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Remembering
The Legends Of Our Sport
Famed Detroit Customizer Larry Alexander
Dies
By
Dale
Jewett
 Larry
Alexander, who with his brother Mike ran the famed Alexander
Brothers car customizing shop in Detroit, died Wednesday, Aug.
25. He was 79 years old.
The Alexander
brothers created dozens of stylized and concept vehicles in
the 1950s and '60s--for automakers and private customers--that
were featured at auto shows and on the covers of national
magazines.
Among them was
the Dodge Deora truck, which won the coveted Ridler Award at
the 1967 Detroit Autorama--one of three Ridlers won by Larry
and Mike Alexander. The Deora was a model for one of the
original Hot Wheels cars released in 1968.
Other noted
cars from the Alexander Brothers include:
-- The Silver
Sapphire, a 1932 Ford Coupe for Clarence Catallo, which was
pictured on the cover of "Little Deuce Coupe" by the
Beach Boys.
-- The
Grasshopper, a 1931 Ford Model A pickup.
-- The
Victorian, a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria for Sy Gregorich.
-- The
Venturian, a 1956 Chevrolet for Bobby Massaron that won the
brothers their first Ridler Award in 1965.
-- The Alexa,
a 1964 Ford Galaxie Fastback.
-- Top Banana,
a 1923 Ford Model T that won the brothers their third Ridler
award in 1969.
The Alexander
brothers learned their auto bodywork skills in trade school in
the mid 1950s and began working in their father's garage. The
business grew quickly and in 1957 the duo opened the original
Alexander Brothers Custom Shop in Detroit, one of three
locations the business would be based at during its history.
Larry
Alexander left the business in 1968 to work as a metal model
maker at Ford Motor Co. The business closed in 1969 when the
building on Schoolcraft Road in Detroit was razed to make way
for freeway expansion. Mike Alexander went to work for Heinz
Prechter at American Sunroof Corp.
Services were
scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 28., in Westland, Mich.
For more on
the Alexander Brothers, go to www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Alexander_Brothers.
Elden Titus
(February 18, 1948 - October 8, 2008)
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in June 2000.
Designed and built many cars in his career, his latest being
the Voodoo Spider and Vampyre, that are on display here in the
museum.
2010 Barry Lobeck
2009 Larry Watson
2008 John Butera
2008 Boyd Coddington
2008 Dick Dean
2004 Neil Emory
2001 Ed 'Big Daddy" Roth
1999 Manuel Arteche
1998 Bill Cushenbery
1996 Joe Wilhelm
1967 Sam Barris
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