Sponsoring in the Great Depression: the Pennsylvania Cadillacs

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A Cadillac-sponsored baseball team in 1930, posed around a brand-new Cadillac V16. What makes this scene so unlikely is that it was taken just after the Great Depression had hit the US hard. And if one brand suffered from the economic misery that followed the crash, it must have been Cadillac. Sales plummeted by 84% in a short period of time. The future of the marque was in doubt, with General Motors openly discussing its closure.

Meanwhile, the luxury motor manufacturer launched a new pinnacle of engineering at the New York Auto Show in January 1930. That was, of course, the great Cadillac V16 — nothing but a symbol of American lavishness — released just months after the stock market crash. Possibly the ultimate example of bad timing? Sponsoring a baseball team may well have seemed the last thing the company had on its mind — yet it happened anyway.

Now, other than just that, we do not know much, as information about the “whats and whens” is very limited. The picture was taken in Pennsylvania in 1930 — that’s about all we know. We found several Philadelphia baseball teams active in 1930, but none of them seem to link to Cadillac. Could it be a Cadillac company team? Oh, we nearly forgot about the car itself. Any specific thoughts on that?

Words by Jeroen Booij
Picture courtesy of the Library of Philadelphia

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