|
Fried & Stonier Co. was a Peoria-based Speedster body distributor
whose Fasco-brand racing bodies were advertised in the June 1916 & Dec 1916
issues of Motor Age and the Sept 1, 1916 issue of Horseless Age.
Fried & Stonier advertisements depict a speedster, identical in every way to
the ones produced by the Peoria Accessory Co. at the time, however, the ads feature
different text boasting: “Individuality Brought Success - FASCO Racing
Bodies filled the great demand for an actual Racer. The beautiful lines are
identical to those of DARO RESTA'S PEUGEOT”.
A search of the 1917 Peoria telephone directory lists no Fried or Stoner
households, nor any business with either name. Furthermore the address given
in Fried & Stonier’s September Horseless Age ad - Spruce & Adams Sts.,
Peoria, IL - puts it in the same city block as Peoria Accessory Co.’s plant
which was located at the corner of Walnut & Washington Sts.
While it’s possible that the firm was a Paco body distributor that just
happened to be located right down the street, it’s also feasible that Fried
& Stonier Co. was an auxiliary sales division used by Peoria Accessory Co.
to determine the effectiveness of its advertising.
For many years carriage builders and other businesses that placed
numerous ads in different publications would use slightly different street
addresses or box numbers so that they could accurately gauge the success of
an individual advertisement. For example, a factory located between 500 and
508 Main St. would use 500 Main St. in one ad, 502 Main St. in another, 504
Main St. in another, etc.
Fried & Stoner were not the only ones distributing re-badged Paco
speedsters, the mail-order catalog of the William Galloway Co. of Waterloo,
Iowa, offered them as the Foreigner (Model 21) and Speed King (model 22). A
third Galloway offering, the Grey Eagle, featured a steeply-sloped racing
cowl and was also thought to have been built by Paco, although it is not
pictured in any known Paco catalogs.
© 2004 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com
|
