Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey’s talent was so-so when it came to making cars. Selling? A different story. He transformed automobile advertising and marketing.

HIS full name was Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey though, for obvious reason, he preferred to be called Carl.

Today even among ardent auto enthusiasts Carl is forgotten historic footnote. This is rather surprising since he transformed automobile advertising and marketing. He also established an innovative but short-lived automobile company and transformed another company into a powerhouse.

An argument can easily be made that an absence of success is defined as failure. With Carl, there was a middle ground. The cars he designed and built were unique, innovative, and advanced. But the company failed, through no fault of his own.   

He was a salesman extraordinaire. He sold cars manufactured by others with unique flair and farsighted innovation that laid the foundation for the modern era of automotive advertising.  

At the dawning of the automotive age, in 1897, Carl was an apprentice at the Heidrick Machine Shop. He was also a student at Central Manual Training High School in Philadelphia. As a final project the student was to build anything they wanted. Carl wanted to build an automobile and he did. At least the contraption he cobbled together started and moved, so it was a success of sorts.

His next attempt to build an automobile in 1898 was somewhat more successful. With the assistance of a Harvard classmate the vehicle they built needed near constant adjustment to keep it running but the boys still managed to enjoy it for several thousand miles. Youthful enthusiasm led the young men to consider entering production but the interference of two concerned fathers ended the endeavor.

Shortly after completion of studies at Harvard, Kelsey secured the sub-agency for Autocar. He then immersed himself in an extensive hands-on study of European motor vehicles, acquired a small loan from his father, established a repair facility and secured a Locomobile agency contract.

Moderate financial success came to Carl, which in turn afforded the opportunity for his second trip to Europe to study British automobiles. Upon return he discovered the exciting new Maxwell and immediately sought to acquire the exclusive rights as the Philadelphia agent.  

To raise the $5000 for the franchise he severed his relationship with Locomobile and Autocar, sold his garage, and procured a showroom/service station on Broad Street. It was soon apparent Kelsey had found his niche: Promotion and sales.

Stunting for sales kept Maxwell and Kelsey in center stage in Philadelphia. There was the “Greatest 1000 Mile Endurance Run Ever Made,” a journey that ran the entire length of Broad Street repeatedly with promotional banners flying. On another occasion, the steps of the posh Mercantile Club became an impromptu hill climbing exhibition. This was repeated with the steps of the First Baptist Church in Germantown.

Then Carl came up with an even more brilliant concept; having his stunts filmed and then shown in the nickelodeon theatres that were springing up throughout the city. He had invented the automobile commercial.

Add a quality car, an excellent salesman and professional service. The results were sales, many sales. In fact, Carl’s Philadelphia agency was selling more cars than all Maxwell dealers in the nation combined.

Maxwell management took notice and correctly ascertained the reason. Benjamin Briscoe of Maxwell-Briscoe personally paid Kelsey a visit. At the end of the meeting Kelsey had a new job, national sales manager for Maxwell. He was twenty-five years of age at the time.

Set free of concern about budgetary constraint, Carl pulled out all the stops. Wild stunts and filmed events, endurance runs, and races all called attention to Maxwell as well as its attributes. Sales soared and then climbed even higher. New dealers were established throughout the country. Soon Maxwell-Briscoe was in the enviable position of cars selling and orders being taken at pace that far exceeded production.

Plant facilities were expanded just in time for Carl’s next revolutionary idea. In 1909, Carl had concluded that as the predominance of advertising targeted men a large segment of potential buyers was being ignored.

To resolve this, he designed an ingenious promotional campaign, a fair maiden would drive a new Maxwell from Hell’s Gate to Golden Gate, the first transcontinental trip by a woman. Of course, she would not exactly be being going alone as a friend and two sisters-in-law would accompany her. And with careful targeted press releases, a veritable army of journalists eagerly joined in and made reports along the way.

For her efforts, Alice Ramsey received a new Maxwell. For his efforts, Carl saw sales climb even higher and the automobile industry had a new, untapped market.

If there had been a “Big Three” in 1909, they would have been Ford, Buick, and Maxwell-Briscoe. The latter owed its success to Carl and his creative genius.

However, the bean counters and management envisioned an even larger share of the market. Benjamin Briscoe and the owner of Buick, Billy Durant, felt that merger and then construction of a car for every budget could result in near complete dominance. The idea became more than talk with the initiation of a meeting between Briscoe, Durant, Ransom Olds and Henry Ford.

The talks fell flat but Durant and Briscoe held firm to the idea. Durant took the concept and created a little company he named General Motors. Briscoe used Maxwell-Briscoe as the foundation for a similar company – United States Motor Company.

Kelsey took leave of the company to pursue a dream that dated to 1897. He would establish his own automobile manufacturing company. He would stun the industry with the Kelsey Mottorette.

 Written by Jim Hinckley of jimhinckleysamerica.com