Family life with the Silver Arrow

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After the recent early Harley Earl extravagancy shown here, we thought this one would fit in rather well, too. You surely must have heard of the outlandish Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow? Unveiled at the 1933 World Fair held in Chicago, it was anything but conservative, fitting in very well with that year’s theme, ‘A Century of Progress’.

Its V12 engine, its power-assisted drum brakes all round, and above all its aerodynamic silver body with hidden spares and integrated headlights must have seemed out of this world. And it wasn’t even a one-off show car. As a matter of fact, the car on display at the World Fair was the third one made, from a total of five. You may well have seen photos of the cars before, in specialist motoring publications, at concours events, or in auction catalogues – these cars did find owners, then and now.

But have you ever seen period pictures of these impressive machines showing their owners and family/friends? We hadn’t. The first one here is said to show the Stieff family of Baltimore in 1934. They ran the Stieff silverware company in Baltimore and used the car as family transport to drive to their Skytop Lodge. Feel free to look that up – it’s a most impressive resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

The second picture is not quite so well documented, and we only found reference to it as ‘the doctor and his posse’. Interesting! Who knows more?

Words: Jeroen Booij
Picture: Monroe County Historical Association / AACA forum

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