Please contact us if you were a member of a car club or if you know of any others in St. Louis Park.
THE ROYALES
The Park High Echo of December 16, 1953, reported on the recent organization of safe-driving clubs in Minneapolis and the suburbs.
“Our main purpose is to sponsor safe-driving and good sportsmanship. In doing so we become safer drivers ourselves,” explained Allen Olson, member of the St. Louis Park Royales.
Whenever a Royale member sees another motorist in trouble, he is supposed to stop to help him. The driver is then given a card showing that he has been assisted by a member of the St. Louis Park Royales, a club for automobile enthusiasts with safety in mind.
Surprise checks are made on the cars of the boys to be sure they are in good running order.
Members of the 1953 – 1954 Royales included Allen Olson, Keith Mason, Jim Parks, Bob Gronau, Bill TenEyke, Dave Clinton, Tom Vitala, Dave Erickson, Jim Rud (who became Jimmy Reed the DJ on WDGY!), Dick Hagen and Gary Weyrauch.
Any boy wishing to join the club must attend three meetings and then be approved by a two-thirds vote of the members.
In 2023, the Society received a donation of the plaque that belonged to Class of 1954 Royales member Robert Gronau, donated by his sister, Judith Gronau Lausten.
THE EL DRACOS
Another club that formed in the mid 1950s was the El Dracos. One member was Fred Fortier, whose jacket was donated to the St. Louis Park Historical Society by his brother Ed.
THE IGNITERS
Dick Sigurdson found this wonderful artifact in Iowa; unfortunately it was part of a private collection and not for sale:
Chris Reid explained:
The Igniters where a hot rod type car club back in the old days when hot rods and cruisin’ was the big thing. Today there is an Igniters car club but I don’t think it’s the same. These plaques shown here are what clubs would have made and distribute to their members to attach to their custom cars and hot rods so the other clubs and guys around town would know what club they were a part of. Being a big hot rod and car guy from SLP, I would have been all over that. You can find a lot of these plaques from all sorts of different clubs from all over the USA.
This shirt is a screen grab from “American Pickers” posted by Jenny Hines on Facebook. Good catch!
THE UNTOUCHABLES
This plaque was found on the Minneapolis page of a website called Car Club Plaques. Would love to know more about it!