The Bridgeport Body Co. was one of the two Bridgeport manufacturers that supplied bodies to their cross-town customer, Locomobile. Although they built a few bodies for the air-cooled Fox and other small manufacturers, Locomobile was their primary customer. After Locomobile’s 1921 bankruptcy, Clarence W. Seward (1875-1939) and James H. Hinman (1882-1962), Bridgeport’s two owners, courted a number of regional chassis manufacturers as well as body designers such as deCausse and LeBaron looking for work. LeBaron had utilized the body builder during 1922 and 1923 and was satisfied with their work.

In the summer of 1923, LeBaron entered into a major contract with Billy Durant’s reorganized Locomobile, and a merger with the Bridgeport body builder began to make a lot of sense. The move was initiated in the fall of 1923 by Seward and Hinman who proposed a merger in exchange for stock. Dietrich thoroughly discussed the matter with Roberts and the merger took place on January 7, 1924. The new firm was called LeBaron, Inc. with Clarence W. Seward, president; Raymond H. Dietrich, vice-president; James H. Hinman, treasurer and Ralph Roberts, Secretary. Dietrich and Roberts held a marginal controlling interest with 105 shares a piece, while the Bridgeport partners each held 100 shares.

As automobile architects, Dietrich and Hibbard enjoyed much critical success, however they had not attained financial success. When Hibbard bailed out, he surrendered his shares with no second thoughts and no monetary compensation. The remaining partners reasoned that the survival of LeBaron necessitated being able to manufacture their own bodies, and hoped that it might bring them financial rewards as well.

Dietrich recalled the reasons for merging with Bridgeport: “We respected each other's standard of quality. Even though the distance from New York was greater than we wanted, the area provided a source of top flight craftsmen. The plant had extra footage for expansion and suited our needs. There was a meeting of the minds, and luckily we saw eye to eye… It was a personal blow to me when we could no longer use the name which had such éclat. "Incorporated" was no fair exchange for glamour!”

Although the upcoming merger with Bridgeport was on their minds, preparing the slew of cars that needed to be readied for the December 1923 New York Auto Salon took first priority. Starting in September, orders started pouring in from New York’s European and American agencies for bodies that needed to be completed in time for the upcoming event. As the space they used the previous year wouldn’t be large enough for their anticipated entries, LeBaron petitioned the Administration Board of the Salon for more space. They complied, allowing them to exhibit using 3 booths, one listed under LeBaron, one under Dietrich-LeBaron and third one under Hibbard-LeBaron. This gave LeBaron a total of twelve vehicle entries instead of the four that would have been allotted under a single booth.

LeBaron also coordinated the design and manufacture of Locomobile’s Salon displays at the 1923 New York Salon. A total of seven custom-bodied Locomobiles were displayed at a Salon that prohibited the exhibit of American chassis. However, they could be shown on one of the coachbuilder’s stand providing they were clothed in a custom body. Through careful negotiations, Locomobile bodies appeared at the Brewster, Demarest, Derham, Holbrook, Locke, and LeBaron stands.

Early in 1923, LeBaron was contacted by Gaston Plantiff, a Ford executive who worked out of their New York City office. He wanted to take a look at the designs that had been done for York Motors, Lincoln’s New York City retailer. Apparently Edsel Ford had heard about the LeBaron-bodied cars and wanted to take a look at them. The designs were delivered, but LeBaron received no more requests from Plantiff for what seemed like an eternity. In December, Plantiff called once again inquiring as to whether Dietrich would be available to accompany Edsel Ford on a tour of the upcoming New York Salon. “Would I be available! I would have crawled there on broken bottles” recalled Dietrich. Up to that time, the only work LeBaron had received from a major automaker was the Locomobile contract. Dietrich hoped that the afternoon with Edsel would result in some work from Lincoln as well. During their tour of the Commodore ballroom, Ford told him about Lincoln’s custom body program, and Dietrich expressed an interest in becoming part of it. Apparently the two gentlemen hit it off as Plantiff made a third call to the LeBaron office in January of 1924 asking for some specific drawings which resulted in the creation of a whole series of sample bodies for Lincoln during the coming year.

At the 1923 Salon Dietrich also discussed designing bodies for Packard with its president, Alvan Macauly. Although he was not as receptive as Edsel Ford was at the time, he did invite Dietrich to come for a visit in Detroit. Dietrich was eventually summoned to Detroit and had a meeting and tour of the plant with Macauley, who suggested that there might be a place for LeBaron in Packard’s future. Indeed there was, but Dietrich, had left by the time the arrangement materialized a few years later. 

During the winter of 1923-24, Dietrich spent lots of time on the road, typically traveling to Bridgeport twice a week, not to mention his periodic visits to Detroit and the yearly sojourn to the Chicago Auto Salon. LeBaron hired Werner Gubitz (1899-1971) to assist Stickney and Pease in the office. Gubitz had worked with Stickney at Locomobile and was an excellent designer and illustrator who would later become chief designer for Packard.

Speaking of Packard, 1924 marked the appearance of LeBaron in the automaker’s custom body catalog. LeBaron had been building bodies for their New York City distributor since 1920 and up until that time had resisted LeBaron’s numerous inquiries.

Following the 1923-24 Salons, LeBaron received a commission from their old friend Captain Ugo d’Annunzio for two very special Isotta-Fraschini’s. One was sold to Gloria Swanson, and the second to Rudolph Valentino. Unfortunately, Valentino never rode in his, as he died very suddenly a short time before it was to have been delivered. After his death, the car was put on dis­play in Captain d’Annunzio’s Isotta showroom, and attracted multi­tudes of mourning fans. Other orders included; a town brougham for Flo Ziegfeld’s Rolls-Royce and 3 separate bodies for the Crane-Simplex’ of Mrs. John Wallace Riddle - the wife of the ambassador to Argentina. Dietrich even managed to find time to help build a baby carriage for Edsel Ford.

LeBaron also produced designs for other builders that would be built and sold without mention of their LeBaron origins. Demarest and Locke used their “ghost” service as did Fleetwood, whose New York office was located in the same building.

By the time the 1924-25 Salon season commenced, a crew of 50 was busy putting the finishing touches on the cars that would be shown at the New York and Chicago Salons. Once again LeBaron had 3 booths, although Roberts-LeBaron took the place of Hibbard-LeBaron, both in the directory and the Commodore Ballroom.

Dietrich started making occasional trips to Detroit to discuss upcoming LeBaron commissions and to take a look at LeBaron designs that were entering into mass production at Lincoln’s body suppliers.

Edsel Ford would typically order five to ten examples of a particular design, and if it proved popular back in Detroit, it would slated for mass production at Murray. However, LeBaron would receive a licensing fee in addition to the money already paid out to design and build the prototypes.

A Lincoln LeBaron limousine was leased to the US government to serve as transportation for President Calvin Coolidge, between 1924-29. Like many of LeBaron's designs, Lincoln later introduced it as a catalog custom and had it built in Detroit by the Murray Body Corp.

Murray also supplied Lincoln with LeBaron-designed two and three-window sedans and Victoria coupes. As with other Lincoln projects,  small run of prototypes were first built at the Bridgeport plant, then handed over to Murray for mass production. The original LeBaron prototypes can be distinguished by their cast manganese bronze windshield pillars, which look quite thin next to the composite steel-faced wood pillars on the Murray production bodies.

Edsel Ford must have been very pleased with LeBaron’s work as he instructed Allan Shelden, Murray’s president, to travel to New York to discuss bringing LeBaron to Detroit area to build custom and semi-custom work for Lincoln. As in was still December of 1924, the busy Salon season was coming up, so a follow-up meeting was scheduled to take place in Detroit during January 1925.

At that meeting Sheldon and his attorney submitted a proposal to purchase a controlling interest in LeBaron, and to move the entire operation to Detroit. Dietrich returned to New York and submitted the proposal to the rest of LeBaron’s board. Roberts banded together with the Hinman and Seward, who all agreed that they would be fools to relinquish control of such a well established business. Roberts recalled: "We refused the offer, because they wanted control of LeBaron." He later revealed that he was grateful to Seward and Hinman for helping LeBaron weather a “crisis that otherwise would have probably put us out of business”, and that he was unwilling to sell out the firm’s two senior members.

However, Ray Dietrich had other ideas: “Suddenly I realized that even though my persuasiveness had not won them over, in the process I had convinced myself that a move to Detroit was the only way to expand and broaden my scope in cus­tom coach work.”

The LeBaron directors offered to sell the entire operation, lock, stock and barrel to Murray for $250,000. Dietrich objected to the price, stating that as they didn’t even own the Bridgeport factory, the firm was barely worth $50,000.

A February meeting was set up between Shelden and Dietrich in Detroit to discuss the matter, and according to Roberts he was also planning to attend. At the last minute he became ill, so Dietrich traveled to Detroit alone. Roberts probably had an idea of what was about to happen but reminded Dietrich, to “look, and talk, but don't sign."

Although Dietrich assured Roberts he wouldn’t, it came as no surprise to anyone when he returned to New York with the news that the $250,000 offer had been declined. Dietrich recalled, “Neither did it set well when I revealed Murray Body was chiefly interested in my services, and that Mr. Shelden had made an offer to me which was identical with that which would have been offered LeBaron.”

Sheldon had made Dietrich an offer he couldn’t refuse, namely Dietrich Inc. Ray would own 50% of the firm, and would have his own factory, plus his own staff of designers and draftsmen plus a fat contract from Lincoln. Edsel Ford even arranged for Dietrich to rent a house across the street from his own Jefferson Avenue mansion. Dietrich resigned from LeBaron, and sold his shares to Ralph Roberts.

With both founders gone, LeBaron should have foundered. It didn't. Captain d'Annunzio, concessionaire for Isotta-Fraschini, immediately ordered a few bodies-and, as Roberts puts it, "things went well." When Dietrich moved to Detroit, Werner Gubitz resigned and went work for his former employer at Dietrich Inc. as chief illustrator and designer. In 1927, the talented Gubitz became chief designer at Packard.

Hugo Pfau graduated from high school in June of 1925 and joined LeBaron as a full-time employee. For the next few years most of LeBaron’s designs came from the drawing boards of R.L. Stickney, however some of those duties were eventually assumed by Pfau.

At this point, the Bridgeport plant was turning out close to 200 bodies a year, many of which were series-built town cars and limousines built for the Lincoln, Packard and Pierce-Arrow factory branches in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. A small number of bodies were built for individual customers, and a handful of factory prototypes were constructed for Lincoln, Packard, Pierce-Arrow and Stutz. Due to a limited capacity, some designs weren’t built in the Bridgeport plant and had to be placed with outside builders.

Paul Ostruk continued to be a good customer and had LeBaron “ghost” bodies for his Minerva dealership that carried a body plate that read “Body by Ostruk”. Similar arrangements also existed between Fleetwood, Demarest, and Locke. The New York based distributors for Hispano-Suiza, Rolls-Royce, Isotta-Fraschini and Mercedes-Benz continued to be good customers and even a few individual bodies were built for the Springfield Rolls-Royce.

Walter O. Briggs started making secret negotiations with Ralph Roberts in 1926 to move LeBaron to Detroit. The primary purpose of the takeover was to secure the LeBaron name as well as its talented designers, which would help Briggs attract more customers for their series-built custom bodies. Briggs was not only Detroit's largest independent body producer, it was also the richest, and Brigg’s generous offer was too good to pass up. All three LeBaron partners agreed, and the merger was publicly announced near the end of 1926 and took place in early 1927.

Roberts recalled:

"The former officers from Bridgeport Body got paid for the takeover. I went to Detroit. It was a promotion to big time. We got designers, sketch artists, interior men, clay modelers. It was just the way we wanted it."

For the first year, Roberts commuted between Detroit and New York, but eventually moved full time to Detroit. A new studio was set up on the 4th and 5th floors of Briggs' Mack Avenue plant, called the LeBaron Studios, manned by Roberts and his staff of hand-picked designers. Roberts continued to work on the LeBaron series customs but also did work for Briggs production body division from time to time. He’s credited with the design of the Briggs’-built 1928-29 Ford Model A Fordor Sedan bodies. Apparently a Lincoln LeBaron sedan attracted the eye of Henry Ford who showed it to Walter O. Briggs proclaiming "Walter, there's our new Fordor sedan". The car was in dealer's showrooms in a remarkable six months and is easily distinguishable from Murray-built 1928-1929 4-door Model A's by its resemblance to the redesigned 1930 Model A four doors. LeBaron is also credited with the designs of all of the Briggs-built open bodies for the Ford Model A.

The influx of Briggs’ money helped move the Bridgeport plant to larger quarters at the former Robert Bosch Manufacturing Co. plant in Bridgeport. Now that they were rich, Hinman and Seward retired, and Ray Birge, who had previously worked for Buffalo, New York’s, American Body Co. was hired to run the plant.

LeBaron’s New York office was also moved to more prestigious quarters at 724 Fifth Ave. where Hugo Pfau and Roland Stickney worked under Roberts designing bespoke bodies for local distributors and production bodies for Briggs customers. Pfau recalled that they even did some design work for Long Island’s Fairchild Aviation.

An interesting item can be found in the February 26, 1927 issue of Automotive News. Apparently Walter O. Briggs wanted to buy out his prime rival, Murray, and the paper ran a story that stated a Briggs/Murray merger was "being considered."  Henry Ford reasoned the merger of his two largest body suppliers would not be in his best interests, so a week later, a large Automotive News headline proclaimed  "Briggs Mfg. Co. Not To Merge With Murray Corp. of Ameri­ca."

It was during this time that LeBaron’s most famous design signature, the LeBaron Sweep, began to attract some attention. Its main characteristic was a raised, pennant-shaped panel on top of the hood and cowl that was typically painted a contrasting color. It first appeared at the 1922-23 New York Salon on the Isotta-Fraschini that featured the immoveable convertible top and was later included on a few Lincoln bodies built in 1923 and 1924.

The original pennant shaped panel look awkward next to Minerva and Packard radiators so a more pointed, spear-shaped panel was introduced which started out much more narrow at the radiator then gradually widened as it ran back along the top of the hood until it was seven or eight inches wide at the back of the hood. Once on the cowl, it widened more rapidly but still in a graceful curve, and ended just ahead of the lower corners of the windshield posts where it would run into the forward edge of the side molding.

Starting in 1925-26, the sweep no longer stopped at the windshield but continued along the side of the cowl and swept down just behind and parallel to the side-mounted spares. It first appeared on a Minerva Sport Sedan but because of the fact it was partially hidden on cars with side-mounts, it usually only appeared on cars with rear-mounted spares.

The third and final iteration of the LeBaron sweep first appeared in 1927-28. The downward-sweeping forward thrusting panel was moved rearward to the center of the front doors so that the side-mounted spare tires wouldn’t interfere with it. It was first used on some Packard bodies but gained wide recognition when it was included on the first LeBaron-bodied Model J Duesenberg that deputed at the 1928-29 Auto Salons. Initial versions featured an actual raised panel, but later LeBaron swept panels were simply molded into the hood, cowl and door panels. The true LeBaron Sweep panel disappeared once Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg and Fleetwood started using it on their standard production bodies.

The December 1928 Issue of Autobody described the Duesenberg Phaeton mentioned above as well as the famous Lincoln Aero-Phaeton, a Stutz Roadster-Phaeton, Stutz Town Brougham, a Lincoln Town Car and 3 Packards that would all be seen at the upcoming Salons.”

“Sporting design by LeBaron for a phaeton on Duesenberg chassis. It has a long rakish raised panel swept from the radiator back into the front door where it is swept forward to the base line, leaving a long depressed panel done in a lighter finish and containing a novel grouping of bonnet louvers, each of which are swept and slightly longer than the preceding one. There is another light-finished depressed panel around the rear. A conventional secondary cowl and windshield are provided

“Aeronautical practice influenced this design, from front to tail. The radiator ornament is a miniature fuselage; front mudguards are of aerofoil section; bonnet and wheel disks are of polished aluminum; body streamlined without a break to the ‘aeronautical’ tail; repetition of horizontal louvers accentuate the streamlining; rear cockpit has wind deflector of polished aluminum; seats in both front and rear cockpits are placed on floor which is recessed for foot-room, passengers sitting deep in body and thus lowering center of gravity. Chassis, mudguards and body are in maple-leaf green, a leather of softer shade being used for the cockpits where the trimming is in the aeronautical style-plain plaits without bindings of any kind. Non-shattering glass is used in the windshield.”

“Stutz 'roadster-phaeton' by LeBaron; this design has a disappearing top. When rear seat is not in use, the opening in the tonneau may be closed by swinging the rear seatback forward, making a conventional deck lid. The front windshield is unframed except at sides; wings open with the doors. Rear windshield may be lowered into tonneau. The body is finished in cream, set off by black moldings windsplit at the windshield pillars.”

The "Moderns" have it in this ‘lady's town brougham" by LeBaron on the Stutz Black Hawk chassis. The entire car is finished in Poilu Blue, except the wire wheels which are in the bright red of the lining of the poilu's coat; this is also used for the inside window moldings, a narrow line of the bright red showing from the outside and enlivening the exterior color. The modernistic design in the interior includes both the woodwork on the door and division panels, and the upholstery fabric.

"Other LeBaron exhibits include: A Lincoln cabriolet-type. town car, with all-weather front and rolled belt which differs from the Hibbard & Darrin type which has been so widely copied in this country. Packard all-weather brougham, with glass quarter and forward-facing extra seats which are extra wide and permit the carrying of three emergency passengers; the rear seat is up­holstered in the tufted style, well adapted to a large car of this type and in contrast with the prevailing vogue of simplicity. A Packard all-weather cabriolet-type town car, with opera seats and a folding armrest in the center of the rear seat; the driver's canopy is arranged to roll and fold into a box over the division window. A Packard cabriolet-type sedan arranged for owner or chauffeur driving; the channels of the division window are practically invisible when the glass is lowered."

The one-off Lincoln Aero-Phaeton described above was built to reflect Ford's commitment to the aircraft industry. After exhibit at the 1928-29 New York and Paris Salons, it toured the country, stopping in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, where it was finally purchased by the owner of a Washington State flying service. The car's fenders and body panels were finished in polished aluminum and the cars padded leather interior flowed over the tops of the body, just as that of an open-cockpit aircraft. The boat-tailed body even featured dash-mounted altimeter and compass and a non-functional tail-mounted rudder. The un-restored, all-original car still exists, and is owned by Stan Lucas, a Long Beach, California collector.

For many years, LeBaron supplied Grover C. Parvis, the head of Packard New York’s custom body department, with both town car and limousine bodies, and he was not always happy with the results. Birge made it a point to visit Parvis on a regular basis to ensure that LeBaron’s quality improved. He promised Parvis that he would bring up the level of quality in our bodies to a standard at least as good as Rollston's, which produced the finest (and most expensive) bodies at the time. Unfortunately for LeBaron/Briggs, Birge succeeded so well that he was recruited by Horace W. Potter to work at Packard's Custom Body Department in Detroit, a division he later headed.

Fortunately, Briggs had just bought the Phillips Custom Body Co., and Edwin P. Carter, their manager, capably assumed Birge’s former position. When the Eastern LeBaron operation was closed down in 1930, Carter moved to Detroit and took over the LeBaron-Detroit plant for Briggs, which he ran until the start of WWII.

Early jobs built at the Meldrum Ave. plant included sedan limousines and town car bodies for Stutz as well as small series for Chrysler, Packard and Hudson. Starting in 1928, convertible roadsters were built for Lincoln and a large contract was negotiated with Stutz where LeBaron-Detroit built all of their production bodies. However, Stutz wanted to paint and upholster the bodies in their Indianapolis plant, so they were supplied with bodies-in the-white, or primed bodies without paint or upholstery. Several hundred convertible sedans were also built for Pierce-Arrow “in the white”. With the exception of the two Waterhouse phaetons built for Col. Prentiss, all Marmon Sixteen bodies were built by LeBaron-Detroit, although they were designed by Walter Dorwin Teague Jr. and not LeBaron.

The October 1929 Issue of Autobody described the LeBaron Panel Brougham that was exhibited at that Fall’s Paris Salon:

"LeBaron has prepared on Lincoln chassis a graceful town car of pleasing silhouette and without moldings, depending on the simple combination of well-rounded panel surfaces with the modernistic touch given by the etched metal plate on the master door and the use of colorful bindings with the otherwise plain interior of blue-gray pastel shade. The narrow etched chromium plate on the door enlivens the solid French blue in which the entire car is painted. The front compart­ment is trimmed with a plain-paneled leather, dyed to match the body color. The passenger compartment is lined with a French broadcloth dyed a pastel shade of blue-gray. The characteristic formal tone of plain severity for the town-car interior is relieved by the unusual trimming and bindings on the seats. Hassocks and carpets of crushed plush, ash trays of glazed pot­tery, toned to match the car lining, and other appro­priate fittings give this interior a distinguished and conservative modern atmosphere."

The following issue of Autobody described the vehicles that would be shown at the upcoming American Salon:

“In the LeBaron-Detroit stand will be found a note­worthy job on the new Cord. This is a panel brougham of the modified French type, set lower than on the conventional car because of the front-drive-chassis con­ditions. The line of the sloping windshield pillars is continued by a cowl molding swept to the base line. The painting is conservative, maroon body panels and black upper works enlivened by silver striping and chromium­ plated wire wheels. The rear compartment is trimmed in ‘bolster’ style with a tan doeskin; in addition to vanity and smoking sets, a small compartment for gloves is covered with the trim material and lined with velveteen."

"Another body of pleasing composition is the Le Baron-Stutz sedan-limousine with sloping windshield; this has a mild suggestion of the modern with plain panels, absence of wide belt molding and window reveals; instead there are narrow chromium frames around the windows, a bright beading at the belt and at the top of the doors. Graceful streamlining at the back of the cowl carries it up and into the windshield pillar. The entire body is painted a soft medium-light shade of green, a slightly deeper shade being used for the roof and chassis; bright-green striping along each edge of the chromium-plated bead molding enriches the whole effect. A beige interior forms a pleasant contrast."

"Two convertibles of quite different character, one on Lincoln and one on Stutz Blackhawk chassis, will be found here and on a Duesenberg chassis. LeBaron has mounted a 4-seater torpedo of flowing design. It has a light and graceful V-type slanting windshield and is finished in tan and brown, this color scheme being heightened by the introduction of bright Nile Green for the trimming leather, brake drums and striping. In the Le Baron, Inc., stand, there will be a sedan-limousine and two town cars, all on the new Packard 745-C chassis. The larger town car will seat five or even six in the rear compartment but does not appear larger than normal. The exterior has a minimum of bright metalwork and is finished in a 2-tone green combination. The trimming material for the interior is a Wiese doeskin done in the traditional tufted style. The smaller town car is a smart-looking job of low appearance but having ample headroom, due to the new Packard construction, and long front fenders. A European touch is given by the chromium-plated protection strips on the fenders.”

The Depression put an end to LeBaron's activities in New York City. Briggs closed down the Fifth Ave. office at the end of October, 1930, and the Bridgeport, Connecticut body plant two months later. The last bodies built in Bridgeport were a series of convertible roadsters that were used by both Packard and Pierce-Arrow. As they were typically ordered in batches of 25, a number of unfinished bodies were shipped to Detroit to be completed when the plant closed down.

Roland L. Stickney decided to remain in New York and went to work for industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss. The terms of his contract with Dreyfuss allowed him to do some moonlighting for Judkins, Rollston and Brewster and he continued producing automotive designs up until WWII. Stickney gave art lessons as well, and one of his students was George Hildebrand, a talented illustrator who later worked for Rollston, industrial designer Helen Dryden and General Motors. Hugo Pfau was given a job in Detroit with Brigg’s sales organization, but moved back to New York in the early thirties and went to work for a Long Island Ford dealer.

In 1934 the former LeBaron Inc. plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut was put back to use by Clarence W. Seward and James H. Hinman. The former owners of the Bridgeport Body Co. re-opened their original Bridgeport firm to build wooden station wagon bodies. Although factory “woodies” were available on Ford and a handful of other chassis, if you wanted a wagon on a luxury chassis such as Packard or Cadillac you had to have it custom made by a small firm like Bridgeport. When more factory-built wagons became available in the late thirties, Seward and Hinman lost many of their customers and closed for good in 1938. Clarence W. Seward suffered a stroke in 1939 and passed away soon afterwards.

A couple of Bridgeport bodied Packard wagons are known to exist. One attractive example on a 1934 Packard 1101 chassis was shown at the 1999 Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance by William J. Chorkey of Farmington Hills, Michigan.

© 2004 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com

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