Northwestern Ford and the Playboy Shelbys
1966-1969
Northwestern Ford was located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During the late 1960's it was one of the Midwest's most dynamic and energetic dealerships. Northwestern was Wisconsin's only authorized Shelby franchise.
In other words, all the new Shelbys in Wisconsin went through Northwestern.
Northwestern Ford was started in 1916 by Louis Snetcamp. Snetcamp began by selling Ford's "Model-T". Snetcamp was active in the dealership until his retirement in the mid 1960s.
Around 1965, John Bearce and Leonard Rohrbach (Snetcamp's nephew) purchased the dealership from Snetcamp.
In April of 1966, the dealership moved to a new location on
Silver Spring Drive.
I was very fortunate to spend some time with John Bearce. He is an interesting person with a long history of being around high performance automobiles. Many of the pictures for this article were provided by Mr. Bearce.
Let's go to the grand opening of Northwestern Ford's new location on April 22, 1966.
Here is a copy of the invitation sent out to over 1500 Milwaukee area residents.
Click the small images above to see the advertisements full size. These ads originally appeared in Milwaukee newspapers during April of 1966
to promote the grand opening of the new location.
The grand opening of Northwestern Ford was a BIG event. No less than fifty billboards covered the Milwaukee metro area. Both of Milwaukee's major newspapers carried articles prior to the event. Many of the smaller
papers also covered it. Advertising also occurred on local television and radio stations.
A large parade featured ten Model-T cars, including one that was sold new at Northwestern in 1916. It also included Ford's full line of products for 1966 and a GT40.
Pictured left to right are Rohrbach, Bearce and Snetcamp.
Local TV personality, Ward Allen and Albert the Alley Cat were in the parade. Allen was the weatherman from Channel 6. Albert the Alley Cat was his co-host.
Albert was also the mascot for Northwestern. He was featured in many TV and print ads. During the parade, a young high school
student wore the Alley Cat costume. It should be noted Albert was normally a puppet. { Pete's joke: Albert actually had a brother named Filbert. They were twins, but Filbert was left handed }
Pictures courtesy of Ron Kurer at www.toontracker.com .
Once the parade was over, everyone was invited to the showroom. The showroom featured several beauty queens, including a former Miss Wisconsin.
Green Bay Packer lineman, Jerry Kramer, signed autographs and tried to fit into a GT40. Also present were Ford dignitaries and the man himself . . . Carroll Shelby.
Inside visitors had a chance to win the use of a new Mustang for a year. The "Lucky Key" contest also included a chance to use a new Galaxie for a year.
There were refreshments and free balloons for the kids.
Northwestern Ford was home to one the largest Mustang Clubs in the country. Here is a patch from the Mustang Club.
Because Northwestern Ford was Wisconsin's only authorized Shelby franchise, they provided new cars to smaller dealerships
throughout the state. If your car is listed as "dealership unknown" in the Registry, it may have been sent to a non-franchise
dealership. This picture shows a 1968 Shelby at nearby Swendson Ford across town. Swendson was not an authorized Shelby dealer.
You can see the advertising poster from Playboy magazine on the hood.
Here's another example; Craig Skala's car (Serial Number 44) went to Northwestern Ford. But, it was actually sold new from Zweifel Ford, yet another Milwaukee dealership.
Craig uncovered this interesting feature common to many Northwestern cars.
The stock Dzus hood pins were removed and a locking hood pin assembly was installed in its place. A small key is needed to unlock the hood. I have seen several cars from the dealership with this feature.
The original invoice above, actually shows the dealer add-on for the hood locks. Bob, the owner, also paid for dealer underseal.
Remarkably, Bob, still owns the red GT500KR today (Serial Number 3556).
This owner's manual is from Pat's GT500KR. Pat is the second owner of the car (Serial Number 4258).
Notice the Northwestern stamping.
This character is "little Profit". He appeared in Northwestern Ford's 1968 advertising. He was the replacement for Albert the Alley Cat. While searching for information on my own 1968 Shelby, I came across another "little Profit". He was
moonlighting for a Plymouth dealership in Baltimore. Little Profit originated from a national advertising agency.
Click the small images above to see the advertisements full size. These ads original appeared in the Milwaukee Journal during 1968.
On April 15th, 1968 Northwestern Ford had NASCAR Champion, Fred Lorenzen helping promote new Ford products.
Fred appeared with the LeMans winning GT40 and the new 1968 Shelby convertible. He also appeared at the local department store (Gimbel-Schusters).
This announcement is from the Milwaukee Journal.
Bob Perkins uncovered this original decal. The dealership put these on some cars and handed them
out to customers. These little puzzle pieces are still floating around. According to Mr. Kemp, a Northwestern salesman, the Shelbys
did not receive Northwestern nameplates.
Jim Cowles of Shelby Parts and Restorations in Green Bay uncovered this original Northwestern invoice. It is for a 1969 Shelby.
He also found this original envelope provided by the dealership for storing your title. If you need parts or help with your Shelby, Jim is a great resource.
THE PLAYBOY SHELBYS
Most people are familiar with the pink 1969 Shelby GT500 that was given to the Playmate of the Year. That car actually started
out as a Pastel Gray fastback (1969 - Serial Number 1027). It was automatic transmission car without A/C.
Almost forgotten are the ten Playboy convertibles from 1968.
Shelby had a long running association with Playboy and Northwestern Ford.
He visited the dealership frequently.
The convertibles were sent to the Playboy mansion in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The cars had no special identification. In fact, all cars were
standard production colors. Six of these convertibles would be sent from Northwestern Ford. The remaining four cars were invoiced to Minar
Ford in Minneapolis, Minnesota some 250 miles away.
Here is a picture of a young Hugh Hefner celebrating the grand opening of Lake Geneva.
The picture appeared on the front page of the Lake Geneva newspaper in May of 1968.
The cars were used at the mansion, most likely for special guests and staff.
All the cars were prepped by the dealerships at the cost of $50. There were five GT350s and five GT500s.
The cars stayed at the mansion anywhere from 2-12 months.
The mansion actually opened on Monday 5/6/68. It appears that all ten cars were at the mansion for the opening.
Mr. Hefner organized a parade to attract attention.
Carroll Shelby participated in the parade. One of Northwestern's salesmen told me Shelby rode
in a 427 Cobra. The owner of the car asked Shelby to punch the thin, aluminum skin. Shelby looked at the owner with a puzzled expression. "Punch it . . . and take
this marker to autograph the car" Shelby knew how to keep his customers happy and he complied.
Here are the serial numbers of the 1968 Shelby "Playboy" convertibles:
| 8T03S173639-01989 |
8T03S173659-02057 |
8T03S177988-02476 |
8T03S179578-02755 |
8T03S179596-02775 |
8T03J180321-02888 |
8T03J180347-02991 |
8T03J183075-03086 |
8T03J183076-03088 |
8T03J183081-03093 |
The Registry shows several of these cars are still around. If you have a picture of one of these cars, I would appreciate it.
Speed Unlimited was the high performance parts division of
Northwestern. This flyer would eventually lead me to find a salesman and the owner.
The salesman, Mr. Kemp, told me this incredible story. The GT40s were no strangers to Northwestern Ford.
One of the famous cars had appeared at the grand opening event. Several more would show up at the dealership
over the years, mostly for promotional events. The Ford Motor Company knew the promotional value of these
championship cars. Shortly after one such car arrived at Northwestern, an individual with a lot of pull decided
he wanted to drive the car. Ford obviously did not want anyone to drive the supercar. Remember, these cars were beating the
pants of Ferraris and capable of 200 plus miles per hour - in the 1960s. As a matter of fact, Ford made sure no one would
drive the car (or so they thought). They had removed the clutch and the ignition. Northwestern Ford was a high performance orientated
dealership. To illustrate that, Northwestern mechanics were able to make the car road worthy in no time flat.
If you are going to drive one of Mr. Ford's champions there is no better place than Elkhart Lake. Elkhart Lake
is 60 miles from Milwaukee and things went just fine at the track. Things were going really well until the
car left the winding country road on the ride home. When the car was finally returned to Northwestern, mechanics not only had to remove the parts they
had installed earlier, but now they had to fabricate some new parts to repair the crash damage. They finished
the repairs just minutes before the Ford transporter arrived to pick up the car from the dealership.
I marveled at the story wondering if it could be true ?
This is Thomas Schelble's original business card. Schelble sold many Shelbys and convinced Bearce to
get his Sports Car Club of America racing license.
My friend, Pat, found this picture. The 1970
Shelby convertible (lower, right) was provided by Northwestern Ford. The car is lettered "Northwestern Ford USAC pace car". The race was in Milwaukee. What a day, Shelbys and Superbirds.
John Bearce left Northwestern Ford in 1969. The dealership closed its doors in the early 1970s, after more than 54 years
of business. John went on to open his own Ford dealership and set several land-speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
He was also a very successful road racer. He raced trucks in Baja and South America.
John Bearce poses with two Shelby Cobras.
The Cobra on the left is a rare 40th Anniversary Edition.
John Bearce has been selling Fords for over 52 years. Today, John has several dealerships in central
Illinois. He is an authorized Shelby dealer. He sells new Ford GT500s and new Shelby CSX 4000
series cars. If you are need of a new Shelby, I highly recommend you contact Mr. Bearce. You may never have a chance like this again.
Before I left, John Bearce turned and smiled. He said, "...you know the GT40 story ? It is true. We couldn't order parts for the car, so we had to make them and no one found out for
forty years."
I would like to thank John and Amy Bearce for their contributions to this page. I would also like to thank Mr. Kemp, the Northwestern Ford salesman.
Carroll Shelby takes a minute to promote his already famous cars, April 1966
MORE PICTURES
If you have anything from Northwestern Ford, I would appreciate you getting a hold of me.
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