Recalling the Professional Car Society’s 2018 International Meet in Detroit
Photo by GREGG D. MERKSAMERRandolph Mantooth, who inspired many Professional Car Society members to become paramedics after playing L.A. County Fireman John Gage on the 1972-79 NBC TV series "EMERGENCY!", flew all the way from California to meet fans and sign autographs in the Professional Car Society tent at Ferndale, Michigan’s August 17th, 2018 Emergency Vehicle Show, and deliver the keynote speech at the PCS awards banquet the next evening. Meet co-host Russ Dalziel’s 1971 Miller-Meteor Cadillac ambulance in the background was used to pick him up at the Detroit Metro Airport!
Photo by GREGG D. MERKSAMERWhen 2018 Professional Car Society International Meet attendees toured the Detroit FD’s repair shop, they much admired the 1937 Seagrave Safety Sedan that the Detroit Firemen’s Fund Association has restored and outfitted as a hearse that’s furnished free-of-charge upon request to any fire department in Michigan (and sometimes beyond) dealing with a line-of-duty death. This photo shows Detroit FD machinist Mark Bilancetti checking over the rooftop Buckeye Roto-Ray in anticipation of the Memorial Rig’s appearance at the Ferndale Emergency Vehicle Show where PCS ambulances, limousines and funeral cars were also prominently displayed.
Photo by GREGG D. MERKSAMERMotor City Chapter’s Choice honors from the 2018 PCS International Meet’s host committee went to this 1930 Meteor Ambulance that the Pray Funeral Home of Charlotte, Michigan purchased for $100 from a retiring Grand Ledge, Michigan colleague in the early 1960s. Two-tone paint, wire wheels and intricately-leaded quarter windows contributed greatly to its curb appeal, while its Continental in-line “Straight 8” engine and Lincoln-like radiator shell recalled that long-ago time when many professional car body builders assembled their own chassis.
Photo by GREGG D. MERKSAMERBright green window accents and a translucent Indian head hood ornament flanked by twin “Silver Streaks” were stylistic highlights of this 1953 Pontiac “Mall City” ambulance constructed from a much-extended sedan delivery by National Coaches of Knightstown, Indiana. It was the oldest of six classics that Kalamazoo denizen Mike La Penna displayed at the Professional Car Society’s 2018 International Meet in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Photo by GREGG D. MERKSAMERJohn Ehmer’s extremely rare, Pittsburgh-based 1964 National Buick Minuteman Limousine Ambulance leads a procession of 2018 Professional Car Society International Meet attendees back to their display spaces at the Ferndale, Michigan Emergency Vehicle Show following the club’s participation in the “Code 3” parade that kicked off the world-famous Woodward Dream Cruise.
Photo by GREGG D. MERKSAMERAfter Stuttgart, Germany hotel guest Kim Knauer evinced curiosity about the 1977 Miller-Meteor Cadillac high-top ambulance that would ultimately earn Flint, Michigan mortician Brady Smith the Medics Choice Award at the Professional Car Society's 2018 International Meet.
Photo by GREGG D. MERKSAMERAfter Stuttgart, Germany hotel guest Kim Knauer evinced curiosity about the 1977 Miller-Meteor Cadillac high-top ambulance that would ultimately earn Flint, Michigan mortician Brady Smith the Medics Choice Award at the Professional Car Society's 2018 International Meet. Bob Koryciak (left) and his twin brother Bill (right) showed her how the PCS "picks up chicks." She also got to sit in the driver's seat and play with the beacons!
The Professional Car Society’s June 24th-28th, 2019 International Meet in Rapid City, South Dakota should prove a worthy sequel to the 2018 edition hosted by the club’s Motor City Chapter in the Detroit area community of Sterling Heights, Michigan from August 14th thorough 19th. Though this gathering also touted a trip to Hell, Michigan and back; a privileged look at the dream cars displayed in the General Motors Heritage Center; visits to Detroit’s Police Museum and Fire Department service shop; and a tour of the Piquette Avenue plant where Henry Ford developed the Model T, the big draw for owners of the 50-plus hearses, limousines and “pre-box” automobile-based ambulances driven from points as distant as Florida, Minnesota, Alabama and upstate New York, was the opportunity to participate in a dedicated PCS display at Ferndale, Michigan’s Emergency Vehicle Show before joining in the beacon-and-siren-punctuated parade of police cars and fire trucks that kicked off the world famous Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise.
The timing of the Society’s prominent Ferndale appearance would prove most-fortuitous given all the media attention devoted soon afterwards to the all-white, Superior-bodied 1940 LaSalle Gothic panel hearse used for Motown icon Aretha Franklin’s “homegoing” by the O’Neil Swanson Funeral Home (the car also carried the caskets of Rosa Parks in 2005 and Aretha’s preacher father, C.L. Franklin, in 1984).
PCS Detroit 2018 also proved memorable for having Randolph Mantooth deliver the keynote speech at Saturday evening’s awards banquet, where he earned a standing ovation honoring how the 1972-79 NBC TV series "EMERGENCY!" in which he co-starred, inspired many PCS members to become paramedics. It meant a lot to learn that night how EMS professionals crucially aided his sister and her 6-year-old son after a serious 1986 auto accident in Houston: “This is why I do these talks. I owe you for saving my sister’s life. It’s not just about having a (steady acting) job for seven years.”
(The Professional Car Society was founded in 1976 to foster authentically restored ambulances, limousines and funeral vehicles that can be fully appreciated within the wider old car hobby.)
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