5 Minutes With Jim, Episode 108

For a brief moment in time, after WWII the eccentric visionary, the innovator and the quick buck artist found a place in the American auto industry. For a few short years, just as in the infancy of the industry, independent manufacturers could challenge the monolithic corporation.  

Preston Tucker was ambitious. Preston Tucker was imaginative. Preston Tucker was a man who cut corners to reach a goal. Hayward and Channing Powell started their business endeavors with the manufacturing of radios in Compton, California during the mid-1920s. In the early 1930s they abandoned radios and began manufacturing scooters and scooter sidecars. 

The story of Tucker and the Powell brothers is a story of independent thinking.