VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 Eagle becomes Master + Mercury

Does anyone have any hard GM DOCUMENTATION for a change-over date as to when the Eagle became the Master for 1933? Also for an offical introduction date for the Mercury, and in turn when it became the Standard? We are trying to verify some things so they are accurate in the G&D.

The documents I have for the Standard is the "Standard Chevrolet 1933 Engineering Information" that was sent to me by Chevrolet years back. It is dated February 1, 1933. I know of no information released by Chevrolet to indicate the Standard was to be the Mercury. I've had 2 of the earliest Standards. I had the 13th car built in Kansas which was built in February & I still have the 16th car built in Oakland which it too was built in February. Both of these cars have serial number plates that say "Standard". One is 1057 & the other is 1132. Another interestion note is the 1057 car's engine was cast in January while the 1132 car engine was cast in February & both cars had radiators from January. This would indicate that the Chevrolet Standard Six parts were already in production by at least January. March was to be the release date.

It has been discussed the "New Master Six" was introduced at close to the same time. On the introduction page for the the Standard it say "to be known as the 1933 Standard Chevrolet, to distinquish it from the present model,which will hereafter be known as the 1933 Master Chevrolet". Serial number plates are marked as either "Master" or "Eagle" depending on when it was manufactured. They were never both..Joe

Great, thanks Joe. This is the kind of solid info we need. I always understood it was February, but not a specific date.

I always also "heard" the Mercury was the name of the new smaller car when it was introduced, and that it was fairly quickly changed to Standard.

Anybody have anything else?

If you ever find anything to say for sure it was going to be the "Mercury" I would love to see it other wise I would say it was something that got changed by hot rodders or used car salesmen. To have 1933 Standard number 57 from one plant that says Standard (serial numbers starting at 1001} would indicate no Mercury. Even the earliest magazine sales ad says The New Standard...Joe

I have never see any literature, etc. from Chevrolet that refered to a Mercury series. However the used car price guides, various aftermarket parts catalogs, etc, refer to a Mercury series or Mercury/Standard series.
I had a question/answer on the subject in the G&D a few years back when I was doing th Q&A column.

Folks, we're going to take this to the next level, and do a small article in the G&D that talks about the (apparently mythical) Mercury series.

Does anybody have ANYTHING from Chevrolet or GM that says "Mercury?" Many of the reference books talk about it, but they are frequently wrong - and once something gets out there in print, it tends to eventually get repeated as gospel.

If they really never built a car and called it a Mercury, we need to document that.

Sounds like when they changed the Eagle over to Master pretty much coincided with the introduction of the Standard.

Don,
I wish you luck.

It is virtually impossible to prove that something didn't or can't happen.

A second point is that very often auto companies have a "code" name for projects that have nothing to do with the production name. So it might be that "Mercury" was used as the code name for the project to produce the first "Standard" models. Once nearing production then the actual name could be put on the project and sales literature, etc.

Don
It's like the first names given to Camaro. They tried Panther & Hugger before Chevrolet intoduced them as Camaros.

Chevrolet was trying to build an economy car. That's it. Parts books, original materials sent to the dealer, sales brochures, sales ads & finally serial number plates say it's a Standard. Everything in writing says it's the "New Chevrolet Standard Six" If you're going to write something, the word "Mercury" should only be used to say something like "this is a car that for years was considered to be the Mercury series but no documents have ever been found to support this name". Educate people on the car....the "New Chevrolet Standard Six" Stop calling it a Mercury until you can document that...not the other way around.

My 2 cents after spending the last 15 years studying this mystery car & after owning 6 of them & watching lots of them converted into street rod just so they could say "I have one of the rare Mercury Chevrolet"...Joe

I always thought this was a carry over from previous years, 1929 the International series, 1930 Universal series. 1931 Independence series, 1932 Confederate series and then in 1933 the Eagle series with a new standard called the Mercury. Then they just dropped the names and went by Master and Standard to keep it simple...

I tend to agree with a new product "code name". The company I worked for did this each time they were working on a new product. Note also that the name was not copyrighted or registered and in fact Ford used that name on their Mercury later on.

I can recall this term used back in the sixties when I first became interested in Chevies and antique cars. Maybe some of the other folks can remember when they first heard the term?
Having said this, I still refer to them as Mercury's. Chris

I always thought it was called the MERCURY SERIES , because in the gasket application books i had, thats what it was called and how i have always refered to the std as.

I had gasket application books issued & dated 1934 from victor, 1940 Mc Cord and 1936 fitzgerald. Somehow back then they started using that mercury name.

Maybe there is some advertising somewhere used that name . Its a good one representing speed.

mike

Maybe this will help provide some facts for this thread directly from Chevrolet advertising. I have an extensive literature and advertising collection for 1933. Materials from and for the USA, Belgium, German, and Canadian markets. Below is one dealer poster/advertising, and one Canadian ad. BOTH describe the car lines for Chevrolet in 1933 as "THE NEW CHEVROLET SIX" in both "MASTER AND STANDARD". Hope these photos help.

Jeff

Wish someone could post something that was published by Chevrolet that refers to a Mercury.

Here is another one from the front page of the operation and care manual.

To follow up on Gene's request, does anyone have this manual for a Mercury?

Very Interesting indeed.....Look at the Cover of my Owners manual......and the original Shop Manual....neither are reprints.....


Jeff

ChevGene
I hope somebody actually finds something. But it has to be by Chevrolet. The earliest ad I found was March 20th 1933. Anybody have anything earlier. It too calls it the new Standard Six.


I don't have any problems eating crow. I would love to solve this mystery.....Joe

It would be nice to see a February manual

Agreed. I am going to guess here that the Eagle name changed to Master in March when they introduced the Standard model. The March Service News is dedicated to "Introducing The Standard Six" So it seems that Eagle became Master and that the Standard Six was never called Mercury by Chevrolet. Does anyone have ANY Chevrolet document that says Mercury???

How about any document that says "Mercury" on it? I'm thinking that it's probably aftermarket stuff as Chevgene and mike lynch have said. Somehow this Mercury nomenclature got introduced and it's looking like Chevrolet wasn't behind it.

Thanks!

Regards,
Dan

Well I haven't found anything on Mercury yet, still looking. I did find this price list dated February 15, 1933 showing a page calling the Master, Eagle. So maybe March is the time of the change to calling it the Master? I will post the cover and the page here with a couple of links to the previous pages showing 1929, 1930, 1931 & 1932 with series names.





the previous pages

Page VI and VII

Page VIII

This is probably the first parts catalog for the 1933 Standard. It's the supplement to the feb 1933 master parts catalog...Joe


Well...I did something wrong on the picture. It's dated April 1933

Just a reminder to all of you. Because of the time it takes to collect, write, edit, type set, print, bind, distribute literature (particularly 80 years ago) the information contained is at least 1 month old when someone gets it. Also the common practice is to set an "official" publish (or introduction or action) date to be printed on the literature. That date is typically is set in the future when printing begins. So be careful in assuming that the publish date is actually the date when some specific action took place or the information was up to date and accurate.

A letter or memo is different than literature and the dates are either accurate or very close to the actual date the information was written.

So a catalog dated April may not get to the dealer until May? That's different than I thought. I thought the date may've been a release date & the information would've been collected maybe months back. Interesting.

The letter on the back of the feature book had a date of Feb 1933. That would've been a more acurate date in which it was distributed...Yes?...Joe

I too like Joe own a '33 CC STANDARD :) I have boo coo literature from Chevrolet.......... No where does it use the word Mercury. The only time I saw it was in a 1935 "blue book" that's acually red that calls it a Mercury. I have a copy of a Los Angeles Times newspaper ad dated 3/11/1933 the states @ bottom of the ad, Chevrolet Standard Sic. I also have an original Plymouth salesmans "cheat" sheet dated 3/15/1933 for the salesman to know the items Plymoth was "better" than the '33 Standard. I have an original Richfield oil Corporation lubrication chart that was printed in 1937 the design with the 1933 master series CA and the standard series CC, so even 1937 people in the business referred to this as the standard. Case closed???

Does anyone have any original literature that mentions 1933 Chevrolet Mercury? We're looking for good scans showing where the name Mercury appears to use in the March G&D. It sounds like this might be found in aftermarket literature as you guys indicate. Things like parts books or used car literature like the Blue Book that Steve 1933 mentions. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dan O'Day
G&D Chairman

Maybe it's time to end the bloodline "Mercury" until other information is found. It is obvious that there is not enough evidence to support "Mercury" & overwelming evidence that it is in fact the Standard Six...Joe

I have 50+ documents of 1933 Chevrolet literature. Nowhere in any of those documents do you see the word Mercury. Mercury was not a GM label for any of their products in 1933.

I think weve closed this issue without a doubt in terms of facts:

1. Chevrolet for 1933 launched the "new chevrolet six" and it was labeled Eagle
2. In Feb/March Chevrolet introduced the "Standard Six" and renamed the Eagle as the "Master Six"
3. For 1933 chevrolet did not use the name Mercury

Anybody not agree or have evidence contrary??

Congrats...somebody finally gets it. Well put...Joe

Yes, I think we all get it - but it leaves the unanswered mystery of where did the commonly used "Mercury" name ever come from? Why did the after-market gasket guys and others adopt this name for the Standard? Can anyone provide a scan/photo from some of the early after-market catalogs that call it a Mercury? This name even appears in the old "60 Years of Chevrolet" book by Gerge Dammann, and other references.

I was wonder where I came up with Mercury, it's been in my mind for many years. I opened a couple of books, one that I have had sense 1972 "50 years of Chevrolet" by George Dammann. On Page 98 he states in 1933 the new Chevrolet known officially as the Eagle Sears CA but more often called the Master. Then a little later says, At mid year, a totally new series was introduced. This was the Mercury Series CC

Also in the book "A pictorial History of Chevrolet 1929-1939" it lists both the Eagle and Mercury.

I have know idea where these two authors got the name Mercury but we were all influenced by there writing,

I should also say that I do not have anything by "Chevrolet" mentioning Mercury..

Exactly, Dale. Dammann's reference books (the 1972 version is actually 60 (not 50) Years of Chevrolet - and he later published an updated "75 Years of Chevrolet" version in 1987) and MANY others contain this same myth. As well as many other inaccurate statements, especailly about the very early years.

Where did they get this erroneous information?

That is what we are trying to correct. Set the record straight. Chevrolet never called it Mercury - so where did the name come from?

Only original source documentation fron Chevrolet / General Motors can be considered gospel, and the later authors obviously are not always correct.

Thus the request for scans or photos of after-market suppliers' materials that began using this Mercury name. Maybe we can piece together some of the mystery.

Just went thru my 1940 McQuay Norris parts book and all the 33 chevrolet notations as to aplications all say 1933 CC standard.

mike

Sorry about the mistake on the 50 vs 60...

I was discussing this with my lovely bride (she may read this) and she is a very good genealogist. She suggested that she could do a news paper search for Chevrolet and Mercury for the year 1933. We did and it shows nothing, we widened the search and to 1933-1941 got Mercury and Chevrolet together but it was separate cars. She uses Historical News Paper Archives in case you are interested.

Joe,
The date on a book or manual may have been either the official release date or the print date. In the former it would have been put together and printed before the release date so that it would be received before the "release" or effective date. In the second case (like a lot of sales literature) a print date or date code (and also a form number) would have been put on when printed. That date would be the date (mostly month and year) it was printed.

The point I was trying to make is: in either case the information contained in a document was days, weeks or months old when printed on the paper.

Don,
Mercury is only one of the quadrillion other errors in "60 years of Chevrolet". It is so fraught with errors it is worse that worse-less. The updated "75 years of Chevrolet" is not much better. If you want to jangle Skipper's chain just mention "Cars & Parts" and the former VCCA member editor/publisher. One article in particular was even more fiction than the Dammann fiascos. Once published others use the BS as gospel and perpetuate the inaccuracies.

That makes sense. Thanks, Joe

The following is not meant to criticize your efforts, which I am sure are noble. Just seems further research is a waste of time for all involved.


Who cares? BS is BS and still smells the same.


It is irrelevant. Maybe the same place they found the French wall paper.

The only point you should be concerned with is letting people know in no uncertain terms that use of "Mercury" is pure fabrication or fantasy. IMHO Attempting to authenticate the mis-application of Mercury just helps to support the use of it.

Chipper, I could not agree more!!!! Wrong is wrong and the repeat of wrong only makes it live on even longer. If a G&D article is to be written it should simply be along the lines of RIP Mercury, or MERCURY Myth Revealed, that simply shows the transition as I described earlier in 3 short bullets along with some of the photos several members posted to this thread. Together this would clear the air once and for all .

IF I HAD A 1933 CHEVROLET STANDARD SERIES 3 WINDOW COUPE I WOULD HAPPILY TELL PEOPLE IT WAS A MERCURY SERIES, BECAUSE IT SOUNDS FAST....AS THE MYTHICAL MERCURY WAS.

Too me it sounds right, MERCURY for the 33 standard , a bit more glamorous than " its a standard ", oh so hum drum.

I vote that all 33 standard chevrolets be referred to from now on as MERCURY'S
MIKE

I found this interesting reading, never heard of the issue before. Way I sum it up, if you tell a lie often enough, someone will eventually take it as the truth. Or if you inadvertently use the wrong word in printing something, most people believe everything they read.

I can just imagine some guy back in the day writing something about Chevrolets and can't remember the name of the new Chevrolet series, asks his buddy, and says I think it starts with M, and buddy says, ya, I think it was Mercury, and the myth starts. I say drop the entire myth unless someone can produce anything corporate that even hints at the possibility of some substance to the issue.

In the Production of bodies delivered by General motors Holden's LTD (Woodville SA .AUS) dated 14th May 1944 it records Mercury bodies being delivered in the years 1934 and 1935. No Mercury bodies were delivered in 1933 ,as only standard chevrolet where produced that year . Mercury bodies were delivered for sedans, sports and Business coupes , tourer , Comercial and sports roadster , and 4 different variations of utilities ,( coupe utes , roadster utes etc)
I dont think they the just dreamed up the mercury name themselves. Maybe it started in the 1934 literature.

Standard , master and mercury bodies were delivered in 1934 , and only master and mercury bodies delivered in 1935 , according to this document.

We can all agree it is a total myth.

However, one can Google "Chevrolet Mercury" and wonder how a long-sustained myth got started and when. Also, how many of us have heard the term used and for how many years? Not that it really matters but to me, but the origin of the myth is the real puzzle.

Many years ago at an AACA car show, I saw a coupe identified as a Chevrolet Mercury. Even though obviously a myth, it ain't new.

You can scan and copy the document and post the pictures here i hope or forward the pictures to chat master to post. Nothing like pictured proof of the word description being used to back up the arguement/discussion.

mike

FYI,
Copied from http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/m/mercury/mercury.htm

Mercury Body Corp.
Mercury Body Corporation, 1920; Lexington, Kentucky; 1920-1926; Louisville, Kentucky

Associated Builders
Jackson Body Company, 1926; Louisville, Kentucky


Keeling Gaines Pulliam Jr. and Charles Ellsworth McCormick of Lexington, Kentucky, and Morris Julian Crutcher (Maury Crutcher) of Detroit, Michigan, all graduates of the University of Kentucky at Lexington Mechanical Engineering program and members of the Gamma Iota chapter of the Sigma Nu Fraternity, organized the Mercury Body Corporation in early 1920.

In March of 1920, C.E. McCormick submitted a speedster body design to the US patent office. Approved in November of that year, the patent was assigned to the Mercury Body Corporation of Lexington, Kentucky.

A few speedsters were on Chevy chassis. Most were installed on Ford chassis. Pinky Randall had a Mercury Bodied Speedster on a '25 Chevy chassis.

So the industry was aware of the name even if it was not a Chevrolet produced body. There also may have been other companies named Mercury even before Ford introduced the Mercury line in 1939.

Thanks Chipper , we have a replica Mercury body speedster here in Sydney with original windshield and badges.

I couldnt get the full image to load from photobucket , so have posted in the members photos.

https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/galleries/268671/GMH_Woodville_body_production_#Post268671

I am surprised some of the 33-36 group have not responded to to your documents posting. The 1944 sheet listing Mercury Bodies delivered in 1934 and 1935 seems to suggest either a different model/marketing campaign, or more likely, that Mercury Body corporation was producing a significant chunk of bodies for Chevrolet at the time, quite possible as the depression had everyone scrambling for work. That would also help explain why the outside suppliers were differentiating between the essentially 2 versions of the same car, i.e. the Chevrolet Standard and the Chevrolet Mercury were the identical car except one had a Fisher Body and the other a Mercury Body. One quick source for verification would be a copy of the Mercury Body Service Manual, which may show a 34 Chev somewhere? Anyone ever seen one?

Mercury body Corporation switched to Manufacturing truck bodies in the mid to late 1920's.

Maybe Mercury body corp was THE OUTSIDE SUPPLIER who was producing the roadster and touring bodies. It says right in the GM canada production sheets that these were supplied / purchased from an outside supplier.

I just called them chevrolet body works for lack of a published name of the supplier.

You might be onto something here ????

mike lynch

This is an old Topic but today I received a three page article on 33 Chevies. On the last page is a Model Breakdown Chart showing the "CC Mercury" CPE 2P Price 445 Prod. 8909
CPE 2-4P Price 475 Prod. 1903
Coach 5P Price 455 Prod. 25,033

I have not been able to find out it's Orgin but was on pages 59-60-61, interesting.

It wasn't from Chevrolet...Joe

probably something like an old issue of cars and parts magazine ?????? is where they might have come from.

mike .

What was your source of information?

yOU ASKING ME OR JONJET ???????????

I bought one off ebay for my 35 roadster last year. It was cut out of a cars and parts. So one would have to guess they also did a similar one for 33 std series. ???

mike

I do not see any markings as to where the pages came from. They are large pages ( (9-3/4x 12-1/4) on heavy pages. I also bought mine on E-bay.

I would be willing to bet it was not published by Chevrolet. I have a number of things that refer to the Mercury but nothing from Chevrolet.

And the challenge continues. Find something written from Chevrolet that indicates the "New Standard Six" is called or was to be called the "Mercury series". When the Master was introduced mid year 1933, paper work from Chevrolet indicated they would not be using names to identify the cars as was in the past with Universal, Confederate, etc. The "New Standard Six" came to be at almost the same time as the "New Master Six"...Joe

Despite the editor of Cars and Parts being a VCCA member, they consistently published articles about Chevrolets that were fraught with errors. Don't ever remembering and corrections being published in spite of being informed of them more than once.

Cars and Parts has not been published for a few years now. Also Stevens passed away with in the past year.

At one time it was a good publication, back when Meno Derksen had articles. At the end it was lousy.

Yep, that's true. Many of us sent in corrections to Cars & Parts and very rarely did a correction get published. One of their sources was the book "Standard Catalog of Chevrolets" and that book should have been thrown into the trash can the day after it was published. But, Cars & Parts kept on using that inaccurate source anyway.





I agree. Back when Meno Derksen was doing the "Free Wheeling" column the magazine was great. After he retired and later when the magazine was sold it slowly started to go down hill. Finally, the magazine became nothing but ads for automotive businesses and it was crap. The magazine became so bad that subscribers were asking for their money back but Amos Press (the owner of the magazine) would never pay up.

I think I might have mentioned cars and parts by accident in a prior post.

I accidently found an article I bought off ebay stuck in with my 1934 parts book for " last of the chevy roadsters 1935 standard series " from SPECIAL INTEREST AUTOS #121 FEBRUARY 1991 .

In that 3 page article written by ARCH BROWN, he writes that the " Chevy had an ace up their sleeve and this was the STANDARD MERCURY, which most people referred to simply as the Chevrolet Standard series " ...... HE IS DISCUSSING the introduction of the 1933 CARS.

Somehow this MERCURY 33 standard won't go away. I guess In reading about 33 I picked it up like a lot of others. If I had a 33 standard I would get some t shirts made that said/.........front and back , "its not a 33 Chevrolet mercury".

lmao

mike