Pullman (pronounced pool-muhn
or pull-minn)
(1) A
range of railroad sleeping cars produced by the Pullman Palace Car Company
which operated in the US between 1867 and 1968.
(2) A
generic term for up-market coaches and train carriages.
(3) A
term used by certain automobile manufacturers to describe lengthened versions
of their limousines; most associated with Humber in the UK and Daimler-Benz in
Germany.
(4) A
type of long, square bread developed to be baked in the small kitchens of rail
cars.
(5) As
Pullman case, a type of large suitcase.
(6) In
architecture, a long, narrow room, a visual allusion to the interior of a
railway carriage.
1867: From
the name of Chicago-based US engineer and industrialist George Mortimer Pullman
(1831–1897). It was first applied to the
luxury railway coaches the Pullman Palace Car Company introduced in 1867, first
in Chicago, later used across the US. Describing up-market coaches and train carriages, the name became widely used in a number of countries. In England,
the origin of the surname Pullman was topographical meaning “a dweller by the
pool (or stream) while in German (as a variant of Puhlmann) it was occupational
for a bottle blower, the construct being Pulle (bottle) + Mann (man) and
appears to be an Ashkenazic Jewish form. Pullman is a noun; the noun plural is pullmans (with initial capital if used as proper noun).
Interiors
of Pullman train carriages. The target market was the folk who now either fly first-class or use private aviation.
Bristol
Type 26 Pullman.
The Bristol
Pullman first flew in 1918, designated originally as the Type 24 Braemar
Triplane, a four-engined heavy bomber. Tests
soon revealed performance deficiencies and, as the Type 25 Braemar II, a second prototype took
to the air in 1919, now with four, more powerful straight-12 Liberty engines
and though it proved satisfactory the end of World War I (1914-1918) meant the Air Ministry no
longer required a long-range bomber so Bristol reconfigured the third prototype
as the Type 26 Pullman, a 14-passenger transport. The use of the Pullman name was an allusion
to the luxury of trains but, weight being of greater significance in the air than on railway tracks,
the fittings were notably less extravagant.
Although exhibited to acclaim at the Olympia Air Show in 1920, the
projected price was too high for the embryonic civilian airlines of the era and
the Pullman never entered production, the sole prototype dismantled in 1921; it was though, in a sense, the first “modern” airliner but the wildly ambitious Type 40 Pullman (an
enlarged 40-passenger version), never advanced beyond the drawing board. Whether the Type 25 it would have been an
effective heavy bomber has been debated.
The top speed was claimed to be 122 mph (196 km/h) which
was competitive with the fighters of the time and the service ceiling was said
to 15,000 feet (4575 m), a height which even some of the early heavy bombers of
World War II (1939-1945) struggled to match but whether
these numbers would have been achievable when fully loaded, under combat conditions,
isn’t known.
Mercedes-Benz
600 Pullman & Pullman Landaulet
Lindsay Lohan with 600 Pullman during the filming of Liz & Dick (2012).
Since the inter-war years (1919-1939) Daimler-Benz had used the "Pullman" designation for variants of its sedans with larger passenger compartments but now it's most associated with the 600. A
symbol of the post-war Wirtschaftswunder (economic
miracle) in the FRG (Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany; the old West Germany) 1949-1990), Daimler-Benz
first showed the Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100; 1963-1981) in September 1963 at the Frankfurt
Motor Show although deliveries didn’t begin until the following year. Known as the Größer Mercedes (Grosser Mercedes) in the tradition of the 770 K (W07; 1930-1938 & W150; 1938-1943)),
it was what had by the 1960s become an automotive rarity, a genuinely new car
with few carry-over components from previous vehicles and was a technological
tour de force, even eschewing (relatively) noisy electric motors for accessories
like windows and sun roofs, instead controlling them via a swift and silent
hydraulic system which extended to the closing of doors and
trunk (boot). Powered by a 6.3 litre (386 cubic
inch) SOHC (single overhead camshaft) V8, which powered it to a top speed of 128 mph (205 km/h); (124 (200) for the heavier Pullman), it rode on air suspension which, in
addition to the expectedly cushion-like ride, permitted the 600 a competence in
handling and roadholding exceeding many of the sports car of the era, some of
which couldn’t match its straight-line speed.
Remarkably, this was achieved with the use of swing axles at the rear
although years of refinement of the anti-squat, anti-dive geometry and a
compensating device above the differential tamed the worst of the tendencies
inherent in what was, even in the early 1960s, seen as an inherently flawed
design.
In
this context, in the English-speaking world, the use of “grosser” is sometimes
misunderstood. In German, groß means “large” while the Kompatativ (comparative) is größer and the Superlativ (superlative) größte; Der
große Mercedes thus translates as “the big Mercedes”. In that sense groß is used in the sense of “physically large” but it can be used
also to be “highest” as in the naval rank Großadmiral
(a five-star rank translated in English usually as “grand admiral” and
equivalent to admiral of the fleet or fleet admiral). The
idea of the "big Mercedes" wasn't unique and to this day collectors still
use the phrase "big Healey" (the Austin-Healey sports car, introduced
as the 100 BN 1 (1953-55) which evolved into the 3000 (1959-1968), the term coined
in 1958 to distinguish those cars from the smaller Austin Healey Sprite
(1958-1970), produced also as the Austin Sprite (1971) and MG Midget
(1961-1979)). In English, “gross” went on to prove itself a
word of great versatility and in the social media age young women in particular
found many uses for “grossness” and the marvelous “grossnessness”.
600 Saloon (known colloquially as the SWB (short wheelbase)) (left), 600 Pullman four door (centre) & 600 Pullman Landaulet with the "short" folding roof (right).
The factory built the landaulets to requested configurations, so both the long and short folding roofs could be ordered with either the four or six-door coachwork although it is known all landaulets included a central divider (option on the SWBs and fitted to all but one of the closed Pullmans. The "long" fabric roof opened to reveal the whole rear compartment while the "short" version exposed only the rearmost seat. Although the cars with the longer folding roof are sometimes referred to as the "presidential", this was never an official designation. The English coach-builder Crayford converted a 1973 four-door Pullman to a short-roof Landaulet and while well-executed, easily it is distinguishable from the factory versions by the retention of the standard rear side-window frames (Crayford were pragmatic; for their Mercedes-Benz C123 cabriolets, they used the folding roofs of 1973 Ford Mustangs, salvaged from US wrecking yards!). In the parlance of the collector car business, the Crayford 600 Landaulet is "number 60 of 59".
With
economies expanding on both sides of the Atlantic, Daimler-Benz had great
expectations for the 600, predicting sales would soon exceed a thousand a year
but, after an encouraging 345 were built in 1965 (the first full-year of
production), demand waned and even that high-water mark was never again
approached. The increasingly onerous
regulations being imposed in the United States meant that by 1972, the 600 had
to be withdrawn from what had always been the most important market, it being simply financially unviable to re-engineer the thing given annual sales were projected barely to reach three figures. After that, although dictators in Africa and
Asia maintained their fondness and with increased attention devoted to UK, European and Middle
Eastern markets and there were some encouraging signs but, in something of an
own goal, in 1972 Mercedes-Benz released the W116, the first model to be known
as the “S Class” which, although in a different market segment to the Grosser, was so advanced and obviously modern instantly it made the anyway rather
baroque 600 look antiquated. The final
nail in the coffin was the first oil shock in 1973 and from then until the end
of the line in 1981, production dwindled to a handful a year, availability
maintained only because of the importance in the brand’s image and the
lingering aura of having upon its release been lauded generally as “the best
car in the world”, perhaps the last time there would about that be a consensus.
600 Pullman Landaulets: four doors with the short roof (left & centre) and six door with the long roof (right). The factory built the Pullmans to order and there were many variations (one Pullman even built as a "family car" without the glass partition which normally separated the chauffeur from the passengers), most of the four door cars were fitted with vis-à-vis seating whereas the six door models usually had occasional "jump seats" which folded into the central partition.
The
standard (SWB) 600 saloon was built on a wheelbase of 3200 mm (126 inches) while the Pullmans (and
all but one of the landaulets) used a lengthened platform, extending this to
3900 mm (153 ½“). The SWB was 5540 mm (218 inches) in length
while the elongated Pullmans (sometimes called the LWB (long wheelbase)) stretch this to 6240 mm
(245¾ inches) and the weight varied, depending on configuration between 3000-3300
kg (6600-7275 lb). Over the eighteen-odd
years it was on the books, Mercedes built 2677 600s (including 45 “special
protection” versions, a coupé and one SWB Landaulet). The factory has, off and on, continued to use the Pullman designation for their in-house "stretch limos" (ie sedans with extended wheelbase).
Four door 600 Pullman Landaulet (left), four door 600 Pullman Landaulet used by the FRG government for the 1965 state visit of Elizabeth II (1926-2022; Queen of the UK and other places, 1952-2022) (centre) and four door 600 Pullman (right), most of which were configured with the vis-à-vis seating.
Few
cars have ever so encapsulated an association with wealth and power (including that exercised by some unsavoury types) which
is why Pullmans continue to be sought be film directors looking for a prop which
at a glance delivers the desired verisimilitude. Additionally, being long and low-slung, unlike
the traditional, upright Rolls-Royce Phantom limousines, the 600 always managed
to convey something slightly sinister, thus the appearance in films of a
certain kind although the use in The Exorcist (1973) was to suggest "money". If the look alone isn’t enough, the ownership
list included:
Park Chung Hee (1917–1979; President of RoK (Republic of Korea (South Korea)) 1962-1979)
Comrade Enver Hoxha (1908-1985; dictator of Albanian 1944-1985)
Pol Pot (Saloth Sâr; 1925–1998; dictator the communist (Maoist) state of Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) 1975-1979)
François "Papa Doc" Duvalier (1907–1971; president of Haiti 1957-1971)
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier (1951–2014; president of Haiti 1971-1986)
Jean-Bédel Bokassa (1921–1996; president or emperor of the CAR (Central African Republic) 1966-1979)
Frederik Willem ("F.W.") de Klerk (1936–2021; president of South Africa 1989-1994)
Comrade Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982; Soviet leader 1964-1982)
Comrade Fidel Castro (1926–2016; prime-minister or president of Cuba 1959-2008)
Robert Mugabe (1924–2019; prime-minister or president of Zimbabwe 1980-2017)
Hirohita (Emperor Shōwa) 1901–1989; emperor of Japan 1926-1989)
Jomo Kenyatta (circa 1897–1978; prime minister (1963-1964) & president of Kenya (1964-1978)
Daniel arap Moi (1924–2020; president of Kenya 1978-2002)
Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989; president of the Philippines 1965-1986)
Kim Il-Sung (Kim I, 1912–1994; Great Leader of DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)) 1948-1994)
Kim Jong-Il (Kim II, 1941-2011; Dear Leader of DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)) 1994-2011)
Kim Jong-Un (Kim III, b 1982; Supreme Leader of DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)) since 2011)
Saddam Hussein (1937–2006; president of Iraq 1979-2003)
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980; last Shah of Iran 1941-1979)
Comrade Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976; chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) & paramount leader of the PRC (People's Republic of China) 1949-1976)
Comrade Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997; paramount leader of the PRC (People's Republic of China) 1978-1989)
Norodom Sihanouk (1922–2012; variously, off and on, king, chief of state or prime minister of Cambodia 1941-2012)
Comrade Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989; general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and dictator of Romania 1965-1989)
Comrade Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980; prime-minister or president of Yugoslavia 1944-1980)
His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular, (1928-2003; president of Uganda 1971-1979)
Mobutu Sese Seko (1930–1997; president of the of the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) 1965-1971 and the (renamed) Zaire 1971-1997)
Among that lot, the erstwhile presenter of the BBC's TV show Top Gear (Jeremy Clarkson (b 1960)) seem not wholly out-of-place but there are those who say the 600's reputation never recovered from him owning one. However, preserving the car's status, Kim Jong-Un is the only individual known to own a brace of the long-roof (presidential) Landaulets, DPRK events (of which there are many and they are among the world's most elaborately choreographed ceremonies) thus the only place where two of the things have been photographed in the same frame. The Supreme Leader inherited the pair from the Dear Leader (along with the rest of the DPRK and its people) who had been willed them by the Great Leader. Idi Amin is the only (as far as is known) cannibal in the 600 Pullman's list of owners but his consumption of human flesh may have been minimal; he declared it "too salty" although whether that was a thing of taste or a concern about his blood pressure isn't certain. The 600 Pullman has the distinction of being a car with an ownership register that may usefully be sorted using categories such as "responsible for <nnn> deaths" or "accused of <nnn> murders". On
that basis, the list would be topped by comrade Chairman Mao Zedong because the
“Great Leap Forward” (1958-1962 and a part of the second “Five Year Plan”
(1958-1963)) industrialization campaign (intended to emulate what comrade Stalin
in the Soviet Union achieved in the 1920s & 1930s) triggered the “Great
Chinese Famine” (1959-1961); the death-toll of that is contested but most
estimates suggest between 20-50 million.
SCV 1, the "high roof" 600 Pullman used as the papal car by the Holy See, 1965-1986.
The 600
Landaulet presented to Paul VI (1897–1978; pope 1963-1978) and used
by the Holy See between 1965-1986 was the latest in a line of papal Mercedes-Benz
which had included a 1930 Nürburg 460 (W08) and a 1960 300d Cabriolet D (W189),
both fitted with the throne-like, single rear seat, the same configuration used
in “popemobiles” to this day. It was one
of the 45 “special build” 600s, using the long wheelbase platform but was unique in that the rear
doors were 256 mm (10 inches) longer, directly adjacent to the front. The roof of the was raised
by 70 mm (2¾ inches) to provide adequate headroom, something necessitated by the floor
being level in the rear, the transmission tunnel concealed beneath. Since 1986 the 600 has been on display in the
Mercedes-Benz Museum in Untertürkheim, complete with the registration SCV 1 (Stato
della Città del Vaticano 1 (Vatican City State No 1), the "1" identifying
the pope’s official car at any given time, much as the US Air Force call-sign "Air Force 1" is attached not to a specific airframe but to the POTUS, shifting with him).
A most unfortunate conjunction of imagery: Adolf Hitler on Berlin's newly opened East-West Axis in his Mercedes-Benz 770 K Grosser Cabriolet F open tourer (W150) in a parade marking his 50th birthday, opposite the Technical High School, 20 April 1939 (left) and David Bowie in his Mercedes-Benz 600 (W100) Pullman Landaulet, Victoria Station, London, 2 May 1976 (right).
Sometimes a wave is just an excuse. The pop star David Bowie (1947-2016) understood he was an influential figure in music but on more than one occasion explained to interviewers: “I am not an original thinker”. Trawling pop-culture for inspiration nevertheless served him well but he later came to regret dabbling with history slightly less recent. Not impressed with the state of British society and its economy in the troubled mid-1970s, he was quoted variously as suggesting the country would benefit for “an ultra right-wing government” or “a fascist leader”. Although he would later claim he was captivated more by the fashions (the long leather coats said to be a favorite) than the policies of the Third Reich, the most celebrated event of this period came in 1976 in what remains known as the "Victoria Station incident". Mr Bowie staged a media event, arriving standing in an open Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Landaulet, recalling for many the way in which Hitler so often appeared in his 770 K. Unfortunately, a photographer captured a shot in what the singer later claimed was “mid wave” and it certainly resembled a Nazi salute. He later attributed all that happened during this stage of his career to too many hard drugs which had caused his interest in the aesthetics of inter-war Berlin to turn into an obsession with politics of the period. All was however quickly forgiven and his audience awaited the next album which is an interesting contrast to the cancel culture created by the shark-feeding dynamic of the social media era. 
Lindsay Lohan: Sometimes, a wave is just a wave.
Now, were a pop star to tell interviewers: “Britain could benefit from a fascist leader” and “I believe very strongly in fascism … Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars”, their future career prospects might be "nasty, solitary, brutish and short". Despite that orthodoxy however, the multi-media personality Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West (b 1977)) has expressed what seem to be pro-Hitler sentiments and been photographed wearing a "swastika T-shirt", even (briefly) offering them for sale on the (now apparently in abeyance) Yeezy website. Rather than having him cancelled, Mr Ye's comments and products seem to have had at least a financial upside because in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) he stated: "...AND I MADE 40 MILLION THE NEXT DAY BETWEEN MY DIFFERENT BUSINESS. THERE'S I LOT OF JEWISH PEOPLE I KNOW AND LOVE AND STILL WORK WITH. THE POINT I MADE AND SHOWED IS THAT I AM NOT UNDER JEWISH CONTROL ANYMORE IN WAR YOU TAKE A COUPLE LOSES..." That would seem to suggest that in the right circumstances, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945; Nazi propaganda minister 1933-1945) were right: "It doesn't matter what people are saying about you as long as they're saying something."
