Syracuse, New York, automaker Franklin made a name for itself in air-cooled engines, which made the company’s cars very dependable in all weather and well-suited to use in extreme climates. The engineering of the cars may have been rather unusual and idiosyncratic, but it worked, and lightweight construction ensured that they remained swift and easy to drive. Further, beginning in the mid-1920s, Franklins became beautiful automobiles by any measure, with a handsome upright dummy radiator and barrel headlights fitted to a design by the French-born automotive designer J. Frank de Causse – most beautiful on the 1928 models.

“FRANKLIN’S FINEST”

Of the over eighty Franklins that passed through the vast Harrah’s Automobile Collection of Sparks, Nevada, over the years, the collection’s founder was especially fond of the 1928. Plans for an upgraded collection facility, left a dream at the time of Bill Harrah’s death, including a recreation of a Franklin dealership that would have contained eight 1928s, one of each body style that Harrah had been able to acquire – with the missing body styles depicted in artwork on the walls, awaiting their eventual acquisition.

The centerpiece of the “1928 Franklin row” at Harrah’s was this 12-A Airman. Built in the first year that Franklin adopted a traditional steel chassis, in lieu of their earlier laminated frames, it was built by Walker of Massachusetts, the factory’s usual coachbuilding partner. However, its design was attributed in promotional materials to a new Custom Body Division, and was contributed by the great stylist Raymond Dietrich. Dietrich’s work bears a strong resemblance to his convertible sedans on Lincoln chassis of the same era, including a distinctive “six-window” roofline with insert windows between the doors.

Crafted to Dietrich’s design by the factory’s usual coachbuilding partner, Walker of Massachusetts, under the auspices of Franklin’s Custom Body Division, it is believed to have been the only such example built on a Franklin. Franklin engineer W. Chapin Condit in a 1968 issue of the Franklin Club’s Air-Cooled News stated that one day “a new car was driven into [the factory] Experimental Room. It was one of the most beautiful Franklins we had ever seen, and we soon realized that it was the first truly ‘custom’ car built by the famous designer, Raymond Dietrich. It was a fully convertible sedan.” Condit notes that it was accompanied by both H.H. Franklin himself and Dietrich, as well as the new owner, described as Mrs. Oberdorfer, whose husband’s Syracuse foundry supplied most of the cast aluminum parts of the Franklin cars. As the only known example to receive the body, this was likely Mrs. Oberdorfer’s automobile, so-admired by its creators.

The car reappeared in the 1960s and was acquired for Harrah’s in 1965. As was typical for their Franklins, the meticulous restoration was undertaken not in Harrah’s own shops, but by marque expert and historian Thomas Hubbard at his “Rancho Auro Vincit” in Tucson, Arizona. Restoration was completed, in colors borrowed from drawings promoting the design and the Custom Body Division, in 1968, and the car put on display in the collection in Sparks, Nevada, as well as featured in Air-Cooled News, in a release dubbing it “Franklin’s Finest.” It was afterward occasionally exhibited at shows, and was featured in some of the picture postcards and roster books published by Harrah’s over the next two decades.

When Harrah’s Automobile Collection was dispersed, a large portion of automobiles, widely considered to include some of the collection’s finest, were sold in late 1987 to prominent collector, General William Lyon. The convertible sedan was among these, and was in turn sold from the Lyon collection to the present owners early in 1988. It has remained in the collection, largely unshown but well-conserved, for nearly four decades, well-remembered by Franklin connoisseurs but unseen in the collector community.

It should be noted that this very special car is a Classic Car Club of America Full Classic, and thus welcomed to CCCA events and CARavan tours. In addition, it would be very warmly welcomed back to the Franklin world in the activities of the H.H. Franklin Club, a wonderful, very active and supportive gathering of enthusiasts of these fine cars, which is eager to welcome this one back into their ranks some forty years after it left member Bill Harrah’s collection.