95 The Packard Cormorant: Spring 1975 “The World and Packards of Richard Arbib” By George L. Hamlin Background George Hamlin was one of the first to write about Arbib’s history in 1975 and for good reason – he was close friends with Richard Arbib. This article is also the earliest known record of the 1949 story of the Packard Monte Carlo by Henney and Richard Arbib. This same story was updated in 2018 by George Hamlin and published in the Cormorant. In the second edition of the story, he corrected the Series of car mentioned below from 23rd Series to 22nd Series and correctly identified the car used as a mock up for the hardtop as a 1948 Series 22 Packard Custom 8 convertible. Arbib no doubt contributed to the correction – he was long-term friends with George Hamlin and passed away 20 years after this article was published – plenty of time to review, recall details from years before and correct. Excerpt From Article “With an eye toward such custom-car business, Arbib tried his hand at a custom Packard. Called the Monte Carlo, it was done on a 23rd Series Custom 2-door sedan (sic) and featured Arbib’s answer to the fishtail, a semi-fin which lessened the extreme roundness of the 23rd Series body. There was a badly needed wraparound backlight, reminiscent of both the Hudson Step-Down and the Studebaker Starlight Coupe, and in one design there was a coupe de Ville roof treatment, open above the driver. Henney did build one of the cars as an experiment, and it was given to the local Packard dealer for publicity purposes. The dealer had the side trim altered slightly and began using it as his personal car; Arbib has no idea what happened to it. The Monte Carlo never had a serious impact on Packard styling; for one thing, the bathtub body type was already on the way out in the auto industry and Packard itself had finally decided to do a completely new car for 1951. But the product did interest Arbib and Packard in each other.”
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