Pinewood Derby rolls on
Councilpersons David Lesser, Nancy Hersman, Steve Napolitano, Richard Montomery, and Mayor Amy Howorth participated in the 65th Pinewood Derby Monday. The mayor is wearing a jacket belonging to her mother, nicknamed Chick, from her family racetrack in Coshocton, Ohio. Photo by A. Francine
Editor’s note: The Pinewood Derby celebrated its 65th year on Memorial Day at the Jocelyn Community Center. Below is an investigation into the history of the event and its local origin published in the Easy Reader on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2003.
by Jerry Roberts
When the police investigate the Cub Scouts for racing souped-up cars through town, precocious delinquency must have a new standard. But Long Beach police Detective Sgt. Gary McAulay’s investigation of Pack 280C in Manhattan Beach was in the name of pop-culture history.
His investigation led to the commemoratio of the 50th anniversary of the Pinewood Derby in the race’s birthplace, Manhattan Beach.
“I eventually called the company that made the Pinewood Derby kits, Beta-Craft in Cranbury, N.J.,” McAulay said. “They said that they have sold kits to nearly 100 million kids through the years.”
Seven years ago, Manhattan Beach resident McAulay was using his detection skills under his identity as Cubmaster of Pack 713. McAulay copied some of the more unusually spelled names from the original Manhattan Beach Pack 280C’s 1941 charter, when it was based at Grandview Elementary School, and looked for them in the telephone book.
He located six persons who filled him in on the history of Manhattan scouts for the 55th-anniversary celebration for Pack 713. One of the guys, Ted Tedford, told McAulay that he golfed with the man who invented the Pinewood Derby, Don Murphy.
Murphy, a Torrance resident, and 85 years young, will be guest of honor during the ceremonies tonight, which will include a rematch of competitors in the 1953 original derby: Ronald E. Carey, Mitchell Ebright, Dennis W. Fortner, Thomas Gaian, Donn Murphy (Don’s son), Bob Sticher, Glen E. Tucker and Bruce Waters.
When he reached the senior Murphy by telephone, McAulay asked, “Are you Don Murphy?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever live in Manhattan Beach?”
“Yes.”
“Did you invent the Pinewood Derby?”
“Yes. Do they still do that?”
Murphy surprised McAulay with mementos of the first few derbies, including the first rulebook and a certificate from the Library of Congress. But Murphy had a bigger surprise from McAulay. Murphy was unaware that the derby had a national and even international following for decades. Most fathers, once their boys graduate to teen activities, don’t pay much attention to the Pinewood Derby.
Murphy got the idea for the derby in the Management Club at North American Aviation, where he worked. The club of department heads promoted employee and family activities.
One annual activity that youngsters of the era participated in was the Soap Box Derby. The Cub Scouts were a bit young for that potentially rough-and-tumble racing, so, Murphy, reasoned, use small wooden cars.
The Los Angeles Herald-Express, forerunner of the now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, ran a story on the event. Boys Life, a widely distributed source of activities for boys in the postwar years, wrote a story on the derby in 1954 and has published other articles on the activity through the years. Parks & recreation departments nationwide began Pinewood derbies, McAulay said.
The concept behind the concept was to provide an activity that a scout could participate in with his father or mother. The bonding behind the building of the racer was more important than who won the race.
“Since I built mine in 1963, it has been one of the best memories of me with my father,” McAulay said. “I remember very little about the race itself, but the construction time with my father was what made it special. I still have that car. It’s truly one of my most favorite possessions.”
The amount of adult help has also been a source of controversy. “You hear parents grumble about other kids with sophisticated looking racers,” McAulay said. “They say, ‘That kid couldn’t have built that!’”