Joie Chitwood Thrill Show: The Ford V-8 Years

By John Emmering

     The crowd at Chicago’s Soldier Field, gathered for the 1948 Cook County Fair, collectively held their breath as the white 1949 Ford approached the wooden ramp after rounding the stadium.  Attaining the  jump speed of 42 mph the Ford climbed the ramp and then flew off the edge flying 50 feet and over another 1949 Ford passing by underneath,  until it came down safely on the ramp on the opposite side.  Thus began the partnership between “Joie Chitwood and the Original Auto Daredevils” and the Ford Motor Company which began with that performance and lasted through 1953.

    Thrill show founder and race driver Joie Chitwood was actually born George Chitwood.  In a turn of fate a publicist forgot Chitwood’s name when writing about his surprise third place finish in an Indiana auto race and inserted the name Joe. A typographical error rendered it “Joie” in the news piece and the name Joie stuck.  Joie was later billed as “Chief Wahoo” a full blooded Cherokee Indian; however this was a show business invention, as he had no Native American heritage.

      Establishing himself as an exceptional racer, Joie won several sprint-car championships and raced in seven Indianapolis 500s, two prior to the war and five after, winning fifth place three times.  Joie was the first driver to wear a seat belt in the Indianapolis 500, before they were technically allowed.  The seat belt was not worn for safety but helped Joie to keep his foot on the gas pedal despite the vibrations of his car.

     In 1943 Joie’s first thrill show “Joie Chitwood’s Hell Drivers” was established when Joie bought Lucky Teter’s Thrill show after Lucky had been killed performing a jump.  World War II regulations had suspended auto racing, but auto thrill shows were not prohibited.  Joie entered this field and strove to establish the best auto thrill show in the business.  Joie perfected and improved Teter’s four main stunts, the Rollover, the T-Bone Crash, the Dive Bomber, and the Ramp to Ramp Jump.  The show reached a new high standard as Joie employed only top notch drivers.  His two hour auto thrill shows eventually included 28 events.

     After an interview with Henry Ford II in early 1948, Bill McGraw, Joie’s announcer, set the stage for the partnership between Ford Motor Company and the Chitwood thrill show.  Ford agreed to supply the cars, transporters for the equipment and finances for the operation.  A new corporation was set up to manage the shows.  The sleek new 1949 Fords would now be promoted as Chitwood’s drivers put them through death defying stunts.  The Fords were stock except they were fitted with heavy duty shocks, had a steel plate welded to the rear under carriage of jump cars, and gas tanks were placed in the trunk as a precaution against fire.  An extra light was added to the dash board to improve the driver’s view of the speedometer, as a jump car had to hit 42 MPH exactly, before leaving the ramp.

     Audiences at County and State Fairs soon thrilled to the daring stunts of the new Ford V-8’s and witnessed some older Fords getting some very harsh treatment as crash cars.  Soon there were five units touring the country each with 10-12 brand new Fords, two motorcycles, a clown car and 14-17 workers.  Joie personally performed stunts, often opening a show by performing his famous ramp jump.  In order to appear in as many shows as possible Joie would sometimes have a pilot fly over a stadium where one of his thrill shows was taking place and drop him into the middle of the stadium by parachute, in a grand entrance.

     The fame of the Chitwood Thrill Show grew and early in 1950 Joie got a call from MGM studios.  Film director Clarence Brown wanted to feature Joie’s show in a movie called “To Please a Lady” starring Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck.  In the film Gable played a race driver who, after being banned from midget racing joins Chitwood’s driving crew.  MGM built a “fairground” on one of their lots and 15 days of filming began, resulting in a 7½ minute scene featuring some great 1949 and 1950 Fords in action performing thrilling stunts. The film is currently available on DVD.

     Unfortunately the five year partnership between Chitwood and Ford Motor Company ended in 1953 after problems erupted with the corporation managing the Chitwood show.  The shows had been over booked and stretched too thin, upsetting Joie.  After a legal battle Joie broke from the corporation and formed a new single unit entering into a deal with Chrysler to use Plymouth automobiles.  The Plymouths did not perform as well as the Fords and after one year Joie left Chrysler to make a successful deal with Chevrolet, which had just introduced their 1955 V-8 models.

     Joie Chitwood’s Ford V-8 years still remain a golden memory to many who recall the thrill of seeing those Fords doing stunts Ford engineers never imagined possible.  I suspect some of the popularity of the 1949-53 Ford V-8’s was due to their performance with Joie’s crews at the wheel.  Certainly Chitwood’s Ford years have earned a place in the annuals of Early Ford V-8 history.