Iwas born in South Bend and grew up practically in the shadow of the Studebaker plant where my grandfather spent his entire career. His wife, my grandfather, was a descendent of Clement Studebaker, one of the founders of the wagon builders that became the car maker. Grandpa was chief electrician in the admin building and loved the company. Thank you for this great documentary!
Pictures like the one at 26:30 have a haunting feeling about them if you think about the hundreds of people that toiled away in those walls and how they are mostly all gone now. What a great American story and how humble the beginnings were.
My grandmother, Ruth Keb, was a seamstress for Studebaker up until they closed. I remember pulling up to the big garage style doors and the employees all streaming out. I’m very proud of the fact she was part of this car company.
I'm 65, I remember my Dad worked in the foundry until the plant closed. I remember on fridays the guyes would always go the the "rainbow" bar after they got off. It was a different time. We'd pick him up at the main entrance to plant one and drive down the Sample a block to the bar. Us kids would wait in the car a few hours eating chips and drinking bottles of coke. Crazy. Life changed drastically when that plant closed for our family and many others. I wonder sometimes how different my childhood would have been had Studebaker stayed open. Who knows.
I grew up on U.S. 31 south. I remember the 3:30 pm traffic heading south after work and the car carriers full of Studebakers. South Bend became the up and coming city in the midwest. Those were the golden days of South Bend.
Nice documental. lot of memories there. Here at Colombia, my home town, my family had two Stud models. My uncle Joseph was the proud owner of a '50 or '51 pick up, reliable, tough, bulletproof truck, and my dad had a '61 Lark 6 cylinder model with 3 speed gear box. My first serious ride at the street was in this Lark. My very first car to realy drive. I was 13 years old. That`s wy a love this legendary brand name. Thanks, Studebaker, for ever.
First time I heard Stud E baker in this documentary I said to myself. "I'm gonna have to listen to this guy say Stud E baker for this entire thing" yep. I was right.
While a freshman at Notre Dame, fall of 1969 through May of 1970, I was able to visit the Studebaker plant. A few workers were still making Avanti. Sometime after Avanti was sold and moved to Ohio. South Bend is now in a transformation to new technology companies, aided by Notre Dame now investing in helping establish new ideas to build great products and jobs. ND along with South Bend developers are also transforming blighted neighborhoods. It's a beautiful city
Excellent piece of work of a kind that should be repeated in format about other similar places of former industrial towns that have been consigned to history. It`s always sad when a large factory site closes not least because of the many, many people who suddenly find their futures looking bleak and hopeless.
So great to see these wonderful people who were so devoted to a company that truly cared for them. I pray more companies today will see how important it is to care for the people who work for them.
I Doubt Your prayers will ever be answered ..unfortunately as there's a huge, huge difference between back then and Today's Standards .As .Back Then ..many companies/industries/manufacturers really did CARE about their Employees, As Well As Their ..Product Quality!, ( of Fit & Finish Being a Major Factor)...But Nowadays/Today's Most Companies/Industries/Manufacturers ..Only Really Care About One Thing , & One Thing Only ..The Mighty $$$$$$...Their Quarterly Billion Dollar Profits ..Two Huge Example's Of Such In Today's World 2023 ..1-"FOOD PRODUCTION/INDUSTRIES. & .2- ALL PETROLEUM/GAS COMPANIES =$$$$$$ GREED!!..They Only Care About Their $$$$$$$$$ Profits...Nothing Else ...for No Longer is there Employee Care, Devotion ...there never ending GREED...which in turn is Passed on down the line to All Of Us ...The Consumer!!!
What a fantastic documentary. I was at the International Meet in 1983. Alot of great memories for a 17 year old at the time that drove his customised '52 on the Proving Ground track. What I get a kick out of is, for 40 years of listening to former employees speak, they refence their job at "StudebakerS. Always thought it was funny how they call it that. I do feel that Igntion Park is not an appropiate name. There should be named Studebaker Park in remeberance of where that land came from and respect to the family namesake and every employee that ever worked for them.
I worked for years, and retired in 2015 from, Manufacturing Technology Incorporated. MTI got its start in 1929 as a tool and die shop serving Studebaker. As the City of South Bend has done, as well as the surrounding communities, MTI evolved to become a technology leader in new industries after the demise of Studebaker. I have every confidence that South Bend will continue its studied growth, and become a technology hub as the years go by.
When I was a student at the University of Notre Dame, a car-loving buddy and I visited the plant one evening......an authorized tour to say the least! There were three guys there, building an Avanti as a company benefit. We wandered round upstairs too. Interesting tour for an engineering student. It was only later I learned more about the history of the company.
Stude E Baker? I've owned 6 very beautiful late model Stude's, and never heard it pronounced any other way than Stude A baker. South Bend is a small city, synonymous with Studebaker. That will NEVER change no matter how much they try to distance themselves. For their own future, they should embrace this incredible heritage. In my last visit, everything is gone but one or two buildings, the museum, and old rail depot. Otherwise, it looks like bombed out Dresden, or a flat Kansas field, with their tiny downtown in the distance. The SPC board decided to become an International Company in 1958 after discontinuing it's dominant partner Packard, and moving on to Mercedes-Benz, and getting out of the auto business permanently. Please! Comparing South Bend to Chicago, or NYC is laughable.
@@trevorlondon4601 Yet, I bet he still had a soft spot for it. Studebaker has such an incredible history. The oldest wheeled manufacturer in the world.
North east Indian was a popular region for automotive production back in the day now they build RVs and mobile homes and actually they don't take a backseat to anyone with there production
We were Mopar folks in the 50's and 60's, but my dad always liked Studebakers and wanted an Avanti! He thought that was a super cool car. When my dad came home from the war, his first car after coming home was a brand new Studebaker. He loved that car. Don't know the model name but I think it was a wagon. So sad all those great companies went belly up :-(
Excellent Mr. Sabo ! You did a fine job! It was a very pleasant , relaxing, and very informative to watch. Probably the best Studebaker documentary I've every watched.!
But, as is common with some other cities, the leadership constructs a few feel good sites memorializing the company that actually made the city, while apparently ignoring the fact that MANUFACTURING is an activity that truly can provide the jobs and money which a city needs. Instead, short sighted cities around the country seem to be turning their noses up to manufacturing, which is one big reason that China has been eating our lunch! And, not everybody is suited for office jobs!
I moved here early 2006 just as plans for demolition of the old plants had came to fruition. What bothered me is that nobody over the years repurposed and reused all that production space. Plenty of potential rotting away. I was shocked to it. I am glad to see however a few buildings will be reused and Press Ganey is moving in to ignition park near the original buildings. The last two decades more has been done to clean up and repurpose South Bend area then had done in years prior. There is still a lot of work to do. But it's looking much nicer to travel to downtown then it used to be.
The property was tied up in bankruptcy courts for years while the buildings rotted and technology changed and the plant was much to large and to expensive to restore and became a collapsed mess that just got worse year after year...
@@CH-pv2rz Yup, kind of sad really. I am sure that production space could have been re-used for something. I remember reading when Romney, the CEO of AMC in the late 50's tried to get Studebaker to merge. If they did this mess might not have happened, certainly not in the way it did. It seems they would have rather gone bankrupt then take Romney's offer. But as we know often times things are a lot more complicated than it seems.
My family came from eastern europe. My ancestry there were blacksmiths, just around the same time the Studebaker brothers were blacksmiths building wagons, just like my ancestry. My grandpop who was in the war on the eastern front would talk positively about Studebakers. I feel a kin ship with Studebaker, I didnt understand when I was younger but in recent years when I read more about Studebakers history I began to feel how important Studebaker was. After ww2 Studebaker tried to make a connection with Mercedes which shows their dedication. It was a tragic day when Studebaker shut down, it almost makes me want to cry a little.
Go ahead and cry. Let it out. Crying helps get the sad out of you. And the greif well you can carry that instead of anger or hate or anything negative. Infact, I will cry with you. It's a great story, storyteller. God keep you healthy and kind.
I was born in 1944, learned to drive in my mother's 1955 Studebaker champion. That car had the looks of a sports car, it was the most attractive car in our block, two tone greens made that car look better than any Chevy or Ford, including the 1955 Tbird. Not the best power performing car, it had a very modest flat head 6, very underpowered, the 1955 president had a 289 V8 and that was a tough one to race against. Loved and have great memories of those Studes. Great cars.
Had the opportunity to tour the hand pushed Avanti assembly line sometime around 1979 or '80 with my dad who was a urethane supplier to Studebaker then. Fascinating bit of history to reflect on. My folks owned a couple of Presidents as I recall and grandfather had a red Hawk.
This is just sad....but here's somethin positive: in 1966, a year after he graduated high school, my Uncle had a Studebaker Golden Hawk...he raced a 1963 chevy Impala for pink slips, he won and has black and white photos of the visibly angry dude signing over the title of that junk chevy to my Uncle, with my Dad (his younger brother) laughin in the background...lol
My grandma and grandpa moved to knox in the 40s from kentucky.. Grampa worked at studebaker until they closed the doors. Then retired from bethlaham steel.
i wanted a studebaker ever since i was in grammer school. a girl in my class came to school every day in a black and chrome hawk. that car was so fine! i walked to school and back home a half mile each way every day. i never got to ride in a hawk, but i sure did want one! i went to cruisin the coast in biloxi, ms. about 20 years ago and what did i see? a whole line of HAWKS and GT HAWKS! it was marvelous! a girl was looking at them and asked what kind of cars they were. i told her they were built before she was born and the company went out of business. poor girl had never seen a studebaker! damn i'm old!
@@donjacobson818 Nope. Lou did the narration that he wrote. Samuel Studybaker's tombstone (1794-1837) gives you an idea of how it had been pronounced back in the day. Lou grew up here, so I trust his perspective.
i gotta say i love mr smiths attitude he sees the value in the past the past construction that was constructed so well compared to the trash that's built today two thumbs up !!!
The last ever studebaker car ever produced at the Hamilton Ontario plant is in the studebaker museum, as the last 3 years all the cars were built in Canada.
Samuel Studybaker's tombstone (1794-1837) in South Bend's Bowman Cemetery is a clue to the historical pronunciation of the name. But people these days say 'Noder Dame', so here we are. I have a photo of the tombstone, but I don't think we can post photos here. Google it, and it comes up.
These are not dinosaur buildings, they are Americas history and a huge investment by a previous generation. They could easily have been repurposed to house a chip FAB, saved all the jobs and kept the tradition and neighborhood intact.
I live on the south side. Mostly drug addicts either working a job to support their habbit, stealing from stores, or prostitution or all of the above. Fuckin sad as fuckn
THE STUDEBAKER, one of my favorite Automobiles, I Think he is a pear, his lines are unique and this own They Should reproduce them again. maneco - Porto Alegre-RS - Brasil.
General Motors put the final nail in the coffin when it hijacked the company building the fiberglass Avanti bodies and had it committed exclusively to making vette bodies.
Glad to see South Bend thanking (instead of blaming) Studebaker for all they did for that community. A common misconception is Studebaker went out of business when the plant was shut down. The corporation turned profitable and lived on for many years, only to be eventually bought out.
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The Unions drove Studebaker out of the US and they relocated into Canada. My Uncle was a shop supervisor over one of the machine shop departments. The Unions were constantly causing problems for the company including intentional sabotage on assembly lines and work slow downs. Towards the end the work environment was very toxic. My Uncle was not at all surprised when the company finally called it quits and moved. Studebaker folding shop took South Bend very hard for they had milked the company for years for cash and freebies. Now a vast army of FORMER employees were out on their ass and a lot of them deserved it. Unions have their plusses but many minuses. They have the ability to cripple a company and that's what they did to Studebaker and paid the price. Very few of these ex-employees ever secured a new position with the pay, benefits and security they screwed up and lost. My Uncle drove a new Studebaker car every year he worked there trading in his old one. He told me that they were the most reliable car he ever owned, easy to work on and built to last. As a note: One of my Canadian work collogues was married to a Studebaker girl who was a direct descendent of the core family. Small world.
yeah your balance sheet would turn profitable if you were able to shuck the expense of paying pensions to employees who worked their whole lives for your company...yes sir
In 1950, at the age of 27, my Dad had the wherewithal to purchase his first new vehicle. Growing up, he was convinced that Buick denoted a man of substance, and went to the dealership in Savannah to strike a deal. The Buick Special came with burlap-covered seats, no radio or heater...and the salesman wouldn't knock a nickle off the sticker. Frustrated, Dad visited Studebaker and found a bullet-nosed Champion Starlight coupe with cloth seats, hill-holder, heater, and radio for $50 less. Went back to Buick in an attempt to get five bucks off the sticker, showing the salesman the Champion invoice. Guy said "you just go ahead " Dad became a committed Studebaker man. Wonderful vehicles. One of the few times I ever saw him truly upset was the day they announced going out of business.
My brother Gene left South Bend with the company and became secretary - treasurer of the Studebaker Worthington Company. He closed up the company. He returned to South Bend one time to see family and return the Diamond Jubilee historical book that was kept in the company's vault. That was the closing act for him.
We had a studebaker. It was a dark green wagon, that died in Don Mills Toronto 1974, November. I remember...cos we had all our Halloween candy with us ...Tootsie rolls...on our way to YYC for Dad's new job with Philips Electronics
The New York Central RR (Norfolk Southern now)and the Grand Trunk RR (Canadian National now) serviced the Studebaker plants and both lines are still heavily in use today. However the Wabash RR connector and the Pennsylvania RR lines in South Bend are both long gone. Most of the population of inner South Bend is long gone also.
really glad to see some of the original buildings being renovated. what a change in the view! What happend to the studebaker family? is it still around, or have they all died out?
Very enjoyable documentary! I had 4 family members employed there. Everyone has an opinion on why the Studebaker Corporation closed Management, Union, employees dogging it Simply put, Other divisions were making money the automotive division was losing money and they pulled the plug
I remember my mother owning a 60s model Studebaker oh, I asked her the year and she can't recall, but this was in the early eighties and I remember it having holes in the floorboards. One day when she parked wherever it was, I found a nickel through one of them... LOL! And then the people she got the car off of, we're the most disgusting people. I don't know why she ever bought it, but it did run for a little while. The things you remember whilst growing up.
I was born in SB after my parents met and married working there during WW2. Until dad lost his job on the last day in 63 all we drove were Studebakers or Packards. I feel that I know those cars as well as anyone and looking at the street thru the holes in the floors. They were not “built to last a lifetime”. They were built to last 10 or 20 years just like every other car, but on the salty streets of northern Indiana they were falling apart in 5 or 6 years.
My grandfather worked for Studebaker 30 years.....lost his pension......how did this happen? Why did this happen? Theodore Garrett Ransbottom was my grandfather .
Public Pension Guarantee Corporation. Started because the U.S. Govt worked out a deal allowing the Studebaker Co. wiggle out of their required pension fund.
Somebody should bring them back with the same top quality. The vehicles today are nothing but junk.i would love to see some of the old vehicles being remade.
That's not feasible due to a multitude of reasons, none the least of which being safety regulations, emissions regulations, and that the market doesn't really exist.
Another example of the America we once were before a useless " World Economy" and a disfunctional government combined with corporate greed. Young people under 40 don't even remember what the stamp " Made in America" stood for ... 😔
Two stamps that I would love to see again, made in the USA AND REGUSPATOFF. REMEMBER? Regulated US Patent office. The Ruskies lied about REGUSPATOFF. Russian hackers claimed Reguspattoff was a wealthy Russian and he owned all the rich corporations in AMERICA.
What the HECK! Sooooo disrespectful to *say the company name wrong!* How could you do such a thing? Why didn't someone catch the horrid error? Not StudEEbaker. Unbelievable. I will seek a respectful post and host.
Golden Hawk was a beautiful car. But the vents used to bring asbestos dust from the breaks along with carbon monoxide into the cabin, and lots of it... Most of us survived. Lol
Normally I would agree with you, but the site had been abandoned since 1967 and had self destructed due to neglect caused by the failure of the company. All the buildings that were still standing in 2006 were unsafe and had to be cleared away. You cant hold a 80 acre lot of decayed and collapsed buildings as a historic site when its unsafe, unusable, and an eye sore... 80 acres is a huge space to be left undeveloped in a city area. That is 1/2 the size of our family farm we had when I was a kid.. And several of the best built buildings still survive and are being renovated and used again so some parts of the Studebaker lives on...
Great upload thanks a lot. The Studebaler name is still visible from the air on the proving ground, made by planting a hugh number of trees way back in the past. Via Google Streetview I also saw an old building there at one of the entrances. Us the S logo on 56:47 the original one which was on the roof of one of the buildings of Plant 1 or 2, or has it been recreated here ?
Like everything in life, businesses are cyclical. Life, people, and economies change and some business thrive and others fail and pass away, even if they didn’t deserve it. By the 1960s, younger American were worried less about owning cars that would “last a lifetime” because they wanted something new and modern and completely up to date to show their upward mobility every year or two. Although Studebaker did restyle their cars every few years, they were not “ground up” new cars. They were new sheet metal on old chassis and running gear. Studebaker, like AMC in the 1970s, were building good quality cars but used old technology to build them which cost them more per unit and made them drive and feel “old”. I largely don’t think that the big three really cared much about Studebaker’s survival by the early 1960s. The small American independent car builders were not GM or Ford’s growing threat ... small, well built foreign car makers were who they really feared by the time Studebaker passed away. If Studebaker was “run” out of business by the competition, it was because they were not building and selling (enough) cars that most Americans wanted to buy at prices they were willing to pay while other were doing just that! In 1965, a basic equipped Daytona “sticker priced” as much as a higher optioned Mustang ... when everybody wanted a Mustang. You might be swayed to the Daytona IF the Daytona was discounted enough at the dealer level ... and the wait list for a new Mustang was way too long.
Studebaker was made unprofitable by auto unions. The workers killed their own business and the UAW didn't care. The union kept the pension plan for themselves. .
Stood-E-Baker? what?? Documentary creator, it's so easy to pull up one of millions of Studebaker videos already on youtube to hear the proper pronunciation. Good documentary, just missed a core component, proper name pronunciation
Yeah it’s a decent city. Not big tbh for me. Our crime rates have been going higher by the year sadly. I’ve barely started exploring more of downtown 4 years when it got nicer. I never went to it since I always thought Mishawaka was nicer. I was born and raised here. 23 years old now. I haven’t had a issue living here my entire life. But did have my times of occasions where I wasn’t at the right place at the right time 😅 Any who I give my City a 6.5/10 🤓
Why is the remaining factory building vacant still? It could be live-work space so SB could better retain its young, productive workforce, and attract more. Maybe the businesses located in such a building could be given tax-breaks to help as they start up (only small businesses can enter, and then grow out of). This is valuable asset. Don't be like what Studabaker became (and many other US companies) fat and complacent.
It's Really A Shame to Demolish Such Iconic/Ironic Establishments/Manufacturing Industries Of The Past/Past Of One's Lives ,:(:(:(.. But I'm Happy/Glad To See At Least They Saved /Preserved /Savored ...Some Of Those Memories To & For ALL the People Who Were Employed/Involved In The Devoted American Studebaker Dream
I’m done watching this could be a well put together documentary however if you don’t know how to pronounce the product, I am not going to watch it any further lifelong resident of Indiana
One retired guy at 20:20 said he wished he could buy a good studebaker at the time of the inerview... Theyre a dime a dozen these days and the good classics are around at $20K . Thats cheap man. Go buy one ! Kids these days dont want em ! If you hunt hard you might find a good one for 10-15 K. Who knows ? but they are out there for sure
My Dad worked at Studebaker around 1949-1951. He bought a brand new 1950 Champion also. Car of course long gone and Dad passed in 2019 at age 93! ❤
Iwas born in South Bend and grew up practically in the shadow of the Studebaker plant where my grandfather spent his entire career. His wife, my grandfather, was a descendent of Clement Studebaker, one of the founders of the wagon builders that became the car maker. Grandpa was chief electrician in the admin building and loved the company. Thank you for this great documentary!
Pictures like the one at 26:30 have a haunting feeling about them if you think about the hundreds of people that toiled away in those walls and how they are mostly all gone now. What a great American story and how humble the beginnings were.
My grandmother, Ruth Keb, was a seamstress for Studebaker up until they closed. I remember pulling up to the big garage style doors and the employees all streaming out. I’m very proud of the fact she was part of this car company.
I'm 65, I remember my Dad worked in the foundry until the plant closed. I remember on fridays the guyes would always go the the "rainbow" bar after they got off. It was a different time. We'd pick him up at the main entrance to plant one and drive down the Sample a block to the bar. Us kids would wait in the car a few hours eating chips and drinking bottles of coke. Crazy. Life changed drastically when that plant closed for our family and many others. I wonder sometimes how different my childhood would have been had Studebaker stayed open. Who knows.
I grew up on U.S. 31 south. I remember the 3:30 pm traffic heading south after work and the car carriers full of Studebakers. South Bend became the up and coming city in the midwest. Those were the golden days of South Bend.
Nice documental. lot of memories there. Here at Colombia, my home town, my family had two Stud models. My uncle Joseph was the proud owner of a '50 or '51 pick up, reliable, tough, bulletproof truck, and my dad had a '61 Lark 6 cylinder model with 3 speed gear box. My first serious ride at the street was in this Lark. My very first car to realy drive. I was 13 years old. That`s wy a love this legendary brand name. Thanks, Studebaker, for ever.
First time I heard Stud E baker in this documentary I said to myself. "I'm gonna have to listen to this guy say Stud E baker for this entire thing" yep. I was right.
AI voice dude
While a freshman at Notre Dame, fall of 1969 through May of 1970, I was able to visit the Studebaker plant. A few workers were still making Avanti. Sometime after Avanti was sold and moved to Ohio. South Bend is now in a transformation to new technology companies, aided by Notre Dame now investing in helping establish new ideas to build great products and jobs. ND along with South Bend developers are also transforming blighted neighborhoods. It's a beautiful city
Sad that such an industry has ended ,,, distinctive, beautiful and practical design !
Excellent piece of work of a kind that should be repeated in format about other similar places of former industrial towns that have been consigned to history. It`s always sad when a large factory site closes not least because of the many, many people who suddenly find their futures looking bleak and hopeless.
Fascinating. My uncle bought a coupe in 1962 in SouthAfrica. Legends.
So great to see these wonderful people who were so devoted to a company that truly cared for them. I pray more companies today will see how important it is to care for the people who work for them.
Are you called a STUDE E BAKER...???
I Doubt Your prayers will ever be answered ..unfortunately as there's a huge, huge difference between back then and Today's Standards .As .Back Then ..many companies/industries/manufacturers really did CARE about their Employees, As Well As Their ..Product Quality!, ( of Fit & Finish Being a Major Factor)...But Nowadays/Today's Most Companies/Industries/Manufacturers ..Only Really Care About One Thing , & One Thing Only ..The Mighty $$$$$$...Their Quarterly Billion Dollar Profits ..Two Huge Example's Of Such In Today's World 2023 ..1-"FOOD PRODUCTION/INDUSTRIES. & .2- ALL PETROLEUM/GAS COMPANIES =$$$$$$ GREED!!..They Only Care About Their $$$$$$$$$ Profits...Nothing Else ...for No Longer is there Employee Care, Devotion ...there never ending GREED...which in turn is Passed on down the line to All Of Us ...The Consumer!!!
What a fantastic documentary. I was at the International Meet in 1983. Alot of great memories for a 17 year old at the time that drove his customised '52 on the Proving Ground track. What I get a kick out of is, for 40 years of listening to former employees speak, they refence their job at "StudebakerS. Always thought it was funny how they call it that.
I do feel that Igntion Park is not an appropiate name. There should be named Studebaker Park in remeberance of where that land came from and respect to the family namesake and every employee that ever worked for them.
Why no mention of the Studebaker Museum in South Bend and the Studebnaker Drivers' Club?
I worked for years, and retired in 2015 from, Manufacturing Technology Incorporated. MTI got its start in 1929 as a tool and die shop serving Studebaker. As the City of South Bend has done, as well as the surrounding communities, MTI evolved to become a technology leader in new industries after the demise of Studebaker. I have every confidence that South Bend will continue its studied growth, and become a technology hub as the years go by.
To own a Studebaker, now that is what I call a bucket list vehicle.
When I was a student at the University of Notre Dame, a car-loving buddy and I visited the plant one evening......an authorized tour to say the least! There were three guys there, building an Avanti as a company benefit. We wandered round upstairs too. Interesting tour for an engineering student. It was only later I learned more about the history of the company.
Stude E Baker? I've owned 6 very beautiful late model Stude's, and never heard it pronounced any other way than Stude A baker. South Bend is a small city, synonymous with Studebaker. That will NEVER change no matter how much they try to distance themselves. For their own future, they should embrace this incredible heritage. In my last visit, everything is gone but one or two buildings, the museum, and old rail depot. Otherwise, it looks like bombed out Dresden, or a flat Kansas field, with their tiny downtown in the distance. The SPC board decided to become an International Company in 1958 after discontinuing it's dominant partner Packard, and moving on to Mercedes-Benz, and getting out of the auto business permanently. Please! Comparing South Bend to Chicago, or NYC is laughable.
My grandfather called his rusted-out Lark a Stupidaker.
@@trevorlondon4601 Yet, I bet he still had a soft spot for it. Studebaker has such an incredible history. The oldest wheeled manufacturer in the world.
South bend isn’t trying to distance themselves? We literally have a studebaker museum
North east Indian was a popular region for automotive production back in the day now they build RVs and mobile homes and actually they don't take a backseat to anyone with there production
@@sillygoose2508 they also make humvees at AM general
City was never the same since studebaker closed in 1963.
We were Mopar folks in the 50's and 60's, but my dad always liked Studebakers and wanted an Avanti!
He thought that was a super cool car.
When my dad came home from the war, his first car after coming home was a brand new Studebaker. He loved that car. Don't know the model name but I think it was a wagon.
So sad all those great companies went belly up :-(
Excellent Mr. Sabo ! You did a fine job! It was a very pleasant , relaxing, and very informative to watch. Probably the best Studebaker documentary I've every watched.!
But, as is common with some other cities, the leadership constructs a few feel good sites memorializing the company that actually made the city, while apparently ignoring the fact that MANUFACTURING is an activity that truly can provide the jobs and money which a city needs. Instead, short sighted cities around the country seem to be turning their noses up to manufacturing, which is one big reason that China has been eating our lunch! And, not everybody is suited for office jobs!
Are you the Vincent Consolo that edited this documentary that you say is "probably the best Studebaker documentary I've ever watched!"?
My father owned Studebakers in the '50s and '60s. He liked the cars, especially the Lark.
My Dad made camshafts for a while before he went to work for Bell Telephone. He brought home a couple of Studebakers like a couple of Hawks.
I moved here early 2006 just as plans for demolition of the old plants had came to fruition. What bothered me is that nobody over the years repurposed and reused all that production space. Plenty of potential rotting away. I was shocked to it. I am glad to see however a few buildings will be reused and Press Ganey is moving in to ignition park near the original buildings. The last two decades more has been done to clean up and repurpose South Bend area then had done in years prior. There is still a lot of work to do. But it's looking much nicer to travel to downtown then it used to be.
The property was tied up in bankruptcy courts for years while the buildings rotted and technology changed and the plant was much to large and to expensive to restore and became a collapsed mess that just got worse year after year...
@@CH-pv2rz Yup, kind of sad really. I am sure that production space could have been re-used for something. I remember reading when Romney, the CEO of AMC in the late 50's tried to get Studebaker to merge. If they did this mess might not have happened, certainly not in the way it did. It seems they would have rather gone bankrupt then take Romney's offer. But as we know often times things are a lot more complicated than it seems.
The property was given to the city after they stripped out all the assets they could sell. I don’t recall any bankruptcy after 1933.
@@PearComputingDevices That would be George Romney. Mitt's father.
My family came from eastern europe.
My ancestry there were blacksmiths, just around the same time the Studebaker brothers were blacksmiths building wagons, just like my ancestry.
My grandpop who was in the war on the eastern front would talk positively about Studebakers.
I feel a kin ship with Studebaker, I didnt understand when I was younger but in recent years when I read more about Studebakers history I began to feel how important Studebaker was.
After ww2 Studebaker tried to make a connection with Mercedes which shows their dedication.
It was a tragic day when Studebaker shut down, it almost makes me want to cry a little.
Go ahead and cry. Let it out. Crying helps get the sad out of you. And the greif well you can carry that instead of anger or hate or anything negative.
Infact, I will cry with you. It's a great story, storyteller.
God keep you healthy and kind.
@@ralphjason6720 You go cry in your beer. and Fuck off.
@@ThunderAppeal What an ass hole.
😊
I was born in 1944, learned to drive in my mother's 1955 Studebaker champion. That car had the looks of a sports car, it was the most attractive car in our block, two tone greens made that car look better than any Chevy or Ford, including the 1955 Tbird. Not the best power performing car, it had a very modest flat head 6, very underpowered, the 1955 president had a 289 V8 and that was a tough one to race against. Loved and have great memories of those Studes. Great cars.
Had the opportunity to tour the hand pushed Avanti assembly line sometime around 1979 or '80 with my dad who was a urethane supplier to Studebaker then. Fascinating bit of history to reflect on. My folks owned a couple of Presidents as I recall and grandfather had a red Hawk.
This is just sad....but here's somethin positive: in 1966, a year after he graduated high school, my Uncle had a Studebaker Golden Hawk...he raced a 1963 chevy Impala for pink slips, he won and has black and white photos of the visibly angry dude signing over the title of that junk chevy to my Uncle, with my Dad (his younger brother) laughin in the background...lol
^^fake news.
@@MrShobar How the hell do you know?
Prove ,post picture please
My grandma and grandpa moved to knox in the 40s from kentucky.. Grampa worked at studebaker until they closed the doors. Then retired from bethlaham steel.
i wanted a studebaker ever since i was in grammer school. a girl in my class came to school every day in a black and chrome hawk. that car was so fine! i walked to
school and back home a half mile each way every day. i never got to ride in a hawk, but i sure did want one! i went to cruisin the coast in biloxi, ms. about 20 years
ago and what did i see? a whole line of HAWKS and GT HAWKS! it was marvelous! a girl was looking at them and asked what kind of cars they were. i told her they
were built before she was born and the company went out of business. poor girl had never seen a studebaker! damn i'm old!
Go buy one. kids thesedays dont wnt em
330 million plus people living in the US, and you pick the one guy that pronounces Studebaker unlike anyone else in the entire country to narrate.
@@donjacobson818 Nope. Lou did the narration that he wrote. Samuel Studybaker's tombstone (1794-1837) gives you an idea of how it had been pronounced back in the day. Lou grew up here, so I trust his perspective.
i gotta say i love mr smiths attitude he sees the value in the past the past construction that was constructed so well compared to the trash that's built today two thumbs up !!!
The last ever studebaker car ever produced at the Hamilton Ontario plant is in the studebaker museum, as the last 3 years all the cars were built in Canada.
Any info on the last car ever built in south bend?
I can’t take listening to it says Stud E baker drives me nuts
well that America car company to ya
@@PontiacFan68 I love the American car company my dad and a Studebaker pick up I just don’t like the way he says the word wrong get it
Samuel Studybaker's tombstone (1794-1837) in South Bend's Bowman Cemetery is a clue to the historical pronunciation of the name. But people these days say 'Noder Dame', so here we are. I have a photo of the tombstone, but I don't think we can post photos here. Google it, and it comes up.
I enjoyed your video. SouthBend looks great.
Thank you for this fascinating documentary tribute to Studebaker
These are not dinosaur buildings, they are Americas history and a huge investment by a previous generation. They could easily have been repurposed to house a chip FAB, saved all the jobs and kept the tradition and neighborhood intact.
Greetings from the UK..thanks for a superb documentary..so sad that those skills have largely been lost..but what a gorgeous city..
NOT ANYMORE Brother its crime ridden not safe to walk down the street😡
I live here. It’s a terrible place to live.
I live on the south side. Mostly drug addicts either working a job to support their habbit, stealing from stores, or prostitution or all of the above. Fuckin sad as fuckn
THE STUDEBAKER, one of my favorite Automobiles, I Think he is a pear, his lines are unique and this own They Should reproduce them again. maneco - Porto Alegre-RS - Brasil.
General Motors put the final nail in the coffin when it hijacked the company building the fiberglass Avanti bodies and had it committed exclusively to making vette bodies.
Very, very nice video. Thank you.
AHHHH I was born in South Bend Indiana in 1954. My dad was going to Notre Dame on the GI Bill from WW2.
Glad to see South Bend thanking (instead of blaming) Studebaker for all they did for that community. A common misconception is Studebaker went out of business when the plant was shut down. The corporation turned profitable and lived on for many years, only to be eventually bought out.
The Unions drove Studebaker out of the US and they relocated into Canada. My Uncle was a shop supervisor over one of the machine shop departments. The Unions were constantly causing problems for the company including intentional sabotage on assembly lines and work slow downs. Towards the end the work environment was very toxic. My Uncle was not at all surprised when the company finally called it quits and moved.
Studebaker folding shop took South Bend very hard for they had milked the company for years for cash and freebies. Now a vast army of FORMER employees were out on their ass and a lot of them deserved it. Unions have their plusses but many minuses. They have the ability to cripple a company and that's what they did to Studebaker and paid the price.
Very few of these ex-employees ever secured a new position with the pay, benefits and security they screwed up and lost. My Uncle drove a new Studebaker car every year he worked there trading in his old one. He told me that they were the most reliable car he ever owned, easy to work on and built to last.
As a note: One of my Canadian work collogues was married to a Studebaker girl who was a direct descendent of the core family. Small world.
yeah your balance sheet would turn profitable if you were able to shuck the expense of paying pensions to employees who worked their whole lives for your company...yes sir
Great video and documentary
In 1950, at the age of 27, my Dad had the wherewithal to purchase his first new vehicle. Growing up, he was convinced that Buick denoted a man of substance, and went to the dealership in Savannah to strike a deal. The Buick Special came with burlap-covered seats, no radio or heater...and the salesman wouldn't knock a nickle off the sticker. Frustrated, Dad visited Studebaker and found a bullet-nosed Champion Starlight coupe with cloth seats, hill-holder, heater, and radio for $50 less. Went back to Buick in an attempt to get five bucks off the sticker, showing the salesman the Champion invoice. Guy said "you just go ahead "
Dad became a committed Studebaker man. Wonderful vehicles. One of the few times I ever saw him truly upset was the day they announced going out of business.
My brother Gene left South Bend with the company and became secretary - treasurer of the Studebaker Worthington Company. He closed up the company. He returned to South Bend one time to see family and return the Diamond Jubilee historical book that was kept in the company's vault. That was the closing act for him.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker-Worthington
continues history of and to end of Studebaker
We had a studebaker. It was a dark green wagon, that died in Don Mills Toronto 1974, November. I remember...cos we had all our Halloween candy with us ...Tootsie rolls...on our way to YYC for Dad's new job with Philips Electronics
My family have the only 1961 Studebaker rumble seat hawk. ( only two were made )
I'd like to see a pic of it.
My Dad had a Studebaker Lark, forest green. I learned how to drive in that.
I had a Studebaker Lark, rose pink, and that car was so sturdy, it could hit a brick wall and keep on driving 😅
The New York Central RR (Norfolk Southern now)and the Grand Trunk RR (Canadian National now) serviced the Studebaker plants and both lines are still heavily in use today. However the Wabash RR connector and the Pennsylvania RR lines in South Bend are both long gone. Most of the population of inner South Bend is long gone also.
yes, the immediate downtown is nice, but there is much blight still in the city.
The many pics of the decay gets old...too many of them. But I love the history of the company.
really glad to see some of the original buildings being renovated. what a change in the view! What happend to the studebaker family? is it still around, or have they all died out?
Thaddeus "Ted" Wilk, 99, the last of the brothers, died in 2003.
@@chaosdemonwolf1 sad.... no other family in the area huh?
@@johnstancliff7328 Not that I know of.
Very enjoyable documentary! I had 4 family members employed there. Everyone has an opinion on why the Studebaker Corporation closed Management, Union, employees dogging it Simply put, Other divisions were making money the automotive division was losing money and they pulled the plug
I remember my mother owning a 60s model Studebaker oh, I asked her the year and she can't recall, but this was in the early eighties and I remember it having holes in the floorboards. One day when she parked wherever it was, I found a nickel through one of them... LOL! And then the people she got the car off of, we're the most disgusting people. I don't know why she ever bought it, but it did run for a little while. The things you remember whilst growing up.
I was born in SB after my parents met and married working there during WW2. Until dad lost his job on the last day in 63 all we drove were Studebakers or Packards. I feel that I know those cars as well as anyone and looking at the street thru the holes in the floors. They were not “built to last a lifetime”. They were built to last 10 or 20 years just like every other car, but on the salty streets of northern Indiana they were falling apart in 5 or 6 years.
@@Oldkystudebaker living in the salt belt that is Ohio, I certainly understand.
My grandfather worked for Studebaker 30 years.....lost his pension......how did this happen? Why did this happen?
Theodore Garrett Ransbottom was my grandfather .
Public Pension Guarantee Corporation. Started because the U.S. Govt worked out a deal allowing the Studebaker Co. wiggle out of their required pension fund.
The extended Srudebaker family still meets in Tipp City every 5 years...
Somebody should bring them back with the same top quality. The vehicles today are nothing but junk.i would love to see some of the old vehicles being remade.
That's not feasible due to a multitude of reasons, none the least of which being safety regulations, emissions regulations, and that the market doesn't really exist.
Nice music BEAUTIFUL ⚜️
Another example of the America we once were before a useless " World Economy" and a disfunctional government combined with corporate greed. Young people under 40 don't even remember what the stamp " Made in America" stood for ... 😔
Two stamps that I would love to see again, made in the USA AND REGUSPATOFF. REMEMBER? Regulated US Patent office. The Ruskies lied about REGUSPATOFF. Russian hackers claimed Reguspattoff was a wealthy Russian and he owned all the rich corporations in AMERICA.
Great story thanks!
I enjoyed the video , Love the Studebaker's , No car Better 😊😃🇮🇱
And yet know one knows anything about Studebaker or South Bend...I still love my city..✌ ☮
Sad closure to an iconic brand.
Wow, what a great video! Nothing but respect for the Studebaker Company.
Bit for saying the COMPANY NAME wrong. Can't get much less respectful than that.
I remember Studerakkers in Kenosha Wisconsin 1989 I work at Foundry Belle City- WI make parts for Studebakkers.
Beautiful done
Thank You Thank You
the high crime & murder rate in south bend is bad.. I use to live in South Bend.. good video I enjoyed watching..
Thank buteguage .
I grew up 100ft from the hamilton Ontario Canada plant on Mars Avenue my father remembers the cars driving out to be loaded on trucks
What the HECK! Sooooo disrespectful to *say the company name wrong!* How could you do such a thing? Why didn't someone catch the horrid error? Not StudEEbaker. Unbelievable. I will seek a respectful post and host.
Abandon buildings should be protected at least keep a roof on them they paid their tax's. And just need time to readjust.
Golden Hawk was a beautiful car. But the vents used to bring asbestos dust from the breaks along with carbon monoxide into the cabin, and lots of it... Most of us survived. Lol
Hey Lou,, Great documentary.
Well done, l found video informative and interesting.
Must be something to see when South Bend has a parade.
It’s not stud ee baker, it’s studebaker, research it
my uncle had a 61 studebaker lark white with red interior we used to go for saturday afternoon drives
tearing down history one building at the time... cant stop progress right
Normally I would agree with you, but the site had been abandoned since 1967 and had self destructed due to neglect caused by the failure of the company. All the buildings that were still standing in 2006 were unsafe and had to be cleared away. You cant hold a 80 acre lot of decayed and collapsed buildings as a historic site when its unsafe, unusable, and an eye sore... 80 acres is a huge space to be left undeveloped in a city area. That is 1/2 the size of our family farm we had when I was a kid.. And several of the best built buildings still survive and are being renovated and used again so some parts of the Studebaker lives on...
This is decline
Fortypunatrly my uncle repaired cars...he was in the Marines before...knew a lot about everything mechanical...
Great upload thanks a lot. The Studebaler name is still visible from the air on the proving ground, made by planting a hugh number of trees way back in the past. Via Google Streetview I also saw an old building there at one of the entrances. Us the S logo on 56:47 the original one which was on the roof of one of the buildings of Plant 1 or 2, or has it been recreated here ?
Studebaker was RAN out of bus by big 3 They're cars was cheap and good and had a lot of advanced features.😡
Kinda like the Tucker ?
@@dcasper8514 Yip..
Like everything in life, businesses are cyclical. Life, people, and economies change and some business thrive and others fail and pass away, even if they didn’t deserve it. By the 1960s, younger American were worried less about owning cars that would “last a lifetime” because they wanted something new and modern and completely up to date to show their upward mobility every year or two. Although Studebaker did restyle their cars every few years, they were not “ground up” new cars. They were new sheet metal on old chassis and running gear. Studebaker, like AMC in the 1970s, were building good quality cars but used old technology to build them which cost them more per unit and made them drive and feel “old”. I largely don’t think that the big three really cared much about Studebaker’s survival by the early 1960s. The small American independent car builders were not GM or Ford’s growing threat ... small, well built foreign car makers were who they really feared by the time Studebaker passed away. If Studebaker was “run” out of business by the competition, it was because they were not building and selling (enough) cars that most Americans wanted to buy at prices they were willing to pay while other were doing just that! In 1965, a basic equipped Daytona “sticker priced” as much as a higher optioned Mustang ... when everybody wanted a Mustang. You might be swayed to the Daytona IF the Daytona was discounted enough at the dealer level ... and the wait list for a new Mustang was way too long.
Studebaker was made unprofitable by auto unions. The workers killed their own business and the UAW didn't care. The union kept the pension plan for themselves. .
THEY CARS WAS CHEAP?
This is so hard to watch..what a waste of skills. Best wishesfrom uk
I would love to have a copy ⚜️
Stood-E-Baker? what?? Documentary creator, it's so easy to pull up one of millions of Studebaker videos already on youtube to hear the proper pronunciation. Good documentary, just missed a core component, proper name
pronunciation
Thanks for posting? What is the music?
This was more a sales pitch south bend then a documentary
The moment I heard ... As we move forward... that is all folks.
Yeah it’s a decent city. Not big tbh for me. Our crime rates have been going higher by the year sadly. I’ve barely started exploring more of downtown 4 years when it got nicer. I never went to it since I always thought Mishawaka was nicer. I was born and raised here. 23 years old now. I haven’t had a issue living here my entire life. But did have my times of occasions where I wasn’t at the right place at the right time 😅 Any who I give my City a 6.5/10 🤓
And our schools have taken a nose dive! What has happened to our city?
@@carolbenson3756 I agree the school systems are the same anymore
Grandpa did 32 years dad did 16
God forbid they'd repurpose any of these buildings, some of them quite attractive. Apartments and strip malls. Yeah, that's good for the economy.
Why is the remaining factory building vacant still? It could be live-work space so SB could better retain its young, productive workforce, and attract more. Maybe the businesses located in such a building could be given tax-breaks to help as they start up (only small businesses can enter, and then grow out of).
This is valuable asset. Don't be like what Studabaker became (and many other US companies) fat and complacent.
It's Really A Shame to Demolish Such Iconic/Ironic Establishments/Manufacturing Industries Of The Past/Past Of One's Lives ,:(:(:(.. But I'm Happy/Glad To See At Least They Saved /Preserved /Savored ...Some Of Those Memories To & For ALL the People Who Were Employed/Involved In The Devoted American Studebaker Dream
Studeebaker. (That's okay).
My late Uncle Earl called them Studee-bakers😊 RIP Uncle Earl.
My dads friend loved studebakers and dodges , this being in australia they weren't plentiful
Wonder what year that Studebaker was made
Gary Indiana...🎶
I’m done watching this could be a well put together documentary however if you don’t know how to pronounce the product, I am not going to watch it any further lifelong resident of Indiana
Stude..uh..baker, NOT Studeybaker
One retired guy at 20:20 said he wished he could buy a good studebaker at the time of the inerview... Theyre a dime a dozen these days and the good classics are around at $20K . Thats cheap man. Go buy one ! Kids these days dont want em ! If you hunt hard you might find a good one for 10-15 K. Who knows ? but they are out there for sure
Sure do wish the narrator had said stewdeebaker a few less times during the whole documentary (;
Never have I heard it pronounced "Stu-DE-baker".