Life, 1913-01-09 · page 85 of 100
Life — January 9, 1913 — page 85: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward automobile advertisement from *Life* magazine circa 1913. The page promotes the Oakland motor car, manufactured in Pontiac, Michigan. The ad uses artistic language comparing the car to "a work of a great artist," emphasizing its aesthetic beauty alongside mechanical superiority. It highlights specific features: the Greyhound 6-60 model, unit power construction, Delco electric starting/lighting systems, and convenience details like the rear-mounted gasoline tank and dashboard oil gauge. The accompanying photograph shows a side-view of an open-air touring car typical of the era—a five-passenger vehicle with spoke wheels and minimal weather protection. This represents early automotive advertising targeting middle-class buyers, appealing to both craftsmanship and modern mechanical innovation during the transitional period between hand-built and mass-produced automobiles.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Wonderful Picture! ’ I ‘HE OAKLAND reminds you of a great artist. Beautiful to the car ap’ There are fi similar in app description, of a wonderful picture—the work the eye, complete in every detail, eals to you at once as the creation of a master. undreds of five-passenger, four-cylinder cars—all earance—and there is the Oakland model of the same ut a car so different, so beautiful, so individual, that if you saw every five-passenger, four-cylinder car made, you would pick the Oakland as the car of the group. There are a score or more of six-cylinder models, but none of them have the fine char- acteristics of the Oakland Greyhound—6-60 —a car of such striking lines that you gaze at it in sheer admiration and marvel at its wonderful symmetry and,.graceful appearance. But we do not stop there. We are not satisfied in producing the most beautiful car in the world. We give you beauty you cannot see— beauty you cannot fecl—we give you beauty of construction, for the Oakland is as true inside mechanically as it is true outside ar- tistically. We give you a car that is mechanically right, for Oakland construction stands for maximum mechanical efficiency. THE OAKLAND We give you unit power construction— the motor, clutch, and transmission on one line, because this method gives you increased power, the minimum of friction and straight line drive. We give you maximum accessibility which you must have in order to give the car proper attention after you own it and drive it. In the matter of detail, comfort and convenience, the Oakland is modern, for there is incorporated the best of scientific progress made to date in automobile construction. | Models 42 and 6-60 are equipped with the Delco improved electric lighting, ignition and starting sys- tem. Gasoline tank is carried at the rear, making it very convenient for filling. There is a gasoline gauge on the tank. . There is an oil sight on the dash. The starter ison the dash. Everything is in a convenient position for use. LINE FOR 1913 The Greyhound 6-60, four, five and seven-passenger touring cars and a runabout two. Price for all models, $2550. jo. Model 42, four and five-passenger touring cars (five-passenger touring car illus- trated). "‘Three-passenger roadster. Four-| ger coupe, $2500. Model 35. Oakland Motor Car Company, Price of all models, $1750. Five-passenger touring car, $1075. Three-passenger roadster, $1000. 120 Oakland Boulevard, Pontiac, Michigan Send for the Oakland books, comicbooks.com