A century ago Packard, Peerless, and Pierce Arrow were widely acclaimed as the finest regular production cars in America.
Cadillac, Lincoln, and Imperial were luxury makes, but second tier.
The Great Depression hit all the automakers hard, and except for Nicholas Dreystat Cadillac might well have folded:
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www.hagerty.com
Dreystadt’s famous quotation about production quality remains taught at all business schools today:
“Quality is design and tooling, inspection and service; it is not inefficiency.”
At some point we know, that Lee sold his company. On that day, a $25 Lee Five Star was the finest production pipe on the earth, with no close peers.
Even a $15 Three Star Lee from the five pointed gold inlaid star era is a stunningly beautiful, perfect pipe.
After the sale, an economy measure had to have been made, to replace the inlaid gold stars with stamped stars, and engraver’s gilding. Then later, the classic recessed hidden screw stem was replaced by a push stem. Eventually, there were no more Lee pipes in the market.
When I look at a Dunhill catalog today, I see where they’ve taken a page from Lee’s “Star Grade” marketing plan and simply call their pipes “White Spot”.
I wonder if a Nicholas Dreystadt might have saved Pipes by Lee, if he’d insisted on manufacturing efficiency and not cheapening the product, by changing what identified it as different.
It must be expensive, to inlay those White Spots on Dunhills.
Cadillac, Lincoln, and Imperial were luxury makes, but second tier.
The Great Depression hit all the automakers hard, and except for Nicholas Dreystat Cadillac might well have folded:
How Nicholas Dreystadt ended racism at Cadillac in the 1930s—or tried to - Hagerty Media
Dealers were asked to lift “white only” sales policies, but the marketing didn’t change.
www.hagerty.com
Dreystadt’s famous quotation about production quality remains taught at all business schools today:
“Quality is design and tooling, inspection and service; it is not inefficiency.”
At some point we know, that Lee sold his company. On that day, a $25 Lee Five Star was the finest production pipe on the earth, with no close peers.
Even a $15 Three Star Lee from the five pointed gold inlaid star era is a stunningly beautiful, perfect pipe.
After the sale, an economy measure had to have been made, to replace the inlaid gold stars with stamped stars, and engraver’s gilding. Then later, the classic recessed hidden screw stem was replaced by a push stem. Eventually, there were no more Lee pipes in the market.When I look at a Dunhill catalog today, I see where they’ve taken a page from Lee’s “Star Grade” marketing plan and simply call their pipes “White Spot”.
I wonder if a Nicholas Dreystadt might have saved Pipes by Lee, if he’d insisted on manufacturing efficiency and not cheapening the product, by changing what identified it as different.
It must be expensive, to inlay those White Spots on Dunhills.
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