Solved - NEH 3010: Parmalee Limo, 1936 (re-badged Checker Y-8)

[Carnut]

What's this, built by whom and when - for 1 point?:

ANYONE FOUND GIVING ANSWERS OBTAINED BY USING GOOGLE SEARCH BY IMAGE MAY BE BANNED FOR AN INDETERMINATE PERIOD!

[Carnut]

Experts?

[Craig Gillingham]

About a 1936 Y-8 Checker?

[Carnut]

About a 1936 Y-8 Checker?

It's not a Checker and not from 1936, but you're thinking on the right lines..

[Craig Gillingham]

Got it now, it's a 1933 Parmelee Limo.

[Bill Murray]

I overslept this morning.

This should be interesting...............

On the Web, you can find this as......

1933 Parmalee/Checker Model Y.
1936 Parmalee/Checker Model Y.
1938 Parmalee/Checker Model Y.

As the Model Y did not exist until I believe 1937, that would seem to indicate that 1933 and 1936 are not valid and it may be a 1938 model.

Edit:  Further reading reveals that the model Y began in 1936.
Edit 2:  More reading gives 1935 as the first year for the Model Y.  Gotta love the Web for information!!

As I understand it, and sources are all over the map on details, Parmalee was a huge Taxi Company in Chicago and they manufactured or assembled the Checker Model Y under some sort of contract with Checker.

There is more to the Parmalee story but I will stop here for now.

[Craig Gillingham]

I really have no idea myself, I hadn't heard of Parmelee until it came up in a Google search 1/2 an hour ago. I thought it must be at least be based on a model Y Checker.

[Carnut]

Unfortunately I got my information from Coachbuild.com so I can't check it!
I can't remember it mentioning Checker, but there was a bit about the history of Parmalee, founded by Frank Parmalee and producing commercial vehicles.  Then they were asked to produce a taxi and came up with this one, which was shown on Coachbuild as being from 1933.
I'll see what I can find out from my books, and whether it was just a badge-engineered Checker; I didn't get that impression from Coachbuild.

[Bill Murray]

Coachbuild is back up, but I think you meant Coachbuilt which is one of the sources I also used and it identifies  several Parmalee taxis as from model year 1933 which I believe is rather suspect.

As a bit of further information, one of the sites I visited said there were very small numbers of both six door and eight door versions of this car from this company.

Sadly, it seems your puzzle photo is the only one available on the internet and I have found it not only on US and British sites but also Finnish and even Arabic sites and it seems everyone has a different idea as to the year model and whether it is exclusively a Parmalee product or, as I suggested, a licensed product from the Checker design studio assembled by Parmalee.

Truly a mystery it would seem.

[Carnut]

I've had a look into the story - and what a story of corruption, intrigue, double-crossing and murder!  It makes Al Capone look like your friendly neighbourhood Sunday school teacher and took place mainly in 1920s Chicago too, amongst the taxi companies there, with some well-known names like Hertz involved.

But from what I can glean the old Franklin Parmalee company, established in the mid 1800s and making vehicles primarily for the railway system's baggage transfer (see picture below), was taken over by Checker in 1930.  Checker itself was taken over by Cord in 1932, and ended up of course as part of General Motors.

But it does seem that any cab badged as a Parmelee was simply a re-badged Checker, and the puzzle photo seems to be a Y8 model from 1936.

So let's award the point and call it solved!

[Carnut]

Yes, of course I meant Coachbuilt, but very glad to see Coachbuild.com back on line!