Chris – Craft Wartime Logo Confusion
For the record, I was not there at Chris-Craft during the war time in the mid 1940’s. Not sure if even I was a thought in my parents minds. Most likely not. But as an ad person for close to 40 years, sometimes you can look at ads and tell whats going on at a glance. So it’s with that arm chair knowledge that I will pontificate on the subject. Notice I am using big words to add credibility.
So as you see ads from the mid wartime for Chris Craft it’s interesting to see that they were having a bit of a logo ID issue. They were not sure what to use. Not the Pre War Logo, and not the Post War logo used today. They kinda were all over the place. Which would have caused the marking conscious team at Chris Craft great pain, not to mention Copyright and trademark lawyers.
You can see during the war, it was just regular type, and later a more scripted look, and then a fat version of the later logo. Not sure what this all means, other than we have just about covered every topic on the planet, many times, including toilets and yes. Kitchen Sinks.
So you may think I am nuts. Which is true. But from 1947-1952 should there be a fat Post War Logo? See the difference?
To add to the confusion. Here is a factory image of a 1948?1949 Logo on the side of a 25 Sportsman. Now, Note the t in Craft and how it extends? This makes my head hurt.
So? Anyone have a 100% original 1946-50 boat? Photo of side to see what was put on boats as decals?
The Red & White had a completely different logo (Pac Man Style) in 1940
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
And when did CC go from hand painted logos to decals. Hand painted ones would all vary a bit?
My 1950 U-22 was hand painted.
Mom still has dads ol’1954 23 ft Chris-craft express cruiser.The same one if you google: Dale Prothero and his Chris-craft.Love the sound of that old motor.
Here is an original 1949 chris craft logo on my racing runabout.
Sorry Matt, side logo was the same on the smaller boats from 1946 onward. I have several hundred photos showing this but have not been able to upload lately for some reason.
Unless removed during refinishing after we sold “Itchin” – It had the unmolested, original logo and Commander hand-painted script, which we had traced before we stripped and re-stained the cabin sides. Fred Bush, who used to do most of the lettering on the restored boats in the NW did the work. It was the typical post-war script. I’m glad Mark brought up the Red & White pre-war, art deco script – Another unique, Red & White only application. During the war, they were keeping the name alive, showing all sorts of “over the top” boat renderings/designs which were never built, but I suspect the bright colors and bold scripts were as much marketing and “rah-rah” positivity as anything else.
Original decal on a ’52 Sportsman.
Oh! Great, Now we need to discuss where the logo was put? AHHHHHHHHH!
Because that’s what advertising people do when faced with too much time on their hands…….they stay busy and design. Like this advertisement from May of 1943, How about boats that look great in theory and on the board, but would be hell to build? Throw a new logo in there and see what the reaction is. Who knows? Anyway, interesting segment.