In this picture a Marathon Touring Sedan is being driven out through a door in the front of the building. Normally only test cars were driven out of this door; all new cars were loaded into railway cars through a door in the back of the building. 

The third floor of the brick tower was added later to house the water for the automatic sprinkler system.  This was done to save costs of heating the water tank during the winter months.

In order to make the window reflections look real, Wegee had to photograph each window to get a reference. This was difficult because today the windows are covered over with bushy trees. He also had to know how many windowpanes there were and their height so he made a picture of the whole wall. This was very important to be able to make the picture authentic.

Behind the reflective glare in the plant windows, the production of the automobile can be seen.  Wheels and tires are being assembled on the second floor and the final automobile is taking place on the first floor.

Then there was the “Reflections” in the windows of the downtown Nashville skyline. It had to be “circa 1911.” During that era a skyscraper was a 4-story building so Wegee had to find reference pictures of the Nashville skyline. It may seem like trivia, but to Wegee it was very important for him to get it right.

In order to capture the pretty sky in reference photographs, Wegee had to call the “Cloud Placement Service.”  Their purpose was to come to the site and make sure that the clouds were right before every shot.  Some days, Wegee claims, he had to call them back.  They had a separate group that worked only with landscape artists.  They called that department the “Cow Placement Service.”  If anyone has ever noticed how the cows in the field are always facing the same direction, that’s them doing their job.

But Wegee said that he placed the automobiles by himself because the “Car Placement Service” went out of business several years ago. Too much stress these days with so many cars and freeways.

The building at the left was the Administration Building.  There is a fire bell on the wall that was one of the first production facilities in Nashville to have fire protection.

Wegee was quoted as saying that there were 6272 bricks in the Administration Building alone. Not only did he count them, but he had to cut out each one of them from the frisket film in order to airbrush them.  That way only the bricks had to be airbrushed. The mortar in between the bricks was not airbrushed; they were left white from the background of the print.

That must have been comforting for Wegee!

The pictures below were made recently at the Marathon Motors site in Nashville, Tennessee.

© 1998 David A. Weigant    Printed in U.S.A.

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