The Long Beach Model T Club

It’s always nice to hear from readers. One wrote me in 2023 asking the whereabouts of the sign pictured in my October 2016 article on the Signal Hill Model T Hill Climb: https://historicalsignalhill.blogspot.com/2016/10/signal-hill-model-t-cl....

I told him the picture was most likely photographed in the area where redevelopment later took place and had been removed. I suggested he reach out to the Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce and the city to see if they could help.

Recently Leonard Glick contacted me again saying he hadn’t found the sign but his quest to find it opened up “exciting” opportunities. This year (2024) is the year of the Signal Hill Centennial, and when Glick contacted city officials and explained he was involved in the Long Beach Model T Club that originally sponsored the hill climb, the club was immediately recruited to join in centennial events.

The club has about 120 members currently. You don’t need to own a Model T to join (Leonard Glick doesn’t!). There is a monthly meeting at All Saints Church in Long Beach at the corner of Termino and Colorado. There are monthly tours where members drive their cars to a local point of interest (a museum, factory, lunch spot, etc.) just to exercise the cars and show them off. The club is also asked to display cars for various events, participate in parades and even do drive-bys for birthdays.

Ronald MacWillie, president of the Long Beach Model T Club in 1955, told Press-Telegram reporter Dave Emery (6/30/1955) there was a reason Henry Ford sold 15 million of the Ts from 1908 until 1927. “They were marvelous cars,” MacWillie said. “They start quick and they’ve got better visibility than modern cars. With the top down, it’s just like sitting in the middle of the street in a bathtub. Model Ts are like little toys, you open the hood and there is nothing there. Anyone could fix anything that went wrong. It’s like a little sewing machine motor – 22 horsepower.”

The Signal Hill climb was the only known one of its kind in the United States for Model T Fords, officers of the Long Beach club told reporter George Robeson in 1961 (Press-Telegram 5/21/1961). That year 184 cars attempted the 1/10th of a mile, 22-degree grade. Most of them succeeded during one of the three tries participants were allowed.

Model T enthusiasts also revealed a few things you had to remember about the design of a Model T before you could drive it uphill. For instance, if the gas tank wasn’t full or nearly full, you would run out of gas halfway up the hill. Model Ts had no fuel pump – the gas was gravity-fed to the carburetor, and when the car started uphill the tank was lower than the carburetor. One way to get around this issue was to drive your Model T backwards up the hill, something many participants in the Signal Hill climb did every year!

The annual Hill climb ended in 1979, but this year it will be done again in celebration of Signal Hill’s Centennial. On Sept. 14, ten Model Ts will gather at 10 a.m. at Shell Hill (Hill Street between Obispo and Temple) to attempt the climb once more. I asked Glick if any will be driving backwards up the hill. His response was “I hope not!”

You can view a display of the history of the Hill Climb and the history of the Model T at the Signal Hill Library (1800 E. Hill). The club will also be holding their 70th annual parts exchange at Veteran’s Stadium (between Lakewood Blvd. and Clark, off Conant) on Saturday July 20.

It would be wonderful if any reader could help in locating the missing sign once posted on Signal Hill (shown in the photo above). If so, it would make the Long Beach Model T Club’s 70th anniversary even more memorable. Contact them at longbeachmodeltclub@gmail.com.