Maybe in some ways you can think of Lost Cause as a sort of proto- Singer or Icon, in that Lost Cause was a company that “reimagined” – to use the term Singer likes to use so Porsche won’t sue them into the aether – Chevrolet Corvairs into hyper-luxurious mini-limousines. Well, I think I’m being a little generous with the plurals there; as far as anyone knows, Lost Cause only ever made one Lost Cause Corvair, the one you see up top there. I’m fascinated.
Lost Cause only existed for one year, between 1963 and 1964, and was founded by, of all people, the former mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, Charles P. Farmsley. Farmsley worked with a coachbuilding firm, Derham Body Company of Rosemont, Pennsylvania, to craft his creation, which differed from a normal Corvair in many ways, including having a stretched wheelbase, some sort of rear suspension changes (did he get rid of the swing axles?), a leather roof, wooden dash, additional aircraft instruments, dual spare tires (the Corvair could have a spare in either the front trunk or over the engine; I suspect this one had both locations filled?), and contained a picnic set and other rich-person crap.
The Corvair’s air-cooled flat-six was modified to put out 40 more horsepower, for a respectable total of 120 hp, and had other fancy details like nostalgic leather straps holding the front hood closed.
The car was first shown at the 1963 New York Auto show, resplendent in British Racing Green and bearing a price tag of about $12,000. In modern money, that would come to about $124,000 in today’s money, earning it the title of the “world’s most expensive small car.”
It’s not clear where the name came from, though it proved to be prophetic, as nobody seemed to be interested in the world’s most expensive Corvair. Fools! By St.Jude himself, this thing is cool as hell!
I heard about this car while flipping through a February 1963 issue of Popular Science, where I saw the above clipping and also this ad:
Holy shit! Accordion prices smashed? Save up to half?! Are you fucking kidding me? These accordion deals seem too good to be true! Forget killing Baby Hitler or watching dinosaurs mate – this is what we should be using a time machine for! Take my ass to 1963, at the Accordion Corporation of America, 2003 West Chicago Ave, Dept. P-23, Chicago 22, Illinois! Stat! Now, now now!
A friend of mine that lives in that Chicago neighborhood is something of a classic building conservationist- trying to prevent the city from lightning demo’ing distressed properties (sometimes without the owner’s knowledge) 2003 W. Chicago Ave is no longer there, as it’s now a parking lot for a McDonalds. Probably 20 years ago, I went over to his house and he had a whole cabinet full of classic accordions he had salvaged from “an abandoned building that was going to be demolished”. I wonder if it was the former Accordion Corporation of America…
Fast Track Demolition is the name of the ordinance I believe. We’ve had customers try to file claims for property damage from it. When they find out it’s not covered, let’s just call them unhappy. It can be a real mess, but it does limit drug dens and squatting to some degree.
Your friend absolutely must have gotten those accordions from said building.
I don’t know how old you are and I can’t remember the name of the band leader, but growing up, I lost count of how many Polka album commercials I saw on WGN. That is until a certain 588-2300 company overtook absolutely everyone.
The “588-2300 Empire” jingle is forever etched into my brain.
Yep, I had zero difficulty in recalling that number. Shit, I bet it is more indelible than my name. Like when I get into a car accident in rural Vermont and the gorgeous town doctor treating my head injury asks me my name, it’s very possible I’d answer 588-2300 as our meet cute.
I am probably old enough to have seen the polka commercials, but I’m not a Chicago native. However, I grew up behind the cheddar curtain and there was a polka radio station!! and I also have a pathway etched in my grey matter for Empire’s &^(@#$*@#$ jingle.
Hmmm…. I always thought it was painted black; I guess “Resplendent BRG” doesn’t render well in B&W photos. I wonder if there are any color photos of this?
I sometimes forget just how many Poles there are in Chicago. Polka anyone?
…which originates from today’s Czech Republic.
There not the same? J/K
I love me some Czechs!
Gotta say, they nailed the company name…right into the coffin lid.
What a horrible name. Kind of like one of my favorite 90’s bands that few have heard of… Failure.
Yeah, i always look for the worst in others, and you are way too kind with your assumption about the name of this company. Given the location and the era, “Lost Cause” was unambiguous. There is no way a Louisville politico didn’t know what he was doing.
Accordions were a type of torture device used for one hour/three-nights-a-week, purchased by 1960s parents who dreamed of their children being blank-eyed social outcasts, and why I know what a “polka” is.
They couldn’t have said “prices squeezed”?
“I don’t want her, you can have her, she’s too … gravity challenged for me”
But they also gave us Weird Al, so overall it’s a wash?
Accordians can be used to make good music. But only if you’re Italian, or as Maymar mentioned, Weird Al Yankovic. Otherwise they’re instruments of torture.
They can’t be all bad, Momma’s got a squeezebox and Daddy never sleeps at night.
The closest thing to respect the accordion would be, accorded, in my just-before-Weird-Al-Yankovic teen-year generation, would be courtesy that Who song. I was at the time emerging from full-on naivety just enough to suspect something was amiss in the lyrics. And I still giggle just a bit when I hear it.
They were just mocking people since they knew that once people heard it, they would want to SMASH it into a million pieces…it just sounds better!
Ah Man. If Elvis only would’ve played the accordion instead of guitar, think of where rock and roll music would be right now.
ACA would be at the center of it all.
Lap ROBES?
Jeez Torch, way to bury the lede.
Ah, I read that as la probes. Thought maybe it was some kinky French sex thing.
Reading in Sean Connery’s voice “La Probes Now!”.
I saw that too. Whay, pray tell, is a lap robe?!? A really short throw blanket? A scarf for your genitalia? Enquiring minds want to know!
It’s a fancy way to say blanket you put across your legs ’cause the heater doesn’t work. It’s a holdover from the days of open cars and carriages where you had a lap robe and a ceramic bottle filled with hot water to put your feet on. https://www.chairish.com/product/13380424/antique-1920s-glazed-beige-stoneware-foot-bed-carriage-warmer?gad_source=1
As the proud owner of a 64 Corvair Coupe, I have observations. Ignoring the naming and pricing issues, it appears the only meaningful changes are to remove the 4-door’s lovely cantilever roof and wraparound rear window and graft on a padded formal monstrosity and a bunch of interior doo-dads.
A Corvair is spacious, for a compact car, but why choose that for a “limo”?
Since a limo is all about smoothness, why a 4 speed manual?
Corvair in 1964 came with a 110hp engine and improved rear suspension. Shoulda waited.
When I read this, I was like this Charles R. Farnsely (His name is spelt wrong in the article), is going to be hella racist. Turns out, he actually was pretty dope. One, dude was at the helm and seemed to push for desegregating Louisville. Also in is one term in Congress (65-67) he was big Great Society guy. He also use to stroll around in a straw hat and the tie of a Kentucky Coronal. He had a recurring weekly event called a “Beef Session”, were anyone could drop into his office and give him a piece of their mind. He was also an opponent of Urban Renewal and suburbanization, and prompted mixed race, mixed use development in the late forties.
Which makes it even stranger, why the hell did he call “Lost Cause”?
Lost Cause? Based on his resume, he was probably all for truth in advertising as well.
Thanks for doing the research. I can go back to assuming ‘Lost Cause” refers to getting anybody to spend $12000 in 1964 dollars (You could buy a Corvette and a Cadillac Sedan de Ville for that) on a Corvair.
“You know, I was going to call it Future Failed Business, but some Yankees in Kenosha already trademarked it. So, figured Lost Cause got the point across.” – C.R. Farnsely
If there’s no “Dixie” horn or battle flag on the roof, it might be safe to assume he meant some other Lost Cause.
The intersection between Confederate sympathizers, Corvair enthusiasts, and people who own personal limousines must have been a fascinating place.
Sadly, there is only a McDonald’s at that address now. No storefront display filled with squeezeboxes nor ancient brick edifice converted into “The Accordion Condos” (though how cool would that have been?).
So it goes.
Looks like a cool neighborhood on Google maps, despite the McDonalds and Subway.
That’s my old neighborhood. It was primarily Polish and Ukrainian back then, hence the need for accordions. It’s called Ukrainian Village now, but back in the day it was never called that.
Local to me history lesson for everyone:
Derham Body Company of Rosemont, Pennsylvania – was latter purchased by Al Garthwaite ( from Conshohocken), and on the site of the old coach factory now sits one of the most infamous Ferrari dealerships in the country, Algar Ferrari (Al Garthwaite Ferrari). This dealership is infamous for being the one that had an F50 stolen from them while taken out on a test drive.
Ah, the early 90’s, let’s grab an anchor steam, or something more obscure while soaking in the speakeasy atmosphere of the Balligo Inn listening to jazz till 4am. The owner was quite the character, convinced that if you never paid taxes, you were constitutionally exempt. Interviewed at Algar in a white pinstripe Pierre Cardin suit around that time, as was fitting.
I wonder if the larger rear tires (necessitating the two spares) was an attempt to alleviate the gen-1 Corvair’s snap oversteer issue.
Raymond Lowey’s Corvair Limo is at the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA.
Kid: Mom! My new Popular Science came! Look at this cool Corvair!
Mom: Um…
Kind: AND THEY HAVE ACCORDIANS AT HALF PRICE!
Dad: I knew we should have just gotten him a subscription to Penthouse.
Pretty confident I know where the name came from, and it does not increase the car’s desirability. Though the wood dash does look nice
Turns out the guy’s politics were actually progressive (see this comment above), even if the name points to some Confederate nostalgia.
I suppose it also could have been chosen to be kind of tongue in cheek/self deprecating
Ooh! Lap Robes! Sign me up!
That also caught my eye, and it put the image of black judicial robes in my head, but somehow only from the waist down.
If I could post an image it would be Joan from Madmen with her accordian
Like this?
She can squeeze my bellows anytime.
Get in line.
Edit: Sorry, Queue up behind me
I can’t help but marvel at the company name – Accordion Corporation of America.
Every single word here sounds grand and means business, in a way that an employee can say „I’m not a regular paper-pusher in a company that sells accordions to some weirdos, oh no! I work for ACA, Accordion Corporation of America – a corporation, get it?”
I suspect the number of accordions sold through this ad is akin to the number of Lost Cause Corvair limos sold. They should have teamed up and offered an accordion option with the car. Seems like something Weird Al’s parents might’ve bought.
Having lived in the mid and upper Midwest in the late sixties and the seventies, they sold plenty of accordions. Seemed like every function I had to attend as a child featured at least one
Yeah my grandfather, one generation removed from Ellis Island, would pull out his accordion whenever there were four or more people over to visit. Lot of Lawrence Welk fans in those days, too, and accordionists were a regular feature on his show.
Love the understated snark in that Popular Science clipping.
Lost Cause? Given that the dude was from Kentucky, I think we can draw some inferences. Although his name sounds like somebody’s butler.
“Farmsley! Tea in the parlor, please. Chop, chop!”
Yes, that Lost Cause. I’m surprised it wasn’t painted like General Lee.
“OKKKay!”
Can’t seem to edit the original comment, but based on further research, I take back the speculation. Maybe he was doing it all tongue in cheek, because he also created a brand of whiskey called Rebel Yell.
Did Weird Al Yankovic’s mother see that ad? Was the music world forever changed? What the heck is going on with that Corvair’s roof?
Burning questions…
Had similar reaction (see above). Weird Al’s folks actually bought him accordion lessons from a traveling salesman in 1966. They were offered a choice between guitar or accordion lessons and chose the accordion because his father thought it appropriate to have another Yankovic accordionist (Frank Yankovic was a well established accordionist, but no relation) and Weird Al’s mom thought the accordion would revolutionize rock and roll. Still a pretty good origin story.
I think it’s hilarious that his mom’s motivation was to try to innovate in rock
Far as I’m concerned, it worked!
My thoughts as well: achievement unlocked!
Among the added new features on this car are ‘lap robes’. What the hell is a ‘lap robe’?
Google fu says a lap robe is “a thick blanket or pelt used for warming the lap and legs while traveling or sitting outdoors.”
Given most air cooled cars have heaters that are at best a cruel joke, this seems to be a necessity for luxurious travel in a Corvair limo.
Thank you. I was little nervous about Googling that term at work.
It’s also obviously meant to take inspiration from prewar luxury cars, especially phaetons and touring cars, which would have straps across the front seatback to hold blankets for the rear seat passengers. A lot of people’s perceptions of what details signified luxury in the 60s and 70s was still heavily influenced by 1930s luxury cars, which also came through in certain styling cues
It’s a small blanket used to keep your legs warm.
Such as Granny sitting in her rocking/wheelchair.
On ocean voyages when sitting on a deck chair and enjoying your afternoon consommé.
Or riding on journeys in the back of your chauffeur-driven Corvair – because there were no rear seat vents for the HVAC back then.
I’m not sure about early models, but my ’65 has a heater vent below the center of the rear seat cushion. The heater gets super toasty, too.
Oh that makes sense –
I should have referred to your Packard.
I have lap robes in my Bentley, as I not the Mayor of anywhere I call them blankets. If I am feeling particularly fancy (not mayor of Louisville fancy) I have been known to call them travel blankets. Most people just call them ” dear god when are going to get a proper car, or at least one with a heater”
Are they tartan? Please say they’re tartan.
Of course they are.