Graham Paige

Yesterday a friend reminded me of a car that in my early childhood fascinated me because of its striking design. It was the Sharknose Graham, which began as the Paige. 

Paige cars came into the world along with my father in 1911 and were produced through 1927, when the Graham brothers bought the company out. 

The Graham-Paige was offered 1928-1932, and when I was a boy people continued to call them Graham-Paige, 

although the Paige name had been dropped after 1932 as the Graham brothers developed their dream. 

Like many independent car makers, they were a casualty of the Great Depression.

Graham cars were striking in appearance and it was not all that unusual to spot a Graham “Sharknose” on the road before WW2, 

and after the war to see one parked on Harrison Avenue when cars were in high demand and short supply and most of the cars on the road were still pre-war. 

The last Graham used tooling from the final Cord automobile, which Graham had purchased and shared with Hupp. Graham disappeared with the 1941 model and the onset of WW2. 

Until yesterday I had forgotten that Joseph Frazer acquired Graham-Paige facilities during WW2 and after the war, with Henry Kaiser, resumed producing automobiles, a completely new line, Kaiser and Frazer.

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