Where was this Mopar Brochure/Ad Photo shot?

New game.

Where's the Chevy van? (member suggestion, he solved it before I got it and solved it too).

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1. Upper midwest US City and State? (we have been here several times)
2. Approximately where IN the City? (building location name and/or streets of general area?)
3. Can you get this exact pic today?

If you solve it, consider shooting me a PM and will let you know?

Answer Thursday 4/4.
As close as I can get.
 
#515 is solved.

Several people got it, all repeat solvers. This is downtown Detroit, MI

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@ayilar found the original ad and solved it, then I did it to see how difficult/easy it would be as a game --- helped that I grew up in Detroit.

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That van was parked next to the former "Cobo Hall" arena, still there, now called "Huntington Place", and no longer is an "arena" (e.g., Pistons used to play there 60 years ago until mid '70's), on Civic Center Drive, the upper level being Jefferson Ave.

It was remodeled couple decades ago but still is a loading area for the former Cobo arena bldg. The loading "dock"is gone. People Mover (light, overhead rail) goes though there now too. You can see all the newer concrete/revised building 50 years on.

Vintage view is northerly, and new construction now obscures the tall, Penobscot Building on right, with the "skinny" black building on left was the former Pontchartrain (now a Wyndham-brand) Hotel.

I will go back to the harder ones tonight. Couple more of those then I am done as OP for a while.

thanks.

:thumbsup:
 
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New Game.

Where is the 1973 Charger?

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1. California city?
2. Name and location in that city?
3. Still there? Why, or why not? Current pic, explanation, needed please.

If you get this quickly and want to conifrm, please consider shooting me a PM and I will respond so we can let the game run.

I understand locals may be at an advantage as you may have been here before. Luck of the draw.

Those like me, who NEVER have been to THIS exact location, or anyone else who doesn't otherwise know it by sight, have gotta ferret it out the hard way :)

Took me a fair bit of time to find this one, so I think its a challenge for "average" folks like me - if you have time. Maybe not - if one has paid close attention for these most recent games.

Answer Friday 4/5.
 
New Game.

Where is the 1973 Charger?

View attachment 653490

1. California city?
2. Name and location in that city?
3. Still there? Why, or why not? Current pic, explanation, needed please.

If you get this quickly and want to conifrm, please consider shooting me a PM and I will respond so we can let the game run.

I understand locals may be at an advantage as you may have been here before. Luck of the draw.

Those like me, who NEVER have been to THIS exact location, or anyone else who doesn't otherwise know it by sight, have gotta ferret it out the hard way :)

Took me a fair bit of time to find this one, so I think its a challenge for "average" folks like me - if you have time. Maybe not - if one has paid close attention for these most recent games.

Answer Friday 4/5.
I'd bet a specific type of SanDwich that this one is no more. Unlike the boat, don't make that SanDwich a sub: I want sauerkraut on my bread!

While driving Regina (my 1970 FQ3 Polara 'vert) this weekend, I happened upon a trio of Plymouths. One's a 1971 (AFAICT) Satellite/Sebring/Road Runner (no strobe stripe, so I don't think it's a RR), with a roof line strikingly similar to this 1973 Charger. I asked the locals, those three cars have been slowly decaying for years.

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PS:
 
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We already have four correct solutions for #523. I will move confirmation date to 4/3 and put up my last game then

Anyway, an ambiguity has been reported by solvers that I didn't know about. I wasn't trying to be "clever" .. I now know of same name but two places.

The solution i found/intended was the most "southerly" one -- so if you find "two", chose the "east-facing" one (same direction as the car).

:thumbsup:
 
FYI as we wind down. Answer to #523 tomorrow.

Somebody asked me what is an "impossible" game? Here's one examble... and I am NOT starting/suggesting a game with this one.

Where's this Monaco?

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Likely USA, some old money "mansion" of which there are THOUSANDS still standing/built but gone all over this country, but NO landmarks to "snip/google".

Before one can start a "'game", the OP has to KNOW where it is to give the clues that lead to it. Otherwise, who the heck knows where this darn car is?

Seems that would be an interesting challenge but frustrating, crappy, time-wasting game that would never get solved. IF this '76 Monaco WAS a game, the solver(s) would need FCBO "Rocky" statues put up in their honor :poke:



However, as I type this, one guy here DID find this one.

It took many of us (in our defense, I have been advised the search engine technology has improved a lot this decade of the 2020's) years before that here with no success, and I had it open to the public (crowd-sourcing) on a couple of websites with bupks results after 5,200 views, four years ago.

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Not Detroit, not NY, not LA, not Chicago - or any other of the usual big-market suspects ... but sleepy little Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Clearly NOT impossible, but at least there was a "landmark" building for skilled folks to chase around.

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My intention was NOT to make #526 a game .. it was to show something that, UNLESS an OP knows the location (and gives good clues), there is just no enough to go on to solve it.

"Impossible" was the word I used, seven years ago and yesterday.

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couple folks took a shot anyway, and one of them sent me a PM with an exact location .. that looks like they found it!

I am going to investigate further .. see if other vintage corroboration can be found, etc., .. but I'll be darned. Sure looks like he found it.

Maybe we (someday) can make a game out it, and other ones that look "impossible", after all if it checks out.

:thumbsup:


ASIDE:

I am reminded of something that came to my attention 20 years ago in the tough years in the OEM auto biz. We were trying all kinda stuff to stay in business and I was "reacquainted" with the word "impossible".

I tried to ban it from my vocabulary because its was making me (and couple teams I was on) weak in the knees. To quote another cliché, "failure was not an option." I was kinda sick of using that one though.

Then Adidas started this ad compaign. I dunno if Ali said something like it or not ... it motivationally resonated anyway.

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sources: Impossible is Nothing — Steemit, A quote by Muhammad Ali
 
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#523 Solution. Where's the '73 Charger?

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1. San Diego, CA.

2. This "boat" was the Reuben E. Lee. It was constructed on a barge, floating in San Diego Bay on Harbor Island, and was restaurant that was purpose-built to resemble a Mississippi paddlewheel steamboat.

3. Apparently, there WAS a similar restarant at Newport Beach near LA, roughly same time frame. I did NOT find that one, till players mentioned it.

I am pretty sure it was NOT that one up by LA, but was at 880 Harbor Island Drive, from 1964 or so, till it closed in 2003, got moved and unfortunately SANK during an intended repair operation. It was demolished after that.

It was apparently leaking for years, like many eateries do it fell out of favor, and closed (still leaking).

Reuben E. Lee

Anyway, this San Diego "boat" has been gone since 2012.

Four repeat solvers, and one first-time solver.
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Folks #526 was NOT intended to be a "game". I was just using it, i thought, as an example of one that could NOT be reasonably solved.

Turns out, several of you cats "attacked" it anyway.. And have likely proved me wrong. :poke:

Bravo - I like being wrong -- I learn stuff that way.

ONE person solved it yesterday and sent me the proof via PM because before that i did NOT know this place. No good way to be OP if OP doesnt have answer.

I checked his proof out, and ALL things considered, I believe he was right. It all kinda lines up just right. At the end, maybe he'll tell us how he did it?

Nothing is impossible:)



NOW, game on.

Where is the 1976 Monaco?

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1. Exact midwestern US city and state?
2. The street address of this location (yes, it is still there, and it is -- currently and likely back then in '76 -- a private residence)?
3. Picture(s), to agree or refute? If you agree, you will find LOTS of pics to make your own assessment. If you disagree, please try to "prove" why.

This IS my last game as OP 'til Labor Day 2024. Of course, anybody who wants to get in there in meantime please do.

Answer this coming weekend.
 
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#529 update -- we'll wrap up Saturday morning,4/6, EDT.

Four responses in, THREE solvers as of 4/4 noon EDT ...

1. One player, like I said, was 100% spot on yesterday.
2. One other thinks he might have it - he was correct.
3. Another one was in the right part of the country - decided to wait for answer.
4. Fourth one I have heard from is working on an established search strategy - that apparently worked as he has also solved it.

All these guys are repeat winners, but the one that solved it, and gave it to me, is a newer player. Again, maybe at the end, he'll tell us all how he did it -- with barely any clues at all beyond the 50 year old ad photo.

:D




BTW, built in 1928, I have vintage pics FROM that time, as well as a history of this "house".

Shrubbery has changed a bit, but salient, structural & design features of the well-maintained property have NOT changed in nearly 100 years.

Owner was about 40 years old then, and had by then he apparently had done financially well .. this house's cost to build was ~the 1928 monetary equivalent of a $12-$15 million build in 2024.

This cat was an industry luminary (executive and board member of one particular company) I previously never heard of .. but he was one of the guys (a darn good engineer) that made things happen from 1910's likely until he passed away in his 80's.

He is in the Automotive_Hall_of_Fame.

None of this may/may not help you find the house, but will help you know if you're on the right/wrong track AFTER you do find it.

:thumbsup:
 
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#529. Three reported solvers.

@MoPar~Man
found this house first (I did NOT know of it before he pointed it out) and @ayilar and @MrMoparCHP solved it couple days later.

@Mopars & Missiles was in the Detroit Area at least but in a different "neighborhood" with a darn good guess, of all the places in the world, so he gets an 'honorable mention".

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1. Grosse Pointe Farms (Detroit suburb), MI. House is for sale currently for $4.8 milllion. Its quite the swanky joint at about 8,000 sq. ft, 8 bedrooms, 8 baths, limestone facade, slate roof, marble "this", custom-made "that", etc.
2. Owen Skelton house, 273 Ridge Road
3. The case is "circumstantial". Y'all can be the final judge.

Architectural details -- "cobblestone" drive (stone size/shape and center, hexagon feature), history of ownership, etc., -- line up quite nicely,

Car was posed, on a an angle, a little to the left of the front door. What you see is basically the first floor to the right of the front door

Owen Skelton was one of the guys Walter P. relied on to build Chrysler into one of the "Big Three". After his executive engineering days were over, he was on the Board of Chrysler. Earned his chops and Studebaker and Packard before Walter snarfed him and a couple others up.

Owen died in 1969.

This Monaco was likely photographed somewhere in 1975, and chances are this grand, executive's house was "in the family", so to speak (parties, company gatherings, other advertising purposes, etc,), through Owen's 40-year association with the company.

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Here about 1935 .. it had the distinctive driveway from its inception.

Welcome to 273 Ridge Road
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I thought I found it also? Did give you this address.

I got lucky on this one, my method found it but more by coincidence.
Found a better copy with better contrast, didn't get far.
Looked for other pictures from the same brochure (often shot at the same location).
Found a different brochure with a different picture in front of a house (in Windsor).
That house led me to a webpage about the architect Albert Kahn that also did this house.
Looking into that architect I found this house.


Alan
 
I thought I found it also? Did give you this address.

I got lucky on this one, my method found it but more by coincidence.
Found a better copy with better contrast, didn't get far.
Looked for other pictures from the same brochure (often shot at the same location).
Found a different brochure with a different picture in front of a house (in Windsor).
That house led me to a webpage about the architect Albert Kahn that also did this house.
Looking into that architect I found this house.


Alan
yes, you did ... i overlooked your response. sorry.

thanks.
 
i am a bit embarrassed. 5-6 years ago, after about year of looking, i went through all the Detroit old money hoods. i guessed it had to be a house, but it did not turn up and I stopped looking.

Seems like the guys that got this one did it with old fashioned good sleuthing and logic.

I was told the search tools today, even from only five years ago, are better. The fact its being marketed currently as a luxury home of historical significance may have given it a photographic web presence that helped it "match" search algos.

Finding/cleaning up digital details of the ad photo also had to help somewhat matching it as well to get architectural features .

Or, more likely, they simply just did a better job than I ... a local guy purporting to know the area ... did.:)

Palmer Woods, Indian Village, Boston-Edison, Lake Shore Drive (also in Grosse Pointe, assorted other areas) .. these are places the auto barons (the "Fishers", the "Dodges", the "Fords", their families, their company execs, their suppliers, their doctors, etc ,) built their spectacular, mega-cribs (25K+ sq. ft.) in the 1920's-30's.
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source: Inside the great Michigan estates of Detroit's auto barons

Grosse Pointe Farms was (is still) affluent ... but i didnt know anything like Skelton's house was in there (to the south across Vendome St., the adjoining property to the east on Voltaire St., etc. ). Quoting my nephew, there's some "Unk, some bangin' cribs in that 'hood."

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Yup, this architect (Harvey) worked FOR Albert Kahn's firm but even then i had never heard of him before -- and I know the local Kahn HOME designs pretty good, even Albert's OWN personal house, below in Detroit (its in this thread somewhere too).

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Thanks players and interested members. See ya in the fall with other "impossible" games.

:thumbsup:.


PS. These are NOT games. Just for sh*ts & giggles, two for the road,

From the '73 DODGE brochure. San Diego, Balboa Park.
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This Pontiac below? I was physically there when we did this.

This will be my first game back in fall 2024 - give y'all six months to think about it. Not impossible, but pretty tough :poke:

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Ok, this might be challenging for some. I waited till I got them all to post.
This is the Polestar 2 Provence commercial.
I have located all the spots (not the one with just two windows passing by (maybe later)), took me a couple evenings but I got all Eight.

Link to the YouTube video



Alan
 
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SENT YOU A PM with a Guess.


i didnt get them all yet.

i definitely recognize three-four distinct locations not eight - probably because i dont know all of them on sight.

If what/where I think, this is a challenge . I know the roads/basic georgraphy, i aint gotta clue on the "two window" location.

so, gotta get home to my personal computer a little later in week and tear into it.

aside .. cool arrangement of "Dream On". Is it a version by this ladY

 
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I feel like I owe you all an apology for going silent on this thread (and site for that matter). Looks like you put up some great puzzles lately.

I started a new job a few months back which rearranged my priority list a bit.

Good luck with that commercial ad. Aside from me saying ‘somewhere in Europe’, I would have no clue where to begin with this one. I’ll be paying attention to the responses though.
 
I feel like I owe you all an apology for going silent on this thread (and site for that matter). Looks like you put up some great puzzles lately.

I started a new job a few months back which rearranged my priority list a bit.

Good luck with that commercial ad. Aside from me saying ‘somewhere in Europe’, I would have no clue where to begin with this one. I’ll be paying attention to the responses though.
wondered where you went. congrats and good luck!

:thumbsup:
 
It is in the South of France (all in France)
The production crew had to drive over 400 km to film this

These are the ones I haven't got yet, these together make nine locations total
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Alan
 
have physically been to a couple of the places, maybe even driven the same roads.

Still, I might be outmatched on this one ... I need to work from home, but not home for a few days. I tought the "two windows" were side by side on ONE building. They may not be.... if we are looking at >400 km of geography.

Hope the excellent solvers take this baby on by then.
 
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