1974, he passed away at 79.

Although he was gone, his impact on American cars can still be seen today.

Source: Second Change Garage