My King Midget

In the early fifties, my mother, sister and I took a trip in our 1949 Dodge from Georgetown SC to Cincinnati OH to visit my brother, Dorrance, who was attending the College of Music.

Prior to the trip, my sister and I had seen advertisements in Popular Mechanics magazine about the King Midget automobile that weighed 500 lbs and got 75 miles to a gallon of gas. Since it was manufactured in Athens OH, we were somehow able to convince my mother to stop by Athens on the way back to Georgetown where we received a demonstration of the King Midget’s features. Note- that's me standing next to the King Midget in the backyard of my parents home.

This car was approximately 8 feet long, weighed 500 pounds, carried 2 people, and was powered by a 7.5 horsepower air cooled Wisconsin engine with a top speed of 35 to 40 miles and hour. In addition, a number of options were available including an electric starter, an alternator, a 2 speed transmission with reverse and a removable canvas top. The basic car had a pull-cord starter, no alternator and no reverse gear. The King Midget rep stated that they would not sell the car to such young drivers with the manual pull-cord starter.

Both my sister and I were very intrigued with the car and upon returning to Georgetown , we were able to convince my parents that we should purchase one. I promised to pay for my half of the cost with earnings from my Charlotte Observer paper route. I’m not sure what my sister promised, but after much cajoling, my mother agreed to our proposal and she in turn somehow convinced my father to go along with it. If I remember correctly, I think we paid around $650 for it.

It was shipped from Athens to Georgetown by railroad (with all of the options listed above) where my brother Clyde picked it up and drove it to our home on Highmarket St. in Georgetown. It was painted California Coral (yellow) with a beige canvas top and it was a beautiful thing to behold – at least in my eyes.

I was only 13 and one half years old at the time, so was unable to drive it right away. Back in those days, you could get your SC drivers license when you were 14, so I didn’t have to wait too long. I even got my license in this car. I have a vivid memory of the discussion between the two SC Highway Patrol officers about which one of them was going to ride with me during the road test.

Fortunately for me, my sister who is about 2 years older than me soon lost interest in the car and I became the sole driver of this little jewel. I drove it everywhere and even delivered Sunday newspapers in it as well as pulling my small 12 foot boat back and forth to the boat landing. I spent a lot of time working on this car because the brakes shoes wore out very quickly and the chain drive wasn’t too reliable either. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, maintaining the car was rather enjoyable because I had to improvise a number of fixes due to the difficulty associated with getting spare parts.

My parents owned a house at Pawley’s Island where we spent each Summer. I drove the car from Georgetown (about 12 miles) and back on numerous occasions despite the rather low 37 miles per hour top speed.

Although the King Midget was very small, slow and lacking in amenities (like no speedometer, radio or gas gauge) I have many fond memories during my early teen years tooling around Georgetown and Pawleys Island in this very unique little car. It was definitely an attention getter. I eventually sold the car to another Georgetown resident, but have no idea of what happened to it. I moved on to rebuilding and driving a World War 2 Jeep manufactured by Ford. I'll cover that vehicle in an upcoming post.

Production of the King Midget ceased somewhere between 1967 and 1970. You can read all about the history of the King Midget at http://www.kingmidgetcarclub.org/. My King Midget was the Model II version.