Crisis? What crisis?

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This iconic photograph was taken almost exactly 92 years ago today — just after the infamous Wall Street Crash. Since then it has been used in hundreds of articles to illustrate the devastating effects of the Crash by capturing the desperation of investors particularly well in this one single image.

Walter Clarence Thornton

The picture’s background story, however, is perhaps not so well known. The man hoping for 100 dollars in cash for his Chrysler roadster is Walter Clarence Thornton. And although we don’t know if Thornton actually managed to sell his car that day, we do know that the tide did turn for him not much later and in a rather spectacular way. Thornton set up his own model agency in the Chrysler building in 1930. And he had great success in doing so, ‘discovering’ a number of famous models and film stars and eventually becoming a top modelling mogul with agencies throughout the US. He had his own television show as early as 1946 and even a 1949 hit single named after him!

So don’t despair when you read that we are about to enter the umpteenth crisis of whatever nature and you feel the time to sell your beloved car is coming nearer. Just think of Walter Thornton.

Words by Jeroen Booij. Original picture source unknown.

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