Playboy Car History

The Playboy car was the dream of company president Lou Horwitz.  Horwitz saw a need for a  2nd family car that was sporty, economical and fun to drive.  He joined forces with engineer Charlie Thomas and master car builder Norm Richardson to manufacturer the Playboy car.  The company based out of Buffalo, NY built 98 cars from 1947-1949 before filing for bankruptcy due to lack of financing.  They produced a car with many advanced features including an all-steel convertible top and a fully independent knee action front suspension with horizontal coil springs for improved ride performance.

Playboy set the dream in motion with the 1947 prototype.  This car was hand built in 9 months at Norm Richardson's shop.  This car had 4 wheel independent suspension, unibody construction, rear mounted continental engine with a soft top convertible top.

This car premiered at the Buffalo Hotel Statler on Februrary 18-25, 1947.  Playboy received a lot of positive publicity at this premier but Playboy decided that this vehicle would be to difficult at the price point that they wanted to market the car at so they re-engineered the car.

With the premier of the prototype Playboy receiving a lot of publicity they wanted to begin building cars as soon as possible.  Charlie Thomas re-engineered the car and moved the engine to the front of the car and came up with the first all steel folding convertible hardtop.  They were building cars at Norm Rchardson's shop at 988 Ellicott St (the old Brunn and company building where they built custom car bodies from 1920's-

early 1940's).  The first pilot production car premiered  at the Congress Hotel August 20, 1947 in Chicago.

Playboy needed more space to build the cars so they placed and won the bid on November 20, 1947 for the General Motors aviation plant#1 that was owned by the Government  and as used during World War 2 to build Pratt and Whitney aircraft engines.  Playboy moved into their new plant in January 1948.

On April 17, 1948 a Playboy car made a transcontinental run from New York to Los Angeles.  They made the trip in 62 hours 20 minutes which set a record for the 2000 lb weight class.  Robert Mckenzie drove with his son and accomplished the feat in what he described as very poor weather conditions.

Playboy sold dealer franchises to begin to fund their operations.  In order to get into full production Playboy forecasted that they would need to raise $20,000,000. This figure would allow them to produce their goal of 100,000  cars per year. They contracted with Tellier and company to promote a stock sale.  On May 20,1948 they commenced a stock sale at a price of $1 per share. Under the underwriting agreement Playboy would not receive any funds from the stock sale until they had commitments  for $8.5 million shares.  On August 23,1948 they had commitments for 10.4 million shares of stock and they started soliciting for payment of the stock.  Unfortunately by the end of September only 25% or  $2,500,000 was raised.  A major factor that contributed to this was due to the SEC investigating Tucker which scared off alot of investors.  In a letter to Playboy dealers,on October 22,1948 Playboy announced that  they  have cancelled their stock sale and starting working on revising its production goals and capital structure to allow production of cars at a more modest scale.  With this plan they had hoped to start production and deliver cars to the dealers to sell to the public  in the first quarter of 1949.

Playboy was able to sign up over 700 franchises and dealers and raised almost 2 million dollars  to fund their pilot production program.  At the end of October 1948 Playboy had built 90 cars.

Playboy completed their pilot production run at the end of October 1948 with 94 cars being built.  Playboy engineers have been constantly improving the mechanical features and appearance of the Playboy car so that the cars made available to the public will be roomier and more streamlined. Playboy started working on their new mass production car for 1949 that had over 28 improvements from the previous cars.  The dies to build the 1949 Playboy were on order and being made by a company in Detroit.   They expected that the mass production model car, which will incorporate these new improvements will be completed in 30 days.

Playboy has completed a pilot model of a 5 passenger station wagon.  They announced that  they are still working on the engineering of the wagon but it is based on the car with a lengthened wheelbase.

Playboy continued working on their mass production car.  They attempted a 2nd stock sale with Aetna hoping to raise $3.5 million dollars to enable them to start mass producing cars. While waiting for the dies to come in, they handbuilt and completed 1 production car and 1 production station wagon and were working on a 2nd hand built production car.  While working on this 2nd car Playboy unfortunately had to cancel the Aetna stock sale and on April 14, 1949 Playboy announced that due to unfavorable market conditions they have withdrawn their stock sale and have filed for chapter 10 reorganization.

Wth Playboy in reorganization Lou Horwitz was named a trustee of the court.  He soon resigned from being a trustee when he realized that the court didn't care about reorganization and wanted to sell the assets to pay the creditors.   Horwitz formed Rollsmobile, a company to try to gather investors to regain the company.  The Playboy dealers also attempted to join together and gain control of the company but they also failed.  Thats when Lytemobile can in and made an offer of $50,000 for the assets of the company.  The court agreed and Lytemobile gained the assets and patents of the company.  Lytemobile only wanted the engineering and patents and  a couple of cars to continue their own engineering work on.  They then had  a bankruptcy auction where the rest of the assets and remaining cars were sold to the public.

Some of the cars that they kept were the 1947 prototype and the vary last 1949 Playboy car that was never completed when the company declared bankruptcy.

Upon making it's premier in Februrary 1947 to great publicity the car was relegated to storage in the Playboy factory.  When Lytemobile won the assets of the company they kept the car is their possession.   Alvin Trumball who was an original Playboy dealer owned the building where Lytemobile stored its cars.  Upon dissolution of Lytombile, Trumball took possession of the prototype and also the last 1949 production car that was never completed when Playboy filed for chapter 10 reorganization.  Trumball tried for many years to get the Playboy car manufactured but was unsuccessful,  He then sold the remaining assets to another former Playboy Dealer Donald Moore.  I forged a great relationship with Moore and was able to purchase the prototype and the last car from him.  The car came home to Buffalo and the family in 1989.  I had the prototype completely restored and have enjoyed driving and showing the car.  The car has won a AACA senior award and in 2023 it was honored with an AACA national award.  I have pictures and a home movie from 1947 of my Grandfather Lou Horwitz with and driving this car.  I am honored to own this car.  The license plate on this car is TRIBUTE as this car is a tribute to my Grandfather and to let him know that his dream will never die.

Playboy was in the process of building the 2nd hand built 1949 production car when they went bankrupt.  As a result work was stopped and the car was never completed.  It was in this unfinished state when I purchased the car in 1989.  The car was in primer and the hood, trunk and top were on the car but not attached with hinges.  There was no wiring harness and the engine and transmission was in the car but never wired or completed. The car was missing all exterior trim, bumpers, interior and seat.  The car remained in this unfinished state for 64 years until completion/restoration was started in 2013.  As the Playboy production car had over 28 improvements/changes from the pilot car, many parts had to be made to complete the car.  This car is significant in that it represented the car that Playboy would have mass produced to the public for sale.  It is the only car of this model that exists.  Lou Horwitz, my Grandfather, was President of the companyand this car was his dream.  This car was completed so that his dream will continue to live on.