The Early Years of Road and Track

By Pete Vack and Jim Sitz

Ed. note: Most of the information below was provided by historian Jim Sitz, who was a witness to the early years at the magazine, via emails to me over a period of weeks in 2020. He also was in the possession of the rare photos taken at the Road & Track offices in 1951, obtained from the Billingsley collection in the early 1990s. We have not been able to determine who took these photos or under what circumstances. Any questions regarding these photos can be sent to the Editor at vack@cox.net.

You Bet Your Life

In 1952, while Groucho Marx was gambling his future on the new-fangled TV with a show called “You Bet Your Life”, a thirty-nine-year-old engineer in California with a bright, enthusiastic wife, a new son and a MGTC was betting that the sports car fad was here to stay. In fact he was betting his family’s entire future on a sports car magazine that was deeply in hock. It had been offered to other magazine publishers but turned down, and one wouldn’t even take Road and Track (no ampersand in the early days; the “&” in the title was introduced in 1954) for just the bills. But staff members John and Elaine Bond were determined to save the magazine and were fully aware of its potential of a magazine devoted to the growing sports car movement. They decided to take a huge risk.

Although the Bonds were always closely associated with the success of Road and Track, they didn’t establish the magazine. Writing in R&T, June, 1972 Bond recalled those early years. “Many readers seem to think that Elaine and I founded Road and Track, that isn’t true, we merely kept it from foundering when we took it over in November of 1952.” No one ever seemed to ask who did, until in 1998, automotive historian and fact checker Jim Sitz decided to take the time and trouble to find out how it all began. He tracked down Bill Brehaut who was living in Palm Springs, California.

Brehaut et Fennessy

William Brehaut, Jr. was an engineer who worked for Republic Aircraft out of Long Island and a car enthusiast. In early 1947, he realized the potential for a magazine about foreign and domestic cars, as well as racing. Teaming up with Joseph S. Fennessy, Brehaut put together a very slim magazine of only 32 pages, and named it Road and Track. Sitz recalls that Brehaut only had money to print one issue. “They printed a few thousand copies of Volume 1 number 1 for June, 1947, and sent one half to New York City and the other half to Los Angeles.” That wasn’t the way to attract the large numbers of subscribers (for only $3.00 a year) and at 25 cents per copy, printing and postage costs were probably nowhere near covered. But traditionally, magazines needed a huge cash investment to get them through the first few years. That was something Brehaut did not have.

Then, Brehaut moved to Burbank to work for Lockheed and took the magazine, such as it was, with him. Once in California, Oliver Billingsley came to work for the magazine for free to keep it going and worked for free, as Billingsley had a military pension to live on.

It took almost another year to produce Volume 1 number 2. Despite the help of Billingsley and a new “Report from Europe” by dealer/writer/racer Roger Barlow, the editorial sounded dire. “It is vital that enthusiasts support Road and Track in this difficult period by sending us their subscription NOW.” (sic) After having sent $3 almost a year before with no issues forthcoming, car enthusiasts could not be blamed for ignoring the editor’s pleas.

But there was a lot of interest. Letters poured in with the same message, “Road and Track is what I’ve been waiting for…” In the magazine’s editorial for May 1948, it was noted that “Everyone seemed to want more and more of the pictures of European road racing and advance passenger cars…The development and growth of all American ‘sport car organizations’ is to be assisted in every manner possible.”

The tiny, largely unpaid team managed to put out another issue the very next month, and it featured an article entitled, “What is a Sports Car” by John Bond, who worked just down the street from the office at Kurtis-Kraft. While the sports car had been defined by the British prior to the war, Bond knew that Americans would simply identify a sports car as a convertible. “The reason for this reply, he wrote, “is readily apparent. It is that no sports cars have been made in this country since the days of the Stutz, Mercer, and more recently, the Duesenberg.” The influx of British sports cars to the U. S., according to Bond, caused many people to wonder why similar cars were not made in America. But the term needed clarification, so Bond, an early member of the SCCA, sent out 200 questionnaires to have the member take a shot at defining a sports car. Summing up the many and varied responses, Bond wrote, “A sports car is a car between a racing car and a production car,” which meant that almost anything goes. And perhaps, it was loosely defined in order to draw more people to the pages of Road and Track.

Dawn of the Bonds

The magazine struggled on; June was followed by August and then a lapse until February, 1949, when Bond appeared on the masthead as an associate editor, opposite Brehaut. But things went from bad to worse. No monthly issues were mailed to those hopeful subscribers for the rest of 1949. Finally, in December of 1949, Road and Track once again appeared on newsstands. In the January 1950 issue, a reader wrote, “I subscribed a year ago and have received only two issues. My year’s subscription is up now; at this rate each copy cost me $1.50! Kinda expensive!”

Again the editorial had to answer the question of what happened to Road and Track? In a word, finances. According to Sitz, “Brehaut had offered the mag to Fawcett Publications in New York for free if he could stay on as editor but they turned him down. In an attempt to keep it afloat, in 1950 the price was raised to 35 cents an issue and the yearly subscription to $3.50 but by this time, Brehaut gave up on the magazine.

Oliver Billingsley was now in charge and from 1950 on, they produced an issue almost every month from then on. Bond became the Technical Editor, and Brehaut stayed on the staff as well. Money was coming in but printing costs and mailing were still escalating. Their credit was no longer good with the printer, who was located next door! Something had to give. Brehaut was eased out of his position. He had just 22 per cent ownership, and some was sold to Henry Manney early on, and associate editor Bill Quinn, whose mother loaned him $5000 to “rescue him from loading baggage at airport,” as Sitz recalls. “Quinn’s mother also bought Bill a new Jaguar too, and was the envy of all of us.”

In 1952 the printer, who by then effectively owned the magazine due to unpaid bills from previous editions having caused deep indebtedness, said it could have no more credit. To save the fledgling magazine and secure its future, John Bond reportedly agreed to sign a promissory note for 80,000 dollars (roughly $800,000 today) and took control of the magazine. Whatever the amount, it was up to the Bonds to make the magazine succeed and work off the debt. They would then own the magazine. The staff was fired, opening the door to young freelancers, but it was still tight. Those were scary days, but Bond maintained his sense of humor and he joked about his massive note to his young friend, Jim Sitz, “Hey that’s eight Ferraris.”

Bond thought they were lucky but it was a lot of hard work. “In 1952 we had just six employees. Everyone doubled. The receptionist, for example, took all the calls, took care of the 3000 subscribers, and did most of the bookkeeping.”

Now out of the magazine business, Brehaut moved to San Diego in 1953. Sitz recalled that “Brehaut found a job at Consolidated Aircraft and in the following years, imported many intriguing Italian cars for re sale, and of course, placed the ads in the new classified section of his old magazine.”

In new hands the circulation grew. Bond wrote that the growth “…wasn’t spectacular but it was steady.” The gamble was paying off.

Part 2: The Bonds take over
John and Elaine Bond’s son John Jr. and daughter Lee tell us about their parents. Stay tuned!

Road and Track issues and covers from 1947 to 1952 courtesy Jim Sitz:

1947
JUNE 47 ALFA GP CAR
1948
MAY 48 TALBOT LAGO
JUNE BLUE CROWN INDY CAR
AUGUST MIDGETS AT ROSE BOWL
1949
FEB 49 DELAHAYE AT CIROS CLIUB
DEC 49 EDWARDS SPECIAL
1950
JAN NARDI OF JOHN EDGAR
FEB BRM 16
MARCH CISITALIA
APRIL ROVER TURBINE
MAY BALDWIN SPEC
JUNE NOVI INDY CAR
JULY/AUG 4 SCENEES OF BRIDGEHAMPTON
SEPT FERRARI GP
OCT CADILLACS AT LE MANS
NOV COLOR! SAOUTCHIK BODIED CADILLAC
DEC SAOUTCHIK RENDERING
1951
JAN STORY SPECIAL
FEB BRASS RAD CADILLAC
MARCH BLUE ALFA COUPE FARINA
APRIL MG TD RED
MAY 4 FRAMES MORRIS, MG RILEY, SIMCA
JUNE RENDEREING MODERN MERCER
JULY FERRARI OF KIMBERLY ALFA 2900 OF PHIL HILL
AUG TALBOT LAGO BLUE CAB,
SEPT MERCEDES 540
OCT ALFA 2900 OF DR FARINA
NOV BUGATTI GP CAR
DEC STUNNING NIGHT SCENE OF TALBOT LAGO COIUPE

Road & Track addresses from 1951

1951 THRU 56
540 W. Colorado Blvd, Glendale CA

1957 THRU 59
8244 Vista Del Mar, Playa Del Ray CA

1960 TO 1962
834 Production Place
Newport Beach CA

1963
1499 Monrovia Ave
Newport Beach CA