Engine No. AA1387864

At the Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, Decatur, Illinois confectioner Charles Cretors operated a horse-drawn wagon, housing machines that could produce roasted peanuts, popcorn, and baked chestnuts, fresh, delicious, and in mass quantity. Cretors' products were incredibly popular with fairgoers. While one is tempted to ascribe his success to the fact that early Cretors popcorn recipes calling for cooking the corn in more or less equal parts of butter, lard, and salt, the newfangled roaster of his own creation certainly contributed as well. He soon began turning out roasters for others, eventually building C.C. Cretors and Company into a firm that remains a leader in the concessions equipment industry.

The 1929 Ford Model AA offered here is equipped as a Cretors popcorn truck, built on an extended chassis and finished in red with gold leaf accents, yellow wheels, and original Ford script running boards. Elaborately detailed in the circus-like tradition of Cretors vehicles, it featured beveled cobalt glass windows in mahogany frames, red and white candy-striped awnings that extend from both sides, and fixed sun visors both front and rear, as well as a nicely finished interior with wood parquet flooring. At the heart of the vehicle is a modern electric 30-ounce Cretors corn popper and a Gold Medal nut roaster, run by an onboard Yamaha generator with inverter.

Acquired by Mr. Taylor in 2008 from Wayne Davis of Texas and now recording 36,262 miles at the time of cataloging, this is a terrific piece of Americana sure to elicit fond memories from those of earlier generations and to build new ones in the young. Properly fired up, it would be a hit at parties hosted in a car barn or nearly anywhere, offering up tasty hot snacks to one and all – the perfect complement to a cold beverage.