Type Casting

President of Packard Motor Car Co. since 1916, Alvan Macauley is a handsomely bronzed, courtly gentleman of 67 who collects fine guns, enjoys skeet shooting and British novels. At Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, he maintains just such an estate as prestige-conscious Packard ("Ask the Man Who Owns One") likes to picture in advertisements of its expensive automobiles. A perfect piece of type casting for the days when Packard catered exclusively to the carriage trade, Alvan Macauley last week stepped up to the board chairmanship. His successor: Vice President and General Manager Max M. Gilman.

Cold-eyed, aggressive Max Gilman joined Packard in 1918 as a truck salesman, was sales manager and vice president of Packard's New York company when he was brought to Detroit in 1932 to serve as Mr. Macauley's right hand in Packard's successful invasion of the medium-price field. Motorman Gilman once crusaded against the bad manners of Manhattan taxi drivers by cruising about the streets in an old touring car and forcing offenders into elevated-railway pillars. His big accomplishment to date: raising the pressure of Packard's gentlemanly dealer organization--which last year handled 50,260 cars selling at $990 up (compared with 1933's 9,610 at $2,400 up).

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