Karl AKA Stroget is an active curator at HobbyDB of many of the 1/43 model car brands. He has been adding model cars to the DB since 2014; some of his favorites are Alfa Romeo and obsolete Tekno from Denmark!
Ed’s Note: This article appeared in the Talk Model Toys website but was deleted many years ago. Previously, an even older version was published in Antique Toy World in 2003.
BRIEF HISTORY
The Parker White Metal & Machine Co. was founded in 1906 by William Allen Parker, an inventive toolmaker who was a pioneer in the use of non-ferrous metal in steel dies under pressure. It was located in Erie, Pennsylvania, a city which had the largest concentration of toolmakers in the USA and called itself the tool-and-die capital of the world. By 1928, Parker used zinc and aluminum alloys to produce precision parts within 1/1000 of an inch, for various industrial and home uses, including toy parts.
Just after W.A. Parker’s death in 1934, and coming out of the Depression era, a subsidiary plant called Erie Metal Specialties, Inc. was started. Under the advice of Fred C. Ziesenheim, production manager of the firm, this spinoff was to be dedicated exclusively to the manufacture of die-cast toys, to compete in a new but rapidly expanding toy market. Mr. Ziesenheim had vast experience, as he had worked before for the Girard Model works, another toy manufacturer which produced pressed steel toys in the 20’s. Under his supervision, the new plant would employ 50 workers, and it started operating in early 1936.
The venture would not last long though, and after only three years, in 1939, the plant ceased production, and the personnel were recalled to the main factory. Reasons are not clear, but according to several sources, it seems there were patent clashes with another big toy manufacturer, the Dowst Brothers of Tootsietoys, which could not be overcome. So, after a brief but successful production period, only a limited number of toys were manufactured, and available until 1941, when stocks run out, and as World War II requirements limited all domestic production.
THE TOY RANGE
Mr. Ziesenheim himself selected the toy prototypes, drew them to scale, designed the dies and supervised the tooling and casting. Once out of the furnace, the toys were spray-painted in racks, kiln-dried and then assembled.
As far as can be ascertained, no catalogs were issued, and the toys had no know numbering system. The author has not seen any. The toys were promoted through specialized magazines, such as ‘Playthings’, and ‘Toys and Bicycles’, and in department store catalogs. It is possible that the line of toys may have appeared at some point on the general hardware inventory of the main metal casting plant.
AIRCRAFT
There were five types of aircraft, and one variation of a piggy-back produced, of which three were approximately 3 inches long, and the other two , 4 inches in length. Table 1 lists the known aircraft from Erie.
VEHICLES
There were 16 vehicles total. The trucks included: six large 5 inch long Ford trucks, two smaller Mack trucks, 3 1/2 inches in length, and a 4 inch futuristic tow truck. Table 2 shows the known truck models.
NOTE: Since Table 2 was published in the previous article, these revisions are necessary: EVT-8 should be Mack Cabover Truck ( high/low sides, tailgate) same years and size; and EVT-9 should be the Futuristic Tow Truck.
Two identifiable automobiles were produced , a Packard roadster and a Lincoln Zephyr sedan, each in two sizes: 6 inches long or 3 1/2 inches in length. These were the first produced, modeled after the Parker family automobiles. Table 3 lists all the known automobiles.
Four ‘futuristic’ streamline models, all a bit over 4 inches long, of which one was the truck, were also produced.
BOXED SETS
All the boxed sets shown had factory numbers, but I only have seen four of them myself. The four-digit numbers relate to the L. Gould and Co. catalog numbers as follows:
It is interesting to note that the black and silver boxes always contain chrome-plated toys; the orange and gold boxes had silver painted items.
IDENTIFICATION
The toys can be identified by the embossed names of “PARKER”, “ERIE”, “USA”, and the model’s name under the casting for the vehicles. No numbers were cast, except the name of the airplane manufacturer under the wings. The smaller vehicles may not have identification. The aircraft have stamped or embossed spurious numbers on the wings.
The toys were finished in vibrant colors, as well as chrome or copper plated, which were very popular, especially for the airplanes. These latter processes allowed Parker to charge 10 cents instead of the 5 cents asked for the smaller items; and 25 cents instead of the 10 cents it charged for the larger models.
The toys were sold individually unboxed from open displays in specialty shops, or in assortment boxes with brilliant color graphics, these sets costing 50 cents to one US dollar each.
It must be noted that the numbers shown in the tables included have been established by the author, except the ones in parentheses for the streamlined cars.
Here is an Erie box I have seen with the label St. Louis Ski-Wa Toys; google does not help ID it. Does anyone know what this was?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to thank diecast specialists, Ron Smith, (Ret.) USAF Captain Perry Eichor, Eric Trickel, John West, Nelson Adams, and Mike and Sue Richardson for their insights on this topic.
Special thanks to Jim McCarthy, Karl Kovacs II, and Fred B Zissenheim, whose fathers worked for Parker Co. or Erie, Inc. in the pre-war years of general production, and to many others who provided much needed information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clint Seeley (aka C.B. C. Lee), “The Toys that weren’t Tootsietoys”, in Automobile Yearbook of Models, Vol. 1, 1982, Edita, Lausanne, Switzerland. pp. 77-82.
John West, “Dream Erie Cars”, Antique Toy World, July 16, 2000, pp. 62-4.
Louis H. Hertz, The Complete Book of Building and Collecting Model Automobiles, New York, NY, Crown Publishers, Inc. 1970.
Ron Smith, Collecting Toy Airplanes, Alabama Books Americana, Inc. 1995.
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