Virtually no one alive today outside of the antique car hobby community has heard of Hupmobile, let alone the
Skylark, Hupp’s last shot at staying in the automobile business. The Hupmobile Skylark was very much like an
expiring incandescent light bulb – burning brightest right before the Hupp Motor Car Corporation burned out
entirely.
At first blush, the Skylark looks like a 1936-1937 Cord 810 or 812 sedan, which is not surprising. The prototype
Skylark built by Hupp was made from an unfinished Cord body acquired by Hupp from the receivers of the bankrupt
Auburn Automobile Company. What prompted a formerly respected, long-term auto manufacturer to introduce a car
copied from a 3 year old design of a defunct car company? The Great Depression did horrible things to a lot of
people, and wreaked terrible havoc on the automobile industry. Virtually all independent auto manufacturers closed
their doors during the decade of the 30’s, and Hupmobile and Graham-Paige just barely survived into late 1940. Of
all of the independent auto manufacturers in business by the mid 20s (there were several dozen fairly prosperous
independents during the 20’s) only Studebaker, Packard, Nash, Willys and Hudson continued to build cars past the
end of World War II. While Hupp turned from cars to a variety of other operations, Graham-Paige briefly resurfaced
in conjunction with Kaiser to produce the Frazer, with Kaiser continuing with the acquisition of Willys in the mid-50s
to form Kaiser-Jeep before selling out to American Motors. Nash and Hudson combined to form American Motors.
Studebaker and Packard combined and crumbled in the ‘60s. Several small companies briefly surfaced to
challenge the “Big Three”, but for the most part, the Depression signaled the end of the independent automaker.
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