Checker Taxi

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1982 Checker taxicab in green and cream with Checker's trademark checkerboard trim.

The Checker Taxi (Checker Cab) was the iconic American taxi produced by the Checker Motors Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Checker Taxis were used by its founder Morris Markin in the taxi service that he owned and operated under the name Parmalee System. While Markin's competitor John D. Hertz coined the term Yellow Cab, Markin's Checker, particularly the 1956-82 A8/Marathon, remains the most famous taxi cab vehicle in the United States.

1 History
2 Checker Cabs in the media
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Morris Markin, a clothier from Chicago, Illinois became the owner of a Joliet, Illinois auto-body manufacturer when its owner defaulted on a $15,000 personal loan from Markin. The facility made bodies for Commonwealth Motors who marketed the vehicles to cab companies under the trade name Mogul.

Concurrently, Checker Taxi — a privately-owned cab company in Chicago that had no affiliation with Markin — placed a large order for Mogul cabs with Commonwealth. Commonwealth itself was on the verge of bankruptcy, so Markin merged the two companies in order to honor the contractual commitment with the Chicago Checker Taxi. Markin named his concern the Checker Cab Company. However, there was no overlap in ownership.

John Hertz began in the taxi business in 1910, both building Yellow Cabs and operating the livery service. Because of plant overproduction, Hertz used the excess cars by renting them to patrons through his "Yellow Drive-Ur-Self" division (the forerunner of Hertz Rental Car). Seeing Hertz's success, Markin began buying up Checker's rolling stock in 1924, gaining full control of Checker Taxi Cab in 1937.

Markin also followed Hertz's business plan in having drivers open doors for the fares, and outfitted each driver with a uniform. Competition for fares was fierce in the 1920s, and the easily spotted drivers began ganging up on one another between fares. The fighting between the two cab companies escalated to the point where Markin's home was firebombed. This prompted Markin to buy the Dort Automobile factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan and relocate Checker.

Under Markin, Checker became the first cab company to hire African-American drivers and the first to require that drivers pick up all fares, not just white ones.

Hertz had sold his Yellow Cab to the Parmalee Transportation Company, but in 1929, after a suspicious fire at his stables killed his prized race horses, Hertz left the cab business, with Markin buying Hertz's shares and then acquiring another one-third in the company from Parmalee, thus taking control of both Parmalee and Yellow Cab.

While Hertz had sold off the cab business, the manufacturing arm went to General Motors, which wanted to sell it and made Markin an affordable offer. Markin refused. Rather than eliminate the capacity of Yellow Manufacturing, General Motors entered the taxicab business as Terminal Taxi Cab, and a second fare war broke out, with Checker and Terminal fighting it out in New York City. To end this dispute, New York Mayor Jimmy Walker created the New York Taxi Cab Commission, which ruled that all cabs in New York had to be purpose-built cabs, not consumer car conversions.

Markin sold Checker Cab to E.L. Cord, but bought it back again in 1936. In 1940, Parmalee (including Yellow and Checker Cab) became the largest cab company in the United States. Eventually, the cab company revenues exceeded those of Checker's automotive building division, and the company decided to enter the consumer passenger car business in 1961.

In 1964 the State of New York pursued Markin and Checker on antitrust charges, alleging that it controlled both the taxi service and manufacture of taxis, and thus favored itself in fulfilling orders. Rather than allow Checker drivers to begin buying different brands of cars, Markin began selling licenses in New York City.

In 1977, seven years after the death of Morris Markin, retired GM President Ed Cole bought into Checker with the intent of re-energizing the company and developing a new, more modern Checker. Cole's plan was to purchased partially completed Volkswagens from VW's new factory in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. Cole was going to ship the VWs to the Checker Motors factory in Kalamazoo, cut them in half, insert a section to lengthen the VW, raise the roof and then sell the reconfigured vehicle as a taxi. Shortly thereafter, however, Cole was killed when his plane crashed near Kalamazoo.

With the Marathon thoroughly outmoded and no longer selling in viable quantities, and lacking the resources to develop a new model, Checker decided to leave the auto manufacturing business. The Marathon design dated back to the mid 1950s which caused Checker a number of problems. There had been several minor changes to the design. First, impact absorbing bumpers were added when required by federal law and then the steering column/wheel were changed when a collapsible column was also required for safety reasons. The rear fold-down jump seats were also removed as they failed all safety tests. The car had very poor gas mileage as the tall front end and engine compartment had been designed for a Continental built engine, which required the large engine compartment.^{[citation needed]} When production of that engine ceased, in 1960, Checker went to a Chevrolet straight six. That engine, along with an optional Chevrolet V-8 were used until the late 1970s. When GM ceased making the straight six, Checker purchased a small V-6 that was also used in Chevrolets. But the large and tall grill and hood made for poor aerodynamics which was part of the reason for the low gas mileage. So a number of the V-6s were converted to use propane as the fuel. Many of the body stamping dies were worn out after over 20 years of continuous use and that required manual body adjustments by body and fender mechanics to make the parts fit. The fenders and doors were the parts with the most problem fit as taxis are involved in numerous minor accidents due to their extensive, often 24 hour a day use. The last models were produced for the 1982 model year, and the final automobile rolled off the assembly line on July 12, 1982.

Checker Motors today operates as an automotive subcontractor, primarily for General Motors, building mostly body components.

[edit] Checker Cabs in the media

Metal die-cast model of a Checker taxicab

The Checker has long enjoyed a cult status.

In the original Mission: Impossible television show, episodes that were supposedly set in Eastern Europe often used Checkers as vehicles, as was sometimes evident in closeups of the cars.

In the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the taxis waiting at the taxi stand in downtown Chicago are all Checker cabs. Ferris Bueller and his friends escape Mr. Bueller by getting away in one of the waiting cars. In a later scene, two other Checkers are featured.

In Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver, the main character Travis Bickle drives a Checker Taxi.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Checker cabs were featured prominently in the television show Taxi. Set in the fictional "Sunshine Cab Company" headquarters in New York City, all or most of the cabs in the Sunshine fleet were Checkers. Nearly every episode began with footage of Checkers in action, and the background of the garage interior often showed several Checkers getting worked on or waiting to be dispatched.

A Checker Cab and its cigar-chomping driver made cameo appearances in various Blondie music videos between 1978 and 1980. Their music video for "Call Me" centered entirely on the Checker and driver, travelling through the traffic-filled streets of Manhattan.

Checker cabs continued to be featured in movies set in New York City long after they had become rare or even absent in the city itself.

Friends TV character Phoebe Buffay often borrowed, and later inherited, her grandmother's Checker Cab to drive upstate and see family or take friends on ski weekends. One episode involves her driving back from Las Vegas to New York, after Joey Tribbiani had borrowed it to drive out to a film shoot.

The "Cabbie", a taxicab resembling a Checker, can be seen and driven in the video games Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. In Vice City, the fictional Kaufman Cab company strictly runs on a fleet of Cabbies in Vice City, Florida.