Crosley Car Owners Club

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The Crosley Car Owners Club (CCOC) was historically notable as being one of the first American support groups for owners and enthusiasts of American-built automobiles, in this case those built by the Crosley Corporation in Richmond, Indiana between 1939 and 1942 and by Crosley Motors, Incorporated in Marion, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio between 1946 and 1952.

The CCOC was organized in early 1952 by Edward Herzog (November 5, 1903 - July 7, 1982) of New York. The first director was George W. Drum (October 3, 1925 - December 16, 1997). At that point, Crosley cars and trucks were still in production, but Crosley Motors was sold to General Tire that July and production halted at that point. Although there were sporadic outside efforts to acquire the automotive tooling and fixtures and resume prduction, the necessary finances were never assembled and eventually the tooling was scrapped although the founders of the CCOC worked to preserve the spare-parts stock.

By early 1953, 588 members were registered. On July 18, 1954 the CCOC organized its first national gathering in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. The CCOC publication (the Crosley Car Owner's Club Bulletin) reported that fifty-one members from twelve states brought forty-three Crosley vehicles to the meet, the oldest of which had been built only fifteen years prior and the newest was but two years old.

Early in 1955, member Donald W. Rice of Bedford, Pennsylvania became the new CCOC president and oversaw the second national summertime Crosley gathering in Perkasie, Pennsylvania on August 14th of that year at which thirty-seven Crosleys from ten states were in attendance. In early 1956, Rice turned the CCOC over to the last Crosley distributorship then still operating, Service Motors of Elmont, New York, which appointed George W. Drum as the CCOC managing director. As the 1960s approached, the summertime CCOC national meetings had tapered off but the Bulletin was still published, and CCOC membership lists and Bulletin publication responsibilities were again assumed by George W. Drum. The Bulletin became sporadic in nature and finally ended in mid-1961.

However, the Crosley Car Owners Club remains active. As the Internet age dawned in the 1990s, the methods used by many such hobbyist and special-interest groups for communicative purposes have altered, spreading to instant, electronic text-and-image messaging and, like the CCOC and a number of other formerly mail-based groups, have gone into decline or have reorganized into Web discussion groups.